The Comic Strip Pt. 2: Alley Oop

I chose to read "Alley Oop: The First Time Travel Adventure" on the trip to the library on Thursday.

The relationship between words and images is mainly dialogue, but every now and then there are descriptor bubbles to summarize any previous adventures that would provide context for the current strip. Sometimes V.T. Hamlin leaves notes for his readers about the course of the story, but the primary context you get for the story is through speech and actions. The comic does follow the dialogue taking up the upper third of the panels as well.

In was also a daily strip that had a comic for every day of the week except for Sunday, as well as a continuity strip. Alley-Oop, Dinny the Dinosaur, and Ooola other character make the same appearance in a specific story arc and progress the story forward each day. This story in specific is about the progression of Alley Op being taken to the future.

I’d say some very definitive qualities of the comic is the intricate art style of the lifework and the use of complex but subtle backgrounds, which can be foliage or caves with a good use of detail, but also they are not so prominent or complex that they completely distract the viewers from the main characters and the story. The character designs themselves are also very specific, and even though female characters like Ooola can greatly defer from King Guz’s daughter in aesthetic, I still think many of the character designs overall are very well executed to create audience interest.

I would also say that another quality to this specific comic is the fantastical world with implied real-world references and context that make it so unique. We, as an audience, can explore the land of "Moo" and enjoy a marvelous adventure that something we have never experienced before, but can also understand the context of certain events or actions that happen to Alley Oop because they are still situations that are relatable outside of cavemen and dinosaurs.