# Has there ever been a comic strip story slower than Brooke McEldowney's "Pibgorn"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 26, 2008, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-comic-strip-story-slower-than-brooke-mceldowneys-pibgorn/450631 "2008-05-26T07:30:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2008, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-comic-strip-story-slower-than-brooke-mceldowneys-pibgorn/450631/1 "2008-05-26T07:30:51Z")
God… it’s like Chinese water torture. [One pretty panel 3 times a week,](http://www.gocomics.com/pibgorn/) but the pace of the storytelling is beyond glacial. A snail on qualudes could outrace this storyline. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2008, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-comic-strip-story-slower-than-brooke-mceldowneys-pibgorn/450631/2 "2008-05-26T07:39:17Z")
Well, geez, read the description: > [@](#): > > A fantastic saga of adventure both high and low, of forbidden passion and iambic pentameter, of fays, fools, organists, demons, accordions, heaven, hell and Shakespeare, Pibgorn follows the whims and flights of its eponymous fairy heroine as she plies her conviction that there must be more to life than depositing dew drops on dandelions and sleeping under mushrooms. I wouldn’t be expecting _Die Hard_, here. ---
**Author:** ![lawoot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/35a633/32.png) [@lawoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawoot)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2008, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-comic-strip-story-slower-than-brooke-mceldowneys-pibgorn/450631/3 "2008-05-26T08:25:36Z")
Have you never read _Mary Worth_? ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2008, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-comic-strip-story-slower-than-brooke-mceldowneys-pibgorn/450631/4 "2008-05-26T15:22:50Z")
I predict the next person to reply to this thread will do so on Wednesday. And thereafter on Friday. By the end of next week you’ll have eight replies. Yay you! BTW, you _know_ that in his notebooks, Brooke McEldowney has got X-rated Pibgorn/Chickweed crossover femslash doodlings. None of it on line, though. :o not that I’ve googled for it or anything. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2008, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-comic-strip-story-slower-than-brooke-mceldowneys-pibgorn/450631/5 "2008-05-26T15:41:25Z")
I’ve got both the _Pibgorn_ TPB collections. ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2008, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-comic-strip-story-slower-than-brooke-mceldowneys-pibgorn/450631/6 "2008-05-26T15:50:23Z")
[QUOTE=Koxinga] :o not that I’ve googled for it or anything. [/QUOTE] Suuuuuuure you haven’t. 😉 …Yeah, I’d pay to see those, too. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2008, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-comic-strip-story-slower-than-brooke-mceldowneys-pibgorn/450631/7 "2008-05-26T16:24:14Z")
I agree the pace is very slow, exacerbated by McEldowney’s penchant for doing dialogless panels. I like the strip – when the characters speak, it’s always worth it. And since this is probably just a side project for him, I guess he’d rather work slowly. But I wish they would pick up the story. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2008, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-comic-strip-story-slower-than-brooke-mceldowneys-pibgorn/450631/8 "2008-05-26T18:58:19Z")
[QUOTE=lawoot] Have you never read _Mary Worth_? [/QUOTE] I was going to bring her up. I think one poolside party lasted six months at one point. And it wasn’t exactly a marathon party. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2008, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-comic-strip-story-slower-than-brooke-mceldowneys-pibgorn/450631/9 "2008-05-26T19:12:21Z")
Another contender in the slow stakes. David Lynch’s [The Angriest Dog in the World](http://www.davidlynch.de/angry.html) ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2008, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-comic-strip-story-slower-than-brooke-mceldowneys-pibgorn/450631/10 "2008-05-26T19:30:02Z")
[QUOTE=Koxinga] I predict the next person to reply to this thread will do so on Wednesday. And thereafter on Friday. By the end of next week you’ll have eight replies. Yay you! BTW, you _know_ that in his notebooks, Brooke McEldowney has got X-rated Pibgorn/Chickweed crossover femslash doodlings. [/QUOTE] Ironic, since Brooke resembles the actor who plays Elliot Stabler. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2008, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-comic-strip-story-slower-than-brooke-mceldowneys-pibgorn/450631/11 "2008-05-26T20:43:38Z")
Was the pace faster in the beginning? I only started reading it within about the last year and I haven’t found an archive. Would it be worth getting the first book, or was it slow then, too? ---
