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From: ciaraldi@rochester.UUCP (Mike Ciaraldi)
Newsgroups: net.comics
Subject: Re: Whats going on?
Message-ID: <4848@rochester.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 12-Feb-84 18:01:39 EST
Article-I.D.: rocheste.4848
Posted: Sun Feb 12 18:01:39 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 15-Feb-84 06:08:24 EST
References: <1692@rlgvax.UUCP>
Organization: U. of Rochester, CS Dept.
Lines: 39

Yes, I too wonder "what's going on?"

This divides into two categories:
1) Comics so badly written and drawn that what they are trying to
say is unclear. This includes "Thriller". 
2) Comics where you can tell the author is trying to tantalize you,
and you want to match wits with him/her.
e.g. "Elfquest". 

The new "Cerebus" is in the second group. What bothers me is that I 
have read every single issue, but I don't have them all stored together,
so I can't go back and try to reread them or read the letters columns,
which often have additional info.  I HOPE that next month will make
this clear. Who is wipingm out whom, and why?
Sim has been pretty good about all this so far, tying up at least
the most obvious loose ends.
But, we know that the priceless bird statue everyone was looking for
is central (he said so) to the plot of the whole epic.
In addition, he is pretty scrupulous about telling us only what
Cerebus himself would know, rather than having lots of
"omnipotent narrator" stuff.
If next month does not clear it up, mamybe a letteris
in order.
If only we could get Dave Sim on the net...

Incidentally, I think "Ronin" is mostly in the second category,
but the biggest problem I have there is not being able
to remember who everyonr is, because the drawing
is so scratchy and distorted at times.

"American Flagg" I think is going OK, because I have
faith we will find out more of the forces behind the scenes
when Reuben himself does. Chaykin is trying to set
us up with these scenes that Reuben never gets to see,
so when they come to fruition we won't
think he pulled the plot device out of nowhere.

Mike Ciaraldi
ciaraldi@rochester