The Standard: Ending Not

I figured the next post of this series would be about the "end" of Sluggy Freelance.  HA!

To be clear, I am not surprised by this.  For one, it was always been clear that Sluggy 20+ would be "different" but not "over."  Secondly, there was no way Pete Abrams was EVER going to finish the mainline Sluggy story in the short time frame he had given himself.

Most of it comes from his own issues with keeping the updates rolling.  This ever present problem has kept the comic from really hitting any kind of stride and various failures (like Oceans Unmoving) can be traced back to it.  Once he started missing updates in the last year or so, I knew it would never quite make it.  It is a shame he has never managed to make a buffer of any kind to help him sort out this issue, so perhaps the new direction of the comic might help in that respect.

It didn't help that a LOT needed to be tied up in such a short amount of time.  So much to cover from Oasis to Chen, vampires and Kusari, Sasha and dig bots and I'm barely covering a fraction of everything.  And even at this point I don't think he can "finish" the story in 2 years from NOW.  Just too much to cover too fast.

So backing off, kind of, was a given.  In doing so he's given himself some room to work.  First he switched the update schedule from 5 days a week to, um, two I think.  Strips are at least twice as big, if not bigger in some aspects and there's more room for growth.

It also gave him breathing room to go ahead and keep developing characters again.  Torg and Riff aren't quite on the same page, even if they are on the same side.  Oasis is still dealing with her stuff and Sasha, is apparently a series of clones?  And Kusari!  Weird.

So some of the secrets are revealed, but not all, and the final resolution of the story is still a long way away.  Which means no "it's over" post from me.

My promise thus remains, to be there when it ends.  After a 20 year run, the comic is likely going for a couple more, at least.  While I likely won't update regularly after this year, I will be back for that ending.  Well, assuming I remember how to log into this thing.

Until then I'll be waiting.  In the mean time, I have more to talk about.  Until next time kiddies.

The Standard: Vampires

Sluggy Freelance continues to call back to it's past with call back to the original Vampires story.

It's not the first time the well has been returned to, but I don't remember the other times very well.  Considering they were all Sam centered stories (as he is a vampire), that's not all that unsurprising.  The main one happened right before That Which Redeems, so that might be why I don't remember it well (over a decade ago, I might add).

But it actually reaches all the way back to that original story by tying up a loose end I don't think anyone remembered was a loose end.  That said, as soon as I saw it, I remembered the scene, so there's that.

The original Vampires storyline though is significant for Sluggy, as it was the first serious story of the comic, coming right at the beginning of the comic's second year.  I covered the first year in detail, so no point going over that, but I did reread the Vampires story.  It's a culmination event, surprisingly, as the various elements of the last year finally came together to drive the story forward, from Alyee's fear of Riff, to Val's sudden attraction to Torg.

That's not to say it is high quality, compared to early Sluggy it was something new and exciting.  There was a real sense of danger there at the time.  Torg and Zoe were in actual, factual danger throughout the story, and given the idea that the comic was supposed to have a revolving cast, maybe this was where Abrams was going to start the cull.  He didn't, in the end, perhaps this changed his mind.

It's not bad, I should say.  I enjoyed the silliness of it, but it isn't anything special.  Later stories would far exceed it, but it set a pattern of abilities and responses.  Alyee and Bun Bun would always be the muscle, Kiki would be distracted and poop, Riff would be reliable, but build something unreliable, etc, etc.  Sam continues to be kind of dumb, both on purpose and because, well, he is.  I think he got dumber after this, for comedic effect I assume.

Being the first also means it tried to wrap things up quickly.  Only took a couple of months really, after quite a bit of set up.  Still, it changed what "story" meant in Sluggy, and nothing was the same after that.  The path of modern Sluggy began with the end of the Vamipres story.

The fact that he's calling back to it now, 17 years later, shows how important it really is to the comic as a whole.  The end of the comic is still some time in the future, but now it's closer than ever.

Next time, I talk a bit about Schlock Mercenary.  Until then kiddies.

The Standard: The Bowelless One

So this week will basically wrap up Sluggy Freelance's Mohkadun story.  Oh, I'm sure there are some little things left (I am writing this Sunday, so I know there's some things going on this week).  How was it in the end?

EDIT:  And of course, because I wrote that. . .  My thoughts on that will follow the rest of the article.

Pretty damn good.  More than that, really.  Even El Santo from the Webcomic Overlook, and now Robot 6, enjoyed it, and he gave up on Sluggy back during (wait for it) Oceans Unmoving.  Surprising since Mohkadun shares a lot, and I do mean A LOT, with Oceans Unmoving.  The same basic set up (one member of the Sluggy main cast is sent to a place with a new group of people), lots of things needed to be explained, it lasted well over a year (it started March 2013) and of course Timeless Space itself is involved.  So why the difference?

