Websnark: I want a Mell coffee mug.

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Eric: I want a Mell coffee mug.

A few days back (I know, it seems longer), I posted a snark about how Count Your Sheep had managed near perfect Execution. Often, I've also drawn a distinction between a strip's individual execution, and the pacing between multiple strips. I made mention of it then, too.

Which brings us to Narbonic -- the reigning monarch of pacing.

Shaenon Garrity is honestly remarkable. Not just because her art rocks and her attitude rocks... not just because she's funny and talented and committed, and not just because her command of the minutia of Comic Book History vastly outstrips my own -- and I'm a geek! Garrity is remarkable because her strips work simultaneously on at least three different levels: the execution of the daily strip, the pacing of the individual plotline, and the pacing of Narbonic as a whole, and readers can enjoy the work on all of those levels or on any one, almost all the time.

First, let's look at a given day's strip. In fact, it's the strip that came out today:

On the one level, if someone had no idea who Mell, "Nick" or Helen were, they would still find this funny. It's a well executed strip -- good setup, elaboration and punchline. Who needs uranium when you have blackmail material? At the same time, this step moves the plotline along. Mell is there to kill Doctor Narbon in cold blood, on behalf of a shadow agency. Artie, transmogrified into human form, is there to stop her. Narbon is the most deadly of nemeses imaginable, and she has been locked out of her own lair. And not only is Mell actively seeking out videotapes of her employer as a child, but Artie is equally distracted by it. And then having a solid understanding of Narbonic as a whole makes it funnier. If you know Helen B. Narbon (and her mother, for that matter), the very concept of childhood videotapes are hysterical. There's a wonderful blending of the absurdly twistedly scientific (in the name of evil) and the mundane here.

The exact same could be said about Mell's discovery of Yak-face. It's surreal, and Artie's reaction leads to the joke, but it also serves both plotline and overplot. The same for the Friday before. (And for the record, "shouting won't make pants appear, buddy" may be the funniest line I've ever read in my entire life.)

If this makes it sound like Garrity is consistent, you're exactly right. She does this day after day after day. And the cumulative effect brings the Story without ever braining you over the head with it. And yet, she always -- always brings the Funny as she does it. I can only think of two 'event' strips she's ever done that weren't accompanied by a joke. And ninety-nine times out of a hundred the jokes just plain work. That's a track record pretty much all cartoonists should envy.

The other side benefit of consistency is both a sense of tremendous release when something extremely long pending resolves, and a sense of faith that resolution doesn't bring Shark-Jumping alongside it. Which brings us to the panel up at the top of this snark -- the specific panel that blew apart all expectations: Helen and Dave have kissed.

Some background. Dave has wanted to kiss Helen for a very long time. He really, really likes her. He almost always has. And at one point, when he had a forfeit from the powers of Hell, Helen was changed just slightly so that she liked Dave too. And when he found out about it, he had them change her back, because he really did love her.

Only as it works out, Helen liked him too.

Boom. We have classic tension. Moonlighting tension. The sort that a strip becomes defined by. Heck, have a look at Questionable Content -- Jeph Jacques does a damn good strip, but the core of it is Marten and Faye's sexual and romantic tension. If said tension were released, one expects the explosion would be monumental.

And one also expects the strip will end within a week, after it happened. It's almost a truism. If your strip/television show/book/movie hinges on "will they or won't they," when they actually do generally the only thing left to do is mop up, wave to the audience, and wait for the E True Hollywood Story to get made.

Well. Dave and Helen kissed. And several days later, Dave begged whoever called him to NOT CALL BACK FOR AT LEAST AN HOUR!!!! which makes us suspect -- very possibly falsely -- that he and Helen are working on breath control exercises, with or without cardiovascular work to go with it. And how's that for a euphamism that sucks all the fun out of sex?

