Not to mention that he didn’t even lie. She asked him if anything interesting happened. The dude works in a library in an ALL FEMALE COLLEGE, how can he NOT get hit on now and then? He probably doesn’t even think about it anymore. Then as soon as Dora yelled at him about it he turned into his usual submissive “you’re right, it’s all my fault, I lied, I’m sorry” self (though he at least grew SOME spine this time, calling Dora on her “test”). In other words nothing interesting happened, TO MARTEN.
You know, on second thought, shouldn’t the fact that he blew it off and didn’t think him turning someone down was important make Dora MORE comfortable? I’m starting to think Dora just likes drama.
I was thinking about this this morning, mainly because it’s a slow day at work, and realized that, at least in my opinion, a lot of Jeph’s writing seems to be about proving how much he “gets” women, when really he comes across as kind of dumb about them.
First off, every goddamn major character in the comic is a woman, except for Marten and Sven (and Steve before he vanished). Which kind of smacks of overcompensation right off the bat.
But then, they all have these nice, distinctive personalities, up until the point where they’re in an argument or insecure or angry, and then they all go totally apeshit in the exact same way. (Except Hannelore; she just passes out or something.) But then, without exception, Jeph will bend over backwards to demonstrate why the freaking-out-woman character is, in fact, the one who is right, and Marten’s the one who needs to apologize.
It just comes across to me as the writer saying “Look, ladies, look! I understand you! I get you! I realize that you’re all overreactionary and hysterical and insecure, and that you can’t act in a rational fashion ever about anything, but that’s okay! See? It’s the man’s fault! He apologizes!” It’s a weird blend of “Nice Guy” syndrome and “Sensitive Guy” posturing.
I don’t usually psychoanalyze webcomics, I swear. It just hit me that, recently, given its lack of plot and frustrating character quirks, I get much more enjoyment out of being mad at QC than from the comic itself.
Eh, I wish he’d just ditch the humans and write a Pintsize centered spin-off. I like the humor sometimes, but at this point basically every (non-robot) character annoys me. Also I think its been a couple hundred strips since the plot moved at all.
I’m a little surprised at all the comments on the lack of plot. It’s a slice-of-slightly-surreal-life comic strip; it doesn’t need a plot IMO. Minor weekly plots, sure, just as a frame to hang the character interactions on, but it really doesn’t strike me as necessarily being a piece with A Story To Tell. I’m totally happy with pointless but witty banter between cute, intelligent girls.
I think it’s more that the strip tries to have it both ways. One of the (I think) inarguable hooks of the strip is that the characters do develop over time, or at least have changed pretty heavily since it started. And Jeph seems to encourage that; he’s directly addressed Faye’s neuroses (even bringing suicide into the mix), Marten and Dora have developed a relationship, Hannelore has found ways to be less crazy, etc.
But what’s frustrating is that developments are randomly added in and then abandoned; characters never change despite being put into situations that seemd designed to instigate change. Instead of resolving things, Jeph just adds more characters for different plot points, and then abandons them without anything resembling a satisfying arc (remember Steve and Morgue Girl? Yeah, neither does Jeph). It’s just frustrating, not just from a narrative standpoint but also because the humor works best when it’s plot-driven (Vespa Girl, or the FBI agents, or whatever), and not just witty characters stacking one-liners on top of one another. I really don’t think Jeph’s humor style is spontaneous enough to support a purely funny, one-a-day random comic.
Christ, I sound like such a fanboy. I like it, really I do. I just want him to make up his mind.
May I recommend Out There? Hot girls, an art style that has developed very nicely as it’s gone along, constantly-progressing storyline, and psychologically fascinating, multi-dimensional characters.
I think the heavily plot-driven arcs tend to be the weakest parts of the comic, myself. It’s the gag-a-day, slice-of-life stuff that makes the comic work. When he starts bringing in things like transforming motor scooters, the humor ends up feeling much more forced. His strength is in character interaction and characterization, not in wacky sci-fi plots. I very much disagree with you when you say characters never change. The major characters have all grown significantly since the strips start. I don’t think Steve is a good counter example, because Steve is a minor periphreal character, not a core cast member. He shows up when Jeph has an idea for a joke about him, but he’s not important enough to the strip to have major character arcs.
True, but there are just so many minor characters at this point that it gets a little diluted for me.
And the main characters have definitely changed, but it’s that fact that makes me mad when their behaviors loop back on to things that, in the strip, have already been settled. Charlie Brown always tries to kick the football, but that’s okay because Peanuts was structured around the idea that the characters were mostly the same throughout. QC’s characters ostensibly learn from their mistakes, and yet we’re still getting permutations of the “Dora is insecure about Marten” discussion over and over, without it ever going anywhere.
I don’t think there are really that many. There’s Steve, and the band Marten’s in, Tai at the library, Penelope, and Sven and his assisstant. I’m probably missing a few, and of course, I’m ignoring minor characters like Pizza Delivery Girl or the romance novelist trucker. For a strip that’s been around as long as QC, that’s not a particularly huge cast of second-tier characters.
A big part of what makes Jeph such a good writer is that, just as in real life, character issues are almost never resolved in one big dramatic scene. Most people need to make the same mistake several times before they start learning from it - and sometime they never learn. IIRC, this is only the second time that Dora’s insecurities have led to a major blowup with Marten. She’s realized that she has issues with trust, but recognizing an issue isn’t the same as dealing with it, and Dora still hasn’t figured out how to do that. I don’t think that she will until her issues seriously threaten (or even destroy) her relationship with Marten. So far, there’s been no real impetus for her to change, and so she hasn’t. Jeph does take a long time to resolve these character issues, but that’s in the nature of a purely character-driven strip, like QC. If all your characters resolve their issues in a couple of months, you exhaust the drama you need to run the strip.
You’re probably right, Miller. Eventually Marten’s going to go “You know what? Fuck this,” and go off on an epic rant tearing Dora a completely new and deserved hole for all her shit, then walk off. Then she’ll do her soul-searching thing.
Well, one can hope, anyway. It’s always a real trip when the nice guy gets fed up and starts bitching, because once they get pissed, you know it’s justified.
He did go, “You know what? Fuck this” when she was yelling at him for something. I think for not being mad over Faye and Sven. He walked out, and there some on the Forums (at QC) who thought Dora and Marten were both in the wrong. Her for being so angry to begin with but him for dealing with it badly. I thought it was the one good thing he did do in that situation!
Yeah, but he just left after saying that. I think he did right, but it is kind of passive-aggressive to just not stick around. He’s still gotta stay and follow it up with a counter-chewing-out.