Uses the whole strip. (I think.): For Halloween I Am Going As Myself

I'm not sure how to find this strip, but IIRC it has three panels.

Personally, I think it could do without the bottom panel anyway. Perhaps we could use "am I scary or what" as the caption instead, perhaps potholing that to Adult Fear instead of what's in the caption right now.

edited 18th Jan '12 6:43:30 AM by HiddenFacedMatt

"The Daily Show has to be right 100% of the time; FOX News only has to be right once." - Jon Stewart

That's not even a very good example. It would work far better on Adult Fear

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

I'd say check through the comic strip and webcomic examples and see if there's anything else that would work.

There's a good one of Homestar Runner in a homemade Homestar Runner costume here.

Rhymes with "Protracted."

Kinda wordy. And yeah, it's the whole strip (for future reference, you can use this to find it).

[1] or [2]?

And if I claim to be a wise man, well, it surely means that I don't know.

Why should anyone have to bother reading that much text? Isn't the whole point of putting images on pages so that people can understand a trope in less time than it takes to read the meat of the page description?

No, that's not the idea, Sean. The purpose of the page image is to illustrate the trope. No one but you has tried to claim that it needs to be a definition of the trope.

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

While that's entirely true, there's no reason that we can't find a less wordy version. I've got nothing against text in images, but if we can illustrate the trope without text, there's no reason not to.

In this particular case, the image is way wordier than it needs to be. The first and last panels of this get the idea across just as well.

edited 19th Jan '12 1:12:38 PM by JapaneseTeeth

Reaction Image Repository

Yeah, illustrate, as in "to provide explanation through pictures".

It probably also bears pointing out, since I get the feeling that my arguments are being misconstrued, that I've never had problems with words or dialogue in images in and of themselves. My issue has always been with walls of text in images that generally wind up doing the large majority of the heavy lifting (if not, all the work) and, consequently, rendering any actual visual content nearly inconsequential or insignificant when providing a trope demonstration.*

That Calvin And Hobbes strip on the page definitely poses this problem.

Bottom Line: Even if there's no specific guideline anywhere that says "a page image incorporating text can't be TL;DR", a page image incorporating text that actually is TL;DR typically isn't very good, anyway.

Actually, I've never tried to claim this, either, nor does this have anything to do with what I'm actually looking to address.

edited 19th Jan '12 6:11:09 PM by SeanMurrayI

I agree that ideally images should "read" in a few seconds regardless of how much (or how little) text they have.

But we have plenty of images that are less than ideal.

edited 19th Jan '12 10:00:32 PM by rodneyAnonymous

Becky: Who are you? The Mysterious Stranger: An angel. Huck: What's your name? The Mysterious Stranger: Satan.

In this case it really isn't all the work, since the visuals are required to know that Calvin really is going as himself.

That said, other alternatives have already been presented...

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"The Daily Show has to be right 100% of the time; FOX News only has to be right once." - Jon Stewart

edited 20th Jan '12 2:18:50 PM by troacctid

Rhymes with "Protracted."

Nice.

edited 22nd Jan '12 2:56:24 PM by Willbyr

No, the words are required to understand that Calvin is dressed as himself. By themselves, the visuals only do enough to successfully show that he's trick-or-treating (his full "costume" is obscured in both panels, with his back turned to the viewer in the top panel and blocked by the bag he's holding in the other). To understand the trope, people have to read the speech bubbles—especially the inconvenient Wall of Text in the bottom panel—and after reading the speech bubbles, the visuals become redundant to the point that they're no longer even necessary to convey any aspect of the trope.

That said, I will say that either of the last two images just posted would make a significant improvement.

edited 20th Jan '12 10:02:31 PM by SeanMurrayI

Here's◊ a screencap of an old lady giving the TMNT candy on Halloween unaware they are not in costume.

I like this one.

Fight smart, not fair.

I vote for #11 too.

An Ear Worm is like a Rickroll: It is never going to give you up.

TMNT is easily the best one, as simply clicking the link to their page will let you know that it is just them, it has a good, even size to it, and it illustrates the point perfectly.

The webcomic one just comes off as if it's a one off joke about "LOL SHE HAS NO FASHION SENSE, XD" and Homestar is too long. Maybe if Homestar's legs were cropped it would work.

I actually don't think 11 shows the trope because the character is not aware of the situation, she just never switched out of her normal dress.

What about the last panel of this◊?

edited 22nd Jan '12 9:02:19 PM by agentjohnbishop

I think none of the suggestions (or the current image) capture the spirit of "superhero is in a situation where they don't have to hide their wild-looking-ness" described by the article. It doesn't have to be Halloween, although that is common.

Becky: Who are you? The Mysterious Stranger: An angel. Huck: What's your name? The Mysterious Stranger: Satan.

Actually, my TMNT one was exactly that, but I can't find a better screencap of that episode.

That is a good point. The caption can say they're not in costume. This seems like the image to beat, though.

Becky: Who are you? The Mysterious Stranger: An angel. Huck: What's your name? The Mysterious Stranger: Satan.

I like the TMNT one especially brightened like that. The original was far too dark.

Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick

Not entirely fond of the TMNT one. Maybe if it showed them among regular trick-or-treaters, but that shot doesn't show enough of the ... Halloween-ness.

An Ear Worm is like a Rickroll: It is never going to give you up.

I'm alright with the Turtle pic, but I prefer gothy chick.