And the thing is? I'm not worried about it. If in fact Helen and Dave have had sex and are a couple now, I have faith that it's just the next step in the overall story. I have faith that rather than being over, it's just what happens next, and it doesn't mean for one second that Helen's brain won't end up in a tank while Mell becomes the President.

That level of sheer, unadulterated faith in what Shaenon Garrity does with her work is hard earned. The fact that I went through a crisis over Sluggy Freelance (and I have to admit, apropos of nothing, that Sluggy's winning me back) but accept every new event in Narbonic in stride is a testament to the sublime pacing of this strip. I don't know as I've ever read a clunker storyline (and few if any clunker individual strips, with the possible exception of some of the Sundays -- and the Sundays are generally perfect 'day off' fare). At the same time, Garrity misses essentially no days -- she works way way in advance. And if anything, her quality has only improved over time.

I gave Narbonic the top Funny Shortbread for last year. There's a lot of reasons for that, but one of the largest is the simple core fact that she does everything right. But the foundation of all of that rightness -- her solid characterization, her solid humor, her solid writing, her solid evocation of emotion -- derives wholly from her expert sense of pacing. Each thing happens when you feel it should happen, everything feels solidly connected to the events preceding and following, and the individual strips remain solid examples of single-strip execution. You can call Narbonic a Long Form comic, a Short Form comic, or a Gag-a-Day comic, and be right every time. Not one strip in fifty pulls off even two of those. Almost no strip gets all three and almost always does all three well.

But Narbonic does. It's worth the Modern Tales subscription all by itself.

That said, I'm now going to go collapse and die in a ditch. It's been a collapse-and-die-in-a-ditch week.

Posted by Eric Burns-White at May 10, 2005 8:25 PM

Comments

Comment from: Connor Moran posted at May 10, 2005 9:59 PM

Not only is Narbonic worth the price of admission at MT, it's getting to be pretty much the only reason I'm still a member. There are some archives I look at sometimes (Faith Erin Hicks's "Ice", for example), but nothing else that I read nearly as regularly.

Comment from: kirabug posted at May 10, 2005 9:59 PM

Hey, no ditch-dying on weekdays! Ditch-suffering, maybe, but only if you've filled out the appropriate forms.

As for Narbonic, every time I read one of these snarks I get more and more tempted to read the comic.... though I do have to argue that, as a non-Narbonic reader, today's strip doesn't make a whole ton of sense. We've got a guy looking for a way out and a girl looking for weapons... but video tapes count as weapons?!? Without knowing who the weapons are against (which still isn't overly clear after your explanation) and maybe a bit more of a nudge on how they'll be weapons (my first thought was the appeasement factor a la Baywatch & Bunbun, not blackmail), I'm left scratching my head, not snickering. Some comics are only gag-a-day because they're also serials, and you need a little bit of backstory for it to come together.

Comment from: Tangent posted at May 10, 2005 10:27 PM

Well, I do beg to differ on a strip ending if a huge part of it was based on romantic tension and then those two end up in bed/kissing/whatever.

College Roomies did just that. In the midst of "The Adversary" storyline, which was about a date between Dave and Margaret (whom had been the romantic tension in the comic - I don't count Blue, who at that point was nothing more than an adversary, even if one who was interested (romantically) in Dave) (okay, you could say she was part of the romantic tension, in that she was providing a source of tension to intensify the non-relationship between Dave and Margaret), Dave kisses Margaret... and then she asks for sex.

I mean, the CRfH Forum Boards are full of massive waves of posts concerning that day. I think the Boardies may have crashed the servers a couple of times at that time.

And then Maritza pulled the rug out of everyone's feet and intensified things... and made Dave's interest in Margaret more than just sexual, but in fact something almost spiritual. Dave had to be with Margaret to protect Margaret from the Devil. (Really, when you get down to the basics, that's what D&M became, long after Margaret let it be known that she was not going to pursue a relationship with Dave and then manipulated him to be with Blue....)

