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WHEN IN THE COURSE OF CARTOON EVENTS, IT BECOMES NECCESARY...
...to sunder a pair of characters, it is done not to cause clamorous grief amongst one's readership, but to create conflict within the story – a conflict that seeks resolution. A really good, satisfying resolution. At the most cut-and-dried level, this is basic to story construction: conflict, development, resolution. It is the game at which we all play.
Captain: What is that off the starboard bow? (exposition) Take a look there with those heavy, official-looking Navy-issue binoculars hanging around your neck, Lieutenant.
Lieutenant: I believe it is a torpedo, Captain. (conflict)
Captain: I believe there is a supreme being, Lieutenant. But officers and gentlemen never discuss religion. (development) What is that thing off the starboard bow?
Lieutenant: A torpedo, sir. (certain conflict)
Captain: Can we maneuver out of its path? (more development)
Lieutenant: No, sir. (really tense tense tense conflict)
Captain: Then kiss me, you fool. (resolution)
This, then, is storytelling – storytelling of burly men at sea, and the sound of binoculars clinking together like nobody's business.
But I digress.
I have been receiving a lot of mail importuning me to "say it ain't so," anent Amos and Edda's break-up. I seem to have upset a lot of people. Many even fear the imminent end of "9 Chickweed Lane" as a strip and a love story. All I can say is, nothing like that is happening. When the time comes that I end Chickweed, it will be with the dirtiest line ever exchanged between mother and daughter in a syndicated comic strip, and therefore it will be published nowhere, unless all my editors aren't looking (i.e., I will have to send them booze). Oh, I have it all planned. It's a humdinger. (And, no, they won't be sitting on a garden swing, Juliette saying, "Honey, let's discuss personal freshness," to which Edda can reply, "You smell like a sewer yourself, you old bag." No. It will be better than that. Or worse than that. Depends how you look at it. I'm picking out the booze for my editors now, just in case.)
So, please don't worry. I'm just writing conflict into my story. You have to ride it out.
Meanwhile, what do you think? Should I buy them all fifths, or go for the gallon bottles? It's a pretty dirty line.
Brooke
Captain: What is that off the starboard bow? (exposition) Take a look there with those heavy, official-looking Navy-issue binoculars hanging around your neck, Lieutenant.
Lieutenant: I believe it is a torpedo, Captain. (conflict)
Captain: I believe there is a supreme being, Lieutenant. But officers and gentlemen never discuss religion. (development) What is that thing off the starboard bow?
Lieutenant: A torpedo, sir. (certain conflict)
Captain: Can we maneuver out of its path? (more development)
Lieutenant: No, sir. (really tense tense tense conflict)
Captain: Then kiss me, you fool. (resolution)
This, then, is storytelling – storytelling of burly men at sea, and the sound of binoculars clinking together like nobody's business.
But I digress.
I have been receiving a lot of mail importuning me to "say it ain't so," anent Amos and Edda's break-up. I seem to have upset a lot of people. Many even fear the imminent end of "9 Chickweed Lane" as a strip and a love story. All I can say is, nothing like that is happening. When the time comes that I end Chickweed, it will be with the dirtiest line ever exchanged between mother and daughter in a syndicated comic strip, and therefore it will be published nowhere, unless all my editors aren't looking (i.e., I will have to send them booze). Oh, I have it all planned. It's a humdinger. (And, no, they won't be sitting on a garden swing, Juliette saying, "Honey, let's discuss personal freshness," to which Edda can reply, "You smell like a sewer yourself, you old bag." No. It will be better than that. Or worse than that. Depends how you look at it. I'm picking out the booze for my editors now, just in case.)
So, please don't worry. I'm just writing conflict into my story. You have to ride it out.
Meanwhile, what do you think? Should I buy them all fifths, or go for the gallon bottles? It's a pretty dirty line.
Brooke