• The Picard Maneuver@lemmy.worldOPM
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    7 days ago

    Well I didn’t expect to actually find an answer, but apparently the artist regularly includes little objects like that in his comics. The number next to his signature is supposed to indicate how many there are to find.

    For example, here’s another one with the pie in it, with a number “1” indicating it’s the only one.

    • IninewCrow@lemmy.ca
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      7 days ago

      I think it’s partly marketing … very clever marketing and brain hooks … I just went to the comic website and looked at a few comics and yes most of them show that number and the cleverly hidden objects. But some of the comics don’t have the same number of hidden objects (eg: some list 5 but you can only find 4) … unless I’m doing it wrong and I just can’t see it.

      If the artist did purposefully list 5 things but only show 4 … it would drive viewers mad trying to find something that isn’t there. It would also become a very memorable comic because it would bug people so much they would keep going back to it again and again.

      It’s like that old college/high school prank people used to pass around years ago … you release three big fat dirty pigs into a school and let them run wild. You spray paint each pig with a number … 1, 2 and 4. Chances are authorities or school workers will find the three pigs but they’ll take a bit of extra time looking for Pig #3 before realizing it didn’t exist.