Schadenfreude? [Posted by E&C on 21 Aug 2010 09:23 am]

Quick fun fact, there are actually supposed to be seven micro-expressions: disgust, anger, fear, sadness, happiness, surprise, and contempt.

Today's guest artist is Ger "Calm Amidst Calamity" Hankey, author of Short Sharp Shocks. To see more of this Short Sharp Shocks author's work, check out his blog or his deviantArt page--both of which have more information and images about Short Sharp Shocks--which, if you can't tell, I enjoy saying. Short Sharp Shocks. Short Sharp Shocks. All right, onto something else.

When I first tried to write a strip inspired by to Lie To Me--a show that I love--it was our diaphanous duo throwing back beers, talking about how there's nothing original on TV, a point proven by the similarities between Lie to Me and Castle--another show that I love. Both depict middle-aged men who use their special skills to help the cops solve crime while navigating sexual tensions with a co-worker and raising a teenage daughter. In the script, E & C admit that despite their similarities, or perhaps because of them, they love both shows. Fuck originality. As they toss their empty bottles into a bin behind them and open another, they raise their glasses and cheers, "Here's to recycling!"

Yeah, so the script never went much of anywhere because it would have been twelve to eighteen panels, wordy as hell, and not particularly funny. Instead, you get this gem. If you're a fan of Lie to Me--and really, how could you not be?--there's some cool information on micro-expressions. I first got into them in Malcolm Gladwell's book Blink; Radiolab did an episode involving them called Deceptions; and then there's the website of a guy at the forefront of microexpressions, Paul Ekeman. Yeah.

Here's to recycling,
C