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Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Theater Something of Worth From Mary Worth

Posted by Paul Constant on Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 12:43 PM

Almost a year ago, I posted how some diligent artistic-minded people made Garfield funny by tampering with the horrendously unfunny comic strip.

Recently—and I forget how it happened—I came across this website, which has a theater group's re-enactments of a month's worth of 1998 Mary Worth strips. For those of you who don't know, Mary Worth is a soap opera cartoon, published locally by the Seattle P.I. Here (from here) is a Mary Worth strip with the dialogue improved by Fergie:

Most Mary Worth strips are notable for their glacial pace, awkward dialogue, and the bad artwork, which is most obviously represented by the strange contortions that the characters have to do in order to stay in the panel. But these five live reenactments, with the weird wind sound effects whistling through the background, are weirdly compelling. They feel like a Guy Maddin movie. They seem beautiful to me. That's not really something that I ever expected to find from Mary Worth. I hope they do Mark Trail, next.

Comments (21) RSS

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There used to be a Mark Trail radio show.
http://www.otrcat.com/mark-trail-p-1586.…

Posted by --MC on January 6, 2009 at 12:52 PM

I've been waiting for "Zalman King's 'Apartment 3-G'" my entire life.

Posted by levide on January 6, 2009 at 12:58 PM

Prince Valiant, too.

Posted by bookworm on January 6, 2009 at 12:59 PM

I would watch a re-enactment of The Lockhorns...

Posted by Julie in Chicago on January 6, 2009 at 1:01 PM

See, if you hyperlink placeholder words like "here" or "this website", the reader gets little or no information about what you're trying to link to. If "here" turns out to be a broken link, there's no hope.

On the other hand, if you hyperlink descriptive nouns or noun phrases, then your intent is carried, even if the link is broken. If I say, go here for a cool story, what can you do with it if my link is broken? It's useless and I don't know what you meant at all. Instead if I say, "Secrets of the Bomb" is a cool story, you know what I'm trying to link to even if you don't see the link itself. If I flub the link, you can google "Secrets of the Bomb" and track it down.

Bonus: You can transfer the text to another medium without he hyperlinks, and it still makes sense. Non-html text that says "click here", "click here", "go here" looks stupid and has to be rewritten.

Anyway, I think your link to "here" is broken.

Posted by elenchos on January 6, 2009 at 1:05 PM

Working alongside a rabid raccoon for the Mark Trail reenactments might be a tad dangerous. Besides, how many actors have health insurance?

Posted by keshmeshi on January 6, 2009 at 1:07 PM

RE: Fergie Worth. Years ago I bought a bootleg DVD of Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle that had, unbeknownst to me at the time, English subtitles imported from one of those Boyz In Da Hood-knockoff gangsta movies. So the elegantly animated Japanese characters on screen spoke to each other about "capping asses" and drinking 40s and whatnot. Very funny for 10-15 minutes, but ultimately as tiresome as What's Up Tiger Lily. I'd like to think that some bootlegger in China got a good laugh from the juxtaposition...

Posted by eric on January 6, 2009 at 1:18 PM

Just for the record, nothing is improved by Fergie.

Posted by kid icarus on January 6, 2009 at 1:20 PM

Wow, that interbridge site is hilarious, but what does it have to do with Mary Worth?

Posted by website on January 6, 2009 at 1:24 PM

Not Guy Maddin, but George Kuchar.
You'll see the inspiration for the style here:
http://www.ubu.com/film/kuchar.html

Posted by ratzkywatzky on January 6, 2009 at 1:25 PM

I've been abusing both Ziggy and Cathy for my roommates record label for a while now. We'll know it's finally off the ground when she gets the Cease-and-Desist.

Posted by Dougsf on January 6, 2009 at 1:31 PM

That Garfield-without-Garfield shit is super dark and eerie. Jon Arbuckle is effing psychotic. All in all, much better.

Posted by shudder on January 6, 2009 at 1:49 PM

I like the Mark Trails where the word balloons make it look like the animals are participating in the hyperbolic, cliche-ridden dialogue of the day.

Posted by laterite on January 6, 2009 at 1:52 PM

I always liked the Calvin and Hobbes takes on Mary Worth-style comics, particularly Calvin and Susy playing doctor.

Posted by Darcy on January 6, 2009 at 1:52 PM

Mary Worth is not in the P.I., although it's linked on the P.I. web page. You regret the error.

Posted by Algernon on January 6, 2009 at 1:53 PM

Mary Worth is the highest achievement of our civilization.

Posted by Fnarf on January 6, 2009 at 1:57 PM

Lasagna Cat reigns supreme

I just hope nobody ever does a series of Live Action Cathy. SWEAT DROPS!!! ARGH!!!

Posted by AJ on January 6, 2009 at 2:10 PM

Holy crap, those Mary Worth adaptations really were awesome.

Posted by John Scott Tynes on January 6, 2009 at 2:43 PM

In other cartoon news, The Times of London has proclaimed that Tintin is gay: http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/t…

Posted by inkweary on January 6, 2009 at 4:03 PM

I'm a little surprised I'm the one sending you this link. I really expected someone else to be on it.
http://joshreads.com/

I found both of those things ages ago through that site, and there's much more to be found.

Posted by MacCrocodile on January 6, 2009 at 6:23 PM

Hey, I'm the person who created that Mary Worth "My Humps" comic, and I'm a loyal Slog reader, so for me to find it here is beyond cool. The web site you linked to (interbridge.com) is the site for my business, so anyone expecting more hilarious hijinx shouldn't bother clicking on it. MacCrocodile's link to the Comics Curmudgeon is definitely a better bet for anyone interested in comics parody.

Posted by Sue Trowbridge on January 6, 2009 at 10:44 PM