The Digitonic Groove

thoughts without Blorbo: oh my god I was so cringe in seventh grade why did I do that

CHIIKAWA X THE VENTURE BROTHERS!

based off my stupid twitter thread i did

+transparents under the cut :) feel free to use to your hearts content

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Part 5 Alternate Route: The Gang Goes to Disney World

ahahahahah

So it occurred to me that ‘grawlix’ is sort of an obscure and specialized word, but what I didn’t know until I was googling around just now is that it was actually invented by cartoonist Mort Walker in his 1980 book The Lexicon of Comicana, in which he categorizes (and invents terminology for) all kinds of visual cues and shorthand commonly used in comics

(adventure comics #3 // batgirl #9)

Kon harasses Tim about the grimdarkness of his current sartorial choices and how they aren't "him" -- i.e. Tim is trying to be something he's not. Tim is standoffish at first, but eventually takes off the cowl and lets himself be vulnerable in front of Kon.

Tim confronts Steph about continuing to fight crime as Batgirl and is kind of high-handed and condescending about it. He accuses her of "playing dress-up"; she hits back by mocking his costume choices. He protests this at first but eventually pulls off the cowl -- implicitly conceding the point -- and although it's not an immediate transformation, is more genuine and honest with her thereafter. (cf. "I need your help." and also the extended hand bit from RR, among others.)

The Yost Red Robin era -- to which both of these issues sort of belong* -- also places a lot of emphasis on the symbolism of small gestures: Tim not helping Steph up in RR 2 / apologizing and extending a hand later; "You trust me?" "Of course." / "Batman ... trust me."; and of course Dick catching Tim at the end. So this kind of parallelism feels like it should have a meaning even though it probably wasn't intended to.