Did Foxtrot just throw down the gauntlet?

[JohnnyComeLately]

Someone (http://news.yahoo.com/comics/uclickcomics/20060214/cx_ft_uc/ft20060214) seems to be suggesting drawing stick figures isn't all that tough, even when ill. I sense a showdown between the Giant and Bill Amend :o

[BardicLasher]

I doubt it. This isn't PvP. The Giant's not cutting in on Amend's game here. And he specifically mentions NEWSPAPER comics.

[theKOT]

Yea, but they fought an epic battle of which the bards sing, but at the end of it only one thing was certain: The Giant now had a new rival for whom his fiery wrath burns like the heat of a thousand suns.

[BardicLasher]

Yea, but they fought an epic battle of which the bards sing, but at the end of it only one thing was certain: The Giant now had a new rival for whom his fiery wrath burns like the heat of a thousand suns.


More like "At the end, Jason sat down at the table with the others, and a gnomish artificer joined the Order."

[theKOT]

More like "At the end, Jason sat down at the table with the others, and a gnomish artificer joined the Order."

As part of the peace treaty that wrought a friendship twixt the two? Come on man, stay in character!

[BardicLasher]

As part of the peace treaty that wrought a friendship twixt the two? Come on man, stay in character!

Dude, I started out of character.

[theKOT]

Dude, I started out of character.
Well then get in character!This isn't an IM session with some of your buddies man, this is the real deal!

[Jibar]

I am extremely perplexed by this most unreguler of cobversations. Perhaps some norouishment might aid me in unravveling this mysterious endeavor.

[theKOT]

I am extremely perplexed by this most unreguler of cobversations. Perhaps some norouishment might aid me in unravveling this mysterious endeavor.
Have some roleplaying XP! But I have to take points off for the misspelling....
Is it just me, or is foxtrot the most self-depriciating MAjor comic strip? I mean, Be-eth it simply m'self, or art the rest of you privee to the self-depriciating-ness...eth.

[Deuce]

See, now I imagined this (erm, imagined-eth this-eth :P ) as something the Foxtrot cartoonist has had sitting around for just such an emergency. No real connection to the direction of the strip, just something you can have someone call the editor and ask to have run since you are sick. Sort of like having a comic in the reserve tank. So it's more like when Rich has put up the "no comic" or "comic will be late" frames. I imagine that if he found he had some time on his hands (I'm guessing sometime in mid-2035) he could build up a bank of one-offs to use in cases like this. I'm sure a few folks would complain that their whole life really does hinge on know what happens next, and that running "filler" has violated their human rights, but the rest of us would be glad for a little something from the Giant.

My 2 cp,

[Amalthea]

I thought that newspaper comics have to be turned in months in advance so they can go through the editorial committee.

Amend just likes making fun of cartoonists, he's been doing it for at least 10 years now. Pay particular attention to newspaper headlines in the backgrounds of older strips, sometimes they contain rather sarcastic comments on cartoonists recieving fame, fortune, and adulation.

[iltharanos]

Someone (http://news.yahoo.com/comics/uclickcomics/20060214/cx_ft_uc/ft20060214) seems to be suggesting drawing stick figures isn't all that tough, even when ill. I sense a showdown between the Giant and Bill Amend :o

Oh no, not another controversial cartoon.

/watches for massive protests coupled with death threats.

[waffle]

The joke is not a cut at OotS, but about the compression of newspaper comics to squeeze in more ads; something that Bill Waterson of Calvin & Hobbes battled for years. If anything, it is a cut at the relatively poor art of something like Dilbert and how well the strip looks at half sized compared to something like C&H.

[JohnnyComeLately]

Hmm, I forgot to add the <sarcasm></sarcasm> around my post. ::) Obviously he wasn't specifically aiming at OOTS, I just tossed it out here because you so rarely get mainstream use of stick figures.

[Corolinth]

Dilbert is alot like User Friendly. You don't read it for the art.

[Frem]

Waffle hit the nail on the head.
Also, note that any implications about stick figures being easy to draw are true. Compared to the normal foxtrot style, they are. Though Mr. Amend's stick figures are clearly not of the same quality as The Giant's.

Random off topic note: I doubt Bill Amend even knows of OOTS' existance, though he'd probably enjoy it if he did.

[naiou]

I wholeheartedly agree with waffle. Foxtrot comics do make fun of the newspapers quite abit, and, let's face it, stick figures are funny.

[Eriol]

Random off topic note: I doubt Bill Amend even knows of OOTS' existance, though he'd probably enjoy it if he did.
Oh I'd lay odds that he does. Maybe not a major fan, but I'd bet he's heard of it.

