Daily Strip: December 18, 2004

[shui]

This is kind of funny in and of itself, but *why* must Ian comics try so hard to be mundane? Ian should strive harder to make it so things are different than on earth -- not everything needs to have an allegory on earth. You can make it so Terb and Plorb came from some hickish family, and it'd be funny -- but make it so it's a hickish family that would occur in the DOP, not one that would occur on earth. You don't need to keep making the DOP and DOG into earth, Ian!

That's where Ian thrives. His comic was born from a cross between magic and monsters and modern, and personally I love it. Bruno the Bandit isn't one of my top five comics, but I enjoy reading through the archives. There are parts that crack me up every time.

Granted, MITDOX is different. I think Sluggy fans, myself included, expect something different out of Sluggy, but this is typical Ian, and if you don't enjoy it, you don't really have to read it--Ian very rarely makes major changes, and whenever he does, you can probably pick them up in the on-topic forums.

[Ikuko]

Yaykes! They are DOG versions of Gwynn and Torg!

[Marcus]

Oooh, I liked that one. Blue trash on Stinger :D

[Tangent]

Actually, I suspect that this is the final Saturday Grief/Pain/Whatever strip. Thus Ian was wrapping things up on a humerous note, allowing for the "side effects" of the Demon King's dis-empowerment of Horb's family and also finishing all the loose ends. And on a semi-humerous note.

Personally, I think the MitDo* has run its course and it's time for us to return to Sluggy Freelance Saturdays. I was kind of hoping to see Torg and the gang singing at Gwynn some more, to be honest.

Ah well. Take care, all. See you Sunday.

Robert A. Howard

[Rocketfox]

Damn, I'd forgotten that today wasn't Sluggy Prime!

But teehee, Plorb looks like Gwynn!

...we finally got to see Tryka and sweral drawn by Ian! YAY!

Actually, Ian's drawn them as background characters quite a few times...

[MerlinOfChaos]

Seriously. Pete, if you read these forums, every Friday night I forget what day it is, and I click the Sluggy button I keep on the top of my browser, and I want to rip my eyeballs out.

And if Pete doesn't read these forums, please, one of you who does, tell him this! I bitch about this to everyone I know that reads Sluggy, and everyone I know agrees with me.

Even on your bad days, Pete, you are funny. Sometimes you do stuff I don't particularly like.

But your choice in filler is hideous and this Dimension of Grief stuff has gone on far too long. It's not funny. There's been exactly one that I've laughed at (when the Sox one) and the rest just make me go "Get to Sunday already".

Please. If you need the day off, leave Saturdays blank.

Put a picture of your kid.

Give us another bikini shot of Zoe.

Point your camera outside and take a picture of your sidewalk.

But enough of the dimension of grief!

When you finally brought Horribus & crew back into the main comic, I had to spend a week or two remembering that, oh yea, Horribus is actually a serious character.

And I think the destruction of Sam, as a character, was the last straw for me.

Thanks for listening.

[fifthfiend]

When I read the comic, I was actually sort of just giving it a glazed-eye scanning over, not particularly reading the dialogue, or anything. So anyway, I got to the bottom row and look at the picture and I'm like, "Oh, a stinger. So, I guess he's supposed to be Jerry Stinger."

And then I read it and believe it or not, I was right.

And that basically sums up how I feel about Saturdays.

[Luke]

I like the sign on the 'viewing pool....'

And that's about it.

--- Luke

[Dragma]

Bah, I liked it, I burst out laughing at this one.

Humm, and was it not in one of the Spec threads that some one equated Ian's MiTDoX strips like the Jerry Springer show???

Well looks like Ian might read them :)

[Wrock]

Please. If you need the day off, leave Saturdays blank.

Seconded!

On to today. Yes this is the first meanwhile I've read in a long time. Mostly because I wanted to see the Horribus fall-out. This one wasn't that bad.
Plorb kinda looks like a blue Gwynn. It's weird to see that, but is kind of a nice effect. After reading the post-transformation lines, I went back and looked to see if their necks were painted red, but Plorb is still wearing that neckbrace.

[Weremensh]

Ian's ok; he's just not penning Sluggy strips. He's doing Bruno in the Sluggyverse. If you really don't like that kind of thing, you really shouldn't be reading it. Besides, Pete set up Horb's family to be pretty low class.

I wonder what happened to the kid...

[Kamae]

I'm on the boat of letting this be the LAST Saturday from Ian. Just leave them blank or something. It's a nice place to finally stop.

I agree with Merlin about this business messing up the integrity of the actual Sluggyverse. The transition from the idiocy of Ian's protrayal of Sluggy characters, to their use by Pete is just really hard to swallow. Sure, some of the characters(Sam, Reakk) are bunglers in the Sluggyverse....but Ian just takes it to a ridiculous level. Ugggh.

Can't we just end this? It'd be so easy.

[Silverwalker]

Since I'm Swedish I wasn't sure at first what kind of slang that was; could Ian actually be making fun of the way blacks talk in the U.S.? Ah, but no, he's making fun of "white trash," so everything is politically correct and therefore all right. (There is no "black trash," is there? Didn't think so.)

The usual lame way of drawing the MitDoP, the usual demons-being-humans joke which got very worn out the first time, and in general a poor substitute for the good filler strips other people have done for Sluggy. When is Ian going to realize this isn't what he should be doing?

[Marcellus]

Has not the world suffered enough Jerry Springer parodies? Honestly now.

[Psychic Jack]

Please. If you need the day off, leave Saturdays blank.

Put a picture of your kid.

Give us another bikini shot of Zoe.

Point your camera outside and take a picture of your sidewalk.

But enough of the dimension of grief!

Alright... The only one of these that I agree with is the bikini shot of Zoe. ...or Gwynn. ...or Sasha. ...or any other female Sluggy cast member. But other than that, why would you WANT a photograph of the sidewalk over this? Yeah, its not Pete, but if you don't like it, DON'T READ IT. I could understand if you didn't want it to interrupt the story, but you'd rather have a photograph of the sidewalk?

At least with this you can analyze the work and see how it ties into the storylines. Yeah, it's done in a completely different style, both artistically and scriptwise, but it's kind of like watching a show from two different perspectives. Often times they have their own lives, but sometimes the two worlds clash.

On that note, I REALLY don't like how Ian drew Tryka. Then again, maybe that's just because she's my favourite demon, and thus nobody can draw her right, other than Pete, in my mind...