Bob's Twisted Tale this week...

[Proudhuff]

Can't you hear that? that's the sound of thin ice cracking my friends

[Jim_Campbell]

Can't you hear that? that's the sound of thin ice cracking my friends

Ah. Yes. Good point. Sorry about that.

Cheers!

Jim

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

I skipped it.

It's the first story in the prog that I have ever skipped. Ever. Since Prog 1.

I find the strips too hard to follow.

[IndigoPrime]

But, yeah, not sure it should be so much work to decipher

I think the problem is the art/Byrne's storytelling ability. On reading your synopsis, I went back and re-read the story and now rather like it. However, I read through it a few times earlier and just couldn't tell what was going on in some of the frames. I think for me it all went wrong in that I didn't realise anything was being 'stolen'—the set-up wasn't obvious enough for this grey-haired reader.

[Dark Jimbo]

As for the 'solved' story, I'll risk the thin ice and say that I could pull a better story out of my ass.

Well, to be fair there's a twsit at the end that Leigh's synopsis doesn't mention.

We assume all along that the little people and termites are after the queen, although when reclaimed the little man ignores her, climbs up her body and is tearfully reuinted with his little ladyfriend, who was hiding on the queen all along and turns out to have been the real reason for the little man's mission.

[JamesC]

Well I couldn't tell WTF was going on either, and now I've heard what the story was supposed to be I'm glad I dodn't spend too much time trying.
They say a picture tells a thousand words but with this messy artwork they were all Greek to me.

[Steve Green]

Thanks for the synopsis.

I still think it's fairly impenetrable, whether through sketchy art, or storytelling or what, I don't know.

- Steve

[mechanix81]

'Read' this last night. Seemed to be a bunch of interconnected images without narrative. I'm sure it does make sense, but you don't buy 2000AD to think 'what the hell is going on here?'. Maybe these have now run their course?

After reading I got really frustrated with it and went to bed. Not good.

[JOE SOAP]

I could understand what was going on in this story but the punchline wasn't as good as some of Bob's other tales. Generally his stuff is about the same thing: creatures big and small living off and manipulating each other in a parasitical type way for their own ends. Quite bleak but interesting nonetheless. The problem with this one is that it takes so much effort to understand it "pictorially" that when you finally see what it's about, that the creature is willing to sacrifice so much of his creatures/resources for his mate/queen, that it's kind of a "so what" reaction. Bob has done this type of story better before so he needs to harvest new stories.

My favourite Byrne tale is still the dictator with the shrinking/enlarging machine. I definitely think there's a place for Byrne in Twoth -much more than I feel Sinister/Dexter deserves one as I don't even read it anymore- and it would be a poorer comic without him.

[Mr Long Face]

Didn't understand it either and lost interest one and half pages in.  Agree with the comment made earlier that if a comic requires an elaborate explanation it just don't work.

File under 'slipped through the net' methinks.

[Dark Jimbo]

This one has to be counted as a failure but I still agree with Garageman - better a little headscratching over something interesting and different than an increasingly bland and pointless Sin/Dex continuing to go nowhere fast.

[TordelBack]

Isn't it a rather poignant story about terrible sacrifices made for single-minded love, with icky creature designs?

I've offered my opinions over on the review thread, so I won't repeat them here, but I'd have to take issue with Mechanix81's statement:

Seemed to be a bunch of interconnected images without narrative.

It's not.

I'm sure it does make sense, but you don't buy 2000AD to think 'what the hell is going on here?'.

I do!  I enjoy a little mystery and little pondering and re-reading, otherwise I'm through my €3 comic in 5 minutes flat and wondering about where to store it, and whether I should have bought a frappaccino instead.  

I can understand that this may not be what some (many) of us want from their Prog (to be sure it's not a 'shot glass of rocket fuel'), but I don't think that warrants some of the more vitriolic comments on here - it's only 5 pages, and for my money my second favourite strip (after Dante) from 1599.  I'm famously dim when it comes to getting the point, but I honestly didn't have a problem understanding this one - it's all there, dense but clearly set out, it just requires a more relaxed look.  It certainly didn't require 'elaborate explanation', just a bit of attention.

[JOE SOAP]

Isn't it a rather poignant story about terrible sacrifices made for single-minded love, with icky creature designs?

Yes, you're quite right.

I can understand that this may not be what some (many) of us want from their Prog (to be sure it's not a 'shot glass of rocket fuel'), but I don't think that warrants some of the more vitriolic comments on here - it's only 5 pages, and for my money my second favourite strip (after Dante) from 1599.  I'm famously dim when it comes to getting the point, but I honestly didn't have a problem understanding this one - it's all there, dense but clearly set out, it just requires a more relaxed look.  It certainly didn't require 'elaborate explanation', just a bit of attention.

Sometimes I think many people are just reading the dialogue and don't look at the pictures enough when it comes to comics. Bob is doing something to correct that which is good thing I feel.

[Kerrin]

I've never really seen the the appeal of Bob's strips. Sure, the first few were interesting in their own, "Ooh, a strip with no dialogue or narrative, thats brave" way. But the novelty soon wore off and I now feel distinctly put upon when I turn the page to find another saga of indistinct invertebrates doing Grud only knows what. I know I'm only a lowly leftover from the mighty mandibles of Mekquake but surely there's better content than this to fill six pages of the Galaxy's greatest.

[JOE SOAP]

I've never really seen the the appeal of Bob's strips. Sure, the first few were interesting in their own, "Ooh, a strip with no dialogue or narrative, thats brave" way. But the novelty soon wore off and I now feel distinctly put upon when I turn the page to find another saga of indistinct invertebrates doing Grud only knows what. I know I'm only a lowly leftover from the mighty mandibles of Mekquake but surely there's better content than this to fill six pages of the Galaxy's greatest.

Do what I do, when I get to a Sin/Dex story, I pretend it's not there and go to the next.