Let's assume that in any given year, a daily webcomic misses a few updates. Let's say that out of the ten, long years that Sluggy Freelance has been plodding on, it's managed an average of 360 strips a year. That means a total of 3600 strips. Each strip has an average of four panels. That's 14,400 panels. Each panel has an average of 20 words of dialogue. That's 288,000 words of dialogue.
And you will probably have to read every single last one of those words in order to understand a single fucking thing about what's going on with the latest strip. At a conservative estimate, you may find it quicker to watch the entire extended edition of the Lord of the Rings films back-to-back than the archives of Sluggy Freelance. But you'd have to, if you want to read it. It's not like the "New Viewer's Guide" is anything but "well, just read the archives" peppered with quotes about how good Sluggy Freelance supposedly is.
Y'see, it's just so fuckin' convoluted. At the end of the first week, Bun-Bun is introduced. He's a foul-mouthed talking animal that probably wasn't so fresh of an idea even back in 1997. This event is referenced some eight years later, at the climax of one of Sluggy's nigh-infamous story arcs. What's the story arc? Well it turns out that the talking rabbit has a feud with Santa Claus, and after killing various other holiday patrons and absorbing their powers, he is outwitted and thrown into a timeless void where he becomes a pirate captain searching for a mystical robot ship.
All of this is done with a relatively straight face, and fuckin' hell is it stupid. An incidental character who started off as a lame joke about talking animals in the newspaper funnies has blossomed into hopping Deus ex Machina. You, as a reader, are supposed to accept that a rabbit with a little switchblade knife is supposed to be not only some unstoppable fighting force, but also a scheming tactical genius with a capacity for evil unmatched by any other living creature on the planet.
It's a fucking rabbit.
Sluggy Freelance is a nonsense title. The webcomic is not the thrilling tales of an investigate reporter who is also a gastropod - as utterly fantastic as that would be. It's a good example of why novels and scripts in draft go through dozens of title changes: you can never be sure what's going to "fit" your story until there's enough of it done. Unless you're blessed with the uncanny ability to sit down, plot out an entire story in a few minutes and then put it all down exactly as is - and have it still be good. Sufficed to say, Pete Abrams probably didn't do this all the way back in September 1997. If he had hit upon the perfect title to describe his work before starting, it wouldn't be Sluggy Freelance. Either that or I'd be making this update about some other comic and enjoying the story of a slug digging in deep to uncover corruption in the White House or something of that nature.
(Someone make a proper Sluggy Freelance, please. You have at least one guaranteed reader. Make it like Transmetropolitan with slime trails, why not. Well, more slime trails.)
Anyway, Sluggy Freelance is full of moments where you should have started reading from the beginning. The early stories aren't all that bad, actually. This is because there are four, five characters in total and there's very little continuity. But it's like bureaucracy. As Sluggy Freelance has aged, more stories have occured, there's been more backstory to refer to... the whole thing is a little incestuous, really. You can start off in August 2000, when the "Black Ops Elves" are introduced. A few months later, in December, you have them turn up again when Santa turns into an alien. Both the elves and alien Santa reappear in December 2003, during the aforementioned "talking rabbit becomes demigod" storyline.
I'm fine with a little wackiness, a little weirdness, but stop doing it with a straight face. It's not like you're that good at drawing, Abrams. I mean, sure: from this to this in the space of five years isn't bad, even though the latter is kinda doin' the animu thing. Although I suppose that they've been drawn with partial noses rather than a full-blown case of snoutface. Then again, you did draw this only a few months later. Bad Abrams.
When you've got some soul-searching being done by a character who was introduced as a parody, you've gotta wonder what went wrong and where. I'll tell you. What happened was you started thinking you could do serious storylines at the same time as you were doing nonsensical parody storylines. Seriously, when you're trying to tug on your readers' heartstrings with the death of a talking reindeer who was nothing but a plot device then you're doing something wrong.
Not to mention the fact that you use COMIC FUCKING SANS! Well, when you're not using some utterly abysmal font that you grabbed from a "One Million Free Fonts!!!" type site. It's unforgivable.
I suppose that Sluggy Freelance kind of occupies the same strata on my bad webcomics rating system as El Goonish Shive. They both have retarded titles, for starters. They both use Comic Sans instead of a proper, non-shitty font. They both have long, meandering storylines that don't go anywhere pleasant, lots of continuity callbacks and characters that start off as jokes becoming actual members of the cast.
But it's not like I can rate either of them as all that bad, compared with other webcomics. They at least try to improve themselves, even if they don't. Neither one has gone into horrifying detail about a character's rape ordeal - Reitz, Terracciano, I am looking at both of you - or gone to lengths to demonstrate what a monumentally egotistic douchebag the creator is - again, Reitz and Terracciano.
