By contrast, a recent Mallard Fillmore strip made me giggle. I’m afraid something might be wrong with me.

If you could just link your own webcomic so i can see what you mean and how YOU go about keeping the whole of YOUR fanbase happy, that’d be great.

PVP is Kurtz’s webcomic. He draws it as he wants to draw it and he makes the storylines as he wants to make them. It is up to us whether we like it or dislike it. I respect your opinion, but i disagree with it.

That being said, what bothers me could be called many things: a noticeable inflated ego, changing priorities from making a great comic to making great money, or just general prostitution of the name and previous talent. My point is that I’ve found that the comic has dipped when his general energy went to something else, namely maximizing profit. Signing every book to be mailed or sketching a character on an inside cover for extra dollars, limited runs of old books, or the one that pissed me off so much it snapped me out of passive browsing and shaded my view, the ‘pay us money and we’ll pretend to be your friend for a few minutes’ phone call plot. Now, I understand that artist signed copies and rare runs are great and treasured at times, but having it run constantly? Especially when the quality dips or flat out falls in some minds? Not exactly helping to increase the value, worth or the respect of the product even if it increases profits.

I also find it odd that they are focusing on a ‘how to make a successful web comic’ book and tips (which is the classic, pay money to learn how to make money problem) at a time when pvp’s popularity is wavering. So many people are notably unhappy or flat out leaving that it seems ironic.

But those are just my two cents.

Here’s the thing, though: Comics aren’t necessarily about being the same formula. Readers of Calvin and Hobbes will know that that although at first glance the comics seem to be about childhood and the rigors therein, once you’ve read enough you realize that there are multiple aspects to Watterson’s humour that some people just wouldn’t understand. Some people would laugh at Hobbes pushing Calvin into the mud one day, and shrug the comic off the next when Calvin and Hobbes ride around in their wagon, discussing philosophy. The formula of comics isn’t the same as that of stand-up comedians. While a comedian usually sticks with a certain kind of story or niche, and can repeat their jokes, cartoonists must develop new material almost daily, as well as draw interesting images to accompany it. They can run out of ideas quickly if they focus on one area, so diversification is important. Even Penny Arcade doesn’t do video game comics contantly, and they do only post three comics a week.

Scott Kurtz had his PvP comic started as a simple enough joke-a-day format, with short stories running no more than a few days, but with consistant gamer-related punchlines at the end. And that works, and I can see you enjoyed that, and miss it.

But Kurtz decided somewhere along the way to expand the universe of the comic. Games and geek sub-culture are great, but he decided to move beyond that medium. It may have started as a comic about gaming, and the title suggests that it still is, but titles can be deceiving, and all we really have is that Kurtz starting making a comic about things he found funny one day, shared it with the rest of us, and a lot of people agreed. Now he’s sharing other jokes he thinks are funny. Plenty of people will lose interest, but others will take their place. I personally enjoyed the Jade Fontaine Mysteries, but that’s because I grew up with those kinds of shows. I liked Rockford Files, and after that I liked Murder, She Wrote. I still like them. And I know plenty of people who would shrug off those kinds of shows, and seeing comics about them would make them roll their eyes and surf away to a different site. But the fact that I liked the old mystery shows (Before the newer CSI based stuff took control) is what endeared the Jade Fontaine Mysteries to me. I enjoyed a parody that reminded me of something aside from how awesome Pacman was or how the levels in Halo repeat themselves.

My point is merely that just because the focus of PvP has changed over the years doesn’t mean the humour has started to suck. It just means Kurtz is trying different jokes that you either don’t like or don’t get. This may be hard to believe, but there are even people out there that think Bill Cosby sucks. Maybe they just haven’t had the advantage of sitting in front of a record player and listening to LPs about Old Weird Harold or Fat Albert or Noah talking with God. Or maybe they just don’t have a compatible sense of humour.

Maybe the jokes just don’t sing for you anymore, but then that means they don’t suck, it just means the humour doesn’t cater to you.

I watched a video Kurtz put out about escaping bad habits and becoming less lazy. It sounded like he wants to make his strip, as he said, “more interesting to look at, and (…) more interesting to draw.” So, I guess at least *I’ll* see what happens, because I visit PVPonline.com every day to check out the strip!

As for Kurtz’s character, I can’t legitimately attack or defend him, because I don’t know him. That thing he did to that band is unkind, but to be fair, he didn’t offer free stuff to the people who went and screwed with their site. My guess is that he was just speaking his mind, bitching about some people who upset him, and he forgot that what he says has an impact on many of his fans. It’s a big responsibility to have admirers who are that… well…. weak minded; because their stupidity is not his fault, but he’s forced to take it into consideration every time he expresses his thoughts.

I kinda wish Scott would do more game humor – and I think you’re right to say he was more focused, which translated to more funny.

I DO wonder at the sudden trendiness of having blogs that bash Kurtz. This one (admitedly NOT just for that) coming on the heals of the Fake Scott McLoud – seems like it’s trendy to bash PvP right now.

Is Kurtz the best comic ever? Nah. Do the relationship story arcs and shit like that make me wish he’d get back to the damn game references and fart jokes? Yeah. The final and most important question: Have I in the past cut off comics that I thought got just plain sucky, and sucky on a regular basis. Definitely.

At the moment, I think PVP is still worth 1 minute of my busy, busy day. It’s how I found my way over to this particular free exchange of information. But whatever. If you don’t like the guy’s work, go read something funnier. Or, Actual God forbid, write and draw something funnier yourself and take his place in my bookmarks.

If you want to debate on quality of strips that’s fine, but there is no need to be rude in that. But I don’t expect somebody who names themselves the mighty god king to understand any of that, in all his 1337ness.

Well we all take comfort in the fact that the only reason you’re doing this is because you WANT pvp to be better. Well join the club.

Seriously, I should consider making a website that flames everything, I could make easy money, and I wouldn’t be a lazy hack myself AT ALL.

However, there’s one thing you mentioned that I’d like to clear up, and that’s the free-to-newspapers issue you bring up at the end.

I can’t speak with authority on much, but on this, you just gotta trust me: The fact that that many newspaper editors didn’t rush to get PvP into their comics pages (regardless of price) says more about the newspaper industry than it says about the quality of Scott’s work.

But I think the potential for PVP to be really fantastic is still there. And I think Kurtz can definitely rally. Shunting aside all the negative stuff, and there is plenty of it, PVP can still be stripped down to the bones and built from the ground up.

I still read in hopes of seeing that.