Letters to the Editor
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The more things change...
...the more they remain the same-- this strip still sucks.
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I wish...
...I was one of the people throwing the tomatoes. (But I would prefer to throw them at the creators of this abomination.)
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Okay, the art is getting somewhat better...
...but, um, little things like suspense, pacing, and why-we-should-give-a-damm-at-all-about-anybody-in-this-thing are still missing. And the exposition info-dump is still more annoying than enlightening. Guys, please--get yourself a couple of graphic novels (anything by Alan Moore is a good start) and learn how to build and pace a story.
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KOFology II
No xeroxes? Three new images of KOF? I may have to rethink my entire KOFsmovision.
"Legacy of Ashes" and "a dangerous journey in the cold rain" (by jet) are nice touches. "Agrarian Now" is almost funny. Will readers ever cut you any slack?
Tune in next week.
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blacked out
Tonight's episode was beautifully drawn, that can not be denied.
And beautifully worded. I particularly liked the blacked out destination. nice touch.
It seems that some of my fellow letter writers don't relate to the strip's disarming sensibility the way I do. But rather than pointing fingers at the strip, maybe they should be pointing fingers (or throwing tomatoes?) at themselves.
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Looks like the comics authors have finally joined in the letters.
DLF, dogeyed, I'm talking about you.
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beastly behavior
No blackpaw, I'm just a fellow canine.
Or come to think of it, maybe you are in fact, a cat. Which accounts again for your remarks and way of thinking.
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I...liked this one!
And I understood it! They were actually saying that they'd read the...creatively cruel, passionately pointed...responses, if you pay attention. They're working on it, it looks like.
That's..heartening.
The art was very nice this time. The last panel was great.
Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but it really seems like they have been paying attention.
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Kill
Kill kill kill kill. Salon, are you watching?
Kill, kill, kill this travesty.
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It's just possible
That in addition to page loads for the comic, the editor looks at activity on the letters page. Not, of course, for content, but just for a count. She feels her readers are engaged by the comic if there are many letters. So, while 'if you don't like it, don't read it,' carries a certain amount of punch, there's also 'if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all.' As web sites get better at measuring out attention, we have to be more judicious with it.
If you want the strip gone, try to ignore it. What, do you want WayLay back on Tuesdays? Maybe it's just an unlucky day. It's not like there's another feature waiting in the wings -- Fridays were empty since that periodic about, what was it? An undead political consultant? went away in the 2000 election cycle. Until WayLay was relegated there. Saturday's still empty -- Opus has shown that if Salon had anything to put on a weekend, they'd do it.
The bar's raised pretty high by "This Modern World" and "Tom The Dancing Bug."* But, it's not like there are more strips like that out there. There are plenty more strips like WayLay. Now, you and I might prefer empty space, but the comics editor has to fill the space, and experimenting with independent comics is a fine way to fill it.
So, maybe Kansas O'Flaherty isn't a disjointed mishmash with self-conscious style references. Maybe it's art. It's really impossible to tell if it actually is innovative, so I'd give it some space. Maybe it's getting better as a narrative vehicle. Maybe it was all written six years ago and it's you that's changing.
But, if you don't like it, the best way to kill it is to ignore it. But, if you want to kill it, you have to accept that you're probably not going to get anything better subsequently.
Thanks!
RFM
*I don't mean that as an attack on the K Chronicles, which I always enjoy. I find it hard to evaluate Opus without reference to Bloom County and Outland, which is to say I won't evaluate it as I don't think I'm seeing it for itself.
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Nowhere to go but up, I suppose...
Overall, reading this strip is like finally seeing "Daredevil" on cable: I expected it to suck so hard that when it only sucked moderately I was pleasantly surprised. Lowered expectations are key to the enjoyment of mediocrity.
Visually, I liked the look of the rain, the man sitting next to her and the bizarre hard boiled egg cup hats of the angry foreigners. Bachtell is clearly a capable artist, which is why the sheer cut and paste laziness of the first strips were so disappointing. Narratively, however, the story remains hammy and irrelevant. Also, the third panel reads like Engrish.
A weekly feature on Salon is not the place to cut your teeth or learn your craft. Nor is it an appropriate venue for hobbyist side projects. This strip should be replaced by one where the authors and artists take the medium seriously and have already paid their dues.
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deliberate incoherence
It's so '80s. Hasn't anyone told Schlesinger postmodernism is over?
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Hilarious
Maybe after a few months enough plot will have accumulated for me to read and even enjoy this comic -- I just don't think there is enough material each week to provide any sense of continuity. But the letters make it worthwhile. It was brave and/or foolhardy to attempt a serial in a small single weekly panel. The histrionics of the letter writers is quite amusing, however. Well done!
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@Rionn
>If you want the strip gone, try to ignore it.<
Why--so the editors will think we like it and offload more on us?
>What, do you want WayLay back on Tuesdays? Maybe it's just an unlucky day. It's not like there's another feature waiting in the wings...The bar's raised pretty high by "This Modern World" and "Tom The Dancing Bug."* But, it's not like there are more strips like that out there. There are plenty more strips like WayLay. Now, you and I might prefer empty space, but the comics editor has to fill the space, and experimenting with independent comics is a fine way to fill it.<
Any number of posters here have suggested far better online comics--ones that have proven themselves and have a following. A half-panel of "Get Your War On" and "Shooting War," for two, would be better than all of KOF thus far. For the SALON editors to opt for this amateur hour means 1) they didn't look; 2) were giving jobs to connected folks who'd never done a strip before. That's the kind of crap the neo-cons pull, so why is a liberal magazine doing the same nonsense?
>So, maybe Kansas O'Flaherty isn't a disjointed mishmash with self-conscious style references. Maybe it's art. It's really impossible to tell if it actually is innovative, so I'd give it some space. Maybe it's getting better as a narrative vehicle. Maybe it was all written six years ago and it's you that's changing.<
And maybe you are rationalizing drivel. No--you are _definitely_ rationalizing drivel. :) Come on--I'm not an expert on pop art, but the few Lichtensteins I've seen here and there not only have some narrative clarity (even if it's only composed of one panel), they also are aesthetically appealing. Neither can be said of KOF.