Chickweed

Today is the dance recital for the studio where my kids dance so I wanted to do a review of something that has to do with dance. Trouble is, none of the comics I have pertain to dance, unless you count the travesty known as Dazzler: The Movie, but I've already discussed that soft core porn mess and the less said about it the better.

Fortunately, I've recently discovered a comic strip that seems to be all about dance. And, to keep this more fun, I'm not going to do any internet background searches. Instead, I'll just write from what I know by my reading of 9 Chickweed Ln. This a comic strip I stumbled across a few months ago that appears to revolve around the lives of 3 dancers in a dance company. There's a blonde female, a blonde male and a brunette female. The only name I remember is Fernanda, the brunette, who's from Argentina, I think.

When I started reading the blonde male and Fernanda were having dinner, than walking down a street. This strip works on a very langourous pace. Many of them have no dialog and all of them come across as very artsy and stylized. I will go so far as to say it's written and drawn by Brooke McEldowney, which I did have to look up.

Despite it's pacing, this strip suddenly had my attention because blonde male and Fernanda were having sex. This was quite curious because 1) I had already figured out blonde male is supposed to be gay, and 2) the sex was shown in a more direct way than is usually found in newspaper strips. More direct being a relative term. Unfortunately I can't find the actual strip, which was back in March some time. It showed a view of a bed side from the floor, looking upward and two hands intertwined toward the edge of the bed. As comic strips go, that's pretty direct.

Of course, since that time blonde male has been an object of scorn from Fernanda because he tried to backpedal from the relationship, what with being gay and all. It's all very soap opera, but I've really enjoyed the dance sequences with their flowing elegance. I'm not sure I'm getting the smoldering heat that's supposed to be passing between blonde male and Fernanda during a Bolero pas de deux, but I like the lines. The faces aren't quite conveying what is being intended, if the commentary by the other characters attending the performance is an indication of what's supposed to be passing between blonde male and Fernanda.

More than what's intended, I've enjoyed the inadvertant humor that comes up at times. I thought the sex scene was quite funny, but maybe that's just me. More often, it's been the facial expressiosn that seem to range from disinterest to disgust but not much else. I'm sure this thing will drag on forever, but for the moment it's a bit of fun. And, it's free, so what the hell.