Funny Background Event / Comic Books

Funny Background Events in comic books.

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Artists

• Sergio Aragonés: The bulk of his MAD work, the Marginals, could be considered this to whatever else is happening on the page (since they happen, as the name implies, in the margins), and his other works, like Groo the Wanderer, feature silly things happening in the periphery of the action pretty much anytime there's room for it.
• The UK comic artist Tom Paterson (Calamity James in The Beano; Sweeney Toddler in Whizzer and Chips) is extremely fond of this, to the extent that sometimes the main action of the strip almost gets crowded out of the panels. (His "little squelchy thingies" in Calamity James eventually got their own full page spotters' guide◊).
• The comic book writer and illustrator Don Rosa does it all the time: It's part of the appeal. There's hardly a panel without something funny happening in the background. If a painting (or any image of a character) is on-screen for more than one panel, it will invariably begin expressing emotion and reacting to what's going on in the foreground as if it were alive.
  • Not strange, since Rosa taught himself to draw so he could emulate Carl Barks, who did the same thing.
  • This is especially noticeable in Barks' Gyro Gearloose stories, where Gyro's little lightbulb Helper was always involved in some funny business in the background, sometimes even getting his own mini-plot line.
    • Though Rosa took it so far that once Barks commented that he was overusing the joke. Rosa and his fans respectfully disagreed.
  • Both funny and meaningful, in Rosa's early story, Last Sled to Dawson, Scrooge once again meets his old flame Goldie, who has since last time become owner of a hotel. As they have an awkward conversation, Donald is seen in the background, talking to the hotel attendant, and giving him a sly wink. If you're aware how much Rosa ships Scrooge and Goldie, you will realize that Don probably arranged for them to share a room without either of them knowing.
• Used frequently by the comic artist George Herriman, often as Running Gags. A recurring Funny Background Event in his comic The Dingbat Family eventually led to his most famous creation, Krazy Kat.
  • In one Krazy Kat strip, there is a Spanish-language poster that changes with every frame (and changes fence side for one frame), but is always a word or phrase in Spanish with an image that matches the text. Special props to the one on Ignatz's side of the fence that reads "Ratón Muerto", Dead Mouse.

Books

• Happens very frequently in Achille Talon. Any character appearing in a panel will usually be doing something funny that carries over to the next panel, even when said character does not participate in the plot.
  • An extreme example occurs in a strip where Achille walks in the street dressed very smartly, and gets strange looks from everybody he passes by. At the same time, someone can be seen running across the street completely naked and not attracting any attention.
  • In a variant of this, any device will contain overly complicated contraptions or unnecessary appendages, such as faucets on brass instruments or rear mirrors and dentures on a lawn mower.
• A regular occurrence in the comic series Amelia Rules!; often accessible only to an older audience. Example: Amelia and friends attend Joe McCarthy Elementary School (motto: Weeding Out the Wrong Element Since 1952).
• Archie Comics sometimes have funny background events, like a man is chased by a dog or a child is swept away into a tree by his kite. The same artist, Samm Schwartz, usually is the one who does this.
• Asterix features a fair number of humorous gags in the background. Usually they involve animals being involved in some sort of minor gag, but oftentimes they're nameless people involved in an unspoken Orphaned Punchline. The familiar 'are you crazy' gesture appears in quite a few of these.
• In Atomic Robo, during the '70s segment of The Shadow from Beyond Time, Robo meets with Carl Sagan at a diner. A waitress inside is sufficiently distracted by this scene to cause a bit of a mess...
• Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Rift: When Satoru is giving Team Avatar a tour of the Earthen Fire Refinery, in the background Katara can be seen waterbending to steal Sokka's food.
• Batman: Black and White, "Batsman: Swarming Scourge of the Underworld":
  • Selina Kyle leaves Wayne Manor after a date with Bruce Wayne; a few panels later, while Bruce is soliloquizing in the foreground, the view through the window behind him shows Alfred chasing her across the lawn to retrieve the antiques she stole on the way out.
  • Throughout the climactic fight scene in the museum, Catwoman can be seen in the background robbing the place blind while everyone else is distracted. The final panel of the scene shows that Batsman has captured pretty much all of his rogues gallery — except Catwoman, who is off unnoticed in the background making a getaway with all her loot.
• Done in Calvin and Hobbes when Calvin's Mom says that she hasn't seen Calvin for about fifteen minutes. We then see out the window while she's reading the newspaper, where the family car is rolling into the road and Calvin and Hobbes are chasing it. In the last panel, she says that it probably means he's getting in trouble.
• In this Candorville strip, the diploma on the wall changes from "M.A." to "Ph.D" to "WTF".
• Chick Tracts use these quite frequently, usually in the recurring appearance of Fang the dog. Frequently during the obligatory one-to-one preaching scenes, Chick will pull these into the foreground so he's not just drawing talking heads in every panel.

