Her seven-page petition, handwritten at a seventh-grade level of legal expertise, was eventually thrown out of court. Judge John Gerrard declared that "This court is not the place to seek opinions regarding theological matters; this particular forum is closed and the case will be dismissed."
Paul Berge
Q Syndicate✒May 14, 2015 |
The panel (above right) that I used for this week's Sneak Peek is what is known in the Comedy Biz as a "beat." Comic actors and stand-ups use the same technique to create a moment of tension before delivering a punch line.
It's a common technique in printed comics as well. Charles Schulz, for example, used it fairly often in Peanuts, and not just because he stuck rigidly to a format of four equally sized panels in his daily strip, even if the kids in a particular day's comic had only three things to say. In my cartoon today, the characters have four dialogue balloons, and I could have easily put the second to last one in the third panel instead of the fourth. Or omitted the third panel altogether, since I don't slavishly adhere to a four-panel format.
The reason for the silent panel is to convey pacing. The woman who isn't Sylvia is perhaps momentarily at a loss for something to say. Meanwhile you, the reader, are supposed to take a moment to scan the panel just in case there is something significant in it that will help set up the punch line. In this case, there isn't, but you never know. That discarded cigarette might have set the flamingo on fire or something.
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