Fett101 wrote:Not to question the infallible Scott, but does anyone else feel Monkey Town has been hanging around quite a while?
Hrm. Just for perspective, it's good to remember from time to time that he doesn't *have* to devote an hour of his life every day to making comics that he then gives us for free. He's doing this to get himself writing, as well as for the benefit of readers. And that former purpose may reasonably be more important on his end.
That aside, I think the question of what "quite a while" means needs to be taken in context. "Zot" has gone on for quite a while, even counting only "Hearts and Minds." None of these improvs have come anywhere near it. Is that a complaint against Zot?
I think instituting a time limit--whether formally or at the vague prompting of the public--would miss the boat. The absolute length of a story matters far less than that the length be appropriate to the story's arc. "Hearts and Minds" has a lot more plot than "Man-Eating Shoes," say. Naturally it goes on much longer.
The improvs' arcs have been (happily) variable. But the longest of them to date haven't been so long in absolute terms: Proto, Meadow, Parallelogram. The bare plot details of any of these could be summed up in twenty seconds. That's fine, if that's what strikes the author. But if people start agitating (simply on the basis of time passed) for the end of a piece like "Monkey Town," which has studiously avoided developing any real plot at all, I get worried that Scott will start to listen.
I would say, in fact, that the improvs in general are in some danger of establishing a pattern of short length, and consequently, simple plot--and that Monkey Town, functioning on the level of goofy parody, is arguably a sign that Scott is already suffering from some unspoken rules. Who says these have to be short projects, just because they're executed in short doses?
Listen to me. I started by cautioning people against complaining, and now I'm doing it. Well, to be clear, I like Monkey Town. And I'll pretty much read whatever Scott hangs up to be read. I'm just noodling about general trends, and suggesting that it might be as much or more fun for us and for him as well if he dove into a more involved piece, even though--almost necessarily--he might have no real idea where it were headed.
Not that I want to pressure Scott to do that, either. It's an example. My point is precisely that we should probably not be lobbying to hard for a writer to tailor his unpaid projects to our tastes. Or attention spans.
RS