Rejected Joke #2

Prelim sketch for a four-panel gag strip that I didn't pursue any further. I must have been aiming this at MAD, because it isn't laid out along the lines of a Fun Strip -- it's a full four panels rather than three panels and an opening title panel.. Sometimes the Fun template doesn't work for a joke, I can either condense it or expand it. These days if it doesn't fit in a Fun template I sit on it, because I haven't been able to do one-pagers. Anyway, this isn't awful, but it seems flat, it doesn't move me for some reason I can't put my finger on. Possibly, I rejected it as a four-panel gag because of the amount of text. Or I just got bored with it and filed it. I never sent it out to MAD, I'm pretty sure of that. I could see working it up someday if I needed to fill some space. It's passable, maybe. I always thought it was weird that Rudolph only got accepted by the others when he was of some use. It's a weird message.

If I work this one up it wouldn't be the first time I did a Rankin-Bass Rudolph bit. I forget where this Misfit Toys strip originally ran in. Getting old!

(As a kid, I wanted the Spotted Elephant so bad, I was absolutely obsessed with the Rudoplh special, especially the Island of Misfit Toys. I have the plush they made of the Elephant a ways back -- I might actually have two of them stored away. I couldn't help myself. We also have a tree ornament of him. We bought practically all of the figures and plushes when the license was getting a huge push through a CVS's plush line and whichever company originally had the toy license. Went a bit mental over the stuff, it all definitely hit a childhood nostalgia nerve, right in the brain and straight out the wallet. King Moonracer? Yes, please. I try not to think of all the money I spent on collectibles in the day. It was fun while it lasted)