Well it resolved the two key issues that plagued Oceans Unmoving:  It kept moving (hardly any delays in production) and the rest of the main Sluggy cast had something to do besides being off screen.  In fact, they were actively looking for Gwynn through their part of the story.  Both elements kept the main cast involved, didn't let the new group of characters take a dominate role, and kept the ball moving without feeling like a great weight had been tied to the story.  The result was a great story, one that easily fits in with the great Sluggy stories of the past.

That said, was it really necessary?  K'Z'K was effectively done at the end of the Bug, the Witch and the Robot, and that was back in 2001, more than 13 years ago.  Sure, there were elements of his cult still running around, but the Vowelless One was gone.  Readers barely remembered him, so much so that Abrams had to link back to specific moments in Sluggy's past (a feature that proved very handy, and won even El Santo's approval).

I will argue that a story LIKE Mohkadun was necessary, but not necessarily Mohkadun.  Sluggy needed a really good story to draw back people like El Santo who had dropped the comic so long ago, a story that reminded people that Abrams was fully capable of writing really good stories.  It needed the entire Sluggy main cast (Gwynn had been more an afterthought for most of bROKEN onward), it needed to be funny, and serious, and be part of the new direction for the comic:  Ending.

Crafting a story around K'Z'K, linking in all the origins of things like Torg's Sword, Timeless Space and that silly necklace fit nicely into that form.  It also made almost no references to the lull after Oceans Unmoving, so fans of the earlier comic who left wouldn't feel that left out.  While I don't think Mohkadun was necessary in and of itself, it was a resounding success.

Not that it wasn't predictable.  I guessed easily that Gwynn would lose her magic when the Bug was extracted from her, that the eggs that had been hidden in the temple would be a major part of K'Z'K's undoing (not as major as it turned out, but still), and, more importantly, that K'Z'K would last maybe a week (one Monday was resurrection, the next he was being sucked back into the book).  Being predictable is not a bad thing, especially in this case since I was right (yay me), because really the rest of the story was strong enough that it didn't hurt, and really the wrap up is more a formality than anything else.

Still, I did not see K'Z'K being renamed Poopy Pants the Destroyer, or the Bowelless One.  Nice ending to a silly villain (and pretty much removes him from the Presence thing I did a while ago, ah well).  But while Poopy Pants is now pretty much gone from Sluggy, it doesn't mean Sluggy is over, far from it.  There's still the matter of Oasis to attend to, and given that Abrams is looking to take a bit of a comedy break after Mohkadun, we've got a few years ahead of us.  I'm still betting on 4 more years, but we'll see.

EDIT:

And then Gwynn got shot.  She's fine, but I had to delay posting this article to see what was done with this event.  Thinking on it throughout the day, I had one thought:  He might have actually killed Gwynn.  I know I said he couldn't kill Zoe back at the end of 4UCity because it would cause a fan revolt, but Gwynn is actually fair game.  Her role in Sluggy has been seriously diminished over the years, pretty much since the Bug, the Witch and the Robot, and she's been more or less absent since bROKEN began until this story.  Killing her was actually possible, I gave it 1 in 3 odds.  Mostly because Pete is ready for "fun" stories rather than the more serious one that is Mohkadun, and a dead Gwynn would not lead to that.  Still, it was possible, so I had to see what was going to happen.  Now that I know, I can post this thing.

Next week, probably Touching Base.  Until then kiddies.

The Standard: Appendum

I'd like to interrupt our current article series with the previous article series.  Because I can.

So Sluggy Freelance did something I don't think it's done in years. It made a reference to Oceans Unmoving.

Two references, actually. The first was the appearance of Uncle Time, who was last seen sending Bun Bun to and back to the prime Sluggy timeline/universe/whatnot (no, that wasn't a grammar error, BTW, go read the story). It wasn't highlighted as a reference, something Abrams has gotten in the habit of doing as his comic is just a touch long if you hadn't noticed. Easy to forget Uncle Time was even in Oceans Unmoving, especially as he was just a floating head there.

Then this happened. A direct, and clear reference to Oceans Unmoving, one that fully tied this story back into the Sluggy canon. So after so long, why now? Well, I'm pretty sure Abrams didn't forget Oceans Unmoving happened, nor did he want to pretend it didn't happen. No, it did, it was important, and eventually it would have to come back.

The reason why now is simple though, back in May, he concluded that Sluggy had entered it's final act. The drawing together of the various storylines left hanging had to happen. References to past stories abound at this point. From the big ones like K'Z'K and why he's the vowelless to the even the Deus Ex Ovum, though not quite in the same form (wonder how many fans caught that one, I only just now realized it). Referencing Oceans Unmoving was bound to happen eventually. Tying it in as deeply as he's done, that wasn't expected.

