Legs Don't Work Like That

[brigid]

9 Chickweed Lane for 11-23-2022

"Legs don't work like that" could be the title of most of the comics for the the last fifteen or so years. Her legs in the second panel really do not work like that, though. Not like human legs, anyway. Not like her sexy sexy young teen aged (pre-teen?) legs work in the third panel.

LET'S DISCUSS.

In the first panel, Amos states:
First, I feel I must get accustomed to the whole idea of what we must do as potential parents.

He goes on to ogle Edda and then be humiliated for his ogling.

But he doesn't say "what we must to to become potential parents." It's "what we must do as potential parents." Your mileage may vary, but generally speaking when I hear people say "what we must do as potential parents" it involves, like, health checkups and discussing finances. Here his eyes go straight to her barely pubescent chest, then drop to her legs... which is how McEldowney has treated their parenthood. It's one long string of fucking interrupted here and there by other people fucking or by their young children commenting on people fucking.

And speaking of pubescent two days ago McEldowney portrayed Edda as a small child who was maybe six. I assumed that yesterday's strip showing them both looking older was mostly him just... being bad at drawing little kids. But no. Has this conversation been raging for a decade?

In the second panel Amos is framed by Edda's oddly elongated body. His eyes are pointed at her chest. which is above what looks like two abdomens stacked on top of each other that terminate in some extremely long legs. I'm trying to envision her standing and it really isn't pretty. McEldowney could do amazing body horror if he really leaned into it. But the audience's view is pointed at Amos which is framed by Edda's body. We follow his line of sight to one of her erogenous zones.

The third panel features Amos and his giant head starting at Edda's very well drawn thighs and knees, shapely calves, etc. It's very obvious that THIS is what McEldowney lives to draw because he forgot to finish drawing the chains on Amos' swing. Also Amos looks like a turtle. You know all those memes about Mitch McConnell? Move over Yertle the Turtle, Amos is here. I guess it's a change from looking like Moe Szyslak, although I don't know if it's a welcome change. Her legs are the main feature of the panel: a splash of red against white with a bit of black.

The fourth panel reveals that she's bored of his attentions, he's been staring at her a while, she's ready to discuss the finer points of IUI or something, I don't know.

McEldowney is really hammering home the idea of these two always being hot for each other and always being interested in having kids together even when it contradicts decades of writing. I'm surprised that present-day Edda and Amos haven't had more kids, though. Looking through the way he wrote Edda and Amos during her pregnancy arc, which included Amos writing letters to their unborn children about how fucking sexy Edda is, I almost suspect that he's got a pregnancy fetish that he's trying to hide unlike his leg fetish. He might just have a Madonna complex where pregnancy is Saintly and Holy and Beautiful and the only way he can show he finds something beautiful is to portray it as sexy and that's why the former sister has had so many kids she can't remember all of their names (punchline used more than once).

I might post and comment on the "Edda forgets that pregnancy tests exist and convinces herself that she's pregnant and also abortion is so BAD and EVIL that a RANDOM FEMINIST has to show up to urge Edda to get an abortion OR ELSE." It includes Seth threatening her about keeping the baby. (Speaking of, he's well established as wanting kids so, again, I expect to see Fernanda pregnant any day now or else they'll be shown Grappling With Fertility. I do wonder what McEldowney's stance on IVF is. I bet we disagree about it!)