In this week’s Dilbert, Wally is fired for posting a comic that calls managers drunken lemurs. There’s some background to that story, in case you missed it yesterday on Good Morning America.
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/WaterCooler/story?id=4323900
And here’s the link to the Dilbert series that continues for a few more days.
http://dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/dilbert-20080220.html [no longer available]
One of my ongoing problems in the strip is trying to restore things back to their normal Dilbert universe after something dramatic happens, such as a death or firing or company takeover. Today you will learn, if you don’t already know, a literary phrase that describes how lazy authors resolve this sort of thing.
The phrase is “deus ex machina.” It refers to a bad writer’s trick of having some improbable character arrive at the end of a story and conveniently solve all the problems. It’s considered a cop-out. I use it frequently because comics need quick solutions, and I have plenty of improbable characters to choose from. Look for the deus ex machine to help Wally get his job back in the next few days.
And next time you want to impress someone with your literary knowledge, drop a deus ex machine on them. Act surprised that anyone doesn’t know what it means. More on that phrase…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_ex_machina
Since I know you will ask, in the ABC video I am drawing on a Wacom Cintiq 21UX monitor, which is how I create the strip. Here’s a link that shows it:
http://www.wacom.com/cintiq/index.cfm?CMP=KNC-google&HBX_PK=cintiq+21ux&HBX_OU=50&gclid=COGlzZWN2JECFQM7gwodtkMoZg [no longer available]