Rich Morris' Comics - YAFGC and The ComixBlog

Like the title says. Unlike other comics that rely on 1-shot jokes for an update, YAFGC actually has a progressive story, and an interesting one at that. So a non-daily update wouldn't exactly kill the interest. Suppose it was updated only 3, even 2 times per week. Would that be worth getting the features and detail that come w/ full color?

No, it wouldn't, as far as I'm concerned.

Having said that, I have no say in the matter. That's entirely Rich's decision.

Not interested, sorry. The reason YAFGC has been produced consistantly (regardless of frequency) for so long is because it's fun and not work. The minute I have to go back over my roughs and ink them and tidy them and colour them and all that crap, it becomes a chore and not fun. So interest would wane. It's a challenge enough to get myself to do them every 100 comics. You'll notice that the centennial wallpapers stopped coming out. That's exactly what happened. It became a job. Besides, I use that "spare time and energy"* to produce my other comics.




* Hah. Frankly, I have no idea how I pull it off myself.

While our illustrious Beholder King has weighed in on the matter, I wonder if I might explore the question for its own sake for a moment, rather than out of any desire to request a change to the strip. It's an interesting question, even outside of the context of the request implicit in it.

Honestly, I rather like it unfinished.

While Rich's talents are many and great, from the window on his work that I have as a self-described tail-wagging fanboy, his key strength as an artist is the breeziness and expressiveness of his quick pencils. If I didn't already know him to have a background in storyboard work, I would have suspected it strongly just from this. It's certainly not to say that he doesn't flatten down to ink work well, nor that his color work isn't enjoyable, but rather, that the quality I love best in his work is not only present in the fast-and-loose pencils, but indeed, it's the most present in the fast-and-loose pencils, because of the wonderful and subtle variation of line the media affords. (Sure, ink can be expressive too....but pencil is so in a unique and wonderful way.)

If the strip went to full-time color, I'd miss the softness and simplicity of the pencil line that currently sets the series' artistic timbre. I feel like I'm reading a storyboard when I read YAFGC, and that, to some degree, contributes to the sense of cinematic narration that the strip pulls off so very well.

The epic and arching story threads beg for daily strips, too. There's so much going on, and Rich is so skilled in building a scene moment by moment, that I worry the strip would suffer from the "cooldown time" if it came out less often. (Of course, if it ever has to be dropped back to less-than-daily publication, I'm sure we'd alll understand, but again, this exploration is meant to be a purely intellectual one into the matter.)

Not only am I happy with YAFGC exactly as it is, but more importantly, I think "as it is" happens to be perfect for it, besides. Thanks for asking the question that led me to ponder the matter, and come to my own conclusion!

I never even considered it as fun vs. work, nor the degree to which the coloring process takes so much additional effort. Though when you put it that way, the decision to leave the comics as sketches makes a bit more sense. Rancourt, I do agree that there is a certain appeal to the story board aspect of the panels. And until now, I didn't actually notice that the colored comics are much sharper and lose that pencil-shaded style.

For the record, I am totally in love with the story, and I think the visuals just help to compliment the writing. If the comic became a chore, I fear the story would lose that indescribable quality that makes it engaging. So if it means continuing the story-telling as is, then whatever works for Rich.

Chippin' in - yeah, the fast-and-loose pencil sketches are one of the factors that really make the comic for me. You can see how everything fits together, and the characters have this sense of life that they tend to loose in the coloring process.

Plus the feeling of a beloved hobby shows . To be honest, i much prefer the pencils, they are alive and they stimulate our imagination.

Seeing the occasional strip coloured is nice but I wouldn't want every strip[ like that, especially if it meant a recuded production rate. The current style is perfectly nice and lets us see a lot of detail that would be completely lost if everythign was coloured. Hell, go back and look at our last coloured strip, the drow practically blend into the bakground.

My two cents: better not. I am not sure I even like better colored strips. I wouldn't mind if they'd be inked but I have grown used to this B&W style and like it very much, probably better than the color strips.

Anyhow, I acknowledge that inking and cleaning alone would be an awful lot of work that would make impossible the daily strip, which is without doubt one of the best features of this comic, without doubt my favorite of all ever (maybe after Astérix if any).

Also the sketchy format is interesting in itself: even if can't draw much I learn some stuff in Rich's marks. So leave it the way it is, please.

I like it as is. Besides, it leaves him not only time to do his Doctor Who and Paulus comics. But leaves him time with RL family and friends.

I love the sketch style and I know for a fact that it's one of the things that drew me into the comic to begin with.

All that aside, I spent a fair amount of time reading strip after strip catching up from day one over the last two evenings (alas, domestic duties occupy much time on their own) and when I finally caught up I found myself thinking, "but I liked no having to wait for the next one..."

So, no, I would not like it if it were slowed down for coloured strips, it seems like two negatives to me.

From a fan perspective, I rather like it as is, I love webcomics, and this one always manages to hold my interest because I know that every day there's something new. I also follow other webcomics like "Looking For Group" which could put professional comic artists to shame with it's high quality, but the story progresses so much slower than in YAFGC.

The appeal of YAFGC isn't that is has some random one page gag scenes (although they are there), the appeal is that it doesn't NEED the humor to retain it's interest in my opinion, it's story alone wins points on charm and writing. I'd be happy to just be reading this as a pure novel than a webcomic, the story stands on it's own, the imagery is just an added plus in my opinion. Though I'm not trying to undermine the artist's talent, the illustrations are great, and have their own charm, that just like the story, can often stand on their own. It was page one after all, that had no dialogue, that got me hooked on YAFGC.


Not to mention, coming from a similar creative background, most people tend to be perfectionists with their work, and if the creator put as much time and energy into YAFGC putting it out in color, the production would be severely halted, and I'm not sure really worth it.


There's always the adoring fan like myself happy to throw up a few fan colorations every now and then.

Just as a side note, the guys who do Looking for Group (as well as Least I Could Do) *are* professionals. They have about eight guys doing nothing but those comics and managing the sites/swag/stores/etc, in an office in Montreal.

I must agree, the story is, beyond a doubt, what brings me back here again and again. Though I would like to point out that much of the story is told silently in expressions, gestures, and the like. This is, in my estimation, where Rich's greatest strength artistically veritably pours forth -- the ability to tell a story in silence, to speak through shot framing, through expressions, body language and posture, and details of setting. So much of YAFGC would be diminished if this story was told instead of shown. The delicious ambiguities of subtext may not be impossible to explore in written narrative, quite the contrary...but our Beholder King is so very talented in communicating through image that I can't help but feel YAFGC would be diminished without a visual element to carry the narrative too.

So yes, while I certainly agree that I'd be happy to follow this story in nearly any form, I feel that its present form is, in fact, its most perfect form. (Though I admit to fond dreams of a completely non-commercial, non-productized animated series of Rich's imagining and complete creative control...I simply lack the platinum pieces to offer to bankroll one!)