While I said Abrams likely wouldn't have forgotten Oceans Unmoving, there does appear to be a trend to avoid it as much as possible. I suspect that the deceleration of the final act is what prompted him to stop avoiding it and start looking at how to use it.  Either that or he read my article about how it didn't actually suck, but that would be me stroking my own ego.

Way, WAY back, I divided my comics up into 4 categories, with Sluggy Freelance representing the “Adventure Comic” group. Of course, I also laid out that adventure comics can evolve into “Epic Comics,” and by finally bringing all these pieces together, I think Abrams is well on his way to converting Sluggy over. Oceans Unmoving, for all it's faults, is the perfect connector between the various storylines he has laid out, a kind of neutral ground that can give all this nonsense elbow room. I doubt, however, we'll see the pirates from Oceans Unmoving make an appearance. The story probably isn't of much use in the comic as a whole. It does, however, give Abrams room to possibly resurrect them outside of Sluggy Freelance, where they belong.

And it's not over. There's still various little storyline bits floating around that need to be linked up and merged into the larger story. Though one that I'm not exactly thrilled with is the term “Sluggy” being used as Bun Bun's original name. It does fit, but I don't think it does any good for it to exist in this way. It's not bad, just unnecessary.

We'll see how it goes, especially as the comic has, temporarily at least, switched to a M-W-F format (it's staying on my Daily list, BTW) to help Abrams handle the pressure from it, and from real life a bit better. The comic has certainly drawn me back in, and as long as he keeps us updated on the status, I'm fine with that. Oceans Unmoving's influence is still felt, as he probably would have pushed himself to keep updating, even if wasn't a wise move before it.

Next week, back to Going Critical. Later kiddies.

The Standard: Conclusion

So after 2 months and seven parts, we're at the end.  This ended up a lot longer than I thought.  In fact, it almost feels like an ultra deep review of Sluggy Freelance, but I guess that's a given.  The point of this was to explain why it's my standard.

Being a standard is an odd role for anything.  It's what I measure every comic by, and compare it to.  Is it as good as Sluggy?  Did it have the same mistakes or avoid them?  Will I remember it as well?  These questions aren't ever explicitly asked, but they do haunt around the back of my mind.

I hope that this series has shown the sheer breadth Sluggy Freelance has covered, both good and bad.  It's sheer age makes other comics quake in fear, but it also has seen itself toppled on more than one occasion.  Making comparisons to it is valid then, because there's always something to pick out.  Want to wipe out a bunch of extra characters?  Look to Kitten.  Want to sow the seeds of a long term mystery?  Anything with Oasis is valid.  Want to see how to completely derail a successful comic despite not being awful?  Oceans Unmoving ahoy.

And it's not bad, at all.  There is a post on the "Bad Webcomic Wiki" that asked if Sluggy should be included, and the agreement was no, it should not.  It's not bad.  Has it fallen back a step from where it was?  Sure, but maintaining such quality is hard in any medium.  But in stepping back from greatness it didn't drop straight into awfulness.  It's not Blade Kitten for god sake!

There is one thing, though, that Sluggy hasn't done, and something I can't yet compare it to other comics for yet.  It hasn't ended.  Yet.  When I started writing these, back in May, Abrams put up a news post where he basically admits that Sluggy is in it's third act.  Being Act Three generally means the last act of a play, and thus the end of Sluggy Freelance is on the horizon.  Which is another way of saying we've probably got about 5 years before we get there.

There have been times when I thought Sluggy should end, I suspect mostly during the lull period after Oceans Unmoving when the comic felt lost and without direction.  Admitting that the comic is in the last act feels liberating.  There won't be any more loose threads created now, just a lot of tying up.  We might even get answers finally to the questions of Oasis and maybe he might call back to Oceans Unmoving (one that might actually be satisfying).

Ending Sluggy would be a massive event, even as the comic's popularity has shrunk a bit.  It's one of the longest lived, actively updated comics on the internet.  It's slowly worked it's way into the culture, even crossing into other mediums.  Don't believe me?  Well, there's a book out there where a giant artillery piece is named "Bun Bun."  Yeah, this exists, and it was published.  It's memorable to the point that even people who have never read Sluggy Freelance KNOW about Sluggy.  They may not know details, but say a character name, and they know it's from Sluggy, or mention Oceans Unmoving and they know where it came from.

When it ends (not if any more, it's when) I will be there and I will be there to compare it to other comics ending.  Sluggy Freelance is my Standard for all webcomics, for good or ill, from beginning to end.  I should probably find some comics to add to the pile now, shouldn't I?