But Sluggy Freelance is and always will be a bad webcomic. It has bad art, bad writing (despite a few good jokes and a few more good jokes that were turned into terrible jokes by overplaying them) and almost three hundred thousand words of backstory for you to enjoy before you even come close to understanding what the fuck is happening. That's pretty much the hallmark of a bad webcomic. That's not to say that continuity and telling an ongoing story is bad, no, but Sluggy isn't doing that. It's weaving together a variety of parodies and, more lately, boringly over-wordy original crap into one incohesive whole. When you do a couple of weeks of strips that parody Star Trek and Alien, don't make it required reading for a storyline eight years later. Don't turn the Alien parody alien into a serious race with an all-original backstory. Just... just don't.
I really can't comprehend why webcomic jerks cannot simply end things. Why they can't say to themselves, "I have told all I can tell with these characters. Time for something new." Everyone else does it! Joss Whedon (whatever your opinion on him is) did not decide to send Buffy and her friends into space, he made Firefly. Why makes your webcomic any more special? What makes your amateur-hour shit worthy of going on and on and on until nobody cares anymore but you? Probably the fact that you are amateurs, I suppose. Take my advice: finish up, start something new and you'll see that people will prefer that to eight more years of switchblade-toting rabbits and tiring shit like that.
Pete Abrams, I would tell you that your webcomic is bad and you should feel bad, but what do you care? Evidently not a lot, otherwise your webcomic wouldn't be so bad. But it is. Oh well.
And you will probably have to read every single last one of those words in order to understand a single fucking thing about what's going on with the latest strip. At a conservative estimate, you may find it quicker to watch the entire extended edition of the Lord of the Rings films back-to-back than the archives of Sluggy Freelance. But you'd have to, if you want to read it. It's not like the "New Viewer's Guide" is anything but "well, just read the archives" peppered with quotes about how good Sluggy Freelance supposedly is.
Y'see, it's just so fuckin' convoluted. At the end of the first week, Bun-Bun is introduced. He's a foul-mouthed talking animal that probably wasn't so fresh of an idea even back in 1997. This event is referenced some eight years later, at the climax of one of Sluggy's nigh-infamous story arcs. What's the story arc? Well it turns out that the talking rabbit has a feud with Santa Claus, and after killing various other holiday patrons and absorbing their powers, he is outwitted and thrown into a timeless void where he becomes a pirate captain searching for a mystical robot ship.
All of this is done with a relatively straight face, and fuckin' hell is it stupid. An incidental character who started off as a lame joke about talking animals in the newspaper funnies has blossomed into hopping Deus ex Machina. You, as a reader, are supposed to accept that a rabbit with a little switchblade knife is supposed to be not only some unstoppable fighting force, but also a scheming tactical genius with a capacity for evil unmatched by any other living creature on the planet.
It's a fucking rabbit.
Sluggy Freelance is a nonsense title. The webcomic is not the thrilling tales of an investigate reporter who is also a gastropod - as utterly fantastic as that would be. It's a good example of why novels and scripts in draft go through dozens of title changes: you can never be sure what's going to "fit" your story until there's enough of it done. Unless you're blessed with the uncanny ability to sit down, plot out an entire story in a few minutes and then put it all down exactly as is - and have it still be good. Sufficed to say, Pete Abrams probably didn't do this all the way back in September 1997. If he had hit upon the perfect title to describe his work before starting, it wouldn't be Sluggy Freelance. Either that or I'd be making this update about some other comic and enjoying the story of a slug digging in deep to uncover corruption in the White House or something of that nature.
(Someone make a proper Sluggy Freelance, please. You have at least one guaranteed reader. Make it like Transmetropolitan with slime trails, why not. Well, more slime trails.)
Anyway, Sluggy Freelance is full of moments where you should have started reading from the beginning. The early stories aren't all that bad, actually. This is because there are four, five characters in total and there's very little continuity. But it's like bureaucracy. As Sluggy Freelance has aged, more stories have occured, there's been more backstory to refer to... the whole thing is a little incestuous, really. You can start off in August 2000, when the "Black Ops Elves" are introduced. A few months later, in December, you have them turn up again when Santa turns into an alien. Both the elves and alien Santa reappear in December 2003, during the aforementioned "talking rabbit becomes demigod" storyline.
I'm fine with a little wackiness, a little weirdness, but stop doing it with a straight face. It's not like you're that good at drawing, Abrams. I mean, sure: from this to this in the space of five years isn't bad, even though the latter is kinda doin' the animu thing. Although I suppose that they've been drawn with partial noses rather than a full-blown case of snoutface. Then again, you did draw this only a few months later. Bad Abrams.
When you've got some soul-searching being done by a character who was introduced as a parody, you've gotta wonder what went wrong and where. I'll tell you. What happened was you started thinking you could do serious storylines at the same time as you were doing nonsensical parody storylines. Seriously, when you're trying to tug on your readers' heartstrings with the death of a talking reindeer who was nothing but a plot device then you're doing something wrong.
Not to mention the fact that you use COMIC FUCKING SANS! Well, when you're not using some utterly abysmal font that you grabbed from a "One Million Free Fonts!!!" type site. It's unforgivable.