• Chilean comic book Condorito is famous for this, with a crocodile slowly crawling inside someone's house, a sleepwalker about to fall down a open manhole or a soccer player's picture kicking it's ball out of the frame and then trying to recover it being the most famous ones.
• The detailed art of the French comic De Cape et de Crocs includes a lot of background events that play out over the panels of a page:
  • Near the beginning of the series, some... things looking like living roots can be seen escaping from the vats of the Kabbalist in Venezia while Kader visits him and eventually falling to their deaths a few panels later.
  • On an island where the inhabitants eat dogs, a dog can be seen trying to escape slaughter and eventually turning back on the woman attempting to slaughter it while the main characters are discussing their next move
  • Not long after the previous example, Hermine can be seen ordering Don Lope to sew a sail while she cuts logs in his stead.
  • In the prequel books, Eusebe doesn't watch where he's going while carrying a large spit, and can be seen in the next panel being scolded by a cook with a hurting backside.
• Allison Bechdel's Dykes to Watch Out For contains lots of background goodies, such as a sign reading "Try our gluten-free, lactose-free, low-fat white pizza!"
• There's a scene in the original ElfQuest storyline where Cutter is planning to go off on his own and is telling the other Wolfriders he needs them to stay safe at home. He doesn't notice that behind his back Leetah is whispering something to Skywise (ie she's persuading him to accompany Cutter).
• In the short-lived Emma Frost comic series, Emma uses her psychic powers to manipulate a student who is trying to get a teacher (who is also Emma's Love Interest) fired. While doing so, Emma acts out the things she's making the girl say and do, resulting in Emma standing in front of a building, ranting and flailing. In one panel, another student can be seen giving her a very weird look.
• FoxTrot often has small, easily missed gags in strips where the characters talk in front of paintings, posters, or photographs. A recurring gag is the object in question changing between panels (such as a person on a magazine cover being in a different pose). Likewise, whenever a character is reading a newspaper there will usually be a joke about a cartoonist in the headline.
• Several in JLA/Avengers:
  • During the League and Avengers first fight, we see Batman doing a flying kick straight through Vision. The look on his face is priceless.
  • The expression on Plastic Man's face while Quicksilver ties his body into knots.
  • While everyone else is enjoying a party, Hawkeye and Green Arrow have an archery contest. At one point they nearly hit Elongated Man. What's better is that this keeps up even as the party is continuously being altered by a Cosmic Retcon repeatedly passing over the scene, the pair never stop with their archery contest. At one point Superman is having a totally unrelated conversation with Thor when a green arrow hits a dartboard behind him. The next panel a purple one splits it in twain.
• In a Justice League issue from the 1990s, the League has just dealt with an attack on a city by evil versions of themselves. After the villains are taken care of, an angry citizen chastises them for not stopping them sooner, never mind that the League was missing several key members during the battle and that given the power levels of the villains, the casualties could have been far worse. Green Lantern starts to argue with the man until Superman says that he'll handle it. The focus then shifts to the rest of the League discussing the threat, but Superman and the man are still seen in the background. In the first panel, the man is shouting at Superman. In the second, Superman is calmly speaking to the man. In the third, Superman and the man are respectfully shaking hands.
• In Léonard le Génie, the cat and the mouse are usually engaged in their own activities when not commenting on the actions of the main characters. Especially in the older albums, these are small stories by themselves.
• Mortadelo y Filemón: Ibañez absolutely loves to do this. It is not a rare occurrence to spot a random pedestrian with his nose coming out the back of his head, pigeons with horse-like faces, the bare feet of someone sleeping in an unorthodox place like a folder cabinet or a trash bin, mice chasing cats chasing dogs, anthropomorphic buildings, cars parked upside down... The list goes on.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (IDW):
  • "The Return of Queen Chrysalis":
    • In the first splash page, a poor background pony falls victim to an Anvil on Head.
    • Same issue, look closely during the Changelings battle when Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy are talking and you'll notice Spike running away from a Changeling he just set on fire.
    • While Spike is horking up Queen Chrysalis' message after the changeling battle, Pinkie Pie can be seen re-inflating her mane to its normal wild curliness (much to the chagrin of Rarity, who had styled it during the battle).
  • "Convocation of the Creatures": Some water splashes on Cadance after Queen Novo changes into a seapony and back again, leaving her to shake herself dry and try to get her man back in order in the background of several following panels.
