Welcome to CHAPTER TWO-Two-two-two!

I've been so excited about this new comic! And I'm even more excited, because this chapter's gonna be called "The Sci-Fi Adventure!" I love science fiction! I didn't realize this great little slice of life (with demons) comic could have spaceships or whatever too! You can find the first comic of the chapter here and the last here!

Again, it's just about a month of strip. These chapters are gonna be a breeze to get through!

((For those who've missed the original discussion on the topic, a bunch of sluggites have decided to reread the entire comic, one chapter a week (or so) until we're all caught up. For some of us, this is a chance to keep track of the [SPOILERS] about [SPOILER], for others, another try at reading everything that's been written, despite wandering away from the comic years ago. Please join us!

Because lots of us have stopped reading at different points, please don't directly discuss spoilers in this thread. So that means, anything from Holiday Seasons onwards is verboten!))

Happy reading!

There's still a strong sense of free-association happening at this point in the comic. Like Pete was just doing whatever came to mind at that moment. Which results in tons of fun, but it shows in the delivery of some of the jokes. "But Torg, you just peed on the captain!" is amusing, but present-day Pete would deliver it better. That said, I don't think modern Torg and Riff would've handled this much differently

Also: "WHAT IS THIS? A SCI-FI THRILLER OR A GOOFY BUDDY MOVIE?"
The defense may have rested that time, but this is a question that will be posed anew with each subsequent chapter.

And so we see Riff's Laser Cannon for the first time, Wielded by Torg of all people. Also, Aylee.

Also, note that the Captain is bald in the sunday strip where we first see him, and then not bald, when Torg and Riff get beamed up.


Indeed.

(OK, finally got on this after a week away...)

THE sci-fi adventure?

Wow, he really didn't think this was going to last a long time, did he? Oh, just, we'll do a theme for a week. Let's do... science fiction!

Yeah, I remember an old interview he did where he mentioned that his original plan was to cycle out main characters over time, maybe focus on some location or item instead to drive the story. So Torg and Riff move out, other people move in, and so on. It's an interesting idea, but it never would've worked for Sluggy - pretty much because of crazy stuff like this chapter. It made the main characters too interesting to leave behind

Huh, I never knew that! I can totally see it in retrospect though, especially after just re-reading all this older stuff. This archive trawl is delightful -- I think I'm going to be able to use it to finally get my girlfriend to read Sluggy!

Anyways some thoughts on Chapter 2...
It's cool how even from Chapter 1 to Chapter 2 you can see Pete tightening up the artwork, cleaning it up and getting it better and more clearly defined. Still hasn't hit his stride quite yet though with the level of the art we see today... not sure when it really gets to a consistent level actually -- will be interesting to take better notice of the shifting quality of the art as we keep going!

I actually once specifically started an archive trawl to keep track of the laser cannons. I even remember the ultimate fate of Torg's...

Considering what he was already capable of, this is surely a matter of his easing back on the intentionally sketchy quality.

Um, didn't Pete "recently" start updating the look of his early work? I recall some news posts about that. I have no idea how far he got though.I think it involved enlarging the earlier 4 panel strips for ease of printing or something.

(That may or may not be what you guys were talking about. My brain has a kind of "art" blind spot.)

The past:
Finally got around and read this chapter. I have got to say this is moving along nicely. About a month of strips and it only felt like the previous chapter ended a week ago.

Anyway... I have to say that this Riff fellow didn't have to "check his notes" since what he said was correct. Everything to the right did get blasted into another dimension. Bun-bun was to the left of the DFA. They on the other hand...

So Zoe wasn't just some throw-away character after all. She'll probably be some "damsel in distress" character and end up in trouble all the time.

Pete only killed five people in-panel this time. I'm not sure if this is an upgrade from him beating people up in the last chapter...


The future:No it wasn't for printing. It was just to make them look better on the site. Here's some info about the "Sluggy Beautification Project" *Scroll down*

OR

Here's a comparison...

Also, weren't there older strips where the panels were individual image files and he merged them to the format how they would appear in the books?

Normally it was only the Sunday strips that he would split, though it was mostly not individual panels. Let me check here...

He followed this format:
3 panels (or the equivalent to a daily strip)
1 panel
2 panels (or equivalent)
2 panels (or equivalent)
1 panel
3 panels (or the equivalent to a normal strip)

Not sure how long he kept that format... Never mind found it.

It wasn't until chapter 50 that he finally quit doing it that way. He started to change in chapter 49 but reverted back for the Stick Figures in Space filler for some reason.

I think it had to do with browser sizing? I remember back in the early 2000s when I first upgraded my monitor, and Pete's Sunday comics suddenly widened for me! You can experience this for yourself if you go to one of the Sunday comics that haven't been re-done yet and shrink your browser window down. I'm not sure if that was the original intention for breaking up the art (maybe it was a file size thing?), but it was an interesting side effect.