03-10-17 Switching it up

[Spidrift]

Re-reading the strips with Senna that rogermart posted makes me wish Senna would return to the comic because she was a very entertaining character. But if this is the final volume that probably means she won't be returning. Oh well. Where did she fly off too anyway? I don't remember and the archives still don't work.

Japan. The