Those Little Misunderstandings

Those Little Misunderstandings

Posted by Brian • October 13, 2016

Original Release Date: July 21, 2009

There is a lot going on in the first panel of this page. First, I needed to cover for the fact that Stu's mugshot on the previous page featured him in his ninja mask, which seems like a thing that wouldn't happen, so I had to add in this little bit of dialogue to account for it. However, I feel as if it works well in this situation. We find out later in the page that Stu has already beaten up all of their cellmates, but Mike is so used to this type of behavior at this point that he can make casual conversation afterwards as if nothing has happened, and this dialogue serves as an example of that. It also lets the audience know that Stu isn't in a particularly good mood, and probably isn't getting the grand hero's welcome back to Stumpville that he was expecting. His response to Mike starts off as one of these little nuggets of ninja lore, and ends with disgust and sarcasm directed at the police.

The other part of this page that I really like is the cellmate who has been dunked in the toilet. It's a simple visual gag, and the product of trying to come up with a variety of positions for Stu's dispatched adversaries. Also, there are shurikens littering the area, which means the police really did not do a good job with Stu. They didn't bother to discover his true identity or confiscate his weapons.