MILT GROSS AND RUBE GOLDBERG

Two of my favorite cartoonists were Milt Gross and Rube Goldberg. Milt Gross often gave top flight poses to all the players in the frame, both the aggressors and the reactors. 

Rube Goldberg staged everybody in the same shot too, but frequently gave the best poses to the reactors, as in the in the strip above.

Okay, he sometimes gave the aggressor (above) the best poses, but you you see what I'm getting at.

I've been influenced by Goldberg so in photo stories, like the kind I do on this blog, I usually give the emphasis to the listener.

 Here's excerpts from a photo story I did in June, 2009. The girl (played by me) is surprised when her stupid ex-boyfriend (off screen) approaches her in a restaurant. I'll leave out the dialogue.

 She humors him, hoping he'll go away.

 But he doesn't.

He says that, now that he knows she hangs out at this restaurant, he'll hang out there too.

 Yes sir, they'll be inseparable from now on.

 The boyfriend bids goodbye for now...

 ...but adds that he'll be back.

 Well, it goes on. You can link to the whole thing on the side bar. The story's called "The Ex-boyfriend."

The odd thing is that, despite my affection for reactive acting, the animation I worked on usually put the emphasis on the speaker.

That's because I like to work with aggressive characters. They're appealing. The audience naturally wants to see what they're doing, and so do I. Even so, I had a lot of Goldbergian fun working on the reactive scenes and I wish I could have done more of them.

BTW: the last two pictures above aren't mine.

UNCLE EDDIE'S THEORY CORNER

SUPERGURL VS. THE EVIL UNCLE EDDIE

THE EVIL UNCLE EDDIE (VO): "Boy this house is a mess! Greasy pizza boxes, beer cans...but I have no time to clean. I gotta finish this book on hypnotism! Wait a minute...somebody's at the door."

GLADIOLA: "Hi, Evil Uncle Eddie! I just happened to be passing, but if you're busy..."

EVIL UNCLE EDDIE: "No, no! I'm not busy at all, but Gladiola....you look tired. VERY tired. As a matter of fact (HE GESTURES), your eyelids are growing heeeeavy. VEEEERY HEAVY."

GLADIOLA ( SLEEPY MONOTONE): "Yes, heavy. Very heavy.

UNCLE EDDIE: "Here, take this baseball bat, and make those eyelids close."

BONK! BONK! BONK!

GLDIOLA (MONOTONE ): "Make them close. Make them close."

CLUNK!!! SHE FALLS ON THE FLOOR.

EVIL UNCLE EDDIE: "Well whaddaya know? That hypnotism stuff really works! Hmmmm...I think I just figured out how to get the house cleaned up. Get up, Gladiola! We gotta find you a maid's costume!"

LATER: INT. EVIL UNCLE EDDIE'S HOUSE: SUPERGURL LETS HERSELF IN:

SUPERGURL: "Youhoooo! Anybody home? Supergurl here! We need to talk, Buster! I've heard some things about you!!!!!

SUPERGURL: "Huh? What's that? It looks like one of those stupid hypnosis machines."

SUPERGURL: "Haw! You can't hypnotise someone from Krypton. Everybody knows that!"

SUPERGIRL: "That's funny...I have an overwhelming urge...to....to CLEAN!!!!!"

WHOMP!!! SHE FALLS ON THE FLOOR!

EVIL UNCLE EDDIE: "Haw!!! Even Supergurl can't resist the power of hypnotism!!!!"

ON SUPERGURL IN A MAID COSTUME, HAPPILY CLEANING THE HOUSE.

SUPERGURL: (Hums "Tip Toe Through the Tulips").

EVIL UNCLE EDDIE (VO): "Everybody thinks the danger that's coming in the future is from robots. Haw! That's not even close!!!!"

EVIL UNCLE EDDIE (VO): "No, the real danger is from zombie maids hypnotised by ME!!! There's no defence against them! They'll take over every household that lets them in...and they all will let them in!"

EVIL UNCLE EDDIE (VO): "Soon they'll be an army capable of taking over the world!!!!"

And when they do, THEORY CORNER will be the only blog allowed on the internet.!!! No more of those stupid cat videos! No more Faceybook!!!! BWA Hahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!  BWA  HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!


TO BE CONTINUED.....

[Below, a teaser from the next episode...]

.

EVIL UNCLE EDDIE: "So you see, Supergurl, that was all a fabrication made up by people who are jealous of me.  I'm just a gentle soul who would never dream of...excuse me, a minute...Gladiola, would you come here a moment? Would you take care of that fly on Supergurl's head?

GLADIOLA (SLEEPY MONOTONE): "Fly...Supergurl...head..."

A VALENTINE FROM THEORY CORNER

INT. GRANDPA UNCLE EDDIE"S HOUSE: 

GRANDSON: "Tell us again how you met Grandma."

GRANDPA: "Aw, I must have told you that story five times at least. Don't you want to hear something else?"

GRANDKIDS (ALL): "No! No! We wanna' hear about Grandma. Pleasepleasepleaseplease!"

GRANDPA: "Ooookay. Okay. Weeell, it was at a little park by the sea..."

GRANDDAD: "I wasn't looking where I was going and we just bumped into each other. I tried to apologize but I found I couldn't speak. My lips refused to move. Infront of me was the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen and all I could do was look. 

She must have felt something for me too because for the longest time we just stared and stared at each other's eyes, our faces slowly inching closer and closer."

GRANDAD: "Then, when we could stand it no longer, we threw open our arms and clung to each other, clung as if our lives depended on it!"

GRANDPA: "I guess we weren't paying attention to what was going on around us. The biggest thunderstorm you ever saw was starting overhead."

GRANDPA: "The rain came down in torrents."

GRANDSON: "(GASP!) Did you get wet?"

GRANDPA: "Oh, yeah...soaked to the gills...but we didn't care."

GRANDPA: "Holding Grandma was like..."

GRANDPA: "...it was like...diving into a burning volcano."

GRANDPA: 'It was a kind of insanity."

GRANDPA: "Well, I'll never be able to find the right words."

GRANDPA: "Anyway the storm got worse and worse."

GRANDPA: "By the time we realized what had happened it was too late."

GRANDPA: "We were swept out to sea, a mile from the shore."

GRANDCHILDREN: "Woooooww!!!!"

GRANDPA: "But that wasn't all. We soon discovered that we weren't alone."

GRANDPA: "From out of nowhere a big old shark came up and swallowed your grandma!"

GRANDDAUGHTER: "Did you karate chop him?"

GRANDPA: "Huh?...karate chop? Er, oh yeah, sure...but it didn't do any good. It was a tough situation. With her sitting there in all those digestive juices, I knew Grandma had only minutes to live."

GRANDPA: "Fortunately I always carried a spear and flippers."

GRANDMA: "Kids, it's time to go to bed. Grandpa can finish the story in the morning."

KIDS (ALL): "Awwwwwwwwww!!!"