That's one Killer Whale of a Comic Strip!

Yo Zingerfans! A while back I featured a Pepsi and Pete comic strip advertisement for Pepsi Cola from 1941. Here is a modern comic form ad for Alaskan Summer Ale. They similarly end with drawings of the bottled beverages. Not much has changed there.


-- Click to enlarge.


I'd like to point out a few interesting zings about this strip. If you look at the five panels in the center, they are connected with arrows to guide the order with which you're supposed to read them. Now this has been done in comics before, especially in more experimental comic books where artists have the entire for unusual layouts. Now why are they in this comic? The natural order of reading panels is right to left, top to bottom. The arrows here point us in a circular order as if we are to read those five panels over and over, watching the killer whale do flips.

I'll argue these arrows unnecessary. They certainly are not needed in the top panels as those already follow the natural order, especially with the whale literally going from one panel into the other. And quite frankly, would this read any different if you read the bottom two panels in the opposite order of the arrows? Not much as you still get the effect of a crazy whale-riding rodeo. And then why didn't the artist just flop those two panels anyway? It's not that big of a deal and it's not like it ruins the comic, rather it's just my job to point these things out.

Also, I'm not that much a fan of puns but I like the zinger in this. "Killer Ale", it's not funny but it works!

One other zing. The sound effect lettering says SPLASH and... uh... ? FRASH? TRASH? Probably CRASH but that blocky C threw me off since the S is not blocky.

Zing out!