I suppose that Sluggy Freelance kind of occupies the same strata on my bad webcomics rating system as El Goonish Shive. They both have retarded titles, for starters. They both use Comic Sans instead of a proper, non-shitty font. They both have long, meandering storylines that don't go anywhere pleasant, lots of continuity callbacks and characters that start off as jokes becoming actual members of the cast.
But it's not like I can rate either of them as all that bad, compared with other webcomics. They at least try to improve themselves, even if they don't. Neither one has gone into horrifying detail about a character's rape ordeal - Reitz, Terracciano, I am looking at both of you - or gone to lengths to demonstrate what a monumentally egotistic douchebag the creator is - again, Reitz and Terracciano.
But Sluggy Freelance is and always will be a bad webcomic. It has bad art, bad writing (despite a few good jokes and a few more good jokes that were turned into terrible jokes by overplaying them) and almost three hundred thousand words of backstory for you to enjoy before you even come close to understanding what the fuck is happening. That's pretty much the hallmark of a bad webcomic. That's not to say that continuity and telling an ongoing story is bad, no, but Sluggy isn't doing that. It's weaving together a variety of parodies and, more lately, boringly over-wordy original crap into one incohesive whole. When you do a couple of weeks of strips that parody Star Trek and Alien, don't make it required reading for a storyline eight years later. Don't turn the Alien parody alien into a serious race with an all-original backstory. Just... just don't.
I really can't comprehend why webcomic jerks cannot simply end things. Why they can't say to themselves, "I have told all I can tell with these characters. Time for something new." Everyone else does it! Joss Whedon (whatever your opinion on him is) did not decide to send Buffy and her friends into space, he made Firefly. Why makes your webcomic any more special? What makes your amateur-hour shit worthy of going on and on and on until nobody cares anymore but you? Probably the fact that you are amateurs, I suppose. Take my advice: finish up, start something new and you'll see that people will prefer that to eight more years of switchblade-toting rabbits and tiring shit like that.
Pete Abrams, I would tell you that your webcomic is bad and you should feel bad, but what do you care? Evidently not a lot, otherwise your webcomic wouldn't be so bad. But it is. Oh well.
76 comments:
- Yes. This update fills me with hope that my personal vote for Most Overrated Piece of Shit will someday be savaged, because turning parody into faux plot is its most obvious sin. (I won't mention it by name, though, since I'd rather not influence you in either direction.) Also, I too would read the shit out of an actual slug freelancer.
- Man, it was like you were able to take my own rage of Sluggy Freelance and put it into coherent sentences besides "It sucks, because it just sucks." I need to learn to articulate my rage like John Solomon. Also, thanks for posting a link to a blog with webcomic saving tips. Hopefully the person will update it as much as yours.
- Sluggy Freelance is ending. Abrams has promised that weeks ago. The next storylines will be about wrapping things up, and in three years, tops, it will be over. And I think you are confused about Aylee, it was obvious where things were going the instant she ate a human outside of "Sci-Fi Dimension" I don't understand the feud against Comic Sans. After all, he is using it the intended way, in all-uppercase
- "I don't understand the feud against Comic Sans. After all, he is using it the intended way, in all-uppercase" Comic sans should never be used. Ever. Or, for that matter, Digital Strip. If you can't hand-write or just want to computer letter, actually pony up for some decent fonts created by professionals who letter for a living.
- Sluggy was the first webcomic I stumbled across, many, many years ago. For a time it was pretty good (especially considering the state of webcomics c. 2000), but it's definately collapsing under it's own weight. I noticed you cut back on the swearing for this post, John. This wouldn't have been neccessary if you had gone into detail about the three abominable "Harry Potter" parodies. When he proudly promised that he would be doing one of these for each and every Potter movie (and had the gall to apologize that the most recent one was late), that was when I finally realized that the strip could no longer be redeemed.
- My swearing depends on how much I want to emphasise. If I just called stuff "a bad webcomic" people wouldn't see it in the same light as they would if I called it "a fucking abysmal piece of shit". People mistake swearing for me being easily irritated, or constantly enraged, or any number of fucking retarded things. It's just words, people.
- And yeah I really, really didn't want to touch those fucking awful Harry Potter crap-piles. I wasn't in the mood.
- "Sluggy Freelance is ending. Abrams has promised that weeks ago. The next storylines will be about wrapping things up, and in three years, tops, it will be over." THIS IS THE PROBLEM. No webcomic should have such a ridiculously convoluted story that it takes THREE FUCKING YEARS of daily updates to wrap it up, that's completely insane.
- "For a time it was pretty good (especially considering the state of webcomics c. 2000)," It's pretty odd to consider stuff like Sluggy and UF used to be considered to be good webcomics by virtue of the fact that they were the only game in town. And John, on the topic of stupid drama/humor dichotomies in webcomics you oughta revisit Dave Willis and his classic work of awfulness It's Walky! "HURR DUH DURR DURR DURRRRR cheetos in my buttcrack! oh no, MOM! DAD! Please don't die! My sould is ripped in twain... HEY! HOW ABOUT THOSE TRANSFORMERS LOLLERS!"
