Room For Improvement
 
     I’m always looking to improve a Loose Parts cartoon. The latest regret started while watching a documentary on PBS. Now, the lovely Mrs. Loose Parts and I are the proud parents of a daughter who is dead set on becoming a surgeon and is now on the pre-med track in college. So we came across a PBS documentary about med school. (It should also have thrown in a little self-hypnosis to erase all consideration of med school tuition from our minds ... although I’ve done a pretty good job of blocking it out myself.)
 
     While watching this lovely documentary, there were many scenes in operating rooms. Now, close followers of Loose Parts know that I’ve done many operating room toons. I think it’s a fertile subject and I’m going to keep doing them. In fact, this month, I did this one you see here below:
 
 
I like it. Hope you do, too. The idea of reversing a liposuction tank is a grossly intriguing idea and, like all good jokes, the reader finishes it in his or her mind. That’s always a good sign. But I used to draw darkened operating room. And when I saw the documentary all the rooms were really bright. I even commented to my wife that somehow I’ve been imagining them wrong. Well that all happened right around the time I was drawing this cartoon. So I left the scene bright white and that’s the way it ran.
 
But when I saw it in the paper, something was wrong. It was just, well, drab. And while I tried to lend reality to the scene, I forgot to make the joke work first. In short, some darkened operating room shading would have really helped. In fact, it could have, and should have, looked like this:
     Better don’t you think? I do. Oh sure, the shading gives it a richness and texture that’s pleasing to the eye. But it does more. It allows me to direct your eye to the joke. You go right to the table first and to the doctor looking over his shoulder. Then you go to the tank and the sneaky hand coming in. And the prank should take place in the dark, not the light. Yeah, this is better. A lot.
 
    So I outsmarted myself. But alas (yes, I just used the word alas) when you’re on deadline, you don’t have time to think of things like this all the time. But I wanted you to know that I often think of them later. And I think I’ll start using this space to share that thinking with you.
 
Hope you enjoyed this little trip inside my head. Pick up your litter before you leave.
 
And till next time ... stay Loose.
 
dave
 
 
 
 
 
Blogged Arteries
Sunday, February 13, 2011