Selachian posted:

Edge of Teddy Bears



So our hero is nice to sick children. That was definitely worth spending another week to establish.

I'm starting to suspect that Jam Esallen lays out his plots like he's directing a movie or a TV show, not writing a comic strip. He doesn't seem to realize that something that might take only a few minutes to do in a movie can take weeks or months of comic strips to play out.

My Lovely Horse posted:

I'm starting to suspect he's an alien from a culture with no concept of storytelling, like the guys in Galaxy Quest.

What's going on with the art? I'm not gonna say it's better, but it sure is different. Like, the kid and the nurse are cartoony, but have features broadly in line with a real human face rather than a doughy approximation, and also everything was colored in with four colored pencils, all slightly differently brown.

Manuel Calavera posted:

Bizarro

Aardmania posted:

9 Chickweed Lane

Selachian posted:

Edge of Teddy Bears



So our hero is nice to sick children. That was definitely worth spending another week to establish.

I'm starting to suspect that Jam Esallen lays out his plots like he's directing a movie or a TV show, not writing a comic strip. He doesn't seem to realize that something that might take only a few minutes to do in a movie can take weeks or months of comic strips to play out. Why is he bothering to include the whole conversation with the sick kid who's got absolutely no relevance to the plot? You could do it in one panel: "Here you go, Bobby!" "Wow, thanks, Doc!"

Johnny Walker posted:

Everybody thinks the pirates' favorite letter is "R," but it's really the "C" that they love.

Darthemed posted:

Johnny Walker posted:

Mary Worth

EasyEW posted:

Thimble Theater (February 25, 1930)

csammis posted:

With Hil at summer camp I think the point being made was that she was masking the depth of the problem

edit: Okay, so what the hell is happening in Sally Forth? on Ces's blog

quote:

Francesco; You are an incredibly good looking man. You are talented, capricious in the good way, authentic, and downright hilarious. I wish you nothing but the best of success in all your endeavors.

You gently caress with Sally and Ted, however, and you’ll be sleeping with the fishes, got it, cartoon boy?*

*Note: In this context, “sleeping with the fishes” means falling asleep at approximately the same time your goldfish pets doze off. Like them, however, you will sleep restlessly, constantly worried one of the cats will attack and eat you. Your dreams, like theirs, will be filled with insane jealousy that the drat cats have a bestselling series and all they get is colored flakes.

Tread carefully, my friend. Very very carefully.

Reply

Calaveron posted:

Hahah dang, Sally Forth, that's something you find out in the first couple of months of relationship, not well over a decade into a marriage.

A HUNGRY MOUTH posted:

These recent plots aren't bad, they just feel abrupt and artificial, because they're a very sharp change in a well-established tone. We're going from a comic strip to "this ain't no comic strip!! Your beloved jokeman is a broken human being, how do you like that, jerks??"

SomeMathGuy posted:

Yeah, it feels like the strip's teetering close to a webcomic-esque descent into the dramatic for almost no reason - I know the justification is "well, but the characters would..." but it's like no, they wouldn't, because 1. we've established that they're all very flippant about this stuff and 2. as much as (some) authors like to pretend otherwise these characters really don't exist outside of their whims and it isn't exactly rocket science to figure out that a light-hearted strip shouldn't veer into hard drama nor is it a Herculean task to avoid it.

I guess I'm just sort of rephrasing your argument to say I agree with it, but man I hope Marciuliano's dedicated to that light tone philosophy he mentioned or he's in real danger of killing a good thing with bathos.

TofuDiva posted:

This. I think Everett is doubly mad because the guy has ordered hot chocolate. Cocoa and chocolate were among those items that folks were supposed to voluntarily forgo because it was such a morale-booster for the troops to receive them. Plus hot cocoa required both sugar and canned milk to make it. So he thinks the guy is being self-indulgent as well as greedy and putting himself before the troops.

The mindset was kind of like "Out of the goodness of your heart, even if you can find it, deny yourselves the tinned and dried stuff we can send to our boys on the line. Eat fresh fruits and veggies instead, we can't transport those to the troops because they'd spoil."

_{Yeah I had ancient WWI relatives who told me stuff like this (and who would not countenance wasting ANY morsel of food or drink).}

Selachian posted:

Edge of Teddy Bears

Endless Mike posted:

Catwoman!

RandomPauI posted:

Batman (1966) was fun.

Commissioner Gordon: It could be any one of them... But which one? Which ones?
Batman: Pretty *fishy* what happened to me on that ladder...
Commissioner Gordon: You mean where there's a fish there could be a Penguin?
Robin: But wait! It happened at sea... Sea. C for Catwoman!
Batman: Yet, an exploding shark *was* pulling my leg...
Commissioner Gordon: The Joker!
Chief O'Hara: All adds up to a sinister riddle... Riddle-R. Riddler!
Commissioner Gordon: A thought strikes me... So dreadful I scarcely dare give it utterance...
Batman: The four of them... Their forces combined...
Robin: Holy nightmare!

WickedHate posted:

This actually makes sense, from a Batman 66 perspective. Those villains do theme stuff all the time, and leaving all those clues is a sure sign the Riddler cooked it up to telegraph they were working together.

Darthemed posted:

Wanamingo posted:

Pluggers

Wanamingo posted:

Deep Dark Fears


I, too, worry that I'll die a peaceful death

csammis posted:

With Hil at summer camp I think the point being made was that she was masking the depth of the problem

edit: Okay, so what the hell is happening in Sally Forth? on Ces's blog

Ces posted:

When I started writing the summer’s storylines, this is not at all what I envisioned would happen. I had planned Sally and Ted to go on wacky adventures sans Hil. I had expected Hil to have a triumphant summer even sans Faye and Nora. And I had expected Faye and Nora to cement their friendship sans Hil.

A HUNGRY MOUTH posted:

It's like you go to see a vaudeville duo and in the middle of the act the straight man has a meltdown about how he never gets to make any jokes.


e: this is surely a hip & happening metaphor that all the kids who read the comics page will get! 23 skidoo

Julet Esqu posted:

The Amazing Spider-Man

kidcoelacanth posted:

My main gripe with Sally Forth is mostly just the zany fourth-wall mind reading stuff.

A HUNGRY MOUTH posted:

The thing is, those characters have been unrealistic for so long now that these recent plotlines dealing "realistically" with Ted and Hil's exaggerated personalities have become, paradoxically, unrealistic. If their flaws are "real," and not just quirks to serve as nucleation sites for joke formation, then there is no reason that those flaws should only now have consequences.

These recent plots aren't bad, they just feel abrupt and artificial, because they're a very sharp change in a well-established tone. We're going from a comic strip to "this ain't no comic strip!! Your beloved jokeman is a broken human being, how do you like that, jerks??"

Julet Esqu posted:

Sally Forth

Calaveron posted:

Yeah, it was a pretty amazing joke the first time it appeared but all of a sudden it's a legit thing that happens constantly and other people are also getting in on it and it just sucks so bad

Julet Esqu posted:

Luann

quote:

The Amazing Spider-Man

Julet Esqu posted:

The Amazing Spider-Man

Darthemed posted:

Wanamingo posted:

Nancy