- I'm almost 100% sure I've seen a literal take on the title Sluggy Freelance, it was a slug in a trench coat and fedora reciting mildly noir lines, if I'm remembering it right, but I only remember a page or two, I doubt anyone tried anything permanent.
- Do you post on SA? 'Cause the real Sluggy Freelance appeared there briefly.
- It's pretty odd to consider stuff like Sluggy and UF used to be considered to be good webcomics by virtue of the fact that they were the only game in town. Yeah, pretty wierd how most things don't just pop out of the womb fully matured and realizing their full potential, eh? I'm sure the first guy who picked up a guitar didn't exactly sound like Andrés Segovia, either. But really what I meant was, compared to the drivel that was (and is) UF, Sluggy was a touch ahead of the game for a time. You know, consider the context and all that. Webcomics in general were completely uncharted waters for a time, and if somebody hadn't stuck out their neck to give a try, I doubt we'd have the quality comics that some are producing today. So I'll give Sluggy a little credit for that, at least. Of course, this doesn't mean that it should get a free pass on its numerous crimes against narrative and form that have since been committed. It's just hard for some of us who read the thing for seven years to admit what a pile of turd it's become.
- Thank you. Seriously. I cannot stress this enough. This update filled me with pride, and several fits of laughter. While some of your other entries were pretty good overall, I thought some of them could use a little formatting. This one was dead-on. Most paragraphs were well balanced, and, while I have nothing against the swearing, trimming away any unnecessary fat is always welcome. Oh, and a few questions: Do you only take on webcomics that are overall bad? Or they can be just boring? If so: Can I fantasize that, maybe someday, you'll take a turn at Questionable Content? Yeah, it's not THAT bad, but it's been a little on the half-assed end for the last couple of months. Once again(yay for redundancy!), thank you for making me start a day with a smile... and a little hope.
- I'd never read Sluggy Freelance before today, but I had heard of it and naturally assumed it was a webcomic about a slug reporter. Like a slimy little Carl Kolchak (McGavin, not Townsend's whiny cunt version). When you've got some soul-searching being done by a character who was introduced as a parody, you've gotta wonder what went wrong and where. People who write parodies need to learn to keep them as just that: parodies. If they want to move into something more dramatic, they need to use some original creations (or at least not ones whose entire existence was to draw chuckles). There's only one person who legitimately pulled the parody-into-drama transition off, and his name was Dave Sim (and some might argue he went batshit insane in the process).
- Sluggy is probably the only webcomic that's been posted on this blog that I still enjoy, though the current storyline is grating. But then I have a really good memory and read the archives 6 years ago when they weren't half as long. But yeah, Abrams is one of those authors that couldn't conclusively resolve a plotline to save his life, unless it meant opening six others at the same time. I mean, the question of what Oasis was was one of the first recurring plot points, and has only just been partly answered. And I seriously doubt the answer in 1998 was "weaponized ghost."
- Oh, and a few questions: Do you only take on webcomics that are overall bad? Or they can be just boring? If something is boring, it is bad. Entertainment is supposed to entertain, if it fails at that then it fails at everything else.
- I think that www.zipmic.dk sucks, couldn't you rate that for once?
- Joss Whedon did decide to send some of buffy's friends to L.A. and made "Angel" He was also trying to get a "Faith" spin-off and a Rupert Giles movie done. and there is the buffy season 8 comic books. It doesn't really undermine your actual point, but Joss may not have been the best example.
- First thing that came to mind, truthfully. But Angel, at least, had a mostly new cast, which is what I'm talking about. Instead of trying to cram everything into the one story with the one cast... branch out. Do new things. Most professional authors who limit themselves to one series of books with one cast of characters are either really dumb or really J. K. Rowling.
- i could never do a comic for 10 years with the same people, same plot, and continuity that lasts all the way back to the first couple of comics. I would kill myself before I do something like that. This is def. the reason that keeps me from reading the GOATS archive.
- Wow, it's kind of funny. 20 comments in and there's no flaming, no comments about John being secretly in love with Abrams or that he should offer constructive criticism and not meany-pants meaniness. Has Sluggy Freelance just reached the point where the internet has stopped caring about it? I think that says it all right there. For what it's worth, my mental picture of Sluggy Freelance has always been of a baseball-playing detective agency.
- You don't think it has anything to do with the fact that this was a well-structured review rather than a bunch of personal attacks?
- Oh, Goddamnit, tehkou! You just HAD to jinx it, didn't you? I am seriously mad with you, mister! Now I'm going to have to deal with a barrage of whiny cunts and festering retards, all drooling everywhere and saying stupid shit like the guy above. To be honest, the reason this has been fairly civil so far is that it's the weekend and most of the regular Troll Patrol are off at Sunday School, learning the Lord's Word. Expect a massive resurgence of inanity and outright vacant-minded shit on Monday.