The Standard: Resurgence

In December 2008, the first part of the chapter bROKEN began with a large splash page the significance of which wouldn't be apparent for a while.  This is the beginning of the current storyline and where Sluggy Freelance came back to life.

I know many will argue against this case.  How is it any different than it was before?  Well, I remember it, for one.  The other is that Abrams once again began taking chances.  The previous 3 years had been kind of dry of significance and importance.  There was some information there, but mostly it was silly stories, and an attempt to keep the fans who hadn't left after Oceans Unmoving.  They were still leaving though, slowly trickling away.  Something had to be done, a chance had to be taken, and Abrams did it.

Did it work?  Well, it did for me.  Sluggy is often accused of "Cerberus Syndrome" which is a failing attempt to balance drama with comedy.  It's the prime example of the idea in fact, and the coiner of the term referenced Sluggy directly for it.  That said, I don't think it actually fails at it shifting between the two.  I always view it as the Dramatic Downshift, a term derived from a similar idea from Civilization 2, the Demorcratic Downshift.  The idea is that comedy can get a comic jump started and keep it going for a while, but to last, shifting down into drama is more lucrative and will keep the comic going longer.  After Oceans Unmoving, Abrams shifted completely out of drama and focused solely on comedy.  The result was 3 years of mediocrity.

bROKEN was shifting back into drama.  I think Sluggy always did drama better than comedy, but comedy was usually never forgotten.  The point of the comedy was to contrast with the drama and lighten the blow when necessary, but NEVER when it was unnecessary.  Lame Zoe's death in That Which Redeems was NOT countered by a pithy joke, for example.  Without the drama to counter it, the weakness of the comedy was quite apparent throughout the lull after Oceans Unmoving.

Shifting back to the more dramatic gave Abrams more options with his characters and stories.  Zoe's "death" proved an excellent call back to That Which Redeems, a vision in The Bug, the Witch and the Robot and Fire and Rain all in one shot, a moment of culmination that fans had been waiting for.  A much clear picture of who and what Oasis is was painted for the first time.  And Torg and Riff were physically separated and had to find new roles and solve their own respective mysteries.

Zoe's apparent death and her resurrection was derided, but it was set up (the pieces were provided) and it had to be done.  Balancing the desires of the fans with the demands of the critics is something that is quite difficult, and in the end, as I said in my analysis of the situation, Abrams likes to eat.  Could he have killed her off for good?  Yeah, but I doubt it would have lasted long in one form or another.  At least this way it made sense.

Riff finally got his story rather than being tied to anyone else.  There was a brief bit in Dangerous Days where he got some alone time and development, but his real story was here.  Torg got another chance to show his character growth by being trapped in denial over Zoe's death, and setting up subsequent chapters of the comic.  Minor characters like Sam and Sasha got much stronger roles under his leadership and the comic experienced a bit of a resurgence as Minion Master and 4UCity traded places.

The reunion of the cast began as those two stories ended, and still isn't over as Gwynn is still missing in action and the current story will likely resolve that.  The result is a complete, but slightly different main cast.  It's interesting that they really haven't been wholly united in a long time, and this might end up being the first major thing they've all done together.

I WANT to read Sluggy now.  I want to see where the stories are taking these characters, and how they're going to react.  Abrams isn't going through the motions here as he was before, but actively pushing forward.  There's less filler, more content.  The jokes are a bit snappier and balanced better against the drama then they have been in a long time.  It almost feels like he's having fun again with the comic.

Next week, I wrap this long study of one comic.

The Standard: The Lull

Oceans Unmoving was finished in March 2006, Sluggy Freelance wasn't even 9 years old by then.  So what happened in the last 7 years?  The next important story, and the one that started off the current sequence of events started in late 2008, 2009, about 4 years ago now.  So there's a bit of gap and I'll be honest, I don't remember much of it.  Any of it in fact.

I think Abrams knew he had messed up with Oceans Unmoving, and was determined to get back to "normal" Sluggy, but by then the damage had been done.  Keeping the fans that were left was going to be a struggle, so he cut the strip sizes back down to 4 panels, had the Saturday guest artist focus more on their version of old school Sluggy (Bikini Suicide Frisbee Days, harking back to first year Sluggy) and went to work on non-epic pieces.  It also meant taking fewer chances, doing more parodies and more silly jokes.  It didn't make the damage worse, at least, but those who had tuned out with Oceans Unmoving saw little reason to return.

