Let us try something: Let us fix Marvin.

I was thinking, perhaps I could fix comicstrips that are broken. Or, not broken, but which suffers from problems in pacing, maybe a forced punchline, or maybe a forced leadup to a punchline. Maybe a joke that needs a little help to be moved along. I might try this little comic-experiment for a few weeks. If I enjoy it, I will continue with it, if not, bah to that.

The reason that I try this is, as far as I know, there are no comic-strip fixers. There were the Comic-Strip Doctor, who that was more a commentary on the series of strips, and a little fixing.

Now, my method will be, I will try to save the comic strip. I will not butcher it. I will try to keep as much of it intact as possible, and only rewrite parts if it is absolutely necessary. Like a doctor. If there is no way out, I will attempt complete reconstructional surgery.

Let us begin with a Marvin. I liked this strip when I were a kid, but now it bores me. In todays Marvin, we join the whatevertheirnameis, as the husband sneak up behind the wife.

Now, the flaw here is, the middle panel is forced, to give the wife a set-up for the joke in panel 3. I don't think that the first question would be "What are you going to call it?". As if the name would be the most important thing, right now. Ideally, it would not take place in front of the computer, but near the phone, while the wife joyfully told her husband that "Baby Babble"(?) just called, and that they wanted her to write a humourous column. Which brings me to another thing, in yesterdays strip, it was said that she had written a single romance novel, so why is she being asked to write a humourous column? As far as they know, she has no sense of humour. Come to think of it, as far as we know, she has no sense of humour, but that is besides the point. Let us see if we can save it.

Excuse me for the crude writing in panel 3, but I am not used to writing with my Wacom. See what I did? I cut a frame, and I expanded her line in panel 3. I think that it flows much better. Still, look at the eyes. They don't really look excited, do they? The eyes are a cheap ploy to trick people who are looking for Garfield. The husband even almost wear the same clothes as Jon Arbuckle. So let us fix the eyes, so they don't look bored, like, "Whoop-ti-doo, you write a column for preggies, what's for dinner?"

That should do it. I think that it is paced better, and the characters look interested. It is still not really funny, but, hey, it is Marvin, so what did you expect?