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[Royal☭]

Oh, that's right, people don't discuss things they dislike ever.

[Büge]

Man, for a comic that everyone on the internet seems to hate with a burning passion, there sure are a lot of people talking about and discussing what it all means.

If you'll note, I never once used the word 'hate' in my diatribe. I simply wanted to point out that as storytelling in a comics medium goes, this one failed. I get the feeling that Tycho and Gabe are still finding their feet with this or it was a bit rushed or some other third thing.

I agree with Lottel on this, though. The comic could have been a nice prose piece and I think that could have served the comic better than poetry. Just something to flesh out the story. This isn't the Cardboard Tube Samurai, where they can go a few pages without any words or narration whatsoever. The CTS has mythology built into it. They need to build the Lookouts mythology before they can play with it.

All that said, the blue ribbon still baffles me.

[François]

We used to play a game in elementary school. All players had a team-colored "flag" (more like a square piece of fabric) sticking out of the back of their pants, and the goal was to eliminate the other team by collecting all their flags. This is basically what's going on here, except it's not a 12v12 schoolyard exercise, it's one adult versus four kids trying to learn stealth and basic tactics. The children took out the "beast", but not without losing one of their own.

(Some idiots thought they were being clever by tying their flag to their underwear so they could not be removed, and therefore earned monster wedgies for their trouble. )

[Royal☭]

Well, I get that they might be going for it's a sign of defeat in a game.  The problem is the ribbon literally does not appear until those last few panels.  It has no symbolic weight or meaning in the story.

[François]

The point of the story is that the kids are learning that they will go into the forest where there are monsters, and as clever as they might be, at least some of them will die there. Fortunately, that day was just a game. The lost ribbon is the play equivalent of a fatal wound; a torn jugular doesn't need special symbolic weight or meaning, it's just a torn jugular. It's a tool to the story, not the focus of it. It didn't have to be there any longer than it was.

I mean, if it had ended with the kids stabbing a beast all Shadow of the Colossus-style, and then the next panel was one of them with his chest badly messed up from a claw rake, no one would complain that the wound was devoid of symbolic meaning and that it wasn't built-up enough. Yet the lost ribbon plays the exact same role, only transposed in the context of a game where nobody actually gets hurt.

[Royal☭]

That would be fine if that was what the issue was.  The issue was that the blue ribbons never once appear, not even are drawn on their belts, in any scene except for the last.  From a storytelling perspective, it makes no sense and has no meaning because none was given to it.

[Brentai]

Basically you're expected to have played the exact same games as a kid as the Penny Arcade guys did or you won't get the context.

I'd say that's a flaw but it's kind of how the usual comic works, too.

[jsnlxndrlv]

Still kind of amazed that the basic mechanic of flag football isn't immediately obvious from context. The kid has a blue ribbon in triumph—but the man reveals that he has a ribbon, too, which causes the kid to notice, alas, that a ribbon's been torn off his belt. The entire rules of interaction are not difficult to extrapolate from these three images.

[Lottel]

I can see that if you say it like that, but the way it is illustrated and with panels as they are, you really have to try to deconstruct it in order to make any sense of it.
If maybe they weren't so stingy with panels or with words...

Still. I like Penny Arcade and I like the idea of Lookouts. I just want them to be more "Hey, let's read a fun little story about DnD boyscouts" not "And the farmer did trade plums for the drums of winter sing." while swords are clashing in the imaginations of the boys.

[teg]

Is it weird that I still think of Beartato as Nedroid's main character even though it's pretty much "The Reginald Comic" by now?

Also, I found the best comic to read ironically.

http://www.peanizles.com/

Peanizles is a slamming, fun-filled, family-friendly, almost daily comic strip about a group of sarcastic, pop-culture obsessed kids from the neighborhood.

Chuck B
Chuck B struggles with the problem of having the most street cred of any ten year old kid on his block. He’s Lebron James, Jay-Z, and Dave Chappell all rolled together into one bad@$$ package. At least he is in his mind.

Mingus
Mingus is Chuck’s best friend and definite partner in crime and jazz fanatic. His obsession with the great jazz musicians John Coltrane, Thelonius Monk, and Dave Brubeck has even led him to wearing a fake soul patch to embrace his beatnik heroes.

Grace
Grace has an on again, off again, not-so-secret crush on Chuck.

Succotash
Succotash is by far the best athlete in, and probably the most popular kid in school.

This comic actually makes me feel kind of bad for being so critical of it. It's a disaster, but in the same way that a disfigured child is. But then I remember that my early webcomics were just as bad.

[François]

I understand what the name is trying to do, but it accomplishes something else entirely. Did that man even say it out loud?

[Mothra]

Wonderella nails it again

[JDigital]

I got the Lookouts thing. Maybe you're just not used to having to think a little when reading Penny Arcade.

I was only bothered because he said "tumbling" too much. It's still ripping off Jack and Jill even if you say "tumbling" twice.

[Büge]

I hear 8-Bit Theatre ended today. Something tells me it's ended in a way that made the last nine years into the setup for a punchline.

[François]

[spoiler]Not a punchline. More like the end of a sitcom episode. Not even a sitcom finale, just, almost basically kind of a status quo/reset button, with everyone doing more or less what they were doing before it all started.

AKA nothing of even remote interest is going on, move along.[/spoiler]

EDIT: [spoiler]I just had a thought that perfectly describes my reaction. Imagine a half-deflated rubber balloon on the ground. Someone steps on it. The half-hearted "prffft" sound that is produced is the end of 8BT.

I don't even know why I'm using spoiler tags. I guess I don't want to ruin anyone's disappointment?[/spoiler]

[Doom]

Especially since that sort of thing is the entire style of 8BT. I'm just glad I realized it 200 strips in.

[Brentai]

Yeah I don't care so much about how it ended.

All I care about is it ended.

Guess what can finally come off my RSS feeder!  YES!  Now to get Pete Abrams to stop making new parallel universe plotlines and kill all the immortal villains already.

[Royal☭]

While browsing and reading various blogs, came across a link to Ballad and was reminded just how much I loved that story.  Thought some guys around here might also like to be reminded of Ballad.

[Ziiro]

Holy shit. New PBF. He also removed the "Gee Golly Jeepers" one.

[Disposable Ninja]

I don't...OH I GET IT

Also, sucks that he got rid of Gee Golly Jeepers. Sure, by itself, not the best comic to go out on, but I'm guessing it about summed up his feelings about doing the comic.