Something very odd is going on today in The Dinette Set, but I'm not sure I can put my finger on it.
Narratively, the clerk is making a fairly standard request and Joy refuses to provide personal information, most probably because Burl read something about identity theft in Reader's Digest or TV Guide and has browbeaten her into an irrational fear that her identity will be assumed by an unscrupulous person.
Visually, every inch of the panel features a T-shirt bearing the name of a famous person (with the possible exception of the Big Foot shirt in the back). In a metaphoric sense, every person in the shop has assumed the identity of the celebrity with whom they most identify.
It would appear that both narrative and visual are working together (in manner of speaking) towards the same semblance of a joke (such as it is).
Now that is not something you see every day in The Dinette Set.
Just name, rank and marginalia:
- I admire the artist's quaint concept of what the average Marilyn Manson fan looks like.
- Do you think it is too much to hope that Dee Brown refers to the author of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee? Probably so.
- I'm not sure what, but something is definitely wrong with the shoulder area of that Minnie Mouse T-shirt in the background.
4 comments:
I've said it before and I'll say it again: Burl and his rancid ilk must die. But since they're probably not going to, I'll just make fun of them. Look at the Marilyn Manson fan! Ha, ha! Manson is definitely a timely and current figure- if you're still living in 1998. I hear Manson is so hard up for cash he's going to star in the Billy Jack remake.
I think it's interesting how the Manson fan has his shirt on all crooked, so the name "Manson" can show up past Burl's shoulder. Very thoughtful of the young man to keep us from having to figure out what "Marilyn anson" means. Hanson?
That Minnie Mouse person is overlapping with a t-shirt fan who is looking at the "Divine" shirt. It's a lovely post-modern return to cubism. Miss Minnie Mouse is thinking about that shirt, so we see her doppelganger staring at it, somehow springing from her right arm.
Oh, and finally: who writes a check for novelty-nose glasses? Who buys previously opened novelty-nose glasses. Perhaps Joy tried them on? But I don't see Joy buying one from an opened package. Heck, that's a joke right there: Joy doesn't want to buy the ones she opened to try on because they're opened! Hah! Julie Larson, you can have that joke for free, but if you use it, give a tip o' tha pin to EROX!
I'm most fascinated by the idea that the "celebrity" Burl identifies with is a 6-foot tall invisible rabbit who can be seen only by alcoholics. This says something about The Dinette Set, and the people who read it, but I'm not sure what.
I think erox is probably right that the Minnie Mouse shirt wearer is standing in front of someone facing the shirt rack. Unfortunately, given Ms. Larson's problems with perspective, it comes across looking more like Zaphod Beeblebrox. Nice of the shirt shop to carry clothes for the two-headed... I'm sure that's a very underserved market.
What is supposed to be in the box on the counter to the clerk's right? I read the label as "celebrity comers", which doesn't make much sense, and it looks it's full of unwrapped condoms.
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