Mon, 2006 Jul 31
What's wrong with Barkeater Lake
Note: I am no expert on comic strips, and I fully expect that anyone actually in that industry will laugh at this article. But I got to thinking about Barkeater Lake’s recent strips, and thought I’d share with the world. Blogging is healthy for me. Apologies to Mr. Pandolph.Barkeater Lake has had some funny and clever moments in it’s 2½ years. Launched in February of 041, it’s initial story arc, to the best of my memory, focuses on Delores, a NYC native who moves to the small town of Barkeater Lake. Fish out of water. Hilarity ensues.
A little over two years later, it went downhill in a hurry. The last two to three months has been full of half-finished stories, reruns, characters-as-spoiled-actors, pop-up comics, etc. There’s no continuity and the new stuff just isn’t funny. It’s a little sad to see this comic so quickly degrade. I would not be surprised that the root issue here is that Corey Pandolph, the author, needed some r&r. Which is cool, and I imagine when he is past this, the comic (or a different one), will take off. But it has led me to ponder what happens to comic strips before they die. Some thoughts, with Barkeater Lake as focus.
- New artist: According to the comics.com’s About the Artist page, this is Pandolph’s first syndicated strip. I would imagine that most artist’s first strip fails. That’s part of doing pretty much anything.
- Wrong Focus: The About the Artist page also states that Pandolph ”realized the perfect idea for a comic: his hometown.” It’s both too personal and too wide a scope. First, writing about your hometown is a great idea, if you don’t ever plan on going there again. Personal stories are difficult, because the funniest ones are often embarassing to your friends and family (or self). Second, the scope is way too wide. For Better or for Worse and Doonesbury can pull off a scope bridging, well, worldwide. But they’re established comics and they’re not gag-focused (NB: I don’t know what the focus of FBOFW is. I can barely bring myself to read it anymore). For Barkeater Lake, there’s too many locations and too quick jumps through them. The scenes lose their relevance.
- Too many characters: Unfortunately, Pandolph seems too quick to create new characters and let them be responsible for the new stories. Actually, I think the current difficulties may be a result of trying to cleanse this. The last few days have seen something of an explaining-away of some of these characters.
- Not sure if it’s a no-growth strip: I tend to divide comics into two arenas: Growth and no-growth strips. Growth strips (Doonesbury, FBOFW, 9 Chickweed Lane, Luann) see permanent changes in the lives of the characters. This is a key to their humor. Hence they tend to be more witty and often require an understanding of the storyline. No-growth comics are the ones where the basics stay the same (Nate, Frazz, Wizard of Id, Rudy Park). Most often, it includes children who never get older, but of course the greats in this arena are Peanuts and Garfield. Trust me, I’ve read Garfield for years. The only major change ever was the arrival of Odie (note: Garfield pretty much survives on only two characters). Few comics try to cross these lines (I wonder if this issue has not also influenced Aaron McGruder’s hiatus; the political subject matter begs growth, the characters are too non-growth). In either event, Barkeater Lake seems to straddle these two, and I imagine that would extremely frustrating for its author.
Update 8/24/06 I’m happy to say that Barkeater Lake is getting back to its former quality. Whatever the problem was, the comic looks poised to once again become one of my favorites. And the downturn gave me a chance to engage in the wonderful opportunity of the blogosphere: uninformed speculation. Yay.
But in Rudy Park, didn’t Darlene get married, and Sadie and Mort are about to get married? Rudy and Randy moved in together. It seems to me like there’s permanent change there, although it might be too early to tell since it’s only a five year-old comic strip.
Yeah, I guess I didn’t think Rudy Park through very well–there have been several major long-term changes. And as you said, it may be too early to tell what level of permanent change there will be. I probably shouldn’t be so absolute in the distinctions, either. Makes me wonder about Candorville as well; I could see it go either way.