I feel like I've been apologizing every time I manage to upload something. ~.~ Life has been happening with distressing frequency lately. Added to that my own (perhaps vain) attempts at sorting my stuff. I wonder at what point I'll just give up and donate everything to Goodwill. Ah, but then I'd worry that I might have accidentally gotten rid of something irreplaceable.
Kinda like Hook's hand. I wonder what he was called before Peter cut off his hand. Or if that's his name and Peter thought it'd be funny if Hook had a hook.
Kinda like Hook's hand. I wonder what he was called before Peter cut off his hand. Or if that's his name and Peter thought it'd be funny if Hook had a hook.
14 comments:
A new strip! Looks good!
@Dad: Thanks!
Re: I wonder what he was called before Peter cut off his hand. Or if that's his name and Peter thought it'd be funny if Hook had a hook:
According to Peter Pan creator J.M. Barrie, "Hook was not his true name. To reveal who he really was would even at this date set the country in a blaze" and adds that "[He] was Blackbeard's boatswain, and...the only man Long John Silver ever feared".
The 1991 film "Hook" (brilliant, BTW; definitely recommended) goes a bit further, stating that his given name was James and at least implying that he may have been at least partially based on Barrie himself...which would have led to something of a nasty temporal-literary pardox, when one takes into consideration certain events in the movie itself...
@Dan: Oooooo! Interesting! And cool! I have seen Hook, but it's been a while and I don't remember much in the way of details. (Just that it seemed odd to cast Robin Williams as Peter Pan. But on second thought, maybe not.)
Mr. Williams definitely had the improvisational skills to play a good, if not exactly a great grownup Peter Pan. But I personally thought that it was Dustin Hoffman as Hook who stole the show. And Bob Hoskins (you know, Eddie Valiant from "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?") was great as Smee. :)
Reading a mini-biography of the man, it seems that Mr. Barrie had more in common with Granny Wendy from the movie "Hook", than he did with Captain Hook himself (despite what's suggested in the film).
And it just occurred to me: if Barrie had really wanted to make Hook seem nasty and frightening, it may have been more appropriate historically to say he was "the only man Black Bart Roberts feared" (Roberts was the most successful and ruthless pirate of his era). But since Treasure Island says that Long John Silver is the only man that Captain Flint from that novel feared, maybe from a literary POV it is sort of appropriate...
@Dan: And he's kinda goofy, too. |P
So he was friendly and eccentric?
My guess is he figured more kids would be familiar with Long John Silver than Black Bart. Man. Treasure Island is *nothing* like its adaptations.
Good point, that. Treasure Island was first published in book form in 1883 - only twenty years or so before the play Peter Pan first hit theaters - so unless they were really into pirates, kids of the era probably would have been more familiar Long John Silver than Black Bart (I doubt pirates and pirate lore were as hugely popular at the turn of the 20th Century as they are today, what with the "Pirates of the Caribbean" films!).
J.M. Barrie never married, but he did take in and adopt five orphans whom he wrote Peter Pan for. "Granny" Wendy in the film "Hook" is said to spend her entire life taking in orphans (including Peter himself) and helping them find adoptive homes. Supposedly, she and her orphans entertain themselves by telling bedtime stories that in fact inspired Mr. Barrie (Wendy's next door neighbor!?) to write the Peter Pan stories and plays. That was the reason that I suggested he may have had more in common with "Granny" Wendy from the movie "Hook" than he did with the notorious pirate captain (also as suggested in the film).
Granted, this opens a terribly anachronistic can of worms. Peter Pan (play and novel, respectively) were written in 1904 and 1911. If they were really inspired by Wendy and Peter, that would mean that Robin Williams (and Wendy, too, even taking the actress' prostetics into acount) was way, WAY older than he looked!!
Actually, the current MQC has proved to be quite a learning experience for me. I might never have researched or considered a lot of this stuff otherwise. Although the fact that I only recently watched "Hook" is a total coincidence. I think.
@Dan: Wow! You are doing a lot of research! (And total coincidence. Sure, sure. ^_~ ) Hmm. Me thinks the script writer didn't realize just how old the story is.
@Brigid: Hooray for another strip! And hooray for all this information about Peter Pan that I never knew before, despite the fact that JM Barrie actually wrote and completed the play where I am currently studying.
BTW, was Hook supposed to lose his hook at that point or was it an accident onstage?
@Journo: ^_^ Thanks! I'm hoping to get another strip out soon, but other obligations may keep it in development for a little while longer.
As for Hook losing his hook... (hehehe) That was an accident.
@Brigid: Now that's what I call fast thinking, and improvisation skills too!
@Journo: Yep! Things that are very important to an actor. Especially with live performances.
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