Friday, May 30, 2003

Time passages

What is with this tracking between the two time periods? We are following events in the present time and having it overlaid with events in 1308 Scotland to indicate that they are somehow happening concurrently. But we are talking about a time machine here!!! Why can't they just zap Dinny from whatever time period they choose? Go and get him sometime before he is being shot at by the invading English army. Of course, then we would lose the whole narrative of the story. Alley Oop is not a comic strip for people who like to think too much.

Wednesday, May 28, 2003

Everyone speaks English

Alley Oop has been preceding in slow motion this past week which is probably good since I have had little time to comment here. We are still going through the motions of having the new time machine zap Dinny the Dinosaur out of Loch Ness just as a cowardly priest has been sent out to exorcise the demon from the loch. It is certainly fortunate that Dinny the Dinosaur can understand English and its perhaps even more amazing that all these folks in Scotland in 1308 also speak such good English.
Last week when they first turned on the new time machine from the future it immediatly honed in on Dinny without anyone having to do more than scribble on a yellow notepad. Now, several strips later, we are told by Dave "future boy" Wowee that he must have the exact coordinates to move Dinny back to the past. Amazing that the only noticable advance on the new futuristic time machine is that it comes with a flat-screen monitor, but you still have to interface it with a keyboard and mouse. Oh well, such is the lack of imagination of these authors.
I see today that Wowee has entrusted his yellow notepad to the clueless Dr. Wonmug, maybe so he doesn't feel too completely useless as he stands around and watches everyone else do his work for him now. The remainer of this particular series is easy to predict -- Dinny will magically vanish at the preist's command making him a hero and he will then repay his dept to Oop by having him freed from the dungeon just before he too is zapped away by the time machine.