Flip-Flopping on the Issues

Glance at the image at right for a second. Notice anything unusual about it?

If you said Daria's hair looks odd, you win an Internet cookie. The image is one of many on the Internet and in other media that has been "flopped," as we used to call it in the magazine business. It's been flipped over, left to right, so Daria's front bangs swing down to her left, not to her right. Andrea looks odd for the same reason.

If you pick up your copy of The Daria Diaries and look at the back cover, you'll notice (eventually) that the bottom image of Brittany, Jodie, Jane, and Daria has been flopped, too. In The Daria Database, the family portrait of the Griffins, standing on their home's staircase, has also been flopped. You can tell because the same area in its correct orientation appears in the episode "Gifted," when Quinn is over at Sandi's house.

Similar pictures have surfaced on various websites. There is an otherwise nice wallpaper for Daria on Absolute Daria Files that has been flopped so several people look a little strange.

Flopping isn't bad in itself. In fact, it's a neat way to generate more eye-catching images that look slightly familiar but still unique. I've used flopped images in this blog when the difference between the proper orientation and the flopped one was nonexistent. This image of Sandi, for example, was flopped, and I flopped an alter ego of Jake on March 1st for comic effect.

Irfanview allows you to flop images very nicely, better I think than Paint, and if you happen to like toying with images then you can give flopping a try. You can't do it with anyone whose hair style is asymmetrical, like Daria or Jane, unless the hair style has been changed (e.g., pulled back in a ponytail).

Just a random note to start off a Saturday. It's not like I'm going to watch basketball all day or anything. Seriously.