Save the Sluggy!

Sometimes I forget that this blog is about Games AND Comics. I usually have more to say about video games I'm playing than comics I'm reading. I don't really care to debate the gimmickiness of killing Batman. It'd be repetitive to continuously post about how Joe Quesada's running Marvel into the creative crapper. Should I make a weekly feature about how I should stop buying the massively disappointing Countdown series (and yet never do)?

I guess it wouldn't hurt to make some effort to discuss things. It will keep me writing...

So, I've figured out where Sluggy Freelance often goes wrong.

Sluggy has long been one of my favorite webcomics. It's been around for more than a decade, and I've been reading it for most of that time.

Sluggy is known for it's gigantic storylines, usually woven with threads from various previous story arcs. Occasionally, artist Pete Abrams will make a storyline that leads to fan outcry over its tediousness or loss of focus. While I'm more into the silent majority of quietly reading my free entertainment (though Unmoving Oceans made me zone out more than once), I do see the problems with some of the stories. And the problems are always the same.

The major characters become isolated from each other.

Unmoving Oceans, The Torg Potter Saga, Muffin the Vampire Baker (to name a few)... all these focused on one of the comic's main(ish) characters, and a bunch of glorified extras. Even if it is my favorite character in the strip, I still want them to see them interact with the other main characters. Because I like the main characters: that's why I read the strip.

It's basically the same problem with the Ferengi Episodes on Star Trek Deep Space Nine (anyone remember that show?). Star Trek is aways about culturally different people interacting. It's not interesting to see Quark go back to his homeworld, because he's aware of all the rules and culture. Even if he isn't as ruthless as the rest of his society, he still understands them and tries to fall in line. It would have made interesting viewing to send someone else... a Klingon, a human... with Quark when he visited home. Let's see a benevolent Federation doctor clash with the Ferengi's greedy health care system. But they never did. So those episodes were always unremarkable.

In Sluggy Freelance, it's the same way. If Pete's going to warp somebody away, they really need to go in pairs. And the more interesting the pairing, the better. How about Gwynn and Alyee? Let's see the two of them dimension hopping together.

I'd say the occasional solo-mission is acceptable, if it collides with the main cast later. Sluggy Freelance's history is rich with twisting old storylines into new directions.

Let's look at the current storyline: Torg Potter and the Giblets With Fiber. This is the fourth Harry Potter parody, with Torg being hijacked into their universe each time. Four times and he's always gone alone, with the exception of Kiki the Ferret tagging along in the previous chapter, but not really contributing much.

Why do we never see Riff trying to find Torg to rescue him? Does anyone ever notice he's gone? When he's (often) trapped in another dimension, his story is usually intercut with some rescue attempts back home. During the Torg Potter episodes... nada.

I personally really enjoy the Torg Potters. I'm a fan of Harry Potter, and think the parodies are great fun. But the way they continue to be written are in conflict with the core of Sluggy Freelance and should probably be changed up. Torg is comfortable in his place by now, so it is time to unhinge things. How about next time, instead of Torg, Zoe gets shanghaied by accident? Then there could be a rescue sequence (though not necessarily a successful one) with the rest of the cast.

I just hope there are things like this that can be done to keep The Sluggy train on the track for another decade.


I think that's enough blogging for now. I'm actually feeling a bit lightheaded. I just got back from Game Xchange on West Street, so obviously I'm high. I had to leave my purchase on the back porch to air out, so as not to stink up the house. Now I'm going to find something to eat.