The giants are definitely part of the overarching plot. They’re attacking the Mechane at the bidding of their god, Lord Thrym, who “for reasons of his own,” voted yes to end the world at the Godsmoot. This isn’t a random encounter, this was an ambush set specifically to stop the protagonists from completing their mission.
No one complained about those because the pacing is fine in them. At least, the two of those I’ve already read. I was actually quite impressed at how well he condensed the important parts of the original in Haleo and Julelan.
People are complaining about the pacing here. And I did my best to explain why. This is a side story about side characters. This is the most character development any of the characters in this have gotten. And it’s in the middle of ticking clock scenario.
The tension was high when they left. It is now extremely low. It’s as if the main plot doesn’t matter.
Yes, having the comics come out more slowly exaggerated the effect. But it’s still there in the main story, too. Before this, the pacing was generally fine.
OMG Spoiler Alert!
well, I hope they matter, too. But I find them interesting and engaging characters. That will do it for me, so long as I get semi-regular fixes of new material. 
Some of it is - see BigT’s post.
That’s not my complaint. I wouldn’t give a toss if they came out one page a month, as long as they were pages of Belkar being awesome, Redcloak being a great villain or Elan being silly (or even, as recently, awesome). But they’re not.
I didn’t complain about the pacing of earlier slow patches of the comic, because they still focused on cool character interactions not this stupid crew sideshow.
And it’s crappy pacing that can kill even devoted fandom of a comic - look at Sluggy Freelance (or don’t look at it, like I haven’t since Oceans Unmoving - or Unending, more like) - I used to be a huge fan, hell, I have the t-shirts still. But shitty pacing killed it for me, more than irregular updates ever could. And if I’m not reading the free main comic, I’m also not hanging out in the forums or, more importantly, buying new printings or other merch. The comic is more than just a loss leader, i’m afraid. it’s the raison d’etre for all the rest.
Err, are you sure you wanted to address this to me? i’m not whining about people complaining, I can perfectly well understand why people are complaining.
Yup, my apologies. Should have been aimed at Little Nemo and the “but he put out 100 pages of other stuff so stop complaining!” crowd.
I feel the same way about Oona and Greyview; just not these guys. But reasonable people can differ.
Me too.
Even if we accept that premise, that means he has an interest in keeping “potential customers” happy so that he’ll sell more books. I’m at least one reader who has gone, over the last year or two, from an OotS strip being a highlight of my day to it being just another comic in my feed.
Loss leaders only work if they actually get people in the door.
Interesting development. They still need to find Roy’s sword, though.
That’s the Elan we know and love!
That was a cutlass though.
I’ve lost track. Where’s Roy’s sword? His real one.
Over the side a couple of years ago. Probably skewered Belkar. We’ll find out in 2019.
It should be roughly somewhere below where they are now. The sword went over the side just after they hit the ridge that they’re near. Not that it’d be easy to find without magic.
Which gives me an idea. Perhaps V, in trying to find the Mechane, casts Locate Object on the sword, it being a well known object in the possession of Roy. So it leads him to the sword, if not to the Mechane. Alternatively, Elan may have that spell and so they find it that way. Which if they’re following D&D rules, is more likely to work. At their level, that spell has about a 1000 ft range, and V is almost certainly farther away than that. But the author doesn’t follow the rules to the letter, so it may work for V anyway.
Half a page, a full page and another half page. Has this ever happened before?
Another case of victory not being a matter of killing.
Will she survive the fall?
The previous comic was 1 and a half. So the second half was completed today, followed by another 1 and a half.
Though I don’t know how it will work in book form. Those are good splits.
She’s pretty confident that she would. Sure, she’s taken some damage since then, too, but only a little, and she probably anticipated that she’d take some anyway.
1076 is up.
Good plot progression. They’re over the ridge now! No more ballistas, though.