recommended resolution 1024 x 768

Thanks for reading.

1/5/06

It's great when the characters write the gags for me. I wish they'd do that every week, like they are this week.

Till now.

Today's gag was a minor pain. As you see it is how it came to me, its first form. Then I got to thinking about it. Bit of a bummer, innit? I thought. And very like that other one, the one that got message board comments that said both, "You made me laugh," and, "You made me cry." Am I trying to recapture past glory (such as it is)? Whether I am or not, what about pacing? Is it time for another gag like that so soon?

So I rewrote the gag into a four-panel gag. Same two beginning panels. Third panel, no dialog (a "beat panel"). Fourth panel Arthur says, "Perhaps nine months from today," and Guenevere says, "You read my mind."

But I didn't like that either. Well, no, I didn't dislike it, but I wasn't sure it was right. So I was trying to decide which version of the gag to draw. Even as I started drafting this essay I was trying to decide how to decide. So I started the essay with the paragraph about the characters writing themselves, a paragraph I've been thinking about putting in this space all week anyway. And I realized that that was how I was going to make my decision - which gag did the characters write?

I hope they're still at it tomorrow. Hear me, kids? I can't use the "nine months from now" gag tomorrow any more cuz I quoted it here. You listening to me?

Webcomics I read mornings: Peanuts, General Protection Fault, Achewood, Scary Go Round, Tux & Bunny, College Roommates from Hell!!!, Kevin & Kell, Real Life

Webcomics I read M-W-F mornings: El Goonish Shive, Ctrl+Alt+Del, Theater Hopper, Nukees, Tweep, Gossamer Commons

Webcomics I read Tu-Th-Sa mornings: Digger, Taking Up Space, Crap I Drew On My Lunch Break, AppleGeeks, Orneryboy, Striptease, Penny Arcade

Webcomics I read middays: Calvin & Hobbes, Least I Could Do, User Friendly, Loserz, Questionable Content, Starslip Crisis, Queen of Wands, Narbonic

Webcomics I read evenings: LuAnn, Count Your Sheep, Goats, Pearls Before Swine, For Better Or For Worse, Help Desk, American Elf, Schlock Mercenary, Sinfest, Anywhere But Here, Irregular Comic, Bruno, Boxjam's Doodle

Webcomics I read M-W-F evenings: Reasoned Cognition, Two Lumps, Shortpacked, Girl Genius, Order of the Stick

Webcomics I read Tu-Th-Sa evenings: Casey & Andy, Girls With Slingshots, The Green Avenger, Get Out of My Head, Megatokyo

Webcomics I read bedtimes: B.C., Something Positive, Pibgorn, The Angriest Rice Cooker In The World, Dinosaur Comics, Wapsi Square, Medium Large, Sluggy Freelance, Little Dee, PvP

Webcomics I read Sundays: The Daily Grind Iron Man Challenge, Butternut Squash, Dr. Devious vs Lincoln High, Syntax Errors, Alice!, Checkerboard Nightmare, Nemesis, Journey Into History, Tailsteak, Ctrl+Alt+Del, Her: Girl Vs Pig, Smithson, No Room for Magic, 13 Seconds, Perry Bible Fellowship

See also Talk About Comics, The Belfry Comics Index, The Webcomic List, Nth Degree, 100% Originality Theatre, Comixpedia, The Living Comic and Websnark.

Arthuriana sources I use or recommend:
Arthurian Legend
Arthuriana - the Journal of Arthurian Studies; the website of the quarterly journal of the North American Branch of the International Arthurian Society.
The Camelot Project at the University of Rochester.
Camelot In Four Colors: A Survey of the Arthurian Legend in Comics
Mystical-WWW - The Arthurian A2Z knowledge Bank which has encyclopedically-arranged entries on the characters of the Arthurian legends.
Le Morte Darthur: Sir Thomas Malory's Book of King Arthur and of his Noble Knights of the Round Table, Volume 1 and Volume 2.