[Trollbabe comics] Tea and Sympathy strip #1

[Ron Edwards]

Solomon's nailed it.

Best,
Ron

[Valamir]

Wow,

Hats off to you Solomon.

I could have read the entire Trollbabe comic history a million times and NEVER even come close to making that connection.

I guess I just don't understand the aesthetic perspective that says simply inserting that information into a Retta thought balloon is undesireable.

[Alan]

Hi Ralph and Solomon,

To give Ron credit, I was able to figure it out _after_ I got the simple hint that the music was significant.  However, in my first reading, lacking any referent in the last few months, or any distinctive presentation of the musical notes, that association was not triggered.  An author must work within the limits of his medium - in this case a line-art comic that appears in isolated weekly strips.  

Now, that criticism aside, the elliptical presentation of this turning point does add style and impact.  It reproduces the "click" experience we all get when seeing a connection.

[ejh]

I suspect that some of the disconnect between readers' understanding and Ron's expectations regarding the strip is just a result of the strip being *so* long-running.  Some of these things are comparatively obvious if you look at things in a rapid and holistic manner so they build up in your head, but if you've seen them tiny piece by tiny piece over a long period of time they're not.  (Having gone back and forth with Ron several times over trying to make sure the eyes of the ancient enemy were sufficiently terrifying in the music scene in Mystic Crystal Revelations, where Retta says "THAT music!  So the Ancient Enemy is REAL!" I didn't have a lot of problems making that connection.)

No blame to anyone involved -- it's not Ron's fault that the schedule was weekly and sometimes hit-or-miss due to circumstances outside people's control, and it's not the readers' fault that details got lost over the course of over a year of story in small pieces.  It's easy to think you remember a story completely but when you go back and read it there are bits that didn't stick in your memory that turn out to be crucial, cause they weren't crucial to *that* story.

I think the only solution is to switch to *daily* trollbabe comics, starting immediately.  Cough up those scripts, Ron!