Still snoring......

Archae99 · Post by **Archae99** » Thu Jan 02, 2003 10:42 pm

Ralph, please wrap up this GAWDAWFULLY boring storyline soon.

Outside of the one bright spot, (the "Insane Clown Posse" strip,) UTLT is getting more and more sleep-inducing, and less and less laugh-producing.

Which is why I and I hope many others read your strips!
To laugh!

Do you really want UTLT and Nip 'n Tuck to end up like Doonesbury, so concerned with social commentary, meaningless self-reflection and partisan sniping that it becomes UNfunny, and loses readers by the score?

Do you want your strips to become unfunny shrill crap like Doonesbury, Boondocks, or Mallard Fillmore?

Please Ralph, I know you can do it, bring back the strips that had us falling off our chairs laughing.
You do have the talent.
Many comic strip artists don't have it, or have lost it mostly.

(Just look at Garfield nowadays.)

Please?

Jamestox · Post by **Jamestox** » Fri Jan 03, 2003 5:38 am

C'mon, Archae99 - stick with the strip! I've a feeling this is just Ralph's wind-up for a really neat curveball...you know, the straight line before the pun, etc.

The difference between this series and most others is that it makes you think....and personally, I don't mind that a bit.

J (waitin' for the swing) T

W.M.Y.L.G. Joe · Post by **W.M.Y.L.G. Joe** » Fri Jan 03, 2003 2:23 pm

Dude, I'm just here for the ride. If the author of a comic strip I'm reading decides to start turning serious, that's their choice. I respect them for just trying (something I haven't even the guts for). Them changing doesn't mean I'll automatically turn bored. Some "serious" comics I find truly entertaining, while some "funny" comics don't even get a smile out of me. Besides, keenspace artists can keep track of their readership. If people leaving bothers them enough, they'll change what they're doing.

Anywho, if I get tired of a comic, then I just leave. No big fuss, no making a show of it. No need to embarass me or the author.

*plops two pennies on the table*

UncleMonty · Post by **UncleMonty** » Fri Jan 03, 2003 9:12 pm

Online comics don't pay, so there must be some other reason the artists/authors keep producing them. Some get a lot preachier than this one. I don't even visit Newshounds or Ozzie and Millie any more. They are both well drawn and often witty, but so steeped in politics that I found it made them unenjoyable. I didn't complain on their forums, I just left.
Your milage may certainly vary.

Stoker Bramwell · Post by **Stoker Bramwell** » Sat Jan 04, 2003 1:47 am

W.M.Y.L.G. Joe wrote: If the author of a comic strip I'm reading decides to start turning serious, that's their choice.

I agree totally.

I don't mind a funny comic taking some time out for a serious storyline every now and then. It's the artists perogative, and it can give some great reflection on the characters anyway (and I have a feeling we're about to get a little bit of insight into the Posse's true origin soon...though I may be way off the mark).

In any case, I repeat what everyone else says: hang in there if this storyline isn't doing anything for you. Ralph is sure to go back to "normal" soon.

As for me, I'm just enjoying the ride.

Kazora · Post by **Kazora** » Sun Jan 05, 2003 6:07 pm

Is this strip being made for anyone's enjoyment besides the author's? =>

Unless Ralph is writing a comic strip specifically for the purpose of entertaining you and you alone, why should we try dictating what gets written in? I don't know about you guys, but I don't want to try telling someone else where their work should go, when I don't do it myself. >.>

And at the risk of sounding aggressive...which I'm not, I promise. O_O Who are you, Archae99, to threaten him with 'boring strips', to shove them at him and say, 'you want to end up like THIS?'. Maybe 'THIS' isn't so bad.

And you shouldn't refer to 'we', either. As far as I can see, not a lot of other people are flocking here to complain about how boring the strip is. Most people joined because they /enjoy/ the strip. I don't share your opinion, and I don't see a flock of other people who do. Until you genuinely represent someone else, you shouldn't say 'we' just to try and gain influence.

