A tribute to Albion Fuzz

[ZOMBIE USER 6611]

(Comment: Greetings! I know several folks here from elsewhere, including the inestimable Mako -- who just reminded me that Albion Fuzz has a forum. Ah, well, yes. So, I threw together a poetic tribute, along the lines of a cast/story recap. Let me know what you think!)
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Hello. I'm Alex. This is not my tale.
Compared to her my light can only pale.
While strips like ours are common on the Net,
Still this one reaches depths most strips don't get.

Some webcomics delight in the absurd,
And strain to reach the "technophile" or "nerd"...
Our storyteller wanted different-very.
His yarn is sensitive and literary.

Are you a reader? His style will attract.
How many strips have used "autodidact"?
But far more than the references here,
James Roberts makes our plight and humor clear.

So if you seek a comic with a soul,
A furry delving into social role;
Then I'll describe for you a strip that does:
Without further ado: "Albion Fuzz".

It opens on a dark and stormy night--
With words that Shakespeare, for King Lear, did write,
When Lear was mad and raving at his Fool.
You see? This story's from a different school.

The central figure huddles from the rain
For Life's mistreating Hrosvitha again.
Don't worry, she's called "Sybil" soon enough.
The lisping, German nun's name is too tough..

We next see Frances, offering succor:
A gently philanthropic Labrador.
Who offers fox a respite from the cold--
But this is not the same as tales of old.

A brighter scene is shortly close at hand:
First Lauren and then Tristan join the band
Black arts paired with black humor, then add beer.
Effects are deep and interesting, with fear.

Now comes the time to talk of many things:
Of diets lax, and Cabbages, and flings.
The grim tale of the Oysters is outdone;
The diet's reaching out to have some fun.

Can Immortality be then defined?
Our Sybil's nothing if not sharp of mind!
The implications for religion aired,
Then Sybil trundles off to be repaired.

Encounter with the devil boys de-tailed...
Then segue into prior times she's failed.
For storytelling Sybil has a gift,
And Frances now decides to give a lift.

The Flyers and the Protest incidental...
Then she encounters me: too sentimental.
But better than no sentiment at all?
Perhaps--I try for wit, but drop the bawl.

"I'm Alex. I'm a writer," I can tell her.
But I don't say what sort! This would repel her.
We follow Rebel Leader, crafty Frances,
And then with Sybil I start taking chances.

But she is gone from me in sudden starkness,
While from her view, the world contains no darkness.
From governmental logic Sybil backs
And faceless agencies disguise their tracks.

Now when you ask of Frances what the bells
Are tolling for--you'll laugh at what she tells.
The power Sybil grasps, and then declines,
Still brings her to the front of other minds.

A moment with a play, the Spade of Clubs
(And yes, there's method to the card-game rubs).
Next winter settles on our homeless wench
Who shudders, sleeping on a frozen bench.

A prior friend of Sybil's, Fenchurch tries
To help in her own way, 'ere Sybil dies.
You'll see how this turns out, but Sybil lives:
It's Christmas. Just the gifts depression gives?

No---sandwiched in between, a blow to pride.
But this works out, and our lass moves inside.
With me! A happy time, a change of views!
Then I learn of her: "We are not a muse".

The line's inspired, but the truth is there;
My writing, always troubled, fades to air.
She heads out,

[ScottE]

Wow. Impressive and thorough!

"I Have A Dream," but not that Yankee bloke's.

And would be perfect but for this. MLK Jr. wasn't a Yank. He was from Georgia.

[ZOMBIE USER 6611]

Wow. Impressive and thorough!

"I Have A Dream," but not that Yankee bloke's.

And would be perfect but for this. MLK Jr. wasn't a Yank. He was from Georgia.

Oho! First reaction: From the standpoint of the British, all Americans are Yanks. Second reaction. Yowch! ALEX is NOT British!

Thank you for the catch! I changed two lines:
""I Have A Dream," but not like MLK's.
My muse seemed wont to disappear for days."

[Mako]

Illiad-lite

Very nice work indeed LH, talk about making a fine entry to the forum! Have you noticed that Rob has linked this thread to the AF home page? Coolness

Hopefully that link will encourage other readers to toss their pennies in the fountain with the rest of us. Be nice to have some more AF friends to chatter with, particularly with this current arc rob is teasing with...

CYa!
Mako

[ZOMBIE USER 6611]

Illiad-lite
Very nice work indeed LH, talk about making a fine entry to the forum! Have you noticed that Rob has linked this thread to the AF home page? Coolness

Thank you. Yes, I saw that -- I am honored!

[ZOMBIE USER 10915]

Good work

Wish I had as much free time as you do

[ZOMBIE USER 6611]

Good work
Wish I had as much free time as you do

Thank you, Sheepdog.

Regarding your "free time" comment; that's particularly amusing to me, given my schedule.

Once you get used to writing that way, it actually doesn't take very long. And as you and I are both new appearances on the Freefall forum, you can see from the times of the messages in that thread that this poetic stuff is quick, if not necessarily good.

It's funny when I am writing a business document after a few minutes in a poetic mode, and legal contract terms start to rhyme...

[JimRob]

I do envy such ease of composition. I imagine it's just that I don't do very much of it. (Perhaps reading a canto of Paradise Lost and The Faerie Queene per day, as I have to do now, will help.)