- Man. Joss Whedon was not the right dude to offer up as an example of something better. Didn't Buffy start as a parody and then six years later Willow is a lesbian psychopathic murdering addict that we're supposed to feel so attached to? What?
- Crap! I changed the system merely by observing it! Fucking Schrodinger! For what it's worth, previous anonymous person, I've heard Whedon wanted to end the series after season 5 but was roped into at least two more seasons by the network and was as such pretty bitter about it. I can't think of a situation in webcomics where similar politics could be responsible for beating a dead horse (other than general peer pressure).
- Didn't Buffy get kicked off its regular network after Season 5, prompting Joss to move it to UPN rather than just let it die with dignity? And, on a completely different note, when are you going to get to the collected works of Josh Lesnick, John?
- Dominic Deegan - Rape Lowroad - TITS TITS TITS Sluggy Freelance - "It'll take me three years to tie up the loose ends, tops!" Single Asian Female - BLOOOOOD TRAITOOOOORS!!! Girly - ...the body-switching arc? The layout was difficult? It has lesbians? I'm not sure why you think Girly should be on the list, Jeff.
- How about shitty art, cluttered and confusing layouts, and overall crappiness?
- KC: This is def. the reason that keeps me from reading the GOATS archive. Try looking at the , it's a good example of how to do it. Just flip to "space wizards" and either pick up the series from there, or read from the aforementioned story on and you'll be good. It's a mini-reboot/starting point that's leading up to the end of the comic (tenatively set for 12/21/2012). Sorry for the derail. I just like Goats. (Ironically, it's taking Goats six years to wrap up after the ending was announced as opposed to Sluggy's three... but that's because it was a long story planned in advance, which is carrying on well so far.)
- Fucking hell. It ate half of my tag and I can't fix it.
- ...fucking thing.
- FireFly, How i miss thee :(
- I got linked here from Elftor. You gonna do that shit next?
- yeah, elftor, and then do pokey the penguin. it's like, the guy doesn't even try to hide the fact that he copies one panel to the next, he just scribbles over the old text!ghghghghghghghg
- Each panel has an average of 20 words of dialogue. You're an order of magnitude or three off there. The thing that finally turned me off SLuggy wasn't so much the convoluted plots as the endless realization that the panels had slowly become filled with huge balloons full of blah blah blah that wasn't amusing, compelling, or even illuminating. Just a huge torrent of pointless words. The watershed moment was somewhere in "Dangerous Days Ahead" where insanely prolix strips like this became the rule. When you've got some soul-searching being done by a character who was introduced as a parody, you've gotta wonder what went wrong and where. You could call this Dave Sim syndrome, but I think that's reserved for a much more rarefied sort of batshitery.
- Oh, I see Donnie beat me to the Sim comparison
- I've read Sluggy Freelance for a while and still tear some enjoyment from it, though I don't think I'll be able to do that much longer. On the terms of character development (wait, what?), one aspect in particular has been bugging me. Why is Torg still being skittish around Zoe by reason of a storyline that ENDED almost three years ago?
- Also, thanks for linking those other two blogs, they fit well with this one.
- You're an order of magnitude or three off there. I went about it scientifically and went to random strips in the archive, counted the number of words in each panel and averaged it out. Oh yeah, I'm nerdy like that. However, I have noted that the dialogue wordcount fluctuated between zero and almost triple digits. So you're probably right that it's super-wordy these days, but I was going for the comic as a whole.
- I would like to thank you for not simply saying "SLUGGY FRELANCE FTW OMG!!!!11111", and instead being one of the few people who realise just how overrated this shit is.
- Personally, it wouldn't be so bad if he just took the effort to have SOMEBODY. (not even necessarily himself - maybe just have his fans do it) make a real viewer guide. There's no excuse for just DEMANDING that you read the whole thing, especially considering that sluggy takes like 20 hours to chug through for FAST readers. Abrams should at least throw a bone to new readers, or he won't ever GET any new readers. (gotta admire the man's update schedule, though - he's pretty hardcore about it)
- dear john, if you ever need more material then go check out drunk duck. it's like keenspot for the new millenium! one of my favorite turds is the creepy boobs/weight gain fetish comic Craving Control.
- "I got linked here from Elftor. You gonna do that shit next?" This blog is about BAD webcomics, you fucking simpleton.
- I actually used to read this after seeing one of the Harry Potter strips until the whole "Bunny in God-Mode" stuff was overkill, and I realized the stories were really lame, as I went through 1000-something strips. When are you going to rip a new hole on Flem and it's douche bag creator James Grant? I don't think he does more stuff, but words fail me to describe how much I hate Grant and his shitty "Goth persona".
- To be honest, I don't really need people suggesting shit to me. What I need even LESS, however, is people telling me to do this next, or asking me when I'm going to do that. Shut up, I have my own schedule and a big, wide life outside this blog. I'll get to a webcomic when I get to it, because you can be sure this blog is going to be around for a while.