[Jack Squat]

Random off topic note: I doubt Bill Amend even knows of OOTS' existance, though he'd probably enjoy it if he did.

I don't know about that, there's a ton of strips in there that are about DnD. He might be here in these forums. I might be him...






...Or I might just be getting you to think about how convenient the anomynisity of internet forums are.

[Sophistemon]

Well now I don't know what to think.

[Eternal-Darthness]

Considering the frequency that Jason and Marcus are found playing D&D, I'd say that increases the odds that he's seen OotS at some point. Bill Amend also claims that he engages in "juvenile" or relatively pointless activity (including the web and games) allegedly to get into the mind of Jason and other characters. He has shown evidence of being at the very least a big web-surfer in the past, I'm just not sure if he's given in to the webcomics darkside at any point.

On that note, a webcomic from Bill Amend would likely be excellent. Can we hope? Bill Holbrook already does Kevin and Kell in addition to his newspaper strips, after all.

[Haggis_McCrablice]

Drawing stick figures is a lot harder than it looks. I don't like it when artists deliberately draw them crude and simplistic and horribly out-of-proportion. I spend a lot of time trying to achieve a fluid look--arms and legs must move smoothly, and the eyes and mouths must lend the faces an expressive, dynamic look. I sometimes fuss for hours to get the blush in a girl's cheek, the quirk of an eyebrow, or the tilt of a head just so.

[blackfox]

The joke is not a cut at OotS, but about the compression of newspaper comics to squeeze in more ads; something that Bill Waterson of Calvin & Hobbes battled for years. If anything, it is a cut at the relatively poor art of something like Dilbert and how well the strip looks at half sized compared to something like C&H.I agree with your viewpoint, but I believe Bill Watterson's problem was that he considered comics to be an art form and he was dissatisfied with the compression of many comics into the comics pages. Sunday comics used to take up a full page, each panel was carefully drawn and time and thought obviously went into it. He (Watterson) especially admired comics such as Peanuts--it's obviously got a reason, something that it's about. It doesn't exist to sell itself. Peanuts is about childhood insecurities. Calvin and Hobbes is about the world of a child and how children think. Also, because of the unusuality of Calvin (he's intelligent and has a hyperactive imagination), Watterson can use Calvin as a way of expressing his views, subtly. Watterson's battle with the syndicate was to gain more freedom with the Sunday strips, so he could truly turn his story of Calvin and Hobbes into art. Looking at some of the later scripts, it *is* art. Many other comic strips exist to be sold, Calvin and Hobbes existed to show the way smart children really think, and to show the true art form that comics can be.

I think that if Amend is poking fun at anything, it's himself, for making a stupid joke like this because he's ill, or at other newspaper comic writers who do exactly the same thing.

[ElfLad]

Y'know, the Fox kids spend a lot of time talking about cartoonists, don't they? I think they're a bit crazy, don't you?

And Foxtrot is the best newspaper comic out there, with the possible exception of Pearls Before Swine.

[Corolinth]

Fox Trot is good, but it's no Boondocks.

[Samiam303]

Did anyone read the NEXT DAY'S (http://news.yahoo.com/comics/uclickcomics/20060215/cx_ft_uc/ft20060215;_ylt=AlghPafhpUAw29VnwPsf5Lve7isC;_ylu= X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl) Foxtrot? I doubted it before, but he's clearly saying something here. ;D

[theKOT]

Yeah. He is obviously commenting about those darned transparency issues! ;)

[ElfLad]

http://news.yahoo.com/comics/uclickcomics/20060217/cx_ft_uc/ft20060217;_ylt=At48VmdHBzR_jpy2OzbfuOXe7isC;_ylu= X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

Apparently he is now mocking guest strips.

[Gralamin]

This 'FoxTrot' is exasperating to my fixation of an adequate representation of an adventure. It must be extirpatied by conflagration.

I extol indulging in the operation of an exceeding terminology.

*I hope most of those words have about the same meaning as what I am going for, used a thesaurus*

[Jothki]

I agree with your viewpoint, but I believe Bill Watterson's problem was that he considered comics to be an art form and he was dissatisfied with the compression of many comics into the comics pages. Sunday comics used to take up a full page, each panel was carefully drawn and time and thought obviously went into it.

To some degree, he won some victories. I believe that his Sunday strips were the first to be placed in a single block instead of split into pieces, and from looking at the Sunday comics in my paper, the practice is now widespread.

[Haggis_McCrablice]

This 'FoxTrot' is exasperating to my fixation of an adequate representation of an adventure. It must be extirpatied by conflagration.



And now, the ebonic translation.



Man, ain't nothin' happenin' in this [bleep]! Burn the moth'a [bleep]er down!


Thank you.