Letters to the Editor
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the strip is still alive..
and this week's seems pretty good, actually.
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"will" vs. "would"
I've fallen into the KOF vortex, obviously.
anyway, I really like today's strip, especially the drawings. I'm very sad, though, about the last sentence. First of all, it's probably a bad idea to narrate the obvious. The tense is also a problem. It was going so well until then..
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"kansas plans her survival..."
let's hope not
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@ clamshell
You claim to have liked it, but you don't say why. I'd like to understand why you did, so please name three things that you thought were good about this week's KOF installment.
To be fair, I'll give you mine:
1) It only took a few seconds to read.
2)
Okay, I could only come up with one.
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Kansas finally has soul.
thanks, anonymous, for the prodding. I had to look at the strip a couple times to figure out what it was... something with Bachtell's artwork.
It's the eyes. The way the characters are looking.. even the wig heads. Even Kansas seems reflective. Perhaps when Bachtell is left alone a bit he thrives.
I think it would have been better without any words. Kind of like my postings!
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okay, I give up
I'm going to make up a couple dozen Kansas O'Flaherty t-shirts. Anyone want one?
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Meta?
[eom]
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This is less terrible than usual.
That's not a compliment. But there are only two significant problems with this specific strip.
*There are exactly two lines of text and there's still an error in verb agreement. You have to try to fuck up something that simple. Moreover, this isn't exactly a major plot development where the action speaks for itself, so why isn't the narration continued over all four panels?
*There's still no obvious progression between the panels; it takes some effort to realize that she's wearing the wig in #3 (why isn't she shown paying for it or walking out of the store? Why isn't the wig she's wearing visible in the window?), and the hotel has nothing to do with anything.
This is yet an improvement because it's not packed full of wretched, badly lettered text like every earlier installment. I'd be interested in seeing what Bachtell could do with a new collaborator, because Schlesinger is clearly the weak link.
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Car crash
Other readers have already compared KOF to a car crash; horrendous, yet impossible not to look at.
But have you ever seen a car crash that KEEPS HAPPENING? Imagine an actual crash where more and more cars, week after week, keep crashing into the growing pile of twisted metal. Where no ambulances come to pick up the dead or treat the wounded. Where no tow trucks come to take away the smashed vehicles.
And every week, you keep coming back to look at it and say to yourself "Yep, people keep crashing." And you realize you keep looking at this crash, keep returning to it, and don't know why. Part of you is ashamedly amused at seeing the ever growing number of people that can't steer around it, don't understand what is happening, and end up on the trash heap (just to be a jerk, I'm going to clarify that the editors at Salon are the drivers, not the actual cartoonists).
And part of you is so sad at the state of the world, of which this is just a symptom.
The perpetual car crash also works as a Bush administration metaphor (or, God forbid, McCain admin).
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Is it possible...?
This week's sucked a little less. (For those of you keeping score at home, however, that's still sucking -499 atm as opposed to the usual -500.) Almost nothing happens, but at least what little does happen, you can see happen. The single line contributed by the typist detracts a bit, but at least it isn't the usual logolalia.
Many improvements could be made as suggested above. But the strip will probably backslide next week and find new depths of suckage. And it's occupying the space that could be filled by any one of a hundred more deserving webcomics.
However, I will take a week off from emailing advertisers, because, UNLIKE with the Busheviks, I am allowing myself to hope that improvements noted might continue.
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Okay...
1) Well, now KOF is just cliched and incoherent instead of cliched, smug, stupid, and incoherent. That's an improvement, right?
2) Are we _ever_ going to find out what the devil is going on here? (And will we care when we finally do?)
3) Wow, this bad boy is up to twelve installments. So much for the "SALON is only gonna inflict this on us for six to eight weeks or so" theory. Dammit.
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This sucks when compared to:
In addition to the usual exhortation to check out www.transmission-x.com, where some actually great graphic serials live, I recently discovered the strip from Salon's past, Dark Hotel, with Spain Rodriguez and Joe Sacco!
Compare, if you will, KoF's insulting shit, to this:
http://archive.salon.com/comics/dark/
It's amazing. Bring back Spain Rodriguez, Salon!
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@vivapalestina
I remember that strip, it was pretty interesting!
and Huzzah on http://www.transmission-x.com !
especially Kukuburi and Sin Titulo
and thanks to deering for some great links he provided, especially Sinfest.
If nothing else, KoF has helped get exposure for superior product.
DON'T FORGET TO VOTE TODAY
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Wow, was Toni sick this week?
Today I saw the Tom I know from the New Yorker. It was nice. As a comic strip, it wasn't much, but it was still nice.
I bet this is just the calm before the storm, though.
BTW, sorry to bring up a bad memory, but WTF was the deal with Beni last week? That whole phone convo didn't mean anything and this week it didn't go anywhere. We got a cliffhanger (choking noises on the phone) that consequently weren't explained.
Gahhhhh, I'm ashamed of myself that I even paid that much attention.
Dear Give Up: Is it possible to preorder one of the T-shirts?
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Let's not forget Linda Barry
She was often pretty good too. Let's go read that instead.
http://dir.salon.com/topics/lynda_barry/
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on the run = sitting down
That was my favorite part. The rest sucked as usual.
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It's nice, isn't it?
To have an installment of KoF where we are merely bored, instead of annoyed.
On the other hand, if this comic is intended to be a troll, looking for the usual volume of hate comments, it's weakening.
All in its proper perspective, I guess...