Moonlighting failed because the creators didn't think of how Dave and Maddie getting together could create more tension. Likewise, if (or maybe I should say when) Marten and Faye get together, I'm sure the comic will continue because their romantic relationship will not be smooth sailing by any stretch of the imagination.

Nor will Dave and Helen. After all, can't you just see Helen turning Dave into a girl again and her into a guy just to see what it's like from that perspective, and Dave freaking out over it? (She's mad. She won't ask first. *grin*) Or, for that matter, any other number of possibilities?

Anyway, hope you'll be feeling better soon, Eric. I loved tonight's snark. :) Well worth the wait.

Robert A. Howard, Tangents reviewer

Comment from: Eric Burns posted at May 11, 2005 12:02 AM

Tangent--

I'd submit that Dave/Margaret in CRFH is a subplot, instead of core plot. It's a very, very important subplot, but it's not definitional to the strip.

Helen/Dave in Narbonic I think is a bigger deal, all told. Helen and Dave are really the lead actor and actress of the series. Mell, Artie et al are (very strong) supporting characters, in comparison.

Comment from: Plaid Phantom posted at May 11, 2005 12:32 AM

Collapse and die in a ditch, eh? Sounds fun!

Anyway, good luck with all that.

Comment from: gwalla posted at May 11, 2005 1:03 AM

I agree with Eric about the Dave & Margaret thing. CRFH has always been an ensemble show. Dave & Margaret has always been just one story thread among many. It's not central to the series; it's just that Dave's love life happens to be a really popular subject on the CRFH forum, so it can seem that way if you hang out there a lot.

Comment from: Alexander Danner posted at May 11, 2005 1:04 AM

Eric, you and I actually disagree on an awful lot of comics. But we meet completely on Narbonic. Shaenon consistently amazes me.

Can't agree with the dude who thinks it's nearly the only worthwhile comic left on Modern Tales...but I suppose it goes without saying that I'd disagree on that point. =)

Comment from: okaynowa posted at May 11, 2005 2:40 AM

When, oh when, is Narbonic book 3 coming out?

Comment from: Tangent posted at May 11, 2005 1:23 PM

Tangent--

I'd submit that Dave/Margaret in CRFH is a subplot, instead of core plot. It's a very, very important subplot, but it's not definitional to the strip.

I'll admit that point. However, I still stand by the rest of my belief. Just because the romantic tension between a couple has led to the two characters having sex or becoming a couple, it doesn't mean that that's all she wrote. time to pack it in and all that.

A talented and skilled storyteller can take the consumation of a relationship, something that has been long-term tension in a comic (or TV series) and turn it into further tension.

Moonlighting fell because of a number of reasons. It just happened to fall big right after Dave and Maddie had sex. (To be honest, the entire season leading up to that point was faltering, at least in my opinion.) That does not mean that when the two leading characters become a couple after a long period of teasing and leading readers on that the series will end.

Narbonic won't fall to that. Sluggy Freelance won't should Pete actually allow Zoe and Torg to become a couple (I think I might start reading it again if he did that) (well, I'll amend that: if Pete manages to get his act back together and focus on the things that makes SF a great comic, rather than stumbling through storylines that make no sense and aren't interesting, then a Zoe/Torg relationship won't spell the end of SF). Clan of the Cats won't end just because Jubal has proposed to Chelsea (though Dracula himself might have a thing to say about that... *wry grin*). Nor would Nukees end if Gav managed to start dating his little bartender ladyfriend.

If all a comic or story has to hold it up is romantic tension... then it's not a very good comic or story. Nor will it gather much interest, because people want more than just romantic tension in their stories.

Meh, I've blathered on enough. Have fun!

Robert A. Howard, Tangents reviewer

Comment from: Tangent posted at May 11, 2005 1:25 PM

Note: The first two paragraphs on my above post are from Eric Burns. I don't know why the entire segment wasn't italicized, and I can't edit it to fix the goof. Sorry! :)

Comment from: Shaenon posted at May 11, 2005 1:26 PM

Argh! Volume 2 just came out! Do not expect Volume 3 for a good long time!

