Transmission 8 - Life Lessons - Section C
Jun 26, 2021
This is an unusual episode in that it features a recap. Originally it opened with the second frame which is almost identical to the last frame of the preceding episode. I was reading early Dick Tracy comic strips at the time, trying to get to grips with the idea of a shorter, serial, or newspaper strip method of presenting a story. When reading Chester Gould's stuff (the creator and first writer and artist on the strip) I realised that he would give himself a bit of time by filling at least one of the frames with a recap, an almost identical frame to one in the last episode, meaning that out of say 6 frames he only had to draw 5. As someone who works at a snail's pace, I thought this was a great idea for saving time and speeding up my output. In practice, however, it didn't look so great and so I think this is the only story to feature a recap that is almost a copy of one from the previous episode.
I created the episode as a single page of five frames (this is still my practice - one day I hope to publish the whole pages rather than individual frames) but following the Tapas format, I have now cut the strip into individual frames. Originally the first frame of the story (number 2 in this version) was very text-heavy, so I have created a new frame 1 to carry the recap text.
This all very dry and technical, I know, but I think this is because I was finally beginning to realise that your best work needs a great deal of technical underpinning to make it look professional or at least unfold smoothly without any clumsiness or awkwardness getting in a way. I hope there's still some joy and spontaneity in this episode, but finally, the craftsman and the technician came in to help the little kid me who just wanted to scribble down the funny pictures. I guess it's all part of learning and growing, not to mention the growing-up process. Shame I didn't realise it until my middle age!
Recommendation for you
-
Recommendation
Humor me
Slice of life 3.1m likes
-
Recommendation
Strange and Wild
Fantasy 790.8k likes
-
Recommendation
Do You Even Witch
BL 4.7m likes
-
Recommendation
Autophobia
Romance 981.3k likes
-
Recommendation
Copper eyes
BL 1.1m likes
-
Recommendation
Out of the Blue
Romance 2.7m likes
-
Feeling lucky
Random series you may like
The University of Life
3k views5 subscribers
The University of Life is an ongoing comedy sci-fi comic strip set on a planet-sized university of the far future. ULIFE (or Monica, if you wish to give it a more personal name) hosts a wide range of diverse and interesting life-forms and as such, constantly has to face the challenge of ensuring that the needs of every different and contrasting life-form are met. It is a place where, just as one being’s sandwich is another being’s poison, so one being’s soppy hug is another being’s murder. Despite the potential for chaos this extreme diversity could cause, ULIFE / Monica is a relatively peaceful planet, possessing neither a regular police force or army. In fact, apart from the 522,601 statutes governing the use of computers, there are practically no rules to govern the inhabitants' lives. Of course, underneath the peaceful veneer, all sorts of crimes and skulduggery persist. and the apparent interest in diversity is really just a cynical mix of penny-pinching and public relations.
The overall tone of the stories is satirical, poking fun, jibes and a big alien tongue at various ‘unfair’ institutions such as unfeeling bureaucracies, as well as examining the difficulties faced by the underdog, unglamorous, ordinary pedestrian universal creature who has to put up with the unfairness.
The University is the star and although there are regularly reoccurring characters, there are no regular characters … at the moment.
This is a civilised and bureaucratic, harmless but still action and adventure-packed story in the mould of greater works such as The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the Discworld novels and Blyton’s Mallory Towers. And though tragedy and farce occur, laughter in the face of adversity is the most common feature.
So strap in, switch on, unhook your comms unit, put your feet up or seven of them at least, and enjoy your adventures on the University of Life.
The overall tone of the stories is satirical, poking fun, jibes and a big alien tongue at various ‘unfair’ institutions such as unfeeling bureaucracies, as well as examining the difficulties faced by the underdog, unglamorous, ordinary pedestrian universal creature who has to put up with the unfairness.
The University is the star and although there are regularly reoccurring characters, there are no regular characters … at the moment.
This is a civilised and bureaucratic, harmless but still action and adventure-packed story in the mould of greater works such as The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the Discworld novels and Blyton’s Mallory Towers. And though tragedy and farce occur, laughter in the face of adversity is the most common feature.
So strap in, switch on, unhook your comms unit, put your feet up or seven of them at least, and enjoy your adventures on the University of Life.
Comments (0)
See all