But....feel free to ignore all this. >.> I tend to type without thinking.

Jess Ragan · Post by **Jess Ragan** » Mon Jan 06, 2003 8:25 am

Wow, I bet this guy would really hate Ralph's Livejournal entries...
Anyway, I have to admit that this is an awkward way to end the Schlock Mercenary crossover, but this storyline could just be a way for the author to deal with his own personal issues. You might as well let him take the weight off his shoulders now, because if you don't, he'll carry that baggage with him to the next storyline.

JR

RHJunior · Post by **RHJunior** » Mon Jan 06, 2003 10:24 am

Actually, it was more my way of dealing with the fact that I'd ended the crossover storyline with the Evil Clown's tail still hanging out in the breeze... I had intended a smoother transition, from Petey's existential crisis to Ben's own, but, in trying to shorten the ever increasing length of the whole thing, I apparently bodged it up.

Even now, I'm not quite sure what changes this Evil Clown Crisis will make on Ben and the Posse's increasingly strange reality. Guess i'll have to hold on and let the results take me where they may.

I think I'll stick to comedy.

Archae99 · Post by **Archae99** » Mon Jan 06, 2003 5:57 pm

RHJunior wrote:I think I'll stick to comedy.

Good idea.

Sometimes I see actors who do great in comic roles try their hand at drama, and they go right into the toilet.

Steve Martin and Robin Williams are two examples of that.

And other times I see great dramatic actors trying to do comedy, that falls flat.

Like Marlon Brando.

Ralph, your sense of humor is sublime.
I get more laughs from your strips than Garfield.

Jess Ragan · Post by **Jess Ragan** » Mon Jan 06, 2003 6:04 pm

"Ralph, your sense of humor is sublime.
I get more laughs from your strips than Garfield."

Eeew... I hope he's willing to take that as a compliment!
There's a live-action Garfield movie in the works. Just when you think the franchise couldn't slip any lower...

JR

UncleMonty · Post by **UncleMonty** » Mon Jan 06, 2003 7:10 pm

Archae99 wrote:
RHJunior wrote:I think I'll stick to comedy.
Ralph, your sense of humor is sublime.

I agree!

W.M.Y.L.G. Joe · Post by **W.M.Y.L.G. Joe** » Tue Jan 07, 2003 9:15 am

Steve Martin and Robin Williams are two examples of that

WHAT??? C'mon, Awakenings was AWESOME. So was The Fisher King. Patch Adams was pretty good, not his best, but I enjoyed it.

There's a live-action Garfield movie in the works

Dear God... I hope not...

Kazora · Post by **Kazora** » Tue Jan 07, 2003 10:41 am

A live action-Garfield movie....well. Look it up on Google. Lots of info.
Seems like it'll happen.

Someone needs to start a list of how many classic cartoon characters they mangle by turning them into live-action movies. ;>

Probably every single one of them will be touched at some point...it's a money-maker, because everyone knows the names and will be curious. Even if it stinketh mightily.

Alright. I guess I'm posting mroe often than I thought. ._. But it's easier not to be shy on the internet, anyway.

Bo Lindbergh · Post by **Bo Lindbergh** » Tue Jan 07, 2003 4:26 pm

(Veering increasingly off topic here...)

Considering the rate at which Hollywood is getting stupider, can a live-action remake of Toy Story be far away?

Trillan · Post by **Trillan** » Wed Jan 08, 2003 1:28 am

Archae99 wrote:Ralph, your sense of humor is sublime.
I get more laughs from your strips than Garfield.

I recently read the Garfield archives looking for a good laugh.

The few times it managed to get a smile out of me, it was in the second from last frame -- Odie or Jon. Then Garfield swooped in and killed the joke.

I think I got up to 1989 or so before I laughed. That was the end of the experiment, too.

