On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Ziggy‘s first dated panel GoComics interviews Tom Wilson, Jr., the son and successor of creator Tom Wilson.
I remember Dad saying how, when he was a kid, he loved watching Laurel & Hardy films.
He said his favorite instances in those films were when Laurel would do something dumb … and Hardy would deliberately turn his head directly
toward the audience, while rolling his eyes or grimacing or something … as if to wordlessly say: “Can you folks out there believe this guy?”Dad said that connection gave those characters a direct and personal relationship with their audience. It let the viewer know that the characters were just as aware of their audience as their audience was aware of them. Ziggy, he told me, was designed with that in mind; to be a direct communicator with an audience he knew was right there with him.
This week’s Ziggy panels are celebrating the 50 years.
