Professional Development.

[McDuffies]

Mmmmhmmm, yeah. I always hated that in comics. The habit to leave at the end of episode everything just as it was when it started. That's another reason why I found webcomics so refreshing, their artists were willing to move story further through episodes.

[Joel Fagin]

(although apu's children have actually aged a year or two... they must live further away from the time anomaly in springfield)

No, there's no anomaly. That's standard comic character aging. Every character has a given age that they will grow into and then freeze. Sally Brown of Peanuts fame started out younger (visibly and numerically) than Linus Van Pelt but grew until she was equal to him before stopping. The same applied to Rerun van Pelt to a lesser degree. He evened out at a younger age than any other character.

- Joel Fagin

[Xmung]

oh yeah, i get that - except the simpsons haven't aged at all... bart has always been 10 years old, lisa 8 and maggie a crawling, dummy sucker since day one... and they still are. apu's kids have aged to older than maggie!

[Maritza]

You don't think it was extreme? In june, they were still celebrating christmass. It was the longest storyline to the date and the fact that it was several stories interwoven just made it seem revolving slower. But the biggest problem is, after it, I couldn't see any progress in any story.

Well, I have never actually tried to keep up with real time CRFH would have ended up by now if I did.

As for the progress, well, some useful things got out of this storyline. First, the character of Blue got fully developed. Second, by the end of it, Blue and Dave were friends, she was no longer just her stalker/tormentor. And most importantly, Holidays Too was necessary to provide some character background for our main cast. We met their families, and some of them- like Hazel- have very active roles in the strip currently.

Side art, such as Bikeeni and Halloween, are not canon and they don't go into the continuity of the strip. They can be counted as fantasy, dreams, etc...

I see what you're saying about the climaxes, Joel, and you raise a very good point. It's one of the reasons I divided the whole Dun-dun arc in four parts. Each one of these have had a particularly high/key point -perhaps not a climax-, and from there we move on onto the next thing.

**spoilers**

for Quality Time, it was Storm Time/Truth or Dare, for Back with a Vengeance, it was Roger's transformation, for The Face of the Enemy, was Dave and the angel. For the current storyline, we have Hazel's engagement/Mike's return to insanity... and the conclusion, which is yet to be seen.

**end of spoilers**

I have tried to alternate tension with more relaxed moments, but at the times and circumstances, it's a bit difficult. The fact that I have been taking days off is not helping at all, I know that too.

In any case, I'm sure some of these problems are aggravated by the day-by-day schedule, and will read a bit better in bunch, when the whole storyline is over. But I'm not repeting such an "epic" in a long time now...



Maritza
CRFH.net

[Xmung]

some interesting points maritza.

large, all character storylines can be quite a juggling act... especially when it comes to balancing development of those characters along with action and plot development. the former can sometimes bog down the latter and yet is so important to narrative comics. a friend of mine who didn't like LOTR:The Two Towers said it was because all it seemed to consist of was fighting, and yet the extended DVD version, although almost an hour longer was more enjoyable because it included a lot more quiet time and character moments. Problem is, with a serialised comic, the audience may not know where the bigger picture is heading until it's all over... and that can take several months.

the shorter story lines are a great way to focus on smaller groups of characters.

[McDuffies]

some interesting points maritza.

large, all character storylines can be quite a juggling act... especially when it comes to balancing development of those characters along with action and plot development. the former can sometimes bog down the latter and yet is so important to narrative comics. a friend of mine who didn't like LOTR:The Two Towers said it was because all it seemed to consist of was fighting, and yet the extended DVD version, although almost an hour longer was more enjoyable because it included a lot more quiet time and character moments. Problem is, with a serialised comic, the audience may not know where the bigger picture is heading until it's all over... and that can take several months.

the shorter story lines are a great way to focus on smaller groups of characters.

Funny, you'll actually use separated storylines for characterisation? I mean, characterisation goes on all the time, even when you're not intending to, characters still build simply by the fact that they act and the way they act. So why not develop characterisation by the way, while the other things are happening as well? I think, the observant reader needs no more than that.

[Joel Fagin]

More stuff

I do get the impression that, in many ways, the current story's purpose is to set some important things up for the greater CRFH story. A lot of those non-climaxes I mentioned seemed to be doing that. Roger, before he got zapped, for example, and Damascus and the Dragon - even the raft, which seems irrelevant to this story-arc since they were headed for Dun-Dun anyway, set up Mike's new ability.

- Joel Fagin

[Maritza]

Yes, you are right. Some of these things are part of the meta-plot.

Maritza
CRFH.net

[Xmung]

Funny, you'll actually use separated storylines for characterisation? I mean, characterisation goes on all the time, even when you're not intending to, characters still build simply by the fact that they act and the way they act. So why not develop characterisation by the way, while the other things are happening as well? I think, the observant reader needs no more than that.

absolutely. but sometimes, when you have an 'ensemble cast' a specific story can focus specifically on one or two characters while the others take a back seat or are absent all together.