Bob's Twisted Tale this week...

Oddboy · 10 August, 2008, 12:04:02 AM

Bob's Twisted Tale this week... I just don't get it.

Some bugs go across a river. Some other type of bugs are also there. Some have a thingy on their back. Some eat each other. Thingy meets other thingy and lives happily ever after.

Anyone care to explain?

xx

Buttonman · 10 August, 2008, 12:05:50 AM

Not-a-fucking-clue.

You owe me 5 pages Tharg!

Jim_Campbell · 10 August, 2008, 12:24:03 AM

Quote from: "Oddboy"Anyone care to explain?

Yes, I can explain: it's unutterable bollocks dressed up in a mask of sequential art pretension, the same as all the other stuff 2K/Meg has published by him thus far has been. Don't tell me that I don't appreciate it ... I've been reading comics for over thirty years and I have a fucking degree in English Literature. Sorry, Bob, but if I don't understand it, it's incomprehensible bollocks.

Phew. It feels good to get that off my chest.

Cheers!

Jim

Peter Wolf · 10 August, 2008, 10:49:50 AM

I managed to get a very low grade CSE in English Language and Lit [my best subjects ! ] and i dont get Bob Byrnes twisted tales either.They dont appear often so i dont mind but as my comment proves I am thick and that might be why i dont get it.

Pete Wells · 10 August, 2008, 11:20:27 AM

Hey fellas, I'll tell you exactly what happened with the Twisted tale this week.

I got to page 2, thought "Ah fuck it, why bother?" and went on to Sinister Dexter.

Matt Timson · 10 August, 2008, 03:03:31 PM

Quote from: "Jim_Campbell"
Quote from: "Oddboy"Anyone care to explain?

Yes, I can explain: it's unutterable bollocks dressed up in a mask of sequential art pretension, the same as all the other stuff 2K/Meg has published by him thus far has been. Don't tell me that I don't appreciate it ... I've been reading comics for over thirty years and I have a fucking degree in English Literature. Sorry, Bob, but if I don't understand it, it's incomprehensible bollocks.

Phew. It feels good to get that off my chest.

Cheers!

Jim

Ah... be fair- they're not all like that, are they? I've quite enjoyed a couple of them- but yeah, the last two in the prog have left me scratching my head a bit. Anything that needs explaining that badly just isn't working, IMO.

I don't know how these things get submitted- but if it's the usual route of synopsis approval to get the ball rolling, then that could be where the problem lies. If Bob tells Tharg what's going to be happening, it's going to be easier for Tharg to interpret the finished strip. For us poor plebs that haven't been privy to the synopsis, it's just head scratching time, I'm afraid.

I'm pretty sure that if somebody told me what it was about and I went back and read it again, it would make perfect sense.

All that aside, you obviously don't appreciate it, Jim.

Skeabost · 10 August, 2008, 03:44:28 PM

Glad it's not just me then. I'm all for comics that make you think, but you do at least need to have a scooby what's going on. It's all about story telling skills, as the art droids never tire of telling us.

Steve Green · 10 August, 2008, 07:01:03 PM

The others have been OK, if not everyone's cup of tea.

I've read this a couple of times and I'm still none the wiser.

- Steve

Leigh S · 10 August, 2008, 08:07:40 PM

The queen termite creature has been stolen by burrowing lizards, who make off with her across a river the bugs cant follow. The bugs appear to have little human riders, and admitting defeat, they go back to save whats left of their grubs, which contain little baby things. As night falls, the lizards feast on grubs from the queen, while the termite mound is invaded once more by a monstery thing. The monstery thing is attacked by the bugs, and the little humans use the bugs to make a hole in its head, which the little human plunges a weird proboscis into. The bugs then form a ball of bugs to cross the river. The ball contains the monster, which is under the control of its little human rider . They proceed to eat the lizards and free the termite queen

But, yeah, not sure it should be so much work to decipher, though possibl that might be the appeal to some?

chris_askham · 10 August, 2008, 08:40:14 PM

Bollocks. I just spent the best part of an hour typing out a page by page breakdown of the strip, and it didn't upload my post. But basically, what Leigh said. Hats off to Bob. It took a couple of readings, but its all there.

Now stop whinging the lot of you.

WoD · 10 August, 2008, 09:36:24 PM

Sorry, but it's not that good.

Buttonman · 10 August, 2008, 10:33:33 PM

If a story needs a Bletchly Park style deconstuction to be understood it has no place in the comic. As for the 'solved' story, I'll risk the thin ice and say that I could pull a better story out of my ass.

Roger Godpleton · 10 August, 2008, 10:52:28 PM

Does it have boobs?

chris_askham · 10 August, 2008, 11:24:10 PM

I'm not saying that it's great literature, but I enjoyed it for what it was.

And it beats the hell out of Sinister Dexter retreading the same tired ground week after week.

Rex Banner · 11 August, 2008, 08:05:09 AM

"while the termite mound is invaded once more by a monstery thing"

I read it as the king lured the big thing with the babies deliberately to use in his plan get the queen back.

Maybe it's a commentary on how love conquers all or how much one is willing to sacrifice for love? Or maybe it's bobbins.