- Who suggested girly? Girly, and cutewendy, are fantastic in that they don't seem to take themselves that seriously (although, that hiatus thing that josh did has made me think somewhat otherwise). I also do like the subtle 4chan references (rules one and two, I know, whatever) that he includes.
- Anyone who suggests Girly is something of an idiot, as will inevitably be evidenced when I go over their favourite webcomic and they tell me I've "sold out" for unfairly mocking what is undoubtedly a masterpiece of gay transgender furry vore.
- Oh thank God someone else has finally come out and said that Sluggy Freelance sucks. Ten years ago I thought it sucked. Everyone around me either didn't know what it was or thought I was insane. Thank you.
- I've got to hand it to John Solomon. I agree with much of what he has said and I've spent a good four or five years of my life being a fan of Sluggy Freelance. I've since come to my senses a to realize just how endless and utterly convoluted Sluggy has become. And three years to do a wrap up? For God's sake Abrams, you have four, FOUR mian characters. Torg, Riff, Gwynn, and Zoe. THAT'S IT! How the hell does it take three years to work out an ending for these people? Unless you're planning on doing a "proper" ending for every minor character in existence in the Sluggy world. May the heavens help us...
- I stopped reading Sluggy Freelance maybe five years ago when John Allison of Scary Go Round did a guest week. I think Scary Go Round is one of the few good webcomics out there (since it's frequently funny and has a very clean, vibrant visual style), but the Sluggy fans BITCHED and MOANED that Allison's guest-week story arc wasn't serious enough, that his art wasn't up to the (putrid) standard set by previous Sluggy, and that they couldn't wait to get back to whatever nonsensical plotline the guest week interrupted. Boy am I glad to see this review.
- You and me, sir, definitively don't think the same way! Except for the comic SM Sans font, every critics you did to Sluggy Freelance where reason why I like the comic. Also, can't you get a nonsensical joke when you see one? And which amendment of the constitution say that you can't turn element of your parody into something more serious? I can't understand how "it come from a parody" can be a good reason enough to wipe out such a great character? (then again, maybe you don't like Aylee's character either) And yes of course we know it's just a rabbit, that's pretty much the point of the joke. Can't you see a Monthy Pithon reference when you see one? I suppose, you don't like the Pinky and Brain cartoon either. I mean, they ar just freaking LAB MICES! how can they talk? How can Brain be genius? He is just a mouse, it make no sens! Well,THAT's pretty much the joke, Duh! But maybe you don't like Bunbun because what was a simple joke developed into a more important character? All in all, i don't think giving importance to what seems first a trivial thing is a sin against nature if it is well executed. But maybe you think it was done correctly anyway. Well I don't. Your review make me realize you and me haven't the same taste at all. From now on, I will not worry anymore when you hate something that I like. But just to check, haven't you ever heard about a French comic writer Lewis Trondheim. Some of his work was published in the US. If you have read him, what's your opinion about him.
- correction of one of the 6th paragraph: All in all, i don't think giving importance to what seems first a trivial thing is a sin against nature if it is well executed. But maybe you think it wasn't done correctly anyway. Well I think that it was
- It's depressing because Abrams actually has the ability to be very, very funny when he isn't writing incredibly convoluted serious business bullshit.
- Strangely, despite guigui's lack of English skills, I find myself in agreement, mostly. Whatever.
- You're probably only agreeing because half the time you're just guessing what he means. One day, man may understand guigui. Today is not that day. And tomorrow doesn't look so good either.
- Hehe, that is partly true. Although when he opens with "Except for the comic SM Sans font, every critics you did to Sluggy Freelance where reason why I like the comic," well, I must say that things like the fact that you have to have read every last strip for the past ten years to have a clue what's going on in today's strip doesn't faze me one bit. A perfectly valid reason for thinking Sluggy sucks major balls. Me, I don't mind it.
- I really enjoyed the first few years of Sluggy Freelance, probably because I started when it had been running for only a few months, before it accumulated all the backstory. After he started doing the black ops elves every year, and the Harry Potter parodies, and converted the Dimension of Pain from an occasional gag to a regular feature, I started losing interest, and finally dropped it during the interminable Holiday Wars storyline.
- Also on the Joss Whedon connection... Yeah, Whedon made new characters... and threw most of them out the window, to focus Serenity on "River as Slayer analog." Then, see his run on Astonishing X-Men, where he turns Colossus into Angel, Kitty Pride into Buffy, the White Queen into an Anya/Cordelia analogue... and then has their danger room manifest as a Buffy-style demon. The man has one story, told over and over again. His one attempt to change that flopped, and in the movie was turned into the same thing. I'll respect him again the day he does something new, with no super-powered teenage girl in it.
- I've only watched the first couple of episodes of Firefly, so don't blame me.
- So, if it were a super-powered middle-aged woman, you'd be interested? I read Sluggy Freelance for the same reason I check Wheel of Time out of the library. It's gonna end. I know it is. And I'm gonna be there when it... ...huh. Wouldn't that be a kick in the balls to Sluggy fans if Abrams died before he finished?
