NOBODY expects the etc.

[brigid]

12-09-2022

This abrupt shift in characters is jarring. I don't know if McEldowney just ended his "hot makeouts under the mistletoe, in public, while children watch" story line abruptly or if this is an emergency rerun. It's fairly standard for non-soap story newspaper comics to have a story run from M-F, sometimes M-Sa, with a Sunday strip that isn't connected. (By non-soap story I mean not soap opera, and with a continuing story line not gag-a-day.) McEldowney often interrupts a story or running theme (having an orgasm while playing piano, Edda dancing and showing off her legs, having an orgasm playing cello, etc) with... a bit of a different story, or a gag, or something else that really interrupts the flow of things.

So, for instance, there'll be a flash back WWII Nazi Story with people fucking in bath tubs that goes on for six months, and then it's interrupted so Edda and Amos can make out under mistletoe, then it's back to more tub fucking.

Other reasons for suddenly shifting gears usually involve running old strips, which I believe this one is, and it could be because:
A strip was pulled for, say, using a slur
A strip was unable to be loaded to the syndicate/host (apparently some creators are having issues with GoComics and Luann is in reruns right now as a result)
The creator is ill/on vacation

We see here Sister Steven who is sometimes referred to as "Mother Superior" with her brother Cardinal Feeney.

They hate each other, as you can see. They bitterly hate each other. And unlike most Irish-American Catholics they can't keep it to a sullen quiet seethe, expressed only passive aggressively. No, they snipe at each other sotto vocce while attempting to work together instead. Which, you know. Is a thing. For characters to do. How very Christian of them.

I've been puzzled about Sr. Steven's habit for a while now. It's a blouse and a jumper (sleeveless overdress, not sweater) and I haven't seen that before this strip. It doesn't really look like any Catholic habit I've seen and it's not street clothes as all the sisters dress the same. There's established rules as to what habits which Orders wear, the styles and the color (blue indicates her Order is dedicated to The Blessed Virgin Mary), the accoutrements, etc. For instance, she wears a large pectoral cross but doesn't wear a rosary at her waist.

She looks absolutely normal next to His Eminence over there, though. I don't know if that's a cassock or a black shirt with clerical collar but it looks like he's wearing a red cut-off sweater vest over it. It certainly doesn't look like a mozetta, the button-up capelet looking thing Cardinals sometimes wear. He's not wearing his pectoral cross, either. If he's sauntering about casually accusing his sister of Mattel-fueled idolatry he'd probably be in a cassock with scarlet sash and not... whatever it is he's wearing there.

If you asked me to draw a Cardinal from memory I absolutely would make mistakes but you could probably tell what I was getting at. (My rendition of a Bishop in ceremonial vestments would probably be more recognizable, I have more experience interacting with them.) McEldowney is a professional artist who's been doing this for thirty years and has access to the internet to remind him what various religious vestments look like. It's kind of insulting that he hasn't put any effort into this at all.

And yeah, it sucks that no matter how devoted she is Sr. Steven will never be permitted access to a position as prestigious or powerful as Cardinal simply because of her gender. The fact that he lords this over her speaks volumes as to Cardinal Feeney's character and general opinion of women.

Here he is drawn a bit more accurately.