Diogee & Caveman: Together Again!

So I never got around to writing that mid-week blog about the Disney attraction that really struck a chord with me and brought me right back to childhood, and I’m sorry about that. I’m going to try to bang that out for you for the upcoming week.

Now that the boys have reunited with Robot and he’s back to normal proportions, we thought it would be fun to turn the spotlight back onto our favorite comedic duo, Caveman and Diogee. We haven’t seen these guys in a long time and I think we (and you readers) definitely needed a change of pace after that long storyarc. Having characters like Caveman and Diogee to play around with is a nice option after a long Ben and Devin run, but writing strips for these two is really tough. Marc and I toiled over seven or eight different Diogee & Caveman concepts during our meeting this past week and the final verdict was still up in the air when I left! Ben, Devin, and Robot have a theme of game-playing, imagination, space exploration, and a plethora of established childhood activities to draw upon for strip material, but when it comes to writing stuff for an un-frozen Neanderthal and a loveable, intelligent mutt to do, it’s tough stuff, believe me.

One of the challenges in writing Diogee and Caveman strips is keeping their unique relationship consistent. Though Caveman has only been around for a short while, we’ve established a sort of reverse “pet/master” dynamic with Diogee and Caveman where Diogee is the master and Caveman is his “pet”. This all seems to stem from Diogee’s lack of a traditional dog/master relationship with Ben. As I explained in Diogee’s character bio, he longs to do more “normal” things with Ben, like play fetch or catch a frisbee or go for walks, but more often than not, Ben puts him in non-traditional roles such as crew member on space adventures. So, when Caveman showed up in the backyard, and displayed a distinct lack of intelligence, submissive behavior, and a willingness to “play” , Diogee immediately saw a way to transfer some of what was lacking with his relationship with Ben over to Caveman and develop it into this new, funny dynamic.

This week we return to that dynamic and we get to see more of that trademark Diogee cleverness as he uses his “pet” Caveman to help him get some service at the “Carr & Vore” butcher shop (*chuckle chuckle*). Incidentally, this strip marks the first time that a Boxcar Astronaut comic has left the friendly confines of the backyard/house area. We’ve seen the backyard of course, the inside of Ben’s house, and the front yard/street, but we’ve never seen any other part of the neighborhood until now, which I think is pretty neat.

Boxcar #61 is an absolutely beautiful looking strip (a fact that is made even more astonishing given the enormous time crunch this one was under), with one of the funniest visual gags that we have ever had in that final panel. There’s just so many little things to love about this comic that it’s hard to even find a place to start. Diogee’s look of pure doggie desire and happiness in the first panel is terrific, as are all the tiny details Marc crammed into that tantalizing butcher shop. Diogee is so bummed out in that second panel and I love that stocky butcher! I want to see what he looks like, don’t you? (The broom gag is classic slapstick stuff). Then we see that Diogee wit going to work in the third panel and ol’ Cavie is more than happy to contribute to whatever his “master” and best friend has in store. And finally, the coup de gras, the old “ride on the shoulders to look taller and older” gag, one of the most classic and hilarious visual gags in the history of comics/cartoons. I was rolling in laughter when I saw Diogee’s smirking face under a fedora and Cavie’s stubbly stick legs peeking out under the trenchcoat! (One has to wonder, where did they get that trenchcoat, anyway?).

This was a truly funny and refreshing change of pace after the long “Where’s Robot” story. We hope you got a big kick out of it. See you soon! Oh, and to all the Moms out there, Happy Mother’s Day!