Friday, January 23, 2009

Wall of Text--Sometimes I Just Need to....

Yeah, this is a huge wall of text, but it expresses my current state of "WHA?" with what's going on with this strip lately. I thought Lynn was working within year-two continuity, but now it seems she's doing a retconned year one with some year-two stuff stitched in (e.g. Farley; Uncle Phil's holiday visit and date with Connie). I just--huh?

8 comments:

DreadedCandiru2 said...

It's way appropriate that Elizabeth wonder what the Hell is going on; that's because the person in charge of her world is making things up as she goes along.

April Patterson said...

Yeah, I figure she's got to be at least as baffled as we readers are, and she has to live this craziness.

howard said...

Who's in charge anyway? I think the lunatic has been put in charge of the asylum and was allowed to fire anyone who would have mentioned writing a coherent storyline.

April Patterson said...

Who's in charge anyway? I think the lunatic has been put in charge of the asylum and was allowed to fire anyone who would have mentioned writing a coherent storyline.

howtheduck, I think you hit the head on the nail. I mean, er--no wait, that actually works better. ;)

John F Jamele said...

I'm going to be the lone curmudgeon here; I think your artwork is better than anyone else writing these alternate-universe strips, but I just don't see where you can go with this in the long run- each strip looks basically the same, with the kids trying to figure out why they are adults back in their child bodies. If in the future Liz develops this realization, what will that really add to the story? Are you going to have her meet Child Anthony, who also realizes something weird is going on?

I guess what I'm trying to say is that this seems like a one-joke strip that could be so much more- with your talent you could be continuing the story of the adults, and I think it would be much more fun and entertaining. I think what you are doing here was fun at first but is bound to be a dead end. Anyway, just my two cents.

April Patterson said...

That's completely valid, jjamele. I do have plans involving the adult characters and intend to get back to them--in part, my being kid-centric has been a response to LJ's focus. When she was running the Connie/Phil strips, I also focused on them. I am chomping at the bit for Elly to take that writing course, because I have some ideas for that arc. :)

Cedar said...

I think the big problem is the way you've tied yourself so closely to the goings-on of the strip itself. You had some interesting stuff going on with Deanna and Lawrence, but then suddenly changed gears to some whining Elly stuff. Why not continue with some of the more engaging stuff? Certainly you could gloss over this put-upon-Elly takes care of her family story line and carry on with the writing class?

April Patterson said...

Cedar, I guess I'm a bit reluctant to do something that would directly contradict what's going on in the strip. This wall-of-text strip was very much a product of my frustration in realizing that I'd misconstrued what Lynn was doing with her timeline. I really thought she'd just jumped into year-two continuity. It hadn't occurred to me that she'd simply grafted some year-two events into year one, since it suited her Farley-schilling whims.

Deanna--again, I was reluctant to stretch out the Deanna stuff, only to learn that she moved away last week, or somesuch.

Now that the weekly "Elly" letter at the website has a reference to her taking the creative-writing course, I might delve into that.