Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
WCT 22-26 March
JackFaerie:
I think you guys were unnecessarily hard on the dude who hates Marigold. I quite like her, but just saying "the focus rotates!" doesn't cut it. It's quite obvious Jeph is really into Marigold as a character, and has dug her since she was introduced, and yes, as one of his favorites, he's putting her front and center in a lot of strips. Honestly, I don't usually like when authors show which characters they're fond of all that openly either--I'd rather they let the story determine character strip time. That said, QC is not that kind of comic and never has been--it's never had a very strong story, it's not exactly plot-driven (although it has loose arcs), and what plot there IS comes from the characters (ie, overall the characters Jeph is interested in get the main plot, and when Jeph gets tired of a character, the plot obliges to help him retire them).
Me, personally, I'm happy with Marigold because the one character everyone loved that I never much cared for is Hanners. So as long as Jeph is privileging Marigold and not having QC be the Hanners show, that suits me well!
If I had to voice any criticism of QC and Jeph al all, it would be that I think Jeph could stand to learn to diversify his plot motivation a bit. That is, I've noticed that he seems to default on romance as plot-motivator, and characters often only seem to interest Jeph when they have romantic storyline potential. When a character gets involved in a romance, they get striptime, when that's done (except with Marten and Dora, as they're part of the main 3) they go to the background. Penny briefly starred in a lot of strips when she had her budding romance with Wll--once that arc was concluded, she and Wil disappeared. Tai mostly gets strips where we see her romantic hijinks. All the times Steve was prominently featured were romance related (first with Ellen, then with Meena, then with CrutchGirl). Sven dropped out of the comic after the Faye debacle. Etc etc etc. Now that Marigold is stepping up to create the Angus-Faye-Marigold love triangle, it's almost like you can see Jeph going "aha! This will be my next Big Story!" I don't actually MIND this, I'm just thinking that a character can be interesting for lots of reasons, and there's plenty of non-romantic related plot-motivators to be had.
LTK:
--- Quote from: Delirium on 24 Mar 2010, 13:01 ---
--- Quote from: LTK on 24 Mar 2010, 11:43 ---That's what I thought. Marigold, blissfully unaware she has no chance with Angus; Angus, blissfully unaware Marigold fancies him; Faye, stuck between a rock and a hard place. Man, I'd hate to have to keep writing this drama, hat's off to Jeph.
--- End quote ---
first off THAT APOSTROPHE HAS TO GO
secondly, they're both drunk, leave them together alone long enough and they'll know what to do.
--- End quote ---
It does? Can my hat not be off to jeph? I only have one hat, you know. Oh well, it's not like the English language makes sense or anything.
On the other hand, leave them together long enough and they start to sober up...
Aegir:
I didn't read this thread so I don't know if anyone's said this yet,
but I totally saw it coming like a month ago.
imaginaryideals:
--- Quote from: JackFaerie on 24 Mar 2010, 15:01 ---I think you guys were unnecessarily hard on the dude who hates Marigold. I quite like her, but just saying "the focus rotates!" doesn't cut it. It's quite obvious Jeph is really into Marigold as a character, and has dug her since she was introduced, and yes, as one of his favorites, he's putting her front and center in a lot of strips. Honestly, I don't usually like when authors show which characters they're fond of all that openly either--I'd rather they let the story determine character strip time. That said, QC is not that kind of comic and never has been--it's never had a very strong story, it's not exactly plot-driven (although it has loose arcs), and what plot there IS comes from the characters (ie, overall the characters Jeph is interested in get the main plot, and when Jeph gets tired of a character, the plot obliges to help him retire them).
Me, personally, I'm happy with Marigold because the one character everyone loved that I never much cared for is Hanners. So as long as Jeph is privileging Marigold and not having QC be the Hanners show, that suits me well!
If I had to voice any criticism of QC and Jeph al all, it would be that I think Jeph could stand to learn to diversify his plot motivation a bit. That is, I've noticed that he seems to default on romance as plot-motivator, and characters often only seem to interest Jeph when they have romantic storyline potential. When a character gets involved in a romance, they get striptime, when that's done (except with Marten and Dora, as they're part of the main 3) they go to the background. Penny briefly starred in a lot of strips when she had her budding romance with Wll--once that arc was concluded, she and Wil disappeared. Tai mostly gets strips where we see her romantic hijinks. All the times Steve was prominently featured were romance related (first with Ellen, then with Meena, then with CrutchGirl). Sven dropped out of the comic after the Faye debacle. Etc etc etc. Now that Marigold is stepping up to create the Angus-Faye-Marigold love triangle, it's almost like you can see Jeph going "aha! This will be my next Big Story!" I don't actually MIND this, I'm just thinking that a character can be interesting for lots of reasons, and there's plenty of non-romantic related plot-motivators to be had.
--- End quote ---
Gotta be honest here, if you take the romantic angle out of QC you would be left with... not much. Snarky oneliners and anthroPC comics, which is not to bash oneliners or anthroPCs, just that you'd really be taking the plot-meat out of the comic :P You could easily argue the idea that it's the romance that's getting characters facetime, rather than characters getting romances.. esp. in the case of Marigold, cause ever since she was introduced it kinda seemed like there was at least gonna be a Marigold+Angus dynamic, anyway. (Not suggesting they will get together, just that someone would develop feelings at some point..)
QC is not an adventure comic, or a mystery solving comic, etc. And it's not like Jeph doesn't write non-romantic plotlines (mostly anything to do with Hanners, but also like Faye's backstory, Vespa Girl... uh... okay I can't think of anything else...) .... I can see the temptation to get drawn into a serious soap opera-y loop, but he's pretty good about throwing in random stuff, too. I suppose it'd be nice to see more backstory or what happens to some of the other characters when they're not in the coffee shop or having romantic stuff happen... but QC is a 5-day-a-week comic and he's managed to keep it interesting, in my opinion, so I'm not complaining about what he doesn't do :P
St.Clair:
--- Quote from: Arancaytar on 24 Mar 2010, 05:37 ---Therefore, much drink may be said to be an equivocator with lechery: it makes him, and it mars him; it sets him on, and it takes him off; it persuades him, and disheartens him; makes him stand to, and not stand to*; in conclusion, equivocates him in a sleep, and, giving him the lie, leaves him.
--- End quote ---
Someone actually finished the quote!
I... I think I love you.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version