- Lay off bun-bun. Yes, he's a bunny. That is a perfectly realistic method of characterizing something of extreme power _and_ fluffiness. [say, you're an editor. this needs work. care to take a stab at it?] Then again, I know the person both bun-bun and kiki were based off of (you would not realize such a thing walking down the street, honest). Ponder that, bitch.
- I'm not even sure if anyone will read this, since I'm coming here so late in the game. Whatever. Call me crazy, but one of the things I like about Sluggy is the fact that minor characters and parodies have been fleshed out. I realize that not everyone will enjoy it, but there are people who do. Look, I'm not going to go on and on about Sluggy being the greatest comic ever and blah blah blah. I'm probably not going to change your mind. I just wanted to make sure that you know two things. #1: Bun-bun is not a deus ex machina. He has already been set up as an extremely powerful and cunning creature; he hasn't been suddenly introduced into a storyline just for the purpose of resolving it. #2: You ask webcomic "jerks" (and, having implied Pete Abrams as one of said "jerks", you ask him as well), "What makes your amateur-hour shit worthy of going on and on and on until nobody cares anymore but you?" I'm sorry, but as long as he has a single reader, someone else cares. And when he has crazed fanpeople who leap to defend the comic, someone else definitely cares. You're perfectly entitled to your opinion. But some of your points spill from opinion to incorrect factual statements, hurting the chances that an objective reader will take you seriously.
- Love Sluggy Freelance; never miss an update; am saving up to buy the 'megatomes' so I can re-read them over and over even after the strip ends, which I personally hope it never does. So as to how web comics can go on and on like that...because a significant number of people enjoy and support them and because presumably the author still enjoys doing them.
- I've been a devout fan of Sluggy Freelance ever since that fateful day a few years ago when I decided to clean out my computer's temp memory... Of the many gif, jpeg, and bmp files that I found, I noticed a few that seemed to be for a comic of some sort (I came into possesion of the computer in question when it had already been used for a few years). Since then, I've been a fan of Sluggy Freelance, as I enjoy long plotlines. For me, a comic that is like a novel is an enjoyment, as opposed to a comic where the author can kill off his characters regularly, yet not even try to offer an explanation. I can see how that would be appealing, as it requires little time, just reading the latest comic, but it tends to leave me nothing but confusion and a large headache (He was killed by an arrow yesterday, how is he still alive?). And just a though... Is it just me, or are the majority of you impatient teenagers who love to go 100 kilometers an hour through residential areas? (about 62 mph for devout users of the english systems). Sometimes in life, you need to have patience, not just the kind of patience that keeps you from hurting others, but also the kind of patience that can pay off in the long run, whether it's a menial task, or understanding jokes. Lastly, is it possible for one of you to express your opinion of Sluggy Freelance without A. swearing as if you were practicing for being on Jerry Springer, and B. Having the ability to spell better than my little brother? I'm trying to take equally everyone's opinion, but it's somewhat hard to do that when I see idiotic spellings of words; words that are easy to spell to the point where it depresses me to see then misspelled. PS. Pete Abrams is an honorable man, a good writer, a good father, and the creator of a multiverse; one for which I am eternally grateful. PPS. What the bleep is so bad about sans font? It's just another text for bleeping out loud! PPPS. Things that the majority of the people who posted on here need: Imagination A sense of humor The ability to spell better than my little brother of nine years. A sense of tolerance The ability to express their opinion without spouting obscenities to make their opinion clearer.
- OK I'm not a fan of Sluggy Freelance, I've only read a few of them that my bf showed me and I admit I didn't get the plotline at all. But... A talking rabbit that has a switchblade and superpowers? That is just awesome. That is the only thing I liked about the comic. Trash the boring...but do NOT trash the bunneh.
- John Solomon is Charlie Brooker.