[ZOMBIE USER 6611]

It isn't that I'm reading other stuff;
I've read some Shakespeare (Decades? Long enough...)
It's been a year that "clicked" for me somehow.
And it seems easy; no sweat from my brow.

Some things I cannot do, or don't do quick!
I'd draw a stick-man much more like a stick.
Creative writing skills I seek to learn.
And much else in my "much free time to learn".

[ZOMBIE USER 10915]

LevelHead
that this poetic stuff is quick, if not necessarily good.

Since it takes me ten times as long to write a couple of lines (and sometimes I still worry if the meaning is coming through) I'm in awe

[Mako]

LevelHead
that this poetic stuff is quick, if not necessarily good.

Since it takes me ten times as long to write a couple of lines (and sometimes I still worry if the meaning is coming through) I'm in awe

LH is truely amazing in both quality and quantity of prose. Check out mark Stanley's <a href="http://nice.purrsia.com/cgi-bin/ultimat ... forum&f=21"> Freefall Forum</a> for LH's humble introduction message there, where he has started a whole bunch of people all talking in prose!

Also Scott Kellog's 21st Century Fox <a href="viewforum.php?f=560&sid=">forum</a> has more of LH's craftwork scattered in it.

CYa!
Mako the Prose Impaired

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[Rennen]

Impressive. Of course, I'm easily awed, as most of my "poetry" either has the word Nantucket in there somewhere or describes the hues of roses and violets.

Rennen

[Mako]

Impressive. Of course, I'm easily awed, as most of my "poetry" either has the word Nantucket in there somewhere or describes the hues of roses and violets.

Rennen

Bwhaha

With a sense of humor like that, poetic word smithing is not required

CYa!
Mako

[Hortmage]

Excellent job with the poem, LevelHead!

I just recently found Albion Fuzz, and am totally captivated by this strip. Your poem makes a good synopsis.

BTW: We've GOT to stop meeting like this....

[ZOMBIE USER 10915]

Mako

Check out mark Stanley's Freefall Forum Also Scott Kellog's 21st Century Fox

Thanks for the advise, but, already been there- love them
I've just been lurking in the shadows...


Hortmage, The Magic Gardener

We've GOT to stop meeting like this....

Are you following me

[Rennen]

Test reply. Pay me no mind.

Rennen

[Mako]

Mako

Check out mark Stanley's Freefall Forum Also Scott Kellog's 21st Century Fox

Thanks for the advise, but, already been there- love them
I've just been lurking in the shadows...


Hortmage, The Magic Gardener

We've GOT to stop meeting like this....

Are you following me

Hehe I found AF poking around the Belfry one evening some time ago, I forget exactly when, and was snared by the art and story with in 3 or 4 strips. A fine web Jim has woven indeed.

Level_Head has theorized the concept of the Noble Female lead character. Certainly Sybil (thanks to JR for the recent addition of a proper cast page btw!) is cast in that mould, as are Florence of Freefall, Tavitiana from Gene Catlow, the Gneech's Mopsy and several other female leads in other strips and online novels.

A cautionary point: Don't confuse Noble with nobility here, this is a matter of a character's, well, character, not to be confused with an accident of birth.

Fans of one Noble Female lead character strip will likely find it reasonably easy to enjoy the works of another artist with a well-crafted and finely drawn strip who incorporates that character archetype into his work.

To date so far as I can tell, no one has deliberately created a strip with the conscience goal of creating a Noble Female lead, it's all been a bit serendipitous that a small group of very talented and hardworking artists with stories to tell have this concept as a common thread running through their works.

It would be very interesting (if not exhausting to contrast the Noble Females from each of the strips I mentioned above, as each character, though radically different in personality and cultural background, is still indeed recognizable as a Nobel Female.

Certainly there are other works of formal literature that must have a Noble Female as a lead, but at this late hour after a long day, I'm pulling up a complete blank. Alzheimer

[JimRob]

Ah, well... the 'Noble Female' is as old as literature. Mediaeval poetry and Renaissance drama are both replete with them, just as they are replete with 'Noble Males'. I certainly didn't have them consciously in mind when writing Sybil, but she is probably a manifestation of the same tendency. What's more interesting is that, historically, these characters are usually personifications of ideal virtues which never come together in real people, and as a result are generally lifeless and uninteresting

I don't think any of the strips you've mentioned fall into that trap, though. Except possibly Gene Catlow, but I think that impression's more due to his expository style of moral dialogue than the characterisations.

[ZOMBIE USER 5169]

I've a soft spot for the 'Noble Losers' - troubled, compassionate types like Jack or Thomas Covenant or Buffy Summer's old flame, haunted by guilt and bad memories and too much self-knowledge. Alex here might have been auditioning for the role - just give him a repented-of criminal record, moderate or erratic superpowers and a dark lord/Satan-affiliated law firm/lecherous blue rat-demon to fight and he'd have it made. Bob O'Link in Gene Catlowcould almost be one, if he wasn't so relaxed and ruefully cheerful about it all.

[JimRob]

Yes, I agree. I quite like tragic heroes too - largely virtuous but eventually brought down by a crucial failing. But on the whole I think that how 'good' a character is has little bearing on how much we like or sympathise with them; we can't relate to paragons, of good or evil, but we can with the flawed, to a surprising degree. Which is probably why Milton's Satan has such a following.