This is one of my favorite updates for this season. I’m not sure how effective it is, and maybe it just shows that I’ve spent too much of my life reading experimental comics and haven’t learned a thing from them. A little part of my Graphic designer self died when I added that third font, but it wouldn’t work any other way.

Long form storytelling is a new thing for me. Is it okay to let one of your characters wax poetic for ten minutes about a pet peeve if it has nothing to do with the story at hand? Is it okay if the story at hand has no real structure, and will be broken up by other, smaller story fragments that will not be resolved at the end of the current story? Is telling a story about restaurant renovations a good idea or am I just losing people’s attention?

Part of what makes a webcomic special is that you get to watch me figure things out. It’s something like watching a runaway freight engine that’s been fitted with offroad tires. Yes I’m the one shoveling coal into the furnace, but I don’t really know where I’m headed and the whole thing could crash and burn at any given point.

I admire John Alison for his ability to do nicely tied up episodic stories that still advance the characters and build the world. I don’t know if I can do that with Cats in the Kitchen, not that I didn’t spend the whole freaking summer trying. I’ve been reading Freakangels lately and it seems like more the kind of story structure that I’m looking for with CitK. (Go ahead, Ask me if I read comics that aren’t from England) FA is strictly episodic, since it was released weekly in print, but the story itself isn’t. Or at least the episode starts and ends are subtle enough that I don’t notice them.

Anyway, the net result of all this is that today you get a waitress committing suicide in Galaga, while her boss and co-workers discuss business, and she has an inner rant about the misuse of graphs. So, yeah…

(I’m not editing this because I had to run off to work)