- Ok I'm acually a fan of Sluggy. I'm not one of the niffty protecters or anything. But the comic has given me something to read for years, and I guess seeing how I have no problem reading through an entire archive (even one of sluggies size) the hard to understand for newcommers jokes don't bother me. But I can agree that Sluggy should rap it up soon. But I'll acually miss it once it's gone. And about Bun-Bun being a superb fighter...It's a comic. I suppose we also should rant about Spider-man climbing on walls (oh yeah. Spidde owns). And though it was funnier before, the evolving storyline (though very weird) keeps me intrigued to find out more...Ok not the Harry Potter parodies. Even I diselike those. But say the Oasis plot. But I'm not trying to attack you guys in any way. You are critics so this is what you're suppose to do. But I give you a few points. The comic has it's flaws. But what doesn't (retorical question). Ok I'm ready to face you're replies. Though I'll only bother to answer the insightfull ones and the stupid funny ones :P I hope you have fun and find comics you like better (sincer, not sarcastic)
- The webcomic is not the thrilling tales of an investigate reporter who is also a gastropod - as utterly fantastic as that would be. Slug Freelance Reporter? --- But YES.... Sluggy Freelance DID EXACTLY start out that way, and I only wish to all the Gods that may exist that I HAD known it was going to have a "rebirth" as a strip, and that I had done some screencaps of it at the time of its original incarnation. Unfortunately, not having done so back then (innocently assuming they would still be there years from now) means I can NOT prove that this version ever existed, much to my chagrin. Dammit.... (Not to say that it was necessarily a GOOD webcomic at the time - perhaps why the change - however, Sluggy Freelance as a Freelance Slug Reporter really *DID!* xxist.) I distinctly remember seeing webcomic strips about young Sluggy the Freelance Reporter attending the Democratic Convention, and meeting a "sexy girl-slug" in a bar where he had been served a mixed drink in a martini glass... and to my mind, it was kinda boring.... The next time I bothered to visit the online strip, it had been revamped into the strip we all "know and love" (or for some, some "hate and loathe". However, I personally still find it quite amusing. :p). Pete Abrams will NOT acknowledge this change in his original incarnation of the strip, by the way - I tried to email him a few times about it, and he never acknowledged that the original version ever existed, or responded to my questions. My guess is it: he decided the original version sucked, but he tried to retain market name share, and he had secured the domain name - hence the retention of the webcomic title.
- Aaah... Sluggy Freelance... Kind of WAAAAY past its prime isn't it? It started out as a comic based on 'rule of cool' (or at least 'rule of quirky'.) But yeah... the endless expositions and giant word bubbles and convoluted nonsense killed it years ago for me. And even before that I didn't think it was quite worthy of the HYPE either. Just in the past it was occassionally amusing.
- You know, the format for these comics remind me of the format for the comics I doodle on scrap paper. I cramp up the words and make the boxes too small, but at least I have the decency to avoid all forms of seriousness with them, as anything that isn't a joke would utterly flop given the shitty quality. Also, even when this guy jokes, they aren't that good, or relevant. And this guy was somehow reviewed on NPR? What the fuck man?!?
- The problem with this review is it dresses up a lot of subjective opinion and popular convention and tries to pass it as some "objective" standard of merit. Take the "parodies should never become well-developed characters" bit--why not? You can say it's hard, maybe close to impossible, to do well, but the idea that if it hasn't been done, it shouldn't be done, has pretty much turned newspaper comics into the mostly trite drivel we get today. Nobody's forcing you to pay for any of it, so as long as someone wants to put out a comic, and people want to read it/support it, I don't think they should feel like a "jerk" for doing it. I mean, the great thing about the internet is it can put out content for every sort of person--even the kind who likes long back story and complicated plot--rather than copying the popular thing of the moment and subjecting us to it all the time.
- "... And you will probably have to read every single last one of those words in order to understand a single fucking thing about what's going on with the latest strip. ..." I love having a huge back log of strips to read when I look up a new web comic. Sluggy is more or less my dearest wish come true in that respect. On the other hand, I love The Wheel of Time.
- If you do not like it, then do not read it. It is a pretty simple idea. Sluggy Freelance obviously still has a rather loyal following and that is fine. I enjoy the charectors and the long meandering story lines and I will continue reading it right up until the last panel and I will enjoy it for what it is and what it has become. I am truely sorry that you pointlessly wasted so much of your precious time on something you obviously do not enjoy. But that is no reason to bitch endlessly about something that someone has put considerable work into and many more people still greatly enjoy. Once again, if you feel your time is too valuable to be spent reading something you do not enjoy then by all means do not bloody read it. You can use that time to write another rambling rant about something else that does not have to effect you at all.
- the reason you think it is a bad comic is because you dont like the fact that the plots are conected to earlier parts. you say that you have to read all of it for the part you are on to make sense. START FROM THE BEGINING. it will make perfect sense if you read it order. i started reading Sluggy Freelance from the begining 2 months ago and am already up to date. it doesnt actualy take a huge amount of time, and you can divide it up. if you dont think of everything before the point were the comic is at now as backstory, it is a much better comic. it wasnt backstory when it was writen. the comic is written like a real book, thing from earlier on are refferd to much latter. have you ever read a real book series (other than an episodic series like the hardy boys or the animorphs) were occurences from other books are not refrenced?
- Penis.
- I confess, I enjoy Sluggy Freelance. It might have something to do with the fact that I started reading it when it was just a couple years old and so know what's going on and have come to really like the characters, etc. Like any webcomic, especially any with a half-way decent run, it has its way ups and way downs. But overall, I've enjoyed it, and I think Abrams recognizes that it can be hard to follow. Given that there are links at the bottom of every new comic to previous comics it references. It's like having a thick Romance-era novel with the list of characters at the front and an index of things and places in the back. Though obviously, its not in the same category. Don't quite understand the problem with fonts, as long as they're clear and legible. I guess that falls into the pet-peeve department though. To reference several earlier comments. Yes, webcomics are a form of entertainment. They need to be entertaining, but in the end, what entertains one person doesn't necessarily entertain another. But I'm stating the obvious here...