Is it me, or are all good romantic heroes named "Dave"?

Comment from: Eric Burns posted at May 11, 2005 2:59 PM

I have to disagree. We're bridging between the distinction between subplot and premise, here. In a webcomic or show whose premise assumes romantic tension, the release of that tension becomes the climax point of the story, and much of the interest of the story gets lost in the aftermath. I go back to Questionable Content. I think QC is an excellent comic. However, the core premise is "Faye and Marten are living together. Marten is strongly interested romantically in Faye, but Faye has mysteries in her past that confuse the issue of how she feels about Marten." If Faye and Marten end up a couple, the dynamic will be strongly altered. The jig will in fact be up. For all intents and purposes, the story will be over.

Perhaps Jacques could start another story at that point. That's certainly possible. He might even be able to do it within the boundaries of Questionable Content, but it's a balancing act at best.

Have a look at GPF -- now, there's lots of reasons GPF went on my You Had Me, And You Lost Me list, but one of the key ones was the utter resolution of the romantic tension between Nick and Ki. That was one of the key elements of the resolution of Surreptitious Machinations, and one of the major reasons Darlington would have done better (IMO) to end the strip there, and launch a sequel in its stead. (Without Nick and Ki as major characters, preferably. Their story was over.)

In CRFH, the romantic interchanges are subplots, not definitional to the premise. So, they can be resolved and new ones launched without significant difficulty. However, Dave and Helen are the leads in Narbonic, and their relationship is one of the key elements to its premise. That said element can be altered (and potentially resolved) without worrying us that Narbonic will go downhill is a testament to Garrity's skill.

That's my thesis and I defend it to the death!

Comment from: Connor Moran posted at May 11, 2005 3:10 PM

Rereading my above post (the top one) I realize that I implied (ok, said) that the only comic worth reading on MT is Narbonic. That's not what I meant to say or imply. All I indended to say was that Narbonic is the only comic I find myself actually regularly reading on MT, and that it's the reason why I will not stop subscribing. There's lots of other good work on there, I just generally don't get around to reading it.

Comment from: Christopher B. Wright posted at May 11, 2005 4:27 PM

Have a look at GPF -- now, there's lots of reasons GPF went on my You Had Me, And You Lost Me list, but one of the key ones was the utter resolution of the romantic tension between Nick and Ki. That was one of the key elements of the resolution of Surreptitious Machinations, and one of the major reasons Darlington would have done better (IMO) to end the strip there, and launch a sequel in its stead. (Without Nick and Ki as major characters, preferably. Their story was over.)

Why should he come up with a new name when he likes the one he's using?

GPF has been an ensemble strip in much the same way CRFH has. Nick has always been a major character in the strip, but that has waxed and waned throughout the entire run... at the moment it's actually *waning*: even though the things he does are at the same time more integral to the progression of the story than ever, the other characters -- Fooker, Ki, Trudy, Fred, Sharon, etc -- are getting more of the focus. If he had named the strip "Nick and Ki" then I guess I could see it, but the strip is called "GPF" -- the name of the company everyone works at -- and it's still fits the strip. Personally, I considered the Nick/Ki stuff as just another side story in the comic... one that became important, like Brent and Jade became an important side-story in PvP, but that's it.

I wouldn't expect Jeff to buy another domain and think up a new comic name just because he's telling a different kind of story these days.

Comment from: Maritza Campos posted at May 11, 2005 6:41 PM

Yeah, Dave and Margaret is just an aspect. Dave and Margaret are also different, because they're not really the traditional couple who love each other but are just shy or afraid to admit it. Dave and Margaret haven't got together for a huge number of reasons, and when it looked they were gonna get together, it was also evident admitting love was the least of their problems. They have totally incompatible personalities and ways of thinking. Their feelings for each other were quite immature too. As they know each other, they evolve into different things. The same could be said for Dave and Blue. I'd parallel Nick and Ki to Mike and Marsha: there's no tension anymore because they get along pretty well. I also think the Nick and Ki thing was resolved at a pretty good time, because they had no real reasons to stay separated anymore, and the conflict was beggining to grow tired. And as it is, there's not even a conflict anymore: you know whatever they do they're going to stay together enough to get married and have a kid. Thus the problems of time travel. But it's okay since the romantic tension lies now in Fooker and Sharon. I'd like Dexter to find someone too, I feel very sorry for him.

