Lesson 11

this is a recurring gag for heathcliff. the bib with the name of his next meal on it. I've spoken about it before on this very blog: bad news, Dan.

thankfully, today, the situation is not nearly so dire. these birds can freely fly away since they are not literally biologically constrained to the body of water in the panel. though it does fascinate me that both of these comics involve a distinct bowl of water.

I have a hunch, as of yet unconfirmed until I consult The Archives, that Heathcliff wears a bib for his live prey. it carries with it the concept that this was custom-made, embroidered perhaps? but this is a piece of fabric that Heathcliff had to specifically create or obtain in order to have the name of his next meal on it. there was time spent on this, cats stalk their prey and here he is learning the first name of his target and having it affixed to fabric.

it also makes me think of an old turn of phrase, the way someone might say "here comes trouble with your name on it," when they feel their friend has some social situation approaching. like if an ex walks into the bar where you were drinking. "here comes trouble, greg, and it's got your name on it."

I just had another little bit of inspiration actually, as I was typing this all out, on why sometimes Heathcliff is doing this with a bib. he's perfectly fine putting garbage or ham or meat or beef or gravy on his helmet when he's about to eat those things but if he just put Greg on a helmet, that doesn't mean he's going to eat Greg. the helmet can be used to convey friendship as well as animosity and hunger and loyalty. the bib is an explicit indicator that this is food related, that he is preparing for a meal. the name is establishing the association with a character on the page

Gallagher's Past Explorations of the Bibs:

the bib rabbit hole goes deeper than I thought.

Heathcliff does in fact have bibs custom made. and if he's not getting them handled professionally, he is customizing them himself. this is one of his most serial killerish tendencies, to psychologically torment his prey with their own image on his mealtime garb. imagine watching your murderer paint a picture of you and there's nothing you can do about it.

and the suspicion is mostly correct, over 90% of his bibs are for live prey. they seem to be a visual substitute for the behaviors you can observe in a cat that is hunting for food. rather than reading the signs of where the cat is looking and how it is preparing to leap and the body posture of a stealthy feline, you get the visual shorthand of a bib indicating the target.

like this right here. it really is worth a thousand words, otherwise you would have to describe how Heathcliff is moving, where his attention is focused, how he's responding to sounds and stimuli, the ways that he is ignoring other prey and locking in tunnel vision on the bird, all that kind of stuff.

all of these bib comics have a sense of unease about them. there's something insidious about the nature of his hunger and his behavior in these.

and that feeling of unease can get pretty intense as you can see from the following:

he's not actively watching or approaching the brofish but they are all aware of his intent. they know that he is using their word as a threat. of course the prey is restless when the predator walks through. they know what he wants.

and it's true that the bib is worse than his bite. it's one thing to have a cat kill and eat you but an entirely separate thing to have the cat dig into your fears and twist them against you. it's a form of torture.

to make it relatable to us humans, imagine if the man-eating giant was a walking by your house and he had a bib on with your face..