Tuesday, May 13, 2008

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.

25 comments:

Mike said...

*forever* is written in smaller typeface, which to me implies Skull said it very sadly and more importantly, softly, almost to himself.

I don't think Brent heard that part.

I thought it was great.

Unknown said...

I dunno. I can envision a small child telling me that they have to pee so bad, they could pee "forever."

And is Skull's mentality anything other than childish in Brent's eyes?

Anonymous said...

I can see uberstein's point. Especially if Brent isn't really listening (shocker).

But, the joke probably would have been better in the middle of the strip as a lead-in to something else.

Anonymous said...

Chase's interpretation was what immediately occurred to me, and I found this strip absolutely hilarious. Honestly, if this entire storyline was planned around that joke, Kurtz has done well.

Plus from a storytelling perspective, it works well to have a strip of Brent still not taking anything Skull says seriously before the truth hits him in the next strip.

Anonymous said...

. . .which was why it was so funny. To me it is Brent's deadpan, obvious misreading of Skull's words that made me chuckle out loud. I can see it: "Brent I really have to go . . . . forever! (with "forever" spoken in a hushed, ominous tone.)" Brent's only real response that he could ever really give to that would be to simply treat it as Skull saying something childish yet again, hyperbolizing the sheer amount he must pee.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, but it's not the latest strip:

http://www.pvponline.com/2008/05/13/goodbye/

Brett Schiller (Sage) said...

I, like Uber, thought that Skull was saying "forever" more to himself, and Brent's response, which did make me chuckle.

TFSM, i can see where your reading of it comes in, as I can't think of a way to do an aside in the comic which wouldn't look ridiculous (again thats why Im not a comic artist).

One point I do have to make is again where you dispute Brent's interpretation. I can see where Brent wouldn't think that Skull wasn't saying goodbye to him. He's been around him for years and totally loyal to him. Then out of the clear blue sky he says "I have to go (even if he heard) forever" I would take it as hahaha very funny, keep drinking

Brett Schiller (Sage) said...

Time issues-

I don't know if anyone read the post today, but Scott addressed something near and dear to a lot of people hear, his lack of timeliness with his strips.

The one thing I will give Scott credit for is that he admits that he has a problem (AA folks would be proud). However, it sucks that it got to the point where his dad had to rip him a new cornhole about his tardiness.

The thing is I didn't care all too much and voiced that here on the forums defending him a little bit (no RW im still not an apoligist) as he did have a lot. However, if you are going to move to LESS strips, which is well within his rights to do what he thinks should be done, then you have no more excuses to be late (outside of the obvious, im not saying we should get a strip if a server is down or a family member is dying.

I fully admit to my own procrastination. When I am in my daily life I wait a lot to get things done. However, when it comes to my job, where what I do affects other people, I know I need to get my shit done.

The funny thing is I make this complaint because i do LIKE PVP, and I like it as much as PA (PA is better overall and great, for my tastes I like PVP as much) I check the website as part of my morning and afternoon internet checking along with DING! on Tues and thurs. Everytime there is not a strip you just get disappointed and thats not what you want if your webcomic is supposed to be your business.

Lastly, I found it odd that he wrote "And it hurts just as much to know that there are those out there gunning for me to fail. I am happy to disappoint the naysayers and I thank you in your efforts to help me thwart them." I hope he doesn't mean those of us that critique his work, as we are a much different breed than a PVP-hater.

I truely hope that he does do what he sets out to do a gets a month cushion. It'll suck now to get that far ahead, but one you have that Scott won't have to worry about freak "tornado-like" winds or a staph infection throwing off his schedule and hoping/soliciting for guests to write his strip.

For in scramblign my friend work tends to really suck.

Clint said...

I'll agree with uberstein, and that gets reinforced with today's strip.

Much as I also suspect a reverse wonderful life angle, I'm actually hoping he goes for a while. It'd be interesting to see if SK can write the strip without Skull in anything other than a "deafening silence" sort of way.

And as someone who is married, I can tell you Brent is dead wrong about one thing: It's not his wedding day. It's hers. The groom is just there to say I do.

Anonymous said...

After this latest "daddy issue" that Scott has made public, I'm a gonna have to state this for the record: I think Kurtz has some sort of weird father-issue thingy.

I mean, look at the whole "Rip Sienna" deal, where Brent's Dad is the hyper masculine demi-god, capable of pummeling pandas left and right, oozing with manly sexual magnetism (as evidenced by Miranda's ultra-slut routine), and an all around man's-man. There's a filial loyality, and then there's weird.

Combine that character with the numerous times Scott's dad apparently lays into his son, and I think you've got a recipe for unsettling soup, with a side of oddball bread.

I'm just sayin is all!

Anonymous said...

I see Scott took another swing at the 'looking at the audience' piƱata with this strip. A swing and a miss - it just doesn't work with Brent and his shades. I know he's probably looking at Skull but without seeing his eyes, he could just as well be staring out of the panel too. Both of them looking out would give the last frame a kind of old-school sitcom 'ba-dom-tish!' aspect that seems awkward.

Anonymous said...

Best way forward is probably for Skull to become Francis' case worker.

Please let Shecky not be involved.

Anonymous said...

I actually loved that one, because it was quite unexpected. Decent strip.

Anonymous said...

Brent was staring into empty space, not at the audience or Skull. He was stunned.

Anonymous said...

I think what annoys me most in this extremely predictable strip is that Skull says, "I'm leaving PVP forever." These characters exist outside of the office, right? Like at the wedding they're currently at? Skull was present during Brent's childhood, not just at the office. So why the emphasis on PVP? It sounds like he's talking to the readers, rather than a character. Otherwise, it kind of insinuates he won't be seen at the office any more, but he might be seen at the local laundrymat or gloryhole.

Anonymous said...

Except that for Skull, PVP is his home. So he's really saying "I'm leaving home forever".

Anonymous said...

I hope he really takes the ripping from his dad seriously. It's incredibly annoying to load the page at 8am one day, read the strip, do the same thing at 8am the next day, get confused because you missed something, then have to go back into the archives because Kurtz posted 2 strips in one day...

If you miss a day Scott, that's fine, but stop making me jump back and forth just cause you can't post on time...

Brett Schiller (Sage) said...

Credit where credit is due. Comic was up by 8:12 am EST when I checked it.

Anonymous said...

even more credit, it was actually up well before that, I brought up the site at around 2am EST, and there was a shiny new comic.

Anonymous said...

Even more credit, Scott's update schedule is ahead of the Fake SM.

Anonymous said...

YOU GUYS

the new strip for the 15th, where brent takes a golf club to the statue....

it totally made me cry.

this storyline is awesome.

Anonymous said...

Well, credit for today, yes. For yesterday? and the weeks before that? questionable at best...

Brett Schiller (Sage) said...

Well you gotta start somewhere, if you complain about it (like i did) you got to give credit.

Now keeping this up we'll see, notice I didn;t say this scedule problems were fixed.

Anonymous said...

Yes, props to Scott for managing to raise his game to 'the least you should expect'. It's only taken ten years and cutting the strip to a five-day week.

Anonymous said...

I miss jokes like this. I'm glad to see the character development and such that Scott's putting into his writing now, but these jokes what PvP is missing now that Scott has to pander to his every critic and forget what made his comic funny in the first place.

Scott, if you see this, please take these guys with a grain of salt and bring back the funny... I have very little life and only webcomics to get me through my day, and yours was one of them. True, I've seen good advice up here, but I've seen bad too, and trying to make everyone happy will only make your fans miserable.

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