Tragicomic Compromise
December 31st, 2024 Barry Posted in LGBT cartoons, Rachel Swirsky collaborations | No Comments »
This cartoon was written by Rachel Swirsky, the much-awarded science fiction writer who also collaborates with me writing the scripts to the Wings of Fire graphic novels. This, by the way, is the second Shakespeare-themed cartoon Rachel and I have done together; we did one about copyright almost a decade ago.
TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON
This cartoon has four panels.
PANEL 1
Three people stand on the stage of a theater. From the ladders and paint cans and junk strewn around, we can see that this isn’t a show, but preparation for a show.
A woman and a man yell angrily at each other, while a third person stands in the middle, holding a clipboard and looking exhausted.
WOMAN: Recasting Romeo and Juliet as lesbians is problematic! Gay people deserve happy endings too!
MAN: Romeo and Juliet is one of History’s Greatest Romances! Are you saying only cis-hets deserve enduring tragic beauty?
PANEL 2
A must closer shot shows the woman and man screaming with fury while the clipboard-holder facepalms.
WOMAN: It’s killing your gays!
MAN: Tragic beauty!
CLIPBOARD HOLDER: Look, let’s compromise.
PANEL 3
A shot of an audience, in dim lighting, watching a show. A woman looks wide-eyed and touched; the man next to her looks a bit annoyed and skeptical.
JULIET (speaking from off panel): Oh, happy dagger! This is thy sheath– But soft, through yonder breaks! A magic rift! I am– Wrested in twain–
MAN: Did… They just add an interdimensional rift to Romeo and Juliet?
WOMAN: Shhh!
PANEL 4
We are behind the same pair of audience members, looking over their shoulders at the brightly lit stage.
The stage has been divided in half by a prop shaped like a giant lightning bolt, which is hanging on wires from above. To the left of the lightning bolt, Romeo and Juliet are making out. To the right of the lightning bolt, Romeo and Juliet lie dead, Romeo with a poison bottle and Juliet with a dagger sticking out of her chest.
In the audience, the man’s annoyance has grown, while the woman is weeping and smiling.
MAKING OUT COUPLE: Mmmm! Mph!
MAN: What the hell?
WOMAN: It’s perfect!
CHICKEN FAT WATCH
“Chicken fat” is an outdated cartoonists’ term for unimportant details that are still fun.
PANEL 1
On the label of the paint can, a man is wincing away from some paint that’s dripped down onto the label.
The woman has a tattoo that says “2B 2B,” with a circle with a diagonal line on top of the second “2B.”
A newspaper lying on the floor, “The Daily Background,” has two headlines: “Coup In Denmark” and “Julius Seize Her.”
PANEL 3
Stuart Little – the anthropomorphic mouse character – is sitting in the audience in front of our focus characters.