**Author:** ![Omi\_no\_Kami](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a88e4f/32.png) [@Omi\_no\_Kami](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omi_no_Kami)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2008, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-comic-strip-story-slower-than-brooke-mceldowneys-pibgorn/450631/12 "2008-05-26T20:48:00Z")
I don’t know if it’s all that bad, but the slow pacing was the second thing that finally turned me off of [Alpha Shade](http://www.alpha-shade.com/0Comics/pages.htm). …the first thing was that after reading 200 pages, I still had no idea what was going on. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2008, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-comic-strip-story-slower-than-brooke-mceldowneys-pibgorn/450631/13 "2008-05-26T21:27:45Z")
[QUOTE=RealityChuck] I agree the pace is very slow, exacerbated by McEldowney’s penchant for doing dialogless panels. I like the strip – when the characters speak, it’s always worth it. And since this is probably just a side project for him, I guess he’d rather work slowly. But I wish they would pick up the story. [/QUOTE] Definitely. It seems even slower when, in this case, you’ve already guessed long ago what the big storyline revelation is probably going to be and now have to likely wait until late 2009 to find out if you’re right. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2008, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-comic-strip-story-slower-than-brooke-mceldowneys-pibgorn/450631/14 "2008-05-27T00:14:10Z")
[QUOTE=Yllaria] Was the pace faster in the beginning? I only started reading it within about the last year and I haven’t found an archive. Would it be worth getting the first book, or was it slow then, too? [/QUOTE] The early strips were much better at pacing – fewer (if any) wordless art panels, and a story that worked nicely. But eventually McEldowney found the pace of doing two strips a day too much (especially a full color one line Pigborn) and switched to three a week. ---
**Author:** ![Helena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c68b51/32.png) [@Helena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2008, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-comic-strip-story-slower-than-brooke-mceldowneys-pibgorn/450631/15 "2008-05-27T01:23:32Z")
I looked through several of the panels and finally realized that it’s not called “Pigborn.” :smack: ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2008, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-comic-strip-story-slower-than-brooke-mceldowneys-pibgorn/450631/16 "2008-05-27T02:55:03Z")
Abrams (“Sluggy Freelance”) descended into molasseshood back during the “Bun-Bun The No-Time Pirate” era a year or so back. I think that storyline lasted for three years, and very little actually happened. ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2008, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-comic-strip-story-slower-than-brooke-mceldowneys-pibgorn/450631/17 "2008-05-28T04:26:18Z")
[QUOTE=RealityChuck] I agree the pace is very slow, exacerbated by McEldowney’s penchant for doing dialogless panels. I like the strip – when the characters speak, it’s always worth it. And since this is probably just a side project for him, I guess he’d rather work slowly. But I wish they would pick up the story. [/QUOTE] The problem isn’t that he’s working slowly. I get updating only a few times a week. But the would still be crawling if he updated twice a day. He just tells it slowly. His Shakespeare story was glacial. ---
**Author:** ![lawoot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/35a633/32.png) [@lawoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawoot)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2008, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-comic-strip-story-slower-than-brooke-mceldowneys-pibgorn/450631/18 "2008-05-28T09:13:38Z")
Speaking of slow - _Judge Parker_ just had a neighbor couple busted for growing pot. They brought over some pot laced brownies to Abbey’s place ‘yesterday’ in the strip. ‘Yesterday’ in the strip happened back in the first week of January. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2008, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-comic-strip-story-slower-than-brooke-mceldowneys-pibgorn/450631/19 "2008-07-25T14:37:40Z")
Whoa! Pibgorn has been five days a week since the 14[sup]th[/sup]! ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2008, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-comic-strip-story-slower-than-brooke-mceldowneys-pibgorn/450631/20 "2008-07-25T17:12:42Z")
According to Blanche on the Golden Girls, Apartment 3G would be a contender. Dorothy mentions that she hasn’t read Apartment 3G in some 15 years (going on memory here!) and Blanche replies, “Well let me catch you up! It’s later that same afternoon…” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-comic-strip-story-slower-than-brooke-mceldowneys-pibgorn/450631.md?page=2)