What was there to return to?  Yeah, that's kind of hard for me to say because, well, I don't remember it.  Was this Sluggy's fault?  Not sure.  Shortly after Oceans Unmoving, I moved across country.  I also went from having a 56k modem, to broadband for the first time.  The number of comics I was reading EXPLODED as a result.  I added 120 comics to my list from 2006 to 2009, that's a LOT of comics and Sluggy wasn't standing out at the time.  So I don't remember much of it.  Or any of it up until bROKEN.

What IS in there then?  Let's see, Zoe gets a job at a radio show as wacky intern.  Gwynn works in a zombie themed restaurant, that actually staffs zombies.  Aylee has an entire chapter dedicated to her, where she's a dragon (I didn't even REMEMBER that).  There's a chapter dedicated to inner workings of Hereti-Corp.  There are also several parodies of Harry Potter, World of Warcraft and 24.  Nothing remarkable.  So unremarkable I'm not even going to bother to link to individual pieces.

What I do remember is that few of the stories were very dark or dramatic.  They were light, and meant to be fun or silly.  They also actually did have meaning later on.  Dr. Schlock takes over Hereti-Corp during this period, there are more details about Oasis that came out, and the Zombie Head On A Stick appears for the first time (okay, important is relative).  This is a very dry period however, and Sluggy became not just average, but below average.

This simply fueled the rampant denunciation of Sluggy by those who didn't think it was all that great to begin with.  It's was almost sport during this period to hate on Sluggy for being "not funny" or "poorly planned" or whatever.  If a new fan had come into Sluggy during this period, I doubt they would have stuck around to see more.

It's not that Sluggy was BAD during this period, it just didn't stand out any more.  At the beginning of this series, I made clear that there was nothing special about the comic and this three year period is why.  There are dozens of comics that were exactly the same as Sluggy at this time, and so one of the comics that started the webcomic revolution really wasn't doing anything special any more, except make money.

And that's all I really have to say about this period, next time I'll cover the current state of Sluggy Freelance.

The Standard: The Failure

Last time I talked the high points of Sluggy Freelance, and there are a lot of them.  Now though, we need to talk about the low point.  Not low "points," just one.  The lowest point, the point that nearly broke Sluggy Freelance forever.  Oceans Unmoving.

Failure is probably the best word to sum up Oceans Unmoving.  Followed up by boring and slow.  It's also the key reason why Sluggy remains the standard by which I measure all comics, because it shows how badly things can go wrong, and how even loyal fans can turn against something.  That said, it's not bad.  Hell, it's actually pretty good.  So why is it a failure?

There are a lot of reasons, but I think the first one is that of production, especially in Oceans Unmoving I, the first major part.  Even back before That Which Redeems, Abrams had dropped Saturday as an update day, handing it over to a guest artist.  Okay, that was tolerable, even a pretty good sometimes, but it also makes for a good sign post of weekly production, and it went way, way down during this period.  Filler and guest strips are exceedingly frequent during the full year that Oceans Unmoving dominated, a sign that there was issues either in the script writing, the comic drawing, or possibly personal issues that we, the audience, were not privy to.  Even as Oceans Unmoving II got underway, there was frequent inconsequential filler.  If Sluggy hadn't already had such a long history, I'd almost compare it to the more temperamental artists I've read, as it feels very similar.  I can't say if there were personal issues (there was a period where he had injured his hand, and there was also writers and artists block) as there was never any indication of such, but I wouldn't be surprised if SOMETHING was going on throughout the year.  If there wasn't, then good, glad to hear, but I doubt we'll find out any time soon.

Then there was the exposition problem.  Dr. Viennason's video series isn't a terrible concept, initially, and for the opening introduction to timeless space it worked well enough.  The joke, of course, is that it goes on entirely too long and is boring and technically a form of torture.  Which would be funnier if it wasn't completely true.  The first 3 strips that feature it work to give the basics, but every subsequent inclusion, especially near the end of OU2 is PAINFUL.  The problem here is simple editing.  Much of the later half of OU2 could be cut (especially the framing device) in order to produce a tighter work.  Editing has always been an issue for webcomics of every type, and usually Abrams can do it well enough, but here he had so much information to give out and he seems so stressed on production that the result is a painful coalition between bad framing and Viennason.

When it's tight though, it's damn good.  The first part of Oceans Unmoving II, Real Time, is really good.  I was quite impressed at how engaged I was in this part and how well it flowed.  The jokes were good, the pacing was fine, there was little or no exposition problems and it was just a fun ride.  Overall, the story of Oceans Unmoving is good, I like it.  The universe that Abrams creates for really is a wonderful playground and there could have been many, many adventures taking place there.  So fix the production issues and do some well planned editing and Oceans Unmoving would be damn near great right?

