Wapsi Square Forum

Paul is a great artist but we keep discounting his abilities as a writer, and as a writer myself, I'm getting plot whiplash here. Part of that is due to the medium, I'm sure that this would be a whole lot easier to read in dead tree format. But as a web comic it's one Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot, Interrogative after another.

Opus the Poet wrote:Paul is a great artist but we keep discounting his abilities as a writer, and as a writer myself, I'm getting plot whiplash here. Part of that is due to the medium, I'm sure that this would be a whole lot easier to read in dead tree format. But as a web comic it's one Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot, Interrogative after another.

The only solution would be to take a break and come back once a number of strips have accumulated. The problem is it is hard to stay away, n'est-ce pas?

Opus the Poet wrote:Paul is a great artist but we keep discounting his abilities as a writer, and as a writer myself, I'm getting plot whiplash here. Part of that is due to the medium, I'm sure that this would be a whole lot easier to read in dead tree format. But as a web comic it's one Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot, Interrogative after another.

People have noted that before, in earlier parts of the strip... they "flow easier" when you can read through a bunch of them all at once. I suppose that part of the problem we're facing, is that we spend days and days going through a period of puzzlement that, for the strip's characters, is over in a few minutes. We're just as confused as they are, but our context lasts a lot longer than theirs.

The stress is probably leaving all of us readers prone to brain warts and acute cerebral hiccoughs.

I would hazard a guess that the comprehension factor of the plot is being hampered by the restrictions placed on it by the illustration borders. The story concept that is trying to be expressed is having to be chopped into small segments and presented as individual elements, with each being examined on its own merits. This makes it hard to evaluate the whole sweep of the story as a complete picture and at the same time causes some of the linking concepts to be lost in the transition.

Therefore, too much attention is diverted to unimportant random elements while the important sequential flow of the stories important points are totally disrupted and lost to the readers. This would be far easier to avoid in a straight narrative situation.

shadowinthelight wrote:Jaguar Girl seeing Georgette's greatest fear, being that close to someone?

Maybe it's not closeness that she fears (because in the dream image Monica wasn't truly involved in the kiss...she was pushing away...which suggests that there isn't closeness there...just passion)...maybe she actually fears being that unreserved/uncontrolled. There are plenty of people who fear acting on some of the passions that they contain (for whatever reason...embarassment, impropriety, safety, etc), so it would be perfectly reasonable to assume that Jet may have that fear. Then again...maybe she is just afraid of letting people get too close.

Dave wrote:

Opus the Poet wrote:Paul is a great artist but we keep discounting his abilities as a writer, and as a writer myself, I'm getting plot whiplash here. Part of that is due to the medium, I'm sure that this would be a whole lot easier to read in dead tree format. But as a web comic it's one Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot, Interrogative after another.

People have noted that before, in earlier parts of the strip... they "flow easier" when you can read through a bunch of them all at once. I suppose that part of the problem we're facing, is that we spend days and days going through a period of puzzlement that, for the strip's characters, is over in a few minutes. We're just as confused as they are, but our context lasts a lot longer than theirs.

The stress is probably leaving all of us readers prone to brain warts and acute cerebral hiccoughs.

I can vouch for this...as someone who saw Monica poit in full JG style on Friday, and then didn't check back again until today...reading through all of this week's pages at once made things a little less confusing. It was still a shock to the system, and I was definitely lost for a couple pages...but the explanation (well...kind of explanation) that followed ended up clearing up the majority of the confusion...which left me in my usual "resident of Confusion Corner who sometimes gets it but maybe not fully today" state of mind. If I'd been reading it one page at a time, I'd have gotten stuck on the kiss and would not have been able make the connection 24 hrs later that the kiss wasn't real...even after Tina said so. It was a fairly powerful image (fan-service aside...most of Paul's powerful images have been pain-filled...but this one was more positive which was pretty damn cool), so it definitely was capable of dislocating a reader's brain from it's higher-level thinking.