Saturday, June 24, 2006

I AM Medium Large Guy




I have been stalking a fan of Francesco Marciuliano for quite awhile, having milked his comic strip Sally Forth for a couple of posts as well as my take on Teenage Girl President. He’s a good sport about it, particularly since he has his webcomic Medium Large as an outlet for his darker jokes, like ones involving robots eating humans (wait until HUAR hears about this).

Medium Large features a nameless observer with the vocabulary of Harpo Marx, less the horn. Medium Large Guy, as he is known, spends a lot of time planted on the couch watching the Medium Large Network. In addition to its tentpole series, TGP, MLN is host to such sub-CW fare as Victorian Era Superhero and T.O.D.D. and Son.

In a fit of quickly forgotten whimsy, Ces decided to hold a Medium Large Guy Look Alike Contest. Since I had no hope in the Finger Quotin’ Margo Contest over at Comics Curmudgeon, I broke out the camera, found a suitably generic shirt and took a couple of stabs at it. I e-mailed them to Ces well ahead of the deadline and that reminded him that he was actually running a contest. In his words:

The Medium Large Guy Summer Look-Alike Contest is in full-swing. Alas, it has not been fully promoted for quite some time, resulting in a rather infrequent entry rate.
I take that to mean that so far I have been the only entrant. Ces did admire my attention to detail.

Note the dead-eyed stare. The glass of indeterminate liquid. The rabbit ears on the TV. The pallor! Clearly M. Yellojkt is determined to win this contest. Either that or his wife just snapped a photo of him in his usual habitat and demeanor.
I’m not much of a thespian, but I did my best to capture that eye-glazed ennui. I object to the description of my complexion. I’m part Irish, what am I supposed to do? Inspired by my enthusiasm, the contest has been extended to July 30. So if you can manage a slack-jawed look of bored bemusement and own a black shirt, you can try to top me.

I actually sent in a few other pictures that captured the same scene with different lighting and expressions. Here I went for that metaphorically soul-sucking Poltergeist television glow by closing the blinds and turning off the flash.


As part of my method acting, I also tried to figure out what Medium Large Guy watches. Since MLG is at least partially a sub-conscious manifestation of Ces’s obsession with cheesy pop-culture, I figure the Mr T animated series would be on MLG’s daily viewing.



Or QVC could be a cause of that drowsy-lidded look of quiet desperation.



Of course, it could be just insomnia-induced fatigue from waiting for Cheryl Haskwell to make an appearance like this Cheryl look-alike.



Of course, trying to art direct the foreshortened perspective of the comic is not without hazards. Here, the TV nearly tips off the ottoman as I try to replicate the preternatural gravity-defying tilt of the original.



Have I crossed a line in my obsession with a surreal slightly off-kilter webcomic? I think not, but then again I have been wrong about these things before. After all, I did go to the trouble of recreating the tableaux from MLG during the week of Christmas 2005.



Blatant Comment Whoring™: Which of these photos is the best?

Bonus Blatant Comment Whoring™: What comic strip character do you most resemble?

10 comments:

Unknown said...

I like the original photo that you entered as I think it's the most similar to the cartoon.

I don't read comics. I know, I'm an effite intellectual snob. I just don't find them funny.

Here via Michele

Anonymous said...

Great punchline!! I felt like I was watching Groundhog day...until the end. The resemblence is striking...down to the black shirt.

I think I resemble that Viking guy...at least I have a little of him inside.

Jeff and Charli Lee said...

Clearly your first picture is the best, although your right hand is drawn much better.

Anonymous said...

Sadly, if I let my hair grow too far out, whenever I workout it turns into Wolverine's hair. Even sadder, I don't actually look like Wolverine (or Hugh Jackman), just like some normal dude with Wolverine hair grafted on to him. Saddest yet, I don't think I'll ever look as much like a comic character as any of these people.

Anonymous said...

The first one is best, but you should Photoshop the background out so that you get the same Featureless Void. I wonder if MLG is a neighbor of the Keanes?

I probably look most like Mark Slackmeyer.

Anonymous said...

Definitely the first one. BUT:
Medium Large features a nameless observer with the vocabulary of Chico Marx, less the horn.

Chico talked a lot, he was Groucho's verbal sparring partner. It was Harpo who didn't talk. Jeez, don't they teach any culture these days?

yellojkt said...

Yhanks anonymous. Consider it retconned.

2fs said...

Matt Groening (in his drawings of himself...although I kind of look more like him in real life than like his cartoons of himself). That sentence got needlessly meta - sorry.

Anonymous said...

I don't know which character I look like, but back in my rock band days I was the object of obsession for a young lady who looked remarkably like Brent Raptor's mother.

carmilevy said...

I like how you dissect photos and assess the mood of the person in them. Lovely critique of scene and atmosphere.

Popped by from Michele, but you're a fave read regardless.