Well, there is one other issue.  With last weeks edition, I covered 3 stories that had a strong impact on the comic, and were very focused on a particular member of the Sluggy cast.  Oceans Unmoving continues the tradition by focusing on Bun Bun.  Those other 3 though, had the featured character exploring their relationships with the OTHER Sluggy cast members, Oceans Unmoving does NOT.  Bun Bun is the only main Sluggy cast member in the entire story (only being a relative term, of course).  It doesn't explore who Bun Bun is, how he views the other cast members or anything like that, it's even barely an origin story.  Worse?  Bun Bun, while he plays a major role in the story, is NOT the main character of his own story.  Two new characters, who are both interesting enough on their own, are the main characters.  Neither is Torg, Riff, Zoe or Gwynn, and that's where the real failure comes from.

On it's own, Oceans Unmoving is pretty good.  As a spin off, a side story, or it's own comic, Oceans Unmoving would likely be well received, even despite the production issues.  As a story of Sluggy Freelance, it just doesn't work.  It doesn't fit well into the overall narrative that's already been established.  Then, when it looked like it was over as Bun Bun exited the stage, it just kept going on and on.  This likely is what soured everyone on the comic, by this point it had been going on at least as long as That Which Redeems, and the drawn out exposition and framing made it feel even LONGER.  In the end, it topped out at 9 months, with a short gap in the middle, so Oceans Unmoving actually encapsulated nearly a full year.  Cut down, it probably could have taken half that time, or been spread out over a longer period, but as it was presented, it felt like a gut check for the fans, and they turned away in droves.

Oceans Unmoving became the poster child for everything that was wrong with Sluggy Freelance.  Many who were on the fence of the comic by that point jumped off and headed for greener pastures.  The dedicated fans stuck with it, but I think few have positive memories about the story.  Which is a shame, the story is pretty good and in a way, I want to see where it went afterwards.  Just not in Sluggy Freelance.

Next time, the post Oceans Unmoving years.  Not days, not months, YEARS.

The Standard: The Best

Early Sluggy Freelance is a great guide on showing how comics get established, evolve and change into something more.  That something more is the real focus this time, as we explore the three best stories, in my not so humble opinion, of the entire comic.

Why are they the best?  Probably because they are the ones I remember most clearly.  There are a lot of little stories throughout Sluggy's run, so remembering them all is damn near impossible (I didn't recall the X-Files parody at ALL in my first year read through).  These three, however, stick out in my mind best, and I think represent Sluggy at it's best.  Are they perfect?  No, but they best show what Abrams can do, and what webcomics as a whole can do as story telling medium.

The Bug, the Witch and the Robot is the first of these stories.  There are three things going on in this story line that stick out.  The first different artwork that takes place in Gwynn's mind as she struggles with the bug trying to claim her body.  The panels aren't square, rimmed with fine print laughter and insults, and the content of the panels are like pencil sketches giving it a dreamlike nature.  In the middle of the story is the second thing, a rather significant turning point in the Oasis storyline, which I'll get into in a bit.  The rest of the story is dominated by a really intricate character study and confrontation.  This is Gwynn's story, her greatest moment in the comic, in fact, and it explores how she views not just herself, but her friends as well, and maybe just a bit of how they view her.  The physical fight isn't nearly as long or as epic as I remember it being, but it was still satisfying and fitting.  And of course, Gwynn's final solution is one of those Crowning Moments of Awesome TVTropes loves to play with.

Speaking of Crowning Moments of Awesome, next comes Sluggy's.  Bar none, Fire and Rain is the peak of Abrams' story telling abilities.  It's about scale here, it's far smaller than one would think.  Maybe six weeks total for the entire story.  This is Zoe's story here, as she tries to come to grips with her friends, her feelings and herself.  Oh, and then Oasis shows up.  Ah, Oasis, she's probably the most well planned part of Sluggy's universe, Abrams has stated that she has been planned out from the beginning, but to what end?  Hard to say, but her bout with madness within Fire and Rain is one of the most important pieces within the whole of the universe he's created.  We oddly learn very little about Oasis during this important bit, except that even she doesn't know much, which is just as important.  Again, though, this isn't about Oasis really, she's there, but she's always kind of there in Sluggy.  No, this is about Zoe, and the fact that we're quite sure at this point she has some rather strong feelings for Torg.  Love?  Probably, but that was also 11 YEARS ago at this point.  Yeah, any movement in that area has been derailed almost constantly for over a decade now.  Still, those feelings remain, as does Torg's feelings, which get gut checked next.

