I just realized something very disconcerting this morning. Dilbert has too many fingers!
Everybody knows that cartoon characters from Mickey Mouse to Homer Simpson have three fingers and a thumb.
On the good side, Dilbert has no mouth and his hair is apparently made of flesh. So maybe he's okay, despite the freaky extra digit.
Mike
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Original contents copyright 2010 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.
Looks like somebody has digitized Dilbert.
Too many fingers, maybe a hand me down?
Posted by: Bryce Lee | Sunday, 27 June 2010 at 11:17 AM
Bryce,
No, it's from this morning's strip on the official website.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Johnston | Sunday, 27 June 2010 at 11:31 AM
Too many fingers?
How about the fact that he has no mouth?
Posted by: Stephen Gilbert | Sunday, 27 June 2010 at 11:59 AM
Mike - go have another cup of coffee. STRONG coffee. You need it.
Cheers
J
Posted by: John | Sunday, 27 June 2010 at 12:14 PM
"Too many fingers? How about the fact that he has no mouth?"
Didn't I say that?
Mike
Posted by: Mike Johnston | Sunday, 27 June 2010 at 12:27 PM
Uhhhh...Mike? Maybe you should improve the ventilation in your new darkroom...
I'm just sayin'....
Regards,
Jim
Posted by: Jim Hart | Sunday, 27 June 2010 at 12:29 PM
Never noticed that. They all are drawn with 5 fingers, except when holding a coffee mug, then only one.
Wally has a mouth, it's for putting coffee in
Back to my evening decaf :)
Posted by: robert | Sunday, 27 June 2010 at 12:37 PM
Mike, you must not be aware of the "comment first, read post later" technique, which is now standard operating procedure on the internet.
Posted by: ben | Sunday, 27 June 2010 at 12:48 PM
May all your problems be so small.
Posted by: James Bullard | Sunday, 27 June 2010 at 12:54 PM
Not all characters in The Simpsons have four digits, though. God, when he's shown, has all five fingers.
Posted by: Alastair Bird | Sunday, 27 June 2010 at 01:15 PM
Mike:
FYI - The classic Daffy Duck cartoon "The Great Piggy Bank Robbery" contains has a character with four fingers (three fingers and a thumb) drawn realistically. See for yourself at the 44 second mark at the following location:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5350079117147530925#
Now that's disconcerting!
Paul
Posted by: Paul | Sunday, 27 June 2010 at 02:33 PM
Fingers? Sometimes I'm all thumbs, but I detect a theme here. Three fingers on cartoon hands, three legs on tripods. Except for Dilbert and Novoflex.
There are generally only three fingers on cartoon characters to avoid the 'bunch of bananas' look. I remember on The Simpsons Bart and Lisa discussing what it would be like to have an extra finger; four on each hand!
Posted by: Roger Bradbury | Sunday, 27 June 2010 at 03:09 PM
Brilliant! This is important!
Posted by: Godfrey DiGiorgi | Sunday, 27 June 2010 at 03:43 PM
You made me worry. i thought the M Mouse is the most sacred icon that it is not allowed to be even mention, let alone quote, here. I was even told that US law is changed to fit into its copyright. I am watching the pull down or else notice very soon.
Posted by: Dennis Ng | Sunday, 27 June 2010 at 03:57 PM
Mike. You need to take a vacation. It's
long overdue. Get away from everything and
relax. Clear your mind. Recharge yourself.
Posted by: paul logins | Sunday, 27 June 2010 at 11:15 PM
Like Dennis I too understood that the Disney licensing and copyright cops were rather zealous.
Maybe you'll get Paul's vacation: there must be a lockup somewhere in one of those Disneylands?
Good luck - Ross
Posted by: Ross Chambers | Monday, 28 June 2010 at 03:04 AM
The great online cartoonist, John Allison (http://www.scarygoround.com/), once switched from drawing his characters with four total fingers to drawing them with five. He was crushed when, apparently, no one noticed the change.
Posted by: Nick | Monday, 28 June 2010 at 09:37 AM
Great, you told mike to go on vacation and now he's gone! I need my fix!
Dilberts hands do look kinda "unnatural" though...
Posted by: russel | Tuesday, 29 June 2010 at 11:22 AM
Tintin has 5 fingers, 4 plus thumb. Almost all 'real people' in cartoon form have 5 fingers.
Posted by: Ilkka | Wednesday, 30 June 2010 at 11:09 PM
Not that Mike's really in a position to fight Disney's (or perhaps even Scott Adams') lawyers if they take against this, but if it was fought through by equally good lawyers on both sides, it's very likely that this would be judged "fair use". He's showing the image for the clear purpose of illustrating a critical comparison (of fingers).
The law says "Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 17 U.S.C. § 106 and 17 U.S.C. § 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work...for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright."
This would appear to fall into "scholarship, or research", as well as "criticism" and "comment".
Posted by: David Dyer-Bennet | Thursday, 01 July 2010 at 09:12 AM