...just inane exposition. The font is better, though.

I don't understand this comic. It makes me feel base and pedestrian. Sigh.

...my helmut must have slipped.

Week 4

Observations:

The subjects appear to be learning, though slowly. They have apparently realized that there are certain visual standards and conventions of what they have heretofore referred to amongst themselves as "cartoons." While they have made some preliminary attempts to ape this style, they persist in their habit of "telling" instead of "showing." They have, however, relegated their wordy attempts at humorous exposition to the literal margins of the visual plane, doing away with the clutter of digitally rendered speech bubbles.

They continue to resist hand lettering, but have moved away from their erratic selection of fonts and settled on what appears to be "comic sans."

Conclusions:

The subjects do adapt, but far too slowly to save their species, I'm afraid.

I am interested to see how they will react to the onslaught of venomous feedback they are about to receive in the next 48-72 hours before the thread is shut down.

and I have stayed silent about this strip in the four weeks it has been running. I really don't like insulting people for creative endeavors because, hey, everybody has different taste, but all my brain can come up with at this moment it...

Honestly, WTF?!?!

This strip is pretentious, aimless, aesthetically displeasing, boring, pointless, and starting to get on my nerves. Uncle! UUUNNNNCCLLLLEEEE!!!! Just make it stop!

Beni comes out of the closet...

Beni: Shit

Kansas: The Mossad is on my ass, uh, I mean, my tail.

Beni: I love your tail.

Kansas: You love Shlomo?

Beni: No, your ass.

Shlomo: Her ass is only a cover. It's necessary.

Kansas: I beg your pardon?

etc.

John Anderson is apparently trying to become an intern for the author/artist combo there. He is brilliant in a Kansas O'Flaherty way, which is not saying a lot. But, hey, John, it will get you published on Salon!

I echo the other writer who said the creators are apparently capable of learning from criticism. Thank god they settled on a readable font!

If this had been the first panel of the comic, I would have said; "Meh, whatever. Somebody will probably like it."

Now it may be too late.

But I do plan on enjoying the witty snark Kansas and similar abominations such as Paglia generate so, well, generously.

On to the silver lining!

This comic strip appears to strive for an anti-aesthetic, from the delivery to the subject matter. Similar to Neil Hamburger's anti-comedy, the performance is purposefully awkward and unbalanced, and intends to encourage groans and heckles, achieving a dynamic of audience involvement that surges and eclipses the work. That makes me think something else is happening with the appearance of this strip, some sort of social experiment. In the realm of the internet, where one can instantly share their opinion with innumerable others in the form of a comment, why not develop a work that encourages the most responses possible, negative or otherwise? Perhaps this is truly the intention of the strip, to elicit the most passionate responses possible. I have to admit that I have really enjoyed the creativity in the comments, and have found many new resources for online comics from other's posts. I even recall seeing someone say they skip the strip and go straight to the comments page. I bear in mind that this comic had to go through many levels of consideration before it was approved. Something about this strip was sold to the editor, an idea that the irony of carrying something that would be so reviled would in that effect be a redeeming quality.

This episode makes the earlier ones look like art. Are Schlesinger and Bachtell burning out?

as some of you have speculated. Something to do with plumbing the depths of reader participation. Salon better not let on. Ever. I've questioned their respect for the readership before, but it would be so boring if they removed all doubt.

I think this strip is symptomatic of the profound and advanced deterioration of Salon and symbolically represents its decline into irrelevance.

...dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

Get a grip and get a focus. I still like the art but if you don't have any idea what you're trying to do with it then what chance have I got?

The use of the foot mark in the title annoys me right from the get-go, as does the pointless ellipsis. While the drawings are good stylistically, even if they don't convey much action, the faux hand-lettered font is a drag (any graphic designer worth his salt hates comic sans). But the big problem is there's no story. You need a story. Where's the story? Comics tell a story. Oh, and a character readers can root for, that might help too.

Anyone? Seriously, I'm at a loss with this strip.

Why? It's like the 'humor' of Andy Kaufman. The real joke is the insane reaction of the audience.

You have four panels worth of actually not-as-terrible-as-before art. Why not use them to actually SHOW the reader what's going on, instead of cramming all that exposition into the text boxes? Again, Toni Schlesinger is showing her insulting distaste for the medium of comics.

What to see how real weekly serial adventure comics do it?

Check out Transmission-X

www.transmission-x.com

or the classics from the Golden Age of adventure comics at

www.thrillmer.com

...at least the art is less irritating. And it's nice to have a panel or three which tries to show as well as the dialogue (interminably) tells. But the exposition still sounds as if it's being translated from Japanese via machine code--and the annoying "jam character backstory into one incomprehensible name-dropping sentence" habit continues apace. As well, this strip still hasn't given a good reason it should exist--it's not funny, entertaining, thrilling, or interesting (outside of its aesthetic failings, that is.). Four miserable episodes and counting down, one hopes...:)