That Which Redeems isn't a short story compared to the other two.  It's about 7 MONTHS long, and there's a lot going on through it.  Of the three, though, it has the strongest theme, "that which redeems, consumes" and leaves a very telling mark on Torg for the rest of the comic.  It is Torg's story, as he is the most competent man in the room throughout the story, and the one who knows how and is willing to fight.  Yet he's also the most vulnerable even in a world where food fighting is nearly a war crime BECAUSE food fighting is nearly a war crime.  It's easy to get to him by going after those who cannot help themselves, forcing him into bad situations.  He manages thanks to his magic sword and personal skill and quick thinking, but there are more than a few hairy moments.  And there is also death, which is what makes this story so important and meaningful.  It lays a strong groundwork for the rest of the comic, lasting even until the current storylines, and leaving a strong impact on Torg as a character.  We are also given a glimpse of what could have been, and what could still be here.  The fault of the story is it's length, which feels much longer than it probably should.  I suspect it's due to Abrams running a Saturday guest strip congruently with it (I skipped most of those on this read through) and occasionally dumping out a quick 3 - 4 panel gag strip rather than pushing the story forward.  It's strong, yes, but it could be tighter in so many ways.

So before we end, if you're a fan you probably noticed I skipped Dangerous Days.  It is my key example of a culmination event.  Well, it's a bit too much, and I don't really think of it as the best story.  When I think "great" and "Sluggy," Dangerous Days doesn't fit in there.  It IS important, to the comic as a whole, but not really as a piece of fiction.  And as I said, this list is about the ones I remembered, I couldn't even recall the title for Dangerous Days, and only a rough lay out of the plot.  I remembered far more of these three.

Next time, Oceans Unmoving.

The Standard: The First Year

So let's talk about the early days of Sluggy Freelance, and as a result, the early days of webcomics in general.  For much of this and subsequent parts, I'll be using the comic itself, rereading sections of the archives, the power of the Sluggy's wiki network, various reviews and more than a few interviews with Pete Abrams himself.

Sluggy started in August of 1997, and was part of first wave of modern webcomics.  Others included PvP, User Friendly, and yes, Penny Arcade.  There are others, both before and after, but given just those names, you can probably guess what most of this wave of comics featured, and that includes Sluggy:  Geek jokes.  This was in a time before geek became "in" so this is REAL geek humor, old school style.  The first joke of Sluggy Freelance is about spamming Satan.  Followed by a Windows vs Mac joke.  Then there was a Bill Gates joke.

It shouldn't really be a surprise, actually.  Abrams was, at the time, a web designer, and Sluggy was a side project that was meant to ONLY be on the internet.  I always assumed that he did have the goal of being published in the newspaper, but no, he meant it only for the net even way back then.  Of course, his vision of Sluggy was also to have a revolving cast of characters coming in and out and no "main cast" so to speak.  He changed his mind.

That early comic is something I've had to relive by rereading that portion of the archive, and I get why I quickly got hooked on it.  The humor is very much in my wheelhouse, a kind of "well it's weird, your point?" type thing.  They're also quite genre savvy throughout the early strips, and that makes Riff and Torg particularly invincible in parts of the comic.  What actually surprised me is the sheer amounts of parody in these early strips.  With in the first year there was a Star Trek/Aliens spoof, the X-Files, and a bit on the crazed/angry talk show hosts of the late 90's.  And those are just the major ones, there were a lot of littler ones scattered about that don't stick around long, but give just enough of a chuckle to be worth it.  Parody is hard to do well, and Abrams has always had a talent for it, but especially the X-Files bit and the Clinton impeachment parody make these early strips feel VERY dated (Star Trek/Aliens less so, oddly).  This is the problem with "topical" humor and a good example as to why it should be avoided if possible and abandoned eventually if not.

The format is very basic, 3 - 4 panel gag strips.  Hell, the Sunday strips actually have throwaway panels (part of why I thought the comic was part of a newspaper pitch).  The sketchiness of the early strips gives way fairly early on to a more streamlined strip.  It's still very sketchy compared to the current strips, but 16 years of comic drawing will do that.  All of this is the basic format of most comics in their early days.  Only mature artists manage to avoid the "sketchy" early days, or even the 3 panel gag strips.  This isn't as common as more comic artists aim for the more comic book/manga style, but it's still common enough to be noticed.

By January of 1998, the 6 major members of the cast had been introduced at least, and some adventures already started.  It's curious how the basics of their personalties really hasn't changed in all these years, and there are some very strong hints that there is more to most of them than the jokes.  Torg in particular is show to be just devious enough in a single act (getting Bun Bun arrested) that I could see that same Torg doing all the planning in the Minion Master story line 15 years later.  There's also a moment of bravery in that first year of strips where Torg stupidly dives in to save a girl from a shark (knocking both himself and the shark out when he hits it).  These character nuggets form the basic core from which the characters are fully grown and developed over the years, as well as all the items and characters that would play a part throughout the comic.  Hell Dr. Schlock (young) is introduced before January even comes around (and reminds me of what happened to his eye).

