Cul de Sac creator Richard Thompson has announced that he’s going to be posting daily commentary about each day’s strip on his blog. Or has he puts it…
This blog has gotten a little moldy and stale, so to perk it up some I’m going to start a new feature that’ll run daily, or until I get distracted by deadlines, my insane social life, or a passing dust mote. The deal is, I’ll post the day’s strip and offer some kind of commentary or apology or justification. I could make it simpler and just say “I was on a deadline, okay?” every single time, but that’s the lazy way out, so we’ll consider that as understood.
Since many of the treasuries have commentaries now, it’s an easy way to make them as you go and not have to do a book’s worth before publication.
I’ve been spoiled by the commentaries. Someday, somebody is going to go crazy and make a Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings-type “Making Of” that will exceed the length of the book.
Michael Fry’s been doing something similar on his blog. I’m looking forward to reading what Mr. Thompson has to say. I just hope it doesn’t take any time away from making his strip.
I like to discuss other things happening with other characters of my strip when I post strips on my blog. It helps keep the readers aware that there is a lot more going on in Okrapolis than just what is being seen in the current strip… Plus you can just say so much about how you came about drawing this particular panel gag before the discussion becomes tedious and boring.
I’m really looking forward to this, and hope it’s fun for Richard as well. I like insights into process and he’s one of the best.
I think commentary would be best saved until you’ve had time to reflect on a body of work. I think a running commentary as the series progresses can possibly hurt the creator. You don’t want to overanalyze things as you don’t know where your creative muse will take you. By overanalyzing work you just created, it might place limits that don’t need to be there. Secondly, you’re creating a forum or dialogue with your audience that may be a bad influence. I hope the blog isn’t open to comments or email feedback. Lastly, I think a certain mystery lends itself well to comic strip characters. Explanatory biographies of every new character takes away from the impact of the strip and possibly dulls surprises later down the road.
This is the problem when you start posting cartoons on your own site. You end up needing “filler” to flesh out the website and then it detracts from the strip.
In my opinion, of course.