Really? I find Claire by far the most interesting character lately, followed by Momo, then Emily, then everyone else. By that token Marten becomes interesting when he interacts with Claire, Marigold is interesting by interacting with Momo, Dale is interesting interacting with Marigold interacting with Momo. Emily is currently kinda what Hannelore was minus OCD - someone goofy to offset the other characters. Everyone else seems to be background noise right now. Except maaaybe Faye and Angus, who still have a little dormant arc going… someday.
I definitely don’t hate any of the characters, most of them just don’t seem to be there for anything lately.
I think QC’s saving grace and biggest problem is it’s cast of characters. There’s a couple of characters for everyone - the problem is that it isn’t the same 2-3 characters for everyone. Like, I don’t give a shit about Dora and the oft-misspelled Tai. But I find the rest of the library crew entertaining… well, not Emily, but I like Momo, Martin, Claire, and Gabby. I like Marigold but not Dale. Faye and Angus are fun, but Penelope and Wil are boring.
Thing is, I’m sure there are people on this very board that think the exact opposite. So they get annoyed when my favorite characters are having a story arc, and I get annoyed when their favorite characters are having a story arc.
I don’t know if that’s better or worse for readership, but it is more like real life.
I disagree with your theme. I don’t know if it’s like real life, but I’m interested in watching characters that are going through changes. I like pretty much all of Jeph’s characters, but they’ve been interesting at different times, because they’ve been going through changes at those times.
Interesting times:
Marty and Faye, when they were doing the roommate/maybe-lovers dance
Marty and Dora, doing the new lovers dance, then the breaking up lovers dance
Faye, doing the trying-to-be-less-CrankyBitch dance, multiple movements. She seems about done with this.
Faye and Angus, enemies->friends->more dance. Stable for now, hints of more dancing.
Hannelore, trying to be less crazy dance. Multiple phases. She seems to be at equilibrium right now.
Wil and Penelope: same tune, different - done! - dance.
etc.
They all went through interesting phases. All of those seem to be done. I don’t hate any of them one bit. They’re just less interesting lately.
I think the problem is Jacques devotes too much effort to his art and not enough to his writing. He consciously works on developing his art but I feel he’s mostly winging it on the stories - it seems like he gets an idea for a situation or a character and throws it in to see what happens.
I compare this to other webcomics creators like Rich Burlew or R.K. Milholland who have talked about how they plan out their stories a couple of years in advance of when the actual strips will appear. That’s what’s needed to give a strip an overall sense of direction.
Can I just say I really hate the new format of his panels? I usually read QC on my phone, and when I turned the phone sideways the comic was a perfect horizontal fit (I just had to scroll vertically). Now the comics are wider, so I either have to scroll all around or shrink the display size, which makes it harder to read. :mad:
But more importantly, sorry to hear about his separation.
I liked the part where [del]Jon Arbuckle[/del] Marten realizes that [del]Garfield[/del] Pintsize has ripped a hole out of the back of one of them. Oh, Garf…er…Pintsize!
I dig it. QCs artstyle has been constantly evolving anyway (pick a random comic. Skip back 200 comics and admire the differences.) I think that previously, the poses were still a bit stilted and rigid, and this obviously gives him a lot more freedom. However, it’s likely that he’ll need another 200 comics to really make the style his own.
Agreed. I don’t follow the comic except through a comic reader app so I don’t see any notifications on the website, Twitter, etc.
I saw the new (inferior) artwork and honestly thought he must be knocking these out on a drawing pad while at a convention or something. They just looked sloppy compared to the previous strips.
My first thought was that the art change was related to Marigold’s relationship status. She’s a huge anime nerd, and for all intents and purposes she’s currently experiencing an anime-like romance. So she looks all “anime” to reflect her state of mind. In fact, almost everything she knows about romance and sex may come from anime.
So here she is, a low-self-confidence girl who is kind of plain-looking and doesn’t have an “ideal” figure (not a criticism — I’m kind of a fan of “Plain Janes”), and she’s suddenly in a romantic/sexual relationship with a fairly nice-looking guy, and she’s a bit overwhelmed. She’s still in “Omigod, a guy LIKES me!” mode. Unfortunately, the only way she knows to respond to the situation is how she’s seen it in anime. And so she looks all “anime” to reflect her state of mind.
The art style doesn’t seem to be affecting the other characters as dramatically as it’s affecting Marigold. For the time being, I’m going with, “temporary stylistic change to convey a point”.
Regarding the “Omigod, a guy LIKES me!” mode thing, I’m hoping that Dale is a true gentleman and doesn’t take advantage of that. Because Marigold is in that place where she probably won’t say “no” to anything Dale might suggest, because she’s afraid that saying “no” might end the relationship. But Dale does seem to be a gentleman. I like the way the whole Dale/Marigold storyline took years (well, in our time) to get to this point. He’s never been pushy or manipulative; he’s been patient and polite.
I don’t think so. I first really noticed it in Hanners when she was talking to May (? blue robot?). Marigold wasn’t even in the coffee shop at the time.
Maybe I just didn’t notice so much there. My webcomic list is 31 comics long, and after all these years I may just be “immune” to the changes in art that happen over time. Marigold’s “new look” is obvious to me, but I didn’t notice the Hannelore changes so much.