At the same time, the comic does feel it's moving from story to story in a haphazard manner, at least until about March, when Sam and Val appear together.  This is the beginning of the long period stories into which shorter tales, like the beach trip, simply fit inside the piece.  I stopped at the 1 year mark, so I didn't actually get to the Lysinda Vampire story itself, which is less than a week later, and was the point where Sluggy fully converted from it's gag strip roots to the classic adventure comic I based the entire category on.  I'm actually surprised at how quickly this conversion took place, in my mind I thought it took much longer.  This actually makes me wonder if I've been too harsh on some comics for making their conversion from gag strip to adventure comic in similar time frames (nah, GPF still borked it).

The foundation of Sluggy Freelance was well laid, but I won't say it was well planned.  There's a distinct feeling that everything was done for the joke of the moment, not any other reason.  There is some planning for future events, but it's vague and easily changed.  New directions would have been fairly easy to take at this point in the strip, and I wonder if in an alternative universe, the version of Sluggy they have is vastly different than this one because of it.  There was a plan though, a direction, something some comics completely lack, while others are so tightly planned as to not allow much freedom at all.  Sluggy's first year seems to balance this out a bit, making the world and characters seem fresh, adaptable and just plain fun.

365 strips in, and I am reminded why I read Sluggy to this day.  It had a great first year hook, and I read most of the strips (the Dr. Laura stuff mostly got the shaft on my read through, just didn't appeal to me).  It's also very apparent why I use early Sluggy for a lot of my examples, as I saw this same pattern several times, in Candi, College Roomies from Hell and General Protection Fault.  Same cycle of development, sketchy gag comics evolving into cleaner, more adventure based strips.  Oddly, those 3 comics I eventually dropped from the read list but not Sluggy.  Next time, we'll look at the greater stories of the comic, and why those stories keep me reading.

Next week, I'll cover the high points of Sluggy Freelance.

The Standard: Introduction

I've been doing this blog for a while now, and if you've read any of it, you probably noticed that I seem to come back to the same comics as references.  Specifically, I call back to Sluggy Freelance more than any other comic I read.

Why?  What is so special about Sluggy Freelance that I reference it almost endlessly on every topic under the sun?  Well, to be blunt, nothing.  Seriously, there is little special about Sluggy in the grand scheme of things.  There are hundreds of comics out there that do the EXACT same thing as Sluggy, some do it better, some do it worse, but they're out there and easy to find.

Though I do know the reason why I reference Sluggy.  It's because it was my first.  Okay, technically, The Parking Lot is Full was my first webcomic, but it started as a print comic first.  Sluggy was internet only from day one, so it is my first webcomic.  It also left a very deep impression.  Not just what the comic WAS, but HOW I ended up reading it.  See kids, I was on a 56k modem at the time.  Complain all you want about slow internet, you know NOTHING until you've tried to browse about 5 years worth of a daily comic on a dial up modem.

Oh, and I only had about 3 hours a day to do it.  In the end, it took me about 2 weeks to read the entire archive of Sluggy Freelance (including an insane strip that loaded about 30 individual panels).  On top of that, I didn't know what the "W" in the calender meant "week's worth of strips" so I clicked through each, and every, strip.  That is bound to leave an impression, good or bad.  I had a good impression and for a long time thought it was the best comic I ever read.  I was, of course, comparing them to PLiF and the newspaper strips I grew up with, so I didn't have much to go on.

Now, some 233 comics later, I know better.  It's not the greatest thing ever, not by a long shot.  But it's also not bad.  It's an average comic.  A successful average comic, yes, but average nonetheless.  It pulls off amazing feats of storytelling, but also has failed at them.  The art can be beautiful at times, but sometimes feels rushed or stagnant.  The humor can be gut busting, or just kind of meh.  It is just average, middle of the road, common.

And that makes it my standard.  A great comic is better than Sluggy Freelance, a bad one is worse.  WHY it's better or worse is key, of course, but rating it against Sluggy gives me a baseline to run off.  Sluggy's averageness also comes from how MUCH of it there is.  It started in 1997, so it's been going for 16 YEARS at this point.  Very, VERY few webcomics approach that number, and I don't think any of the ones I read even come close.  So there's a lot there, and it's easy to make comparisons.

So for the next few weeks, I'll be digging deeper into the roots of Sluggy as the standard.  I'll look at Sluggy in detail, from the early days of the young comic industry, to it's greatest successes and most daring failures.  It also gives me an excuse to read chunks of the archive I haven't read in a decade or more.  Should be interesting.  Until next week kiddies.