Friday, October 08, 2004

The mysterious floating shelf


Alleyoop floating shelf
Originally uploaded by mwthomas87.
OK, what is with this floating shelf that comes out of nowhere? Look at the time machine in this comic strip. In the first frame we are looking over Doc Wonmugâ??s right shoulder as he hovers over the time machine keyboard preparing to send Alley Oop and Oola to current day France for a vacation. Then Oop suddenly wants his all-important flute that he claims to carry with him at all times even though we have never seen it up until now. So now Doc walks in front of the monitor to a table that wasnâ??t there before while Oop and Oola have mysteriously vanished. And behind him we see this floating shelf come out of nowhere suspended over the time machine.

Where did the shelf come from and what is holding it up? Is there now a wall there that wasnâ??t there before? Tomorrow we will get another view looking over the monitor and there wonâ??t be a wall or a shelf. I guess after the soda can defies gravity and leaps off the shelf on cue the shelf is no longer needed and is thus forgotten.
Obviously, the authors are setting us up for the next adventure and they needed someway to have things go wrong. But is this the best they could do? Weâ??ve seen already that they have no sense of space or proportion and no consistency in placing characters from one frame to the next. But having walls and shelves appear out of nowhere for convenience sake?? That must be a new low even for this crew!

Of course, the soda can has knocked things out of whack and the idiot Doc and the idiot Dave Wowee donâ??t notice or even bother to check that the time on the machine has now been reset to 1482. Earlier, Doc made a point of giving Oop and Oola a wad of cash which of course will be worthless in 1482. But how much do you want to bet that they wonâ??t have any problem with the language barrier? Iâ??m sure everyone in medieval France will speak perfect English.