Well, it finally happened. I like today's installment of The Dinette Set. Not the dialog or the joke, mind you. Those are as incomprehensible as ever.
I just love the drawing.
The people around the table are eating in an utterly animalistic fashion. It's like looking at a clan of barbarians, a pride of lions, or a pod of orcas devouring the flesh of an animal in an orgiastic frenzy because there's no knowing when the next meal will be coming. Bones litter the space in front of them, flesh and sinew dangle from their open mouths, their faces are caked with blood and gristle. It's a savage spectacle.
Burl is an exception to the tableaux in that he is the only one not shoving something directly into his mouth. But he tells the same story in an even more vivid way. His body posture clearly shields his food from the waiter who is treated as an interloper and a potential threat. The waiter is here to attack this table/clan/pride/pod and claim their food as his own. Burl will prevent that, peacefully if he can. But if the waiter pushes his luck, Burl will crack his skull open with a rock and his flesh will be added to the feast.
Then there's also the sinister shadow people which surround the table. We can only guess at their nefarious motives. But if they were up to any good, surely they wouldn't stand in the shadows. They would move into the light where they and their motives could be examined.
I have no idea what all of this has to do with Middle-American MidWestern folks. Why they should be so savage about their meal is a mystery to me. How that relates to the joke, such as it is, that Burl cannot comment on the food until every morsel is devoured is similarly unclear.
Jerry may hold the key to unlocking the puzzle. He has something pushed to his mouth, but it is a cup of coffee. Perhaps he symbolizes the small bits of civility that elevate us from total savagery?
Well, whatever the point of this panel is...damn, what a visceral image!
In the savage wildlands that are known as the margins:
- My God, I think the waiter is Psychiatrist John in a false moustache!
- His presence makes me wonder if this entire panel is meant as an homage to recent Garfield strips, which feature Garfield's owner Jon in a false moustache as well as shadow people in the background at a restaurant.
- Artist Julie Larson is only barely able to distinguish shadowy people from wood paneling.
2 comments:
I think there is an additional element of hostility directed toward the waiter. Being named Guy, he must be gay or French, or both, and thus suspect and deserving of Midwesterner suspicion and hostility. Nosy French gay man. Where does he get the nerve?
Great point.
His name seems at first glace to be down-to-earth and generic--he is just a regular Guy.
But it is also suspiciously and possibly French, with an effete pronunciation.
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