As should be obvious by now for my regular readers, I have issues with the use of Copy-and-Paste art. There are exceptions to this aversion; for instance, I don’t mind the use of CaP when it’s used for backgrounds (as it helps backgrounds remain consistent from panel to panel, a problem that a number of cartoonists struggle with). But when it comes to the cast of a comic, I feel the readers deserve for the characters to be drawn (or even redrawn) fresh for each panel. The exceptions (such as a character being “frozen in shock” or the like) are occasionally acceptable, but even these should be disguised in some manner.

Normally, Punch an’ Pie does an effective job of hiding its use of CaP. Aeire and Chris Daily often make use of close-ups and camera-pans to help diminish the repetitiveness of CaP (though I’m often able to detect this when I look for it). And often these little differences help significantly in breathing life and motion into the comic. Unfortunately, PnP’s latest use of copy-and-paste falls flat for me, and that’s with the introduction of an “imaginary wiser floating Angela” who chides Heather about her being “bored and kinda unhappy” with her jobs, saying that the one thing they had in common was Heather herself. The message works. Where it fails is in the obvious use of CaP (along with more subtle uses; note the close-up of panel 2 and its thicker lines, almost a straight pasting of the first panel with the exception of imaginary Angela).

The transparency effect for Angela works nicely. She is an aspect of Heather’s thought-processes, a figment of her imagination. And it’s amusing (if a tad creepy) for her to be floating sideways or even upside down in the comic. Unfortunately, where it falls apart is Angela’s hair, which remains straight and unmoving as if she had used enough hair gel on her head to freeze Niagra Falls in its place. It takes what is a powerful scene in its own right into something distracting, like a blow-up Angela doll filled with helium that’s bobbing along the ceiling. The static nature of imaginary Angela sucks the life right out of the scene, which promised us a glimpse into Heather’s past for once (as we’ve seen plenty of Angela’s past, but almost nothing of Heather’s). This is the problem with CaP; its static nature diminishes the energy of a strip, and removes any semblence of life to the characters; even imaginary ones.