• Paul Sample's Ogri cartoons have entire little subplots taking place as Funny Background Events. For example, a dog is looking down a drain; then the drain eats the dog; then the drain belches; then it spits the bones out. Or the main sequence of the strip involves a bike cop stopping Malcolm and rabbiting on endlessly as he pulls charge after charge out of the "Police Officer's Handbook of Fantasy Charges" to charge Malcolm with, while in the background Ogri is taking the cop's bike apart and selling the bits to random passers-by; when the cop is finally finished and turns back to his bike, Ogri has disappeared and nothing is left of the bike either.
• In The Pro, when the titular heroine begins her tirade against the League of Honor, a few of the panels show the Speedo standing behind her and masturbating after getting turned on.
• Rat Queens: The big fight in the second arc shows Braga in the background of one shot, swinging a man by his feet as a weapon against his friends.
• Red Robin: When investigating a high tech lair hidden in the catacombs of Paris Cassandra can be seen in the background investigating a metal panel and being shocked by it. Then punching the still sparking panel in retaliation.
• The climactic fight of Red Sonja: The Art of Blood and Fire sees the prostitute pulling a knife, the astronomer tossing smoke bombs, the chef administering lethal poison, the beastmaster siccing her hawk, and the dancer obliviously performing his piece de resistance in the background.
• The Simpsons Futurama Crossover Crisis: Upon seeing Hermes and Zoidberg through one of his cameras, Burns asks Smithers who are they. Meanwhile, the other cameras show someone being chased by a Giant Spider, a guy being slapped in the face by another guy, someone seemingly being on fire, some man accidentally dropping a barrel of radioactive waste into a bunch of people below him, someone slipping, and a guy with three eyes.
• Near the end of the Belgian comic Spirou & Fantasio in Moskow, one of the titular characters remarks that their speaking pet squirrel Spip has been very quiet, and the other says not to say anything, or Spip will start complaining again. Zoom in to the furious squirrel, who's been gagged with tape since an early kidnapping, which is clearly visible once you've been told. Interestingly enough, the squirrel stopped speaking in the next comics, until a change of artist.
• Supergirl:
  • When Darkseid kidnaps Supergirl in The Supergirl from Krypton (2004) storyline to brainwash her into one of his Female Furies, Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman visit the civilian home of Mr. Miracle and Big Barda in the hopes that Barda will help them get to Apokolips so they can rescue her. While she's discussing this with Superman and WW, Batman can be seen wandering around the room observing furniture and decorations, until a panel or so later he discovers a secret switch that reveals a false wall hiding Mr. Miracle's costume. Barda is not amused.
  • In Elseworld's Finest: Supergirl & Batgirl, Luthor kisses Barbara Gordon's hand before beginning a speech. As he's speaking, Babs wipes her hand behind him.
  • Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade: In issue #4, while Supergirl and Lena argue, Belinda is being mauled by Streaky the -cranky- Supercat in the background.
  • Supergirl (Wednesday Comics): As Supergirl and Aquaman have a talk, Krypto and Streaky are quarrelling with crabs and other marine creatures, and an octopus is seen retrieving Aquaman clam-phone -which Arthur had previously dumped into the water angrily- and getting him to pocket it back. Since Aquaman refuses to acknowledge it, the octopus slides Aquaman's phone into his belt as the man is distracted.
  • In Power Girl (2009), Kara and Terra duck into an alley to change into their costumes, with Power Girl lecturing Terra on how she should have Dressed in Layers. A bum in the alley enjoys the free fan service. In another scene, Kara's pet cat Stinky can be seen stealing some shrimp from her Chinese takeout.

• Top 10's setting of a city where every last person has superpowers and an outfit to match means there's probably more panels with something odd in the background than not.
• Transformers (2023): As Starscream calls for a retreat in issue #4, Cliffjumper can be seen flipping the Decepticons off with both hands instead of actually shooting at them like Optimus and Jazz are.
• In a number of her earliest appearances in Uncanny X-Men, X-23 can be seen aping Psylocke's mannerisms and postures in the background, including one scene where Betsy is lounging sexily, and Laura mimics her with an exaggerated kissy-face. In another she tries to braid her hair the same way Psylocke has, but ends up with a messy ponytail instead. Doubles as Early-Installment Weirdness, as such behavior is eventually established as quite OOC for the much more stoic and reserved Laura most fans are accustomed to.
• Used in What's New? With Phil And Dixie, with things like people in dice costumes walking behind the title characters, or little gag scenes going on in the back ranks of crowds.

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