Recently I made a post saying that I had stopped reading Questionable Content because of the creator’s tendency to make me extremely annoyed. It was really my last connection to the world that brought me into making a comic myself after resisting it for decades. I didn’t read it for about a month and then I found that it left too big a hole in me. Jeph Jacques may be a mouthy, pseudo-intellectual dickhead, but I don’t think he’s evil. At the very least there is some part of him that makes art that resonates with me in a way that I didn’t want to give up. I suspect that he would not give me the same grace. In fact, I suspect that if he ever met me he would tell me not to read his work, and I guess I just have to be okay with that. Even if he makes every character a gay space robot, or whatever random ass thing he comes up with, I want to see it to the bitter end. I suspect that anyone reading this blog understands the desire for the little ritual of going to read your webcomics for the day, or week, or whatever posting schedule you are attuned to. PVP sputtered out as Scott Kurtz flailed around in his life for a while and seems to have never recovered. It has one of the best romance arcs I’ve ever read in any media. It evolved a lot over time, but it seemed like he fell out of love with it. I think you need to be in love with the world you create to do a good job at it. It’s possible to keep a zombie strip like Garfield going forever, but if no one is passionate about it anywhere in the process it’s just a giest roaming the landscape. Starslip Crisis ended naturally and Kris Straub moved on to projects that weren’t for me. Penny Arcade evolved over time into something I couldn’t understand half the time. They were immersed in gaming culture in a way someone who works all the time can’t be. When I look at it now the art is repellent. Which is fine, that’s clearly an artistic choice and I don’t require all media to be tailored to my tastes. I simply find no value or beauty in it. There was a time when it really resonated with me though. Shortpacked ended naturally after evolving into something right on the edge of being intolerable. I read Dumbing Of Age for a while but Willis’s evolution as a creator eventually became so repellant I found I couldn’t stand it anymore. That felt like a real loss at the time because at one point I really resonated with his work. Homestuck barely even counts as a webcomic in its original form. It is so sad that you can’t experience it as it was intended anymore. I came in late to that party. Homestuck was probably the last archive dive I ever did. For all I know it’s the last one I will ever do. It was quite a trip though. In some places it was more like a book than a comic, with the endless chat logs and whatnot. Sometimes it was a game. Sometimes interactive media. It really pushed the envelope and I’m glad I experienced it in its true form. Practically every other webcomic I ever followed just stopped one day. No fanfare, it just stopped and no explanation was given. Then the site disappeared. Some sputtered along until the creators finally gave up, but they keep the archives alive in some way, and sometimes mention wanting to go back to it someday. In any case the long and short of all of that is I couldn’t bear to let this part of my life fade to nothing just yet. I needed one last connection to the world that brought me here. Needed it. I bring it all up now because the Questionable Content site was hacked. The archive is out of commission and I don’t even think the current pages are up on the stopgap page he put up. In spite of everything this thing I have a complex relationship with, that I was bereft without, got taken away regardless. I suspect it will come back eventually. He’s not done telling his story, and I assume it’s still his primary income anyway. I could become a patron, but that is a line I don’t want to cross. I’ve been a patron of other comics, but not his. The adversarial feelings I have toward him have always stopped me from taking that step. And you don’t have to tell me that this gay feud I have with him is one-sided. I know that. I know he doesn’t give even one shit about me, my opinions, or if I read his comic or not. That is not the point. I’m not sure I am even capable of articulating what the point is, but I know it’s not that.

I recently got an amazing deal on digital versions of the entire Peanuts catalog of work. If the name doesn’t mean anything to you it’s the comic that Charlie Brown and Snoopy come from. It started in 1952 I think and ran until the death of the creator in 2000. In fact, he died the day after the final strip was published. I’ve referenced it many times in my own work, even if most people don’t pick up on it. The thing is I never had access to the entire thing. I read some very old collections in various libraries, but now I’m working through the entire life’s work of Charles Schulz. There were, until now, huge gaps in my understanding of the work as a whole. It’s been extremely interesting starting from day one. When the strip started kids still played Marbles. No man had ever set foot on the moon. World War two had ended 7 years before it started. By the time I appeared in the 70s the strip was more or less what it was by the time it ended. Although it evolved throughout its run. In the beginning Snoopy wasn’t clearly anyone’s dog. In fact it isn’t even established that Charlie Brown is connected to him in any meaningful way until years into the strip. Many characters are introduced as babies and then grow up to their continually depicted ages and age no more. Linus, Lucy, Schroder, Sally, all begin as babies and have a baby arc before becoming kid cast members. In fact the early cast is comprised of Charlie Brown, Shermy, Patty, Violet, and Snoopy. Schroder joins as the first baby, followed by Lucy. Pig Pen simply appears one day. Another character Charlotte Braun appears in a few strips and then disappears, I assume, forever. The kids listen to the radio in the early strips before televisions begin appearing. There is talk of Sputnik briefly at one point. It is, obviously, of its time. Time moves on but the kids never age past a certain point. Of course that’s pretty normal in various forms of media. Like how Bart Simpson is perpetually in 4th grade, or Stewie Griffin is always a baby. It’s just thrown into a much starker contrast since the era Peanuts starts in is when so many everyday technologies were in their infancy if they existed at all. Setting all that aside the strip is extremely low key. It’s mostly just the kids talking and making wry observations. Nothing much happens, and yet I keep reading. I like that kind of content and clearly I emulate it in some way. I enjoy watching these characters noodle around while not much happens. One thing I will say though is that I didn’t remember Charlie Brown being such a pathetic character. By the time I came in he wasn’t quite so mopey I guess. Also, I didn’t remember the girls being so outright mean. They treat him horribly. Patty and Violet in particular, but eventually Lucy as well. I should mention that Patty isn’t the same character as Peppermint Patty, who hasn’t even been introduced yet. I suspect that Patty will have mostly disappeared from the strip by the time Peppermint Patty comes along. I’m still in the early days but already Violet, Patty, and Shermy are appearing less and less. I know that over time some characters cycle out and are basically never seen again. Shermy was already so minor by the time I started reading in the 80s that most people didn’t know his name if he appeared in group shots in the TV specials. One thing I recently noticed is that Snoopy mentions being and “only dog” at one point, implying that he has no siblings. Of course at some point it is revealed that he has several and I’m wondering if Schulz just forgot or if it gets explained later. I guess I’ll find out eventually.

Anyway I felt somehow better about my work after I got into reading Peanuts again. Nothing happens and yet it makes me happy to read it, so it must be the same for people who keep coming back here. On some level I already knew that, but having it illustrated to me in this way made it feel more real than it usually does. Sometimes it’s just nice to read nice stories. In any case I’ve wasted enough of your time with my writing for today. I hope you have a nice Monday. If you are one of those people who enjoy my work please consider becoming a patron in whatever way suits you best. I will return on Wednesday with more. Until then, don’t let them pull the football away.

2980 Jagerin.

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