A Big Softie

So, maybe I'm going soft. Or maybe the current storyline is intriguing enough that it overcomes other weaknesses.

Today's strip (Meaning) does bring up one issue for me though -- again pretty minor -- the 3-4 panel format is making each moment feel melodramatic, instead of just dramatic.

Today's final panel ("To give it meaning.") right after yesterday's ("I'll go now, just don't hurt Brent.") makes me wish the two strips had been combined. This would be lessened, I think, by reading them all in one go, which makes me wonder how much Scott thinks about the books when he prepares strips for the web.

The web, in combination with the 3-4-5 panel format, is great for the gag-a-day stuff, or jokey story lines, but I think the more dramatic stuff suffers a little with each strip being 24 hours removed from the context of the previous strip. The double strips work better for the serious stuff, but I'm sure they're double the work.

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BTW, a humorous note: Kurtz blogged yesterday that they will be going into a second printing of the book. I bought it a few weeks ago and read it on and off; I figured I might as well give him something in return for giving him all this grief. :)

He mentions that they will be fixing some "unfortunate typos" -- as it happens I was reading it last night and came across what must be the most humorous typo, the Unshark Mask.

Open Thread: Insolent Fool

My only comment on Insolent Fool is that the second panel is robbed of any tension we should be feeling thanks to the silhouette technique. We can't see enough of Brent to feel the danger he should be in.

Out of Breath?

So, commenters are rebutting my interpretation of Brent's line in my previous post.

I still posit that the pause after "with" makes no sense, and that my way is better, even if Brent is out of breath.

I proffer a challenge:

Send me a recording of your interpretation, your reading of the line, and I will put it online next to my own. We will call it CADENCE FIGHT!

Well, maybe not, but it might be fun. (Maybe we can get Scott to send us his version, so we can see where the original thinking was...)

Send your mp3s to fakescottmccloud at gmail dot com.

Off My Game

Strips are showing up regularly, and it's throwing me off.

Strips are looking good and it's throwing me off.

Unexpected wrinkles keep showing up in the current story (Mistaken), and it's throwing me off.

Kurtz seems to have been working on this storyline for a while, and it is entirely in its favor. Not much to criticize lately.

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My one nitpicking, hair-splitting attempt at a complaint would be that Brent's line in the third panel has an odd cadence that makes it read unnaturally:



Read it out loud:

"Skull (pause) is staying with (pause) US!"

The point of the pauses is to scale up the emotional intensity, by introducing an almost musical rhythm to speech. Including "with" in the second phrase ruins that rhythm.

This is a pretty standard line, and I think anyone saying this line out loud would read it thusly:

"Skull (pause) is staying (pause) with US!"

Or even:

"Skull (pause) is staying (pause) with (pause) US!"

... where "with" is given some extra oomph, leading to even more oomph given to "US!"

Like I said, I'm splitting hairs, but it bugged me.

Good story, good art.

PVP is not making me sad right now. I feel like we're rushing through the current storyline and missing some exciting (and possibly melodramatic) opportunities, but whatever. Today's strip is great (The Greater Good), as was yesterday's (Stay).

I really like Brent here:



Those anger lines add an element of dynamism we rarely get to see in PVP. We saw a bit of that in Stay as well:



If this is a side-effect of the Cintiq, I'd say things are looking up.

Sensitivity, thy name is Brent

The latest strip (Failure To Communicate) does nothing for me. That is to say, I was caught up in Skull's predicament until the punchline, which let me right go again.

What possible mis-comprehension could be going through Brent's mind so that he interprets Skull's line, "I mean I really have to go now. Forever." as a plea to go potty? Skull's well-drawn, Cintiq-supported fourth panel is totally un-ambiguous.

No one has to pee forever; Brent's line is pretty lame.

From left field...

... comes an unexpected story, one with potential to be interesting. (Case File MCMLXXI-XXI) It's going to be kind of the opposite of A Wonderful Life, where Skull gets to see how the world is better because of him, then has to leave it.

Or will he?

Of course he won't. He's the freaking franchise. So, as a mechanic for suspense it's a non-starter, but it will be interesting to see where it goes.

It looks promising, but in the spirit of pessimism I give it a...

-- 50% chance of George Baily-like reminiscences followed by a reprieve from the soft-hearted marble statue man (see -- the joke writes itself!)

-- 40% chance that Skull is initially excited to go home, but recants and spills the beans to the gang and they somehow find a way to foil the marble statue man before the reception is even over

-- 10% chance of Shecky showing up to bug the hell out of us.