"Sluggy Freelance" Topic

I've been following this strip since before the turn of the century.

It's been a good ride and it has outlasted many of the other online comics I used to follow and while the quality may have been variable, it never dipped to the point I wanted to quit reading.

And the creator is a master of the slow burn, his story is incredibly dense filled with amazing reveals that show that he had it all plotted out years ago and delivers us these reveals with the patience of a Buddha.

To his credit he had decided to wrap up this magnum opus in time for the 20th anniversary and he would take the whole thing off on a lighter tangent.

We're now almost two years after the promise of the reveal and we're nowhere near any resolution since the comic is now going on hiatus for two weeks and there are hints that we may not get the final reveal until another long goose chase of indeterminate length.

I don't mind running the Marathon, but if you notice that somebody is moving the finish line further and further so they can add another ten updates telling this joke and twelve setting up a situation that leads to another fifteen of nail-biting tension, and while there is a progression, the final resolution keeps slipping away because other than a few details I don't see that many unresolved plots yet to be dropped unless the writer figures we're due for another three year long interlude to explain the rest of the backstory before finally throwing the switch once and for all.

Sluggy has really good and really bad moments, that it lasted so long is a tribute to the writer and the fans, but two years into seeing any resolution and hints that it could last even longer before it finally happens … Feeling really tired about it.

I'm having a similar reaction to Order of the Stick. I understand that the creator has health issues which contribute to the long delays between postings, but that's made worse by the extended side plots that go on forever. For over a year now we've been stuck in a world-ending threat that is actually only tenuously related to the overall story arc; indeed, I don't think the main antagonist has appeared in the story for two or possibly three years, and only intermittently for the last five years at least. Heck, I can't even remember his name without googling! Of late, the action has been one extended combat sequence that has just dragged on and on and on (for several months in fact), interrupted by flashbacks that only now give any hint of having a point to them! Yeah, combat can drag in D&D, but this is ridiculous. And none of this is helped by the fact that the posting schedule appears to be completely random. Readers have no way of knowing if or when the next strip will upload. I count us lucky if we get one in any given month. Meanwhile, my primary reaction to the current story has become "Get on with it, man!"

Oh, I'll still read it. But geez…

The Sluggy slow burn finally wore me out about two years ago, and I was a survivor of both Timeless Ocean stories and Burn Ward Zoe.

Well, OotS finally brought the flashback bit to a resolution, and I admit the payoff was powerful. But still it took too dang long to happen, and we're yet to be back on track with the main story arc, which is currently so lost I'm wondering if even Indy could find it.*

*Not afraid to mix my metaphors and pun in the same breath.

I'm still following. He keeps bringing back things we've seen before. I really wonder how much of this he had in mind from the beginning.

andy