Yes, shun the nonbelievers! Shuuuuuuuun!

You were the chosen one! You were supposed to destroy the haters, not join them!

Please tell me you're not suggesting that FreakyBoy is Pete's father. Right? Right?

I will don my defender badge and stand beside FreakyBoy. Yeah you heard me right!

I see. So this is how it must be.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt0UuNpUqK4

To quote Planet of the Apes:

Why can't we all just get along?

*Frantically declares neutrality in the face of several angry glares*

Wussypants.

What did you call me?

*Pulls out anti-matter bazooka*

WUSSYPANTS.
*Pulls out Anti-antimatter-bazooka-Bazooka*

I'm not sure that's actually true. Reading daily messes with your sense of time. It always seems like Pete is taking a break every five minutes, and that the bad storylines stretch on forever, while the good ones fly past. You have to read straight through the archives to get the real sense of how long or how frequent things actually are.

For me, my feelings about the Strip aren't based on whether Pete is burning out or not. It just comes down to the realization that there's only a few different destinies for a daily strip --or an ongoing series of any type:
1. It can settle into a repetitive groove that
A. endlessly rehashes the same gags and situations (like most comic strips, sitcoms, etc)*
B. offers endless elegant variations on the same gags and situations (like Peanuts and a small handful of others).
2. It can fizzle out
3. It can draw things to some kind of satisfying conclusion.

Right now, I'm rooting for 3 over 1 or 2. You know, 15 years is a long time to do ANYTHING. Sluggy is nearly as old as the World Wide Web itself. There are probably Sluggites who weren't even born when the strip began.


* Note: soap operas are the same situation as comedies except with love triangles instead of pratfalls.

You forgot one:

4. It can endlessly explore an ever expanding, ever stranger and more amazing universe, growing and growing, leaving a forest of dangling plot-threads in its wake. Threads hung with shining hooks to snare an unwary reader and hold them fast, forever awaiting fulfillment and resolution.

"And Pete looked upon what He had wrought and He saw it was good. And He said, 'Let it be called Sluggy Freelance. It is my will that it shall continue, even unto the End of Time.' "

4 is not a viable solution. Those hooked people will eventually break free, and eventually the hook-net will be so big that it will frighten away newcomers before they can be hooked. It's a slow-death option.

Agree with Freaky I do. See wisdom you must, plotlines must be resolved yes! Interest those who are strong in the Sluggy will wain and the Dark Side of Webcomics will draw down. Not want this, we do.

Strong in the Sluggy I am, but not that strong. Must have plot mmmm yes before I sleep

Well played, sir.

I have a picture of myself in a boyscout uniform from back when the comic first began.