Magic, Inc

*Yawn* is pretty much all I have to say about today's strip. 

Well, that and the fact that it doesn't make sense that our Ersatz Zeus is still inhabiting Robbie's statue for some reason.

And the shadowing of the two fingers in the last panel is unnecessary and just odd.

While it's nice to have an actual story-arc again, I think Kurtz might be out of practice on the pacing of these things. I feel like there's a whole lot of potential that was left on the cutting room floor and we got some executively meddled version of what should have been an entertaining story.

The Keymaster

I wish I had more to say about today's strip, but instead I'm just making a rolling hand gesture, silently urging this story to get a move on. 

Again, I'd like to see the camera pulled back a bit. It looks like they've gone outside to an alleyway behind the bar so Shecky can give him the key in secret, but that isn't something that the reader should need to pause and think about. It should be obvious and it took me a second to process the brickwork in the background.

Maybe it's just me, but does anyone else think the key shape is different in panels 2 and 3? The head looks more elongated when Shecky's holding it and there's an extra tooth when Scratch holds it.

So now Scratch has a key to Arcadia (or whatever you want to call the land of mystic creatures). This should be interesting. Hell, this should be something Shecky gives to the rest of the cast so they can get their friend back like Cole promised they would.

I can only assume tomorrow's strip will be an over the shoulder shot of Scratch looking through a door into magic land. Maybe if we're lucky, he'll stay there.

Just so you know, Mr. Kurtz is now playing us like violins, and there's no way to prove otherwise.

Even if I revealed my identity (which no one would care about anyway) there's no way to prove that I'm Fake Scott McCloud, and that Fake Scott McCloud is not Scott Kurtz, and that I'm not just some buddy of SK's who's pretending to be Fake Scott McCloud.

That was true before, but now that SK is messing with us, it would be even harder to convince people. It's a master stoke, and if I cared I would be devastated. As it is, it's just really funny.

Fortunately, even if you do think I'm Kurtz, it takes nothing away from the site, or from the people who actually enjoy commenting about PVP. Our discussions here will continue regardless. In fact, I would venture to guess that a lot of those people would think better of SK for creating a space where people could slag him all day if they wanted, instead of just shutting them down like he sometimes does on his official forum.

Unfortunately for SK, it also means that SK will be pestered until the end of his days to admit that he is me. Which he can't, because he has no way to prove he is me, just as I can't prove that I'm not him.

Which I'm not. :D

Candle in the dark

Ok, several things to nitpick here today so let's get started.

The raygun: Looks pretty terrible with that mini-cymbal for a muzzle. I don't know how it fit into Scratch's holster earlier.

Panel 3: What Shecky's saying isn't especially dramatic, so the silhouettes are unnecessary and feel out of place in the middle of the strip. 

Panel 4: Giant forearms of doom! 

Panel 6: I guess it is a magical bar. Would be nice if we could actually see some background characters (or a background for that matter) that drove that point home.

Panel 8: The goggles, they do nothing! (for me). 

I actually chuckled at the giant poofing out of existence. I think if Kurtz erased the barrier between the last two panels and got rid of Scratch's "kick in the nuts" line, we'd actually have a decent punchline. 

One for the road

Much like Michael Bay, Scott Kurtz seems to have some trouble with the concept of a 'wide shot' here. It feels like the camera is in the character's face and it bugs me.

Holiday plans? Was Shecky planning on hanging around the bar until thanksgiving? Granted, he probably means vacation when he says holiday, much like the Brits are given to saying. (to the best of my knowledge anyway. If any Brits are reading this and this saying is out of date, my apologies.)

That ray gun thing is either very short or it's *deep* in Shecky's nostril. 's'all I'm saying.

Not much to say about the art here..the lack of any kind of background is starting to grate on me though. And since the ray gun up his nose thing clearly surprised Shecky enough to both knock his hat off and make him drop his drink, I think it deserve some kind of sound effect. "Poink", maybe.

Counterpoint

I liked today's strip, despite my strong inclination to hate it because of the re-appearance of Shecky. The punch, while perhaps unwarranted, is a strong way to introduce the relationship that will hopefully continue throughout the story -- that is to say, Shecky is about the be Scratch's bitch for a while.

I can live with that. (I dread, however, that they will come to some agreement and it will be Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy all over again.)

As for nits, there are some to be picked:

I could have done without Shecky's "Get it?" in the second panel. All it does is drag out the "fragment of overheard joke" trope from the first panel.

I'd also love to have seen a different approach to the last panel. There are a lot of extraneous lines that are confusing the issue -- we could have done without the texture lines on Scratch's belt/holster, and we don't really need more than one well-placed star-and-line around Shecky's head. We certainly didn't need what I'm guessing is the remnants of Shecky's bar stool in the lower right corner.

I disagree with others on the issue of context -- It think it's safe to assume that Scratch knows of Schecky, even if they've never been in-strip together before. The sucker punch is quite in character, I don't feel bad for Shecky at all -- seeing as I hate his guts.

Punch O' Clock

Oh boy...Shecky. Well, I guess he's necessary for this plot. Let's hope his visit is a short one.

So, Shecky is sort of a hobbit sized Troll, probably a little taller then Scratch. Presuming that whatever bar he's at is normal sized, shouldn't Scratch have trouble tapping him on the shoulder? Either there should be an arm extending from the bottom of panel three to tap "up", or there should be a speech bubble coming from below, with Scratch getting Shecky's attention.

How does Scratch know Shecky's full name anyway? Have these two even met before? How the hell did Scratch track Shecky down? And what's the barman's reaction to a midget Troll getting decked by an upright walking, talking cat with goggles and a ray gun?

Edit: I'm mostly being facetious with that last sentence.