Politics and Webcomics, Round 2

A couple weeks ago now, there was a trial in Florida.  A white man shot a black teen and claimed self defense.  The white man was found not guilty of murder.  As I type, there are protests against this ruling.

I'm not going to talk about any of that.  Well, not in detail, because for the most part, I really don't care about this particular incident.  Racism in the United States is a topic that will be with us for a long time, whether real or perceived, and the day we finally settle it, will be the day humanity as a whole has become better than anyone could ever have imagined.

Back in the early days of this blog, I wrote an article about Politics and Webcomics.  The message at the end was quite clear:  Don't do it.  Back then, it was about doing it through the length of the comic, a tedious process that caused me to lose the plot of a comic on at least one occasion and still tickles around other times.  It just wasn't worth it to alienate other readers.

Then this trial happened and a few have dipped into that well.  Making one's opinion known on a particular subject is something that should be taken with great care.  The reactions to making a statement can be very nasty in some circles.  It can lead to ridicule, and if the artist isn't prepared to take on that ridicule, it could be destructive.  It also colors past work, sometimes in a very bad way.

Let's take Orson Scott Card, for example.  If you don't know the issues around him, know only that he's not very well loved by even the slightly liberal of society.  His book, Ender's Game, is, however, still considered a science fiction classic, it's even getting a film (betting it'll bomb, seems to be a year for bombs).  I'm not saying one has to like the artist to like the work, I won't say that because it's bull, but it does make exploring further work of that artist a little more difficult.

For a webcomic artist, the issue is more dire.  A book need only be written once and sell many copies, both before and after a political statement is made, and even if not another work of the author sells, at least the author can make money off the previous work.  A webcomic must CONSTANTLY resell itself.  A major slip up in such a financial environment could be outright devastating, and destroy incomes almost completely.  It's why, I think, most of the major comics and their artists have stayed away from making statements regarding this trial:  It's not worth risking their livelihoods.

At the same time, it can rip a fanbase apart, and destroy a large, healthy community.  I've seen it happen over lesser things, and greater things.  Friendships can be destroyed with a few words, communities shattered, and, again, it can lead to financial failure.

Webcomics, however, are a form of self expression.  If the feeling is strong enough that an artist must make a statement, then I won't stand in the way.  Just be aware of the baggage that comes with it.  Whether it be abortion, universal health care, gay marriage, gun control and, of course, racism, making a statement WILL bring the heat on, it is the internet after all.  Be ready for it, pick your battles and accept the anger and hate that will come.

I still stand by my original statement however.  Don't do politics, it's not worth the effort.  Until next time kiddies.

Brainstorming B

Eddie's Seefood Restaurant - There's a large canal that runs down the middle of the city.  Along it's edges are walkways and dozens of buildings.  One of them has a worn out sign that read's "Eddie's Seafood Restaurant" with the 'a' crudely painted over with an 'e.'  Inside, Tessa, the manager, waitress and chef of the restaurant spends her time painting and selling plates because on one is going to be eating off them any time soon.  In the basement is Eddie, the owner and once great chef, spends his days caring for his fish.  Some time ago there was an accident and Eddie lost a great amount of his mental faculties.  Since that day, the fish he once kept live and fresh in the basement became his pets and obsessions, and the restaurant fell on dark times.  Then, after a flash flood, Eddie found an angel fish apparently dead along the shores of the canal.  He took it home and put it into one of his tanks, where it seemed to come back to life.  That's when strange things started happening. . .

Lots of odd dreams of late.  This one featured fish coming back from the dead.  Last time I built a serious, science fantasy piece involving a bizarre mystery.  This time, I see a fantasy with a less than serious bent.  Not "ha ha" funny, but more "well that's amusing" type funny.  Particularly how the restaurant makes money by selling plates.  Not of food, but the plates themselves.

As for where it's going, the idea is that the restaurant becomes, well, viable again.  Whether as a restaurant or not is another story, but people come and so does money.  After that, maybe wacky adventures, I suppose.  The eventual goal is determining what, or perhaps who, the angel fish is and what it really means.  I'm thinking that it really isn't about the restaurant per se, but the neighborhood and city around it.  The history of the place, what really happened to Eddie perhaps is part of it, and the future of this place.

This is a very rough idea, but it's an idea that a decent artist and writer could play with for a long term comic with no solid ending to speak of.

BTW, if you're an artist looking to use these ideas, just tell me and give me credit and you can go wild.  Until next time 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.

Brief Break Wild Webcomic Review

We interrupt the current program, The Standard, for a special:

WILD WEBCOMIC REVIEW

When I finished the last part of the Standard series (which you'll see in three weeks), I realized that it was really, REALLY long, so I figured if I have the time, why not crank out another batch of reviews?  So I have, and here we go.

