Well, I could give him a pass on that. Some people – myself included – find it easier sometimes to print something out that you KNOW is going to need extensive editing. I settle down with some colored pens and make notes in the margins. But if this is going to be used as a plot device where Michael risks his life to retrieve the manuscript, but completely forgets about the computer, I’m going to be mildly peeved.
PS: I’m also convinced it’s going to be the fault of the cigar smoking moron downstairs, and that they’ll end up suing the landlord just because. I actually kind of like the people downstairs, in a “characters you love to hate” sort of way.
As someone on the Usenet group rec.arts.comics.strips pointed out, why didn’t he have a copy offsite? The least he could have done was email it to himself.
I hear you about the declining quality, but (like you) I still check in every day.
The way I would articulate my critisism is twofold:
She spends less time on each story arc (as you mentioned). For example, I have the Farley-death arc spread out on my desk, and Johnston spent 18 dailies and 3 Sundays on it (am I missing any). Now, Grandpa has a stroke and it’s off-again, on-again while she tries to get caught up with other story lines.
She is more preachy. Rather than letting the characters speak for themselves, or for the lessons to evolve over the course of several strips, now it’s more obvious what she considers the “right answer” to be. There is still depth to be had - I liked the early strips with Shannon, but there’s also some jerking us around - do we really not know that sexual assualt is icky?
Personally I think the whole having characters who age thing has caught up with her. Instead of it being a comic about Elly and how her family affects her it is a comic about Elly and Michael and Liz and April and Iris and everyone else. It doesn’t have a central focus. Also, I think she may be getting bored with it now. Hell, I am not interested enough in my own family to write about them every day, let alone a family that I made up!
I’d have stopped reading it some time ago but by the time I register that I’m reading it, I’ve already read it. I have the same problem with Garfield and Baby Blues–I try to avoid them but they leap into my eyes as I desperately try to get from Dilbert to Doonsbury without scanning the page in between.
Since I stopped taking a bus to work, I no longer get the paper every day. The strips I do read are Pibgorn, 9 Chickweed lLane, Candorville, Captain Murphey, Frazz, Geech, Get Fuzzy, Opus, Pearls Before Swine, and Rudy Park ('cos they’re all on comics.com). The only time I catch up with FBOFW is when a Doper links to it in CS. When this thread sinks off page 1, I’ll lose touch again.
What happened with the eviction notice Lovey gave the downstairs neighbors?
Evidently they do have a smoke alarm, btw. But why put the baby’s boots on before evacuating the building?
They found some kind of loophole. According to Lovey, “They have so many rights. :tsk: It’s just not right!”
Listen, you don’t know Deanna. After she gets the kids into full winter gear, she’ll have to pack a suitcase, make peanut butter sandwiches, and have everyone visit the powder room. You can’t just rush out of a house willy-nilly; you have to plan.