I'm a shark I'm a shark I'm a mother fucking shark!

[brigid]

1-28-2023

There is a lot going on in this strip.

One is how disjointed the three panels are. We see Edda and Amos, with that muddy grey/purple/reddish pink background, talking about how gosh golly darnit Edda just wants her girls to be super girly and girlish and like girls and not be interested in, like, BOY things, good heavens. The next is the girls in isolation against a white background. Then Edda and Amos in isolation against a muddy green and yellow background.

It doesn't look like they're interacting.

It's also an abrupt departure from the kids making a board game that the parents may or may not play with them.

Edda being disapproving about the girls putting on a play where all the characters get eaten by sharks when that's a pretty modern twist on Jo March's "blood and thunder" plays where everyone dies at the end is... a big tell that she/McEldowney hasn't read "Little Women" or other Alcott books.

I want to point out that Louisa May Alcott expressed a regret that she was a girl and not a boy, as did her most famous character Jo March. She expressed displeasure with the societal constraints women lived under, and advocated for dress reform. She wrote gothic thrillers and sexy bloodsoaked stories for money. No sharks, but... you know. Lots of violence, sex, and death.

Amos saying he "was" looking forward to "the opening night"... did they make the kids abandon the idea? I really hope not.

It's... just so frustrating to see them get so close to parenting and interacting with their kids and then... veer away. Yet again.

Art-wise McEldowney is highlighting ONLY Edda, and ONLY her underboob. Nothing else is worthy of the loving attention of shadow. The kids are dressed the way small children were dressed in the 80s - collared shirts under sweatshirts/sweaters? That's not how kids dress! That's not how parents dress their kids! I mean, for the most part. It makes them look like their parents are very religious/conservative which is to say how Amos almost always look and how Edda looks when she doesn't have her ass hanging out of her super short skirt. Even when Amos was fellating her toes in public while a cop looked on she was wearing a turtleneck sweater and mid-shin length skirt. Also the kids have fluctuated over the week as to how old they look which remains a frustration as well.

I really want to see more of the kids. They've become interesting.