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So, I've gotten some interesting feedback on the three Frank comics I ran last week. These comics will herein be referred to as the "Frank Tangent" for the simple reason that I enjoy referring to things herein whenever I get the chance. Anyway, in regards to the Frank Tangent, well, some people didn't think it was funny, which isn't in itself a big deal. Not everyone is going to think every comic is funny, and I get plenty of regular feedback from people telling me what they don't find funny. Which is fine!

But some people seemed to think I was deliberately trying to not be funny. As in, I was trying to make serious, deep, meaningful comics. That I fully expected people to feel the weight of Frank's death, the sorrow of his children and widow and friends. The word "poignant" was thrown around a lot.

Um, here's the thing, and I'll make this promise right here and now. I will never intentionally be serious, deep, meaningful, or poignant here. Ever. This ain't For Better or For Worse, for fuck's sake. This is a jokey strip about a video game. I will never have a "point" or try to make you "think." I try to be clever, but I don't try to be real. This I so swear.

So, why did people think that I was trying to be serious? Well, the humor was a lot less slapsticky and a lot more deadpan than it usually is, I guess. There weren't traditional punchlines, but I sort of thought the entire tangent was a punchline, 'cos, you know, the Combine don't have kids, or wives, or friends, or little funerals for each other. Just like they don't interview humans for positions in Citadel Purchasing or have gunships named Bruce or any of the other silly things that this comic has depicted. I mean, come on -- sad little Combine kiddies and a little gravestone by the ocean? It's just plain ridiculous. How anyone could take that seriously is completely beyond me.

Anyway, I liked this little tangent a lot -- I think they're some of my favorites of the comics I've done so far. What I find interesting is that the death of a Combine soldier somehow, weirdly, resonated with certain readers, while not long ago a very pleasant young woman named Sandy was unceremoniously engulfed and regurgitated by a barnacle, and yet nary an eyelash was batted (to say nothing of the perhaps hundreds of innocent human lives lost in Ravenholm in these very pages). Bizarre.




Created with Half-Life 2 by Valve Software, using Garry's Mod.
Assembled with Photoshop 6.0. Most fonts by Blambot
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