Webcomics

I’m using the DW version of the original post as the masterpost, not gonna try to keep the WordPress mirror up-to-date. Off to add some new notes…

Related: an “oh, hey…” moment…

There’s a brief reference in Sybil Exposed to a diagnostic method that Sybil’s therapist reportedly used. As the author describes it:

After starting at the University of Kentucky in 1967/68, Dr. Connie Wilbur “showed residents how to test for [MPD]. She recommended that a patient be hypnotized, then encouraged to look into a mirror until someone different appeared. The patient was then asked if the person in the mirror had a name and an age. If the answer was yes, the diagnosis was multiple personality. Connie did not seem to realize what recent studies have shown: many people, even normal ones, will see different faces in a mirror within minutes of gazing.” (147-148)

(The book is from 2011, and apparently the paper that first named the “strange-face-in-the-mirror illusion” was from 2010. She meant really recent studies.)

It really sounds like both Jane Phillips and Christine Beauchamp could’ve been experiencing a version of this. They don’t describe a whole cinematic experience of seeing the figure in the mirror move and speak — they just describe looking at their face for a while, seeing it become someone else’s face, and connecting it to a separate presence. (Christine knew she was part of a system, so she was able to ID a specific headmate she already had some contact with. Jane was diagnosed years later, for other reasons, and only connected this in retrospect.)

So! Sybil’s doctor thinks that everyone who sees this illusion is multiple. And Sybil’s exposing author points out it’s an illusion everyone sees, inviting you to conclude that nobody is multiple.

But, look — compare this for a second to the mirror box illusion (video), the one used in mirror therapy for phantom limb pain. That works on everyone too! You can trick your brain into processing, say, “the mirror image of your right hand” as “actually your left hand” — and it still works whether or not you physically have a left hand.

Makes sense that everyone can optical-illusion their brain into processing “your face” as “somebody else’s face,” and it works whether you have other people in your head or not.

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Finally, real quick, a Moon Knight thing:

From the strange-face article above: “The author, Italian psychologist Giovanni Caputo, describes his set up which seems to reliably trigger the illusion: you need a room lit only by a dim lamp (he suggests a 25W bulb) that is placed behind the sitter, while the participant stares into a large mirror placed about 40 cm in front.”

The first time Steven perceives Marc acting differently from him in a reflective surface, the shot looks like this:

Hmm. Hmmmm.

(A second later Steven turns on a better light, and the mysterious not-him motion disappears. For now.)

Randomly stumbled over the omnibus collection of this at the library…immediately took it home and blazed through the whole thing.

It’s a short-lived newspaper comic from the 60s about characters who know they’re running a comic. The fourth wall is in tatters, the meta jokes are decades ahead of their time, the crossover gags are exquisite. And beautifully drawn! Apparently people at the time were sure the parodies and cameos were an elaborate copy-and-paste job, or at least traced — but no, the artist was just that diligent about recreating the styles of the characters getting cameo’d.

It was the brainchild of Mort Walker (creator of the army comedy Beetle Bailey and its suburban spinoff Hi and Lois) and Jerry Dumas (who by then was his assistant/co-producer, and who did the art for Sam’s Strip). Honestly, I would put Hi and Lois on a list of the most blandly-generic newspaper strips, so I’m kinda surprised Walker had something this weird and innovative in him.

…Although it sounds like he’s not the one I should be judging, because the bland stuff was what sold. Sam’s Strip was beloved by the readers who got the jokes, but never caught on with a wider audience, and got canceled within less than two years.

(Then the character designs got repurposed for a much-more-generic comedy strip about small-town cops, and that was a hit.)

Wikipedia has a Sam’s Strip article, this blog has scans of a bunch of individual strips, and this omnibus has the whole run with fun notes/annotations. If you get the opportunity, give it a look.