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.

Who's slow? Me. (This guy.)

So, I liked today's strip (Motorin') until I got to the punchline, which I had to Google to understand.

Of course, when you feel stupid, you want to blame the thing that made you feel stupid, but I have to hold off until someone (anyone?) agrees with me that the "price for flight" line was overly obscure. Maybe it's not and I'm the poor sap that didn't get the pop culture reference.

I get it now, and am familiar with the tune in question, but 80s lyrics are always the first things to go I guess.

More Productivity + Fewer Strips = Good Thing

Scott has put up a blog post (Moving Forward) laying out his plans for the immediate future, which include dropping weekend strips (yay), getting caught up and building a buffer of strips (yay!), and learning to use his new Cintiq tablet, which he thinks might give him the ability to start using color/greyscale more often (yay!yay!).

These are all good plans, but I would add one more: Communicate more.

Achewood has been updating less frequently of late, thanks to other projects, but Chris Onstad is good about leaving a note on his site telling us when the strip will be updated. Kurtz' occasional blogs posts are nice, but if he provided just a bit more insight into his schedule, folks who are bummed by late posts might be mollified.

Perhaps SK already does this via his Twitter feed (if he doesn't he ought to), but I don't follow it, and I assume many others don't as well. He could kill two birds with one stone by displaying his latest tweets on PVP's home page.

The Goggles... They Actually Work

Brent is now blind! (Loveblind) Finally, a major character with a major disability!

(I'm just keeeedinggg...)

Quick minor thoughts on the strip:

-- It's not hilarious, but it feels worthwhile.

-- I wish he hadn't gone to the silhouette in the third panel. It doesn't add anything and (whatever we think of the dress) we lose an excellently rendered panel of the new couple.

-- I like Brent without his glasses on.

Open Thread: Wedding Snark

The snark'll be in in the comments, not from me, if the two dozen comments from this weekend are any indication. :)

These last few strips are important to the canon, and I really have nothing to say about them. A lot of work obviously went into them, and while there are things I personally don't care for, they are all aesthetic choices rather than substantive ones, so I'll just keep my mouth shut.

It's impressive stuff though; I think each moment pays off well.

Open Thread: The Calm

So, it continues.

I hope a storm is coming.

Who gets married on a Thursday?

Just kidding. It did sneak up on me though, I had no idea we were right on top of it. This is where a real bachelor party strip would have helped me out -- "Tomorrow's the day man..."

The strip is cloyingly sweet, but I can't fault that. This wedding is not going to be played for gags.

(Totally off topic: I can't look at the title of today's strip without thinking of a particular feminine hygiene product. Damn you Madison Avenue!)