As for Dave and Helen, it was about time! A great scene too because it was moving without being corny. The fact that Narbonic is ending soon might be of weight in resolving this major conflict, but even if it was NOT ending, Dave and Helen are different enough to become an interesting couple. If anything, there's going to be even more conflict than before. What about Helen's fondness for Lupin? What about Lovelace? These are unresolved issues, and it's gonna be interesting to watch them unfold.

Comment from: Alexander Danner posted at May 11, 2005 8:12 PM

Connor -- Don't worry about it! I wasn't trying to make you feel guilty or anything. Just voicing my own (heavily biased) disagreement. You're certainly not obligated to like anything you don't actually like.

Comment from: Robert Hutchinson posted at May 11, 2005 8:45 PM

What about Helen's fondness for Lupin? What about Lovelace?

What about the future Not Looking Like This?

Comment from: Alun Clewe posted at May 12, 2005 1:08 AM

You know, I've got to agree with kirabug on this one. Maybe for someone who's been following the comic all along, that strip is absolutely hilarious...but for someone like me unfamiliar with what's going on, the only reaction it elicits is "huh?" This may be great as a part of the ongoing storyline, but it doesn't really work as a standalone strip.

Which isn't meant as a criticism of Narbonic; if you're going for epic storylines it may not be possible for every strip to be a gem when taken out of context. Actually, I do intend to get a Modern Tales subscription at some point, but it's going to have to wait until I'm slightly less broke. (Yes, yes, I know; a Modern Tales subscription is actually very cheap. But I'm very broke...)

Comment from: Ray Radlein posted at May 12, 2005 3:55 AM

For what it's worth, let me plunk down my two cents here in opposition to the premise that Questionable Content requires Marten and Faye's romantic state to remain indeterminate. It works perfectly as a slice-of-life strip which just happens to involve a certain amount of romantic tension between the leads; but if their wave function should ever collapse, the slice-of-life aspect would still remain intact. marten and Faye could bonk like weasels and the strip would still hum along just fine as long as there are still good jokes about Arcade Fire and Mercury Rev to be made.

Comment from: Shaenon posted at May 12, 2005 3:25 PM

I fully agree with the people who complained that the strip Eric cited isn't too funny without the backstory. Although each Narbonic strip is lovingly handcrafted for maximum punchline delivery, the full, textured experience can be enjoyed only by reading the archives. http:www.moderntales.com, a mere $3 for a month's subscription, $30 for a year. Thank you.

Anyway, even The Comics Journal thinks "Questionable Content" would be destroyed if Marten and Faye actually got together. I mean, it could change into something else and still be good, but at present the central premise is "two roommates have sexual tension and hang out with their wacky coffee-drinking friends." Get rid of the sexual tension, and you've lost half the point of the comic. With "College Roomies," on the other hand, Dave and Margaret aren't the central characters, just part of an ensemble cast, and their romantic tension isn't central to the strip. They could get together without changing what the comic is all about.

The Nick-Ki thing in GPF went wrong not because they got together (once Nick turned down Trudy, there was no reason for them not to hook up), but because Jeff Darlington mistakenly thought there was still sexual tension in the air because they hadn't had sex. Since the only reason Nick and Ki don't have sex is simply because they don't feel like it (Nick because he's boring, and Ki because, well, look at Nick), and we know they're destined to marry, goink, and eventually give birth to John Conner, there is no tension, and the whole thing just gets more tiresome with each passing year.

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