W.M.Y.L.G. Joe · Post by **W.M.Y.L.G. Joe** » Wed Jan 08, 2003 12:10 pm

Someone needs to start a list of how many classic cartoon characters they mangle by turning them into live-action movies

Interestingly enough, I thought George of the Jungle and Dudley Doowright (sp? it's been a while since I've seen it...) were both hilarious. The Rocky and Bullwinkle remake, however, was horrid. They tried too hard to take the classic sense of humor they had and translate it into modern times. It just didn't work as well trying to make it "cool." Nothing could come close to touching the original series. Oh, the delicious puns...

*sighs* They don't make cartoons like they used to.

*goes on to daydream about old "The Tick" episodes*

Msd22000 · Post by **Msd22000** » Wed Jan 08, 2003 3:12 pm

Ralph, you did a pretty good job with the story line. Although the transition was a little from the Schlockverse to Ben's head was a little jagged. I do like the way you wraped it up. Over the last year your storytelling has gotten much better. IMHO You seem to do best with comedy with some action, lightly seasoned with the occasional social comentary.

Kazora has the right of it. The strips are created by Ralph because it is something he likes to do, and it is very generous of him to put them out here on the web for the rest of us to enjoy. If you don't like it, go read something else. No one is holding a gun to your head saying "READ IT OR ELSE!!!". It's not like we are paying Ralph to produce the stips. He is donating his time and effort for the enjoyment of others. After all the pay of a web cartoonist is exactly diddley squat dollars per hour.

Sorry if i sound strident, but people who complain about something freely given, or that feel that their reading something somehow obligates the writer to defer to them, really crumble my cookies.

Now to go a little OT. A Garfield live action movie. I *twitch* can't believe *twitch* *twitch* that... ERROR 408: Users brain has fled his skull in fear.

LudiNimTazral · Post by **LudiNimTazral** » Wed Jan 08, 2003 7:10 pm

Bo Lindbergh wrote:(Veering increasingly off topic here...)

Considering the rate at which Hollywood is getting stupider, can a live-action remake of Toy Story be far away?

I'm just waiting for what they'll be trying when I hit retirement age. 20 years from now should be just about right for the big-budget, live-action Spongebob Squarepants.

WolfFur · Post by **WolfFur** » Fri Jan 10, 2003 8:11 am

Replying to several thoughts expresed in this thread:

The transition in his story was a bit abrupt, but in a sense it was also quite artistic... and certainly representative of the fashion in which a drewam can explode into nightmare in an instant. (I mean that both literally and figuratively.)

I don't agree with many of RH's political views, but that doesn't keep me from enjoying his strips. (I learned to avoid his live journal.) I actually fall much closer to David Simpson's political leanings... but I don't read O&M anymore because the strip is so saturated with them. RH's beliefs are reflected in his strips in the ways in which his characters respond to situations, but they don't dictate the stories. Even stips as blatant as the N&T Trent Lott strip make their point, get a laugh and move on.

I started the Schlock storyline with great boredom, having never been able to get into Schlock Mercinary in the first place, but once the Evil Clown revealed himself I was facinated enough to go back and reread the whole thing. The serious strips may have lasted a bit too long, and could have used a couple more gags to break them up (Evil Clown Posse was a belly-laugh classic) but on the whole the storyline was outstanding. Certailny better than anything I could do at this time. I also think that an occasional serious storyline helps a comedic strip to develop into a much stronger entity. Remember the episodes of M*A*S*H with no laughtracks?

Robin Williams kicks ass as a serious actor. His Emmy-award winning performance in Homicide and his Oscar for Good Will Hunting more than established him as a top-flight actor of all kinds. Even his comedy took a different turn in The Birdcage, where he played the straight man... well, you know what I mean. He's been doing drama since his second movie, and I believe he has more dramatic roles to his credit than funnyman scripts.

Geaorge of the Jungle was a very, very, very funny movie, but Dudly Doright completely turned me off. I never saw Bullwinkle. I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks that Garfield has outlived his humor.

Comic Genesis Forums

Still snoring......

Still snoring......

People shouldn't talk in their sleep.

Hmmm...

Good idea.

Re: Good idea.

...

Re: Good idea.