Poor Image: Muscle Angst

Two problems with the current picture:

• Too text-heavy, and entirely dependant on it.
• Although I'm not entirely definitive, I think its reading sense is right-to-left, which is not authorized.

I don't have suggestion for a replacement, but the above is usually enough for a deletion.

edited 9th Aug '14 8:28:01 AM by StFan

There's more text than picture in that picture. I had trouble finding that guy behind all that text. I vote to pull.

The image does clearly illustrate the angst bit, at least, so I don't think it's pullable.

The order you read it doesn't matter for comprehension.

Wow, that's a bad picture. I can't tell what's supposed to be going on beyond all the text. Kill it. Kill it dead.

It took me a second to find the guy behind the text...it does get the angst across, but I don't care for it beyond that.

I'm don't like the current one, partly because I simply don't like that harsh art style, and partly because the guy is so difficult to see amid the speech bubbles, but mostly because the Muscle Angst it's illustrating is the one that's most rarely encountered — a guy bemoaning that his muscles are too big. The description even says that that one is Always Female. I'd suggest These panels from a 1940's Charles Atlas ad:

If that's too small to comfortably read, I think that just panels 1&3 ("Listen here", and "Darn it") would also work and doing that would make it possible to make them considerably wider.

edited 8th Aug '14 7:21:58 AM by Madrugada

Actually, I think just the first and third panels might be best. The second and fourth don't really add anything that relates to the trope itself.

Agreed on panels 1 + 3 being sufficient...and feeling my age since I had comics with that ad in them at one time.

Here's another ad: the quality is worse ( since it's from an old comic printed on pulp paper, and it was too big as a .png to upload so it's a .jpg) but it doesn't have the slice of ol' Chucky's arm running across the bottom of panel three.

Don't feel old, Willbyr. I saw them often enough to know exactly what to search for...

edited 8th Aug '14 7:47:37 AM by Madrugada

6.1 and 6.3, yes, that gets my vote.

Would that count as a comic strip or as an advert?

Advertising, it was for a musclebuilding program by Charles Atlas.

Yes, it's advertising.

Well, the manga frame that is the current image has just been animated, so I have captured its anime equivalent◊ for completeness. Although... I personally don't think it makes a good pic either.

A slight improvement, but I still prefer 6 (with panels 2+4 removed)

The quality isn't quite as good, but this version I found has bigger panels:

Maybe more context◊ to explain why he was angsting?

edited 18th Aug '14 7:14:23 AM by TrueShadow1

That looks good.

Still does nothing for me. Honestly, it might make it worse, since he's complaining about how his muscle are too big... even though he doesn't even look all that muscular. And the fact that he's crossdressing in the first panel and wearing a uniform in the second just makes it borderline nonsensical.

edited 19th Aug '14 6:28:24 AM by JapaneseTeeth

The extra frames in the manga one help a little, but not much. The crossdressing adds a little bit, in that it helps explain why he doesn't want muscles, but he still doesn't look muscular at all. The anime version also doesn't make him look at all muscular — or if he ism it's hidden under the boxy suitcoat. And it's still illustrating the least common variant — a male bemoaning that he's too muscular.

edited 19th Aug '14 7:12:01 AM by Madrugada

I like 15.1 a lot. It's a classic too.

15.1 is a good one, though for some reason, I like it better with that yellowish tint, as shown in @6.

15.1 is good, and clean enough. I prefer it in white, the yellow tinge doesn't help readability.

I've got a suggestion from Manly Guys Doing Manly Things:

I honestly can't see any significant difference in readability between the two images, and the one in white seem to have uglier lines. But maybe it's just because the panels were enlarged.

Clock is set. Crowner?

I've gone ahead and hooked a crowner; I'll hit the snooze.