i admit it, i'm lazy. As Good Mr. Wilde pointed out "Drama is easy. Comedy is hard."
Ok, so maybe he actually said "dying", but heck, the guy was on his deathbed, i'm sure he was confused.
Drama is a cheap way out for a humorist. It's telling the story, but without having to come up with actual jokes, or frankly, anything even all that original. Any brain dead ape can come up with a story like that, and as anyone stuck at home with nothing on but the soaps can tell you, they often do.
The thing is that Drama is so damn easy because it follows a formula. A meets B. A agonizes over B. B goes to Cozumel with C because A kind of creeps her out. C turns out to be an idiot and in a flurry of heavy synth power-pop music A gets a John Hughes makeover and B finds A significantly less repugnant because A no longer wears glasses. Ok, fine, that's just one of them, but trust me, there's probably fourteen total story lines and unless you've lived in a highschool locker for most of your life, you're probably well aware of all of them. (Come to think of it, even if you've been in a high school locker, you've probably been exposed to four or five. Six if you count the stirring Romeo/Juliet story occuring between the yogurt stains near the bottom.)
So, needless to say, i wasn't all that intrigued by Campbell's article describing stereotypes and his characterizations. Here's a man who not only knows the fourteen plot lines, but has managed to fit them together in interesting if not unique ways. Boy meets girl. Boy discovers he has incurable disease. Girl discovers she's unnaturally attracted to plankton. Boy discovers he has latent superhuman powers granted by hither-to unmentioned aliens. Girl finds out she too has an incurable disease, but it's a different one than boy so that it doesn't look like the author got stuck in a rut. Boy and Girl discover mysterious cure for disease by the fact that neither suffer any effects, and the author sort of forgot about it. Boy and Girl go on synth heavy power-pop shopping spree and discover that each other aren't nearly as repugnant if they take their glasses off.
i tell you, this stuff is genius.
Anyway, the article discusses the motive for his characterizations (which, i'd note are nothing like The Grayhound Chronicles) while developing his comic strip Fans (again, not The Grayhound Chronicles) and the sorts of stereotypes he was trying to combat. Naturally, the more cynical reader (such as one who might read The Grayhound Chronicles) might note that although he mentions his own work from time to time, even interspersing plot items, as if to not only clarify his opinions, but in effect create a rather large ad for his own writing. This is something that The Grayhound Chronicles would certainly never do.
Granted, Mr. Campbell is working very hard at becoming the predominant webcomic author and far be it from me to besmirch his diligent efforts to rise to the summit of that particular mole-hill. In fact, i wish him the best of luck in his journey. It's my ferverent wish that one day he does, in-fact become the most well regarded author in this particular niche market and eventually can parlay that into purchasing a vowell to add to his first name.
Myself? i have no such aspirations, mostly because my carreer lies along a different path. Still, the siren call does beckon to me. The call to take a stand, like Mr. Campbell and seek out that grand dream.
i think i'll go to the mall and play some heavy synth power pop music.