241.  God Mode - I don't usually read gaming comics because while I was a gamer once, I don't know if I could be considered any more (at least not on consoles).  That and the jokes are pretty much tied to whatever is popular at the time of the strip's writing.  Which means this comic, which started back in 2005 is more than a little dated.  The idea is that God Mode is a game review website and the comic is about the people who work there.  And their deranged, possibly insane, boss.  This comic went through several artists/writers.  The first two really were the best, managing to balance the game end with the cast end quite well and being freaking insane (including where the boss killed her own father, and then he got better).  After that, when Adrian Ramos from Count Your Sheep takes over, it kind of goes down hill.  First there aren't as many strips per artist (low production is why I stopped reading Count Your Sheep), and it loses the edge after Adrian hands the comic off to another artist.  And it hasn't updated since April of 2012.  Stay for the first two artists, then move on.  You'll probably enjoy it more if you remember the games they're talking about, but otherwise, you're not missing out on much.

242.  Dumbing of Age - If I were forced to sum up this comic, I would say it is a college comic staring high school characters.  Which makes sense as most of the major characters are freshmen in college.  The title pretty much gives away the concept of the comic, it's a coming of age strip, where the cast learns what it means to grow up into adults (something I seemed to have skipped, I guess).  It's a good, solid comic.  The art  is well done and characters are distinctive.  Personalities aren't too stereotypical, though occasionally they do get pretty close, but the motivations and reactions of the characters are natural and well done.  It's also hard to say how well this will play out since in the 2 and half or so years since it's been updating, it's only about 3 weeks into the school year, so the actual arcs of the characters have only really gotten started.  I'll probably follow it for a bit, though how long will depend on where things go from here.  Solid comic, worth reading even for a bit.

243.  Derelict - Wow.  Ben Fleuter is the artist behind Parallel Dementia, which ended a while back, and this is the project he started to replace it.  I am completely blown away.  I think a great many artists forget that comics are a visual medium and just dump loads of text to try to describe what we can see on the page.  No such thing in Derelict, where the text is so sparse, I don't think I actually ever learned the main character's name until I visited the TVTropes page for the comic.  And I didn't need to, everything I needed to know about her was in the comic.  Within the first few pages I was hooked and it only got better from there.  Maybe I won't feel the same way later (archive tunnel vision and all), but at the moment, this is everything I look for in a comic, and it's left me virtually speechless.  Wow.

244.  Twokinds - At first look, my thoughts instantly went "oh, it's one of those kinds of comics."  Those being a very general term, of course, but it featured a cat girl, blue hair, and, as I quickly learned, amnesia.  Lots of cliches to start with, so I went looking to see what was done with it.  I found a comic that isn't bad, not great, or even very good, but not bad.  I also found a comic that has come a long way.  This comic is 10 years old, and was started by a high school student (he celebrated his 17th birthday during the comic at one point).  To keep up a comic for that long, from that young an age is actually commendable.  The fact that the comic has taken the cliches it started with and managed to make something with it is remarkable.  It's come a long, long way, both in art and story telling, from the first few chapters, slowly building up a world and collection of characters that is pretty good.  There's mystery and intrigue there, but it feels as if it's been developing rather than outright planned, which is good since any plan made a decade ago probably isn't as sustainable anymore.  I don't know how long I'll read it (there are a few plot lines I want to see resolved), but it's good enough for me to read it.

245.  Bob and George - So I messed up a bit here.  While reading through it, I thought I burned through a 2500+ archive too fast, but I didn't worry about it until I started writing this review.  Turns out, thanks to a "random" button being right next to the "next" button, I managed to skip about 1500 strips worth of the comic.  Whoops.  I did go back and read them, didn't bother me to do it, but I really didn't miss much.  This is a very light comic, kind of like Station V3.  The fact that I didn't even realize I had skipped about two thirds of the comic and didn't feel like I missed anything should tell you a lot.  This is a sprite comic based on Mega Man, and probably the core inspiration for a great many of the sprite comics that flooded out into the world for a while.  I like Mega Man, despite the insanity it devolved into, and this comic takes those ideas and runs with them, and right over an even more insane cliff.  There are laughs to be had here, to a point, and for something to burn some time on it's worth the effort.  That said, the conclusion is pretty damn convoluted for a comic that is based on being convoluted, and I'm not sure I exactly like how it ended.  Oh and keep flash on, there's quite a few flash strips in this comic (with very little actually being done with it, I'm afraid).

And that's it for this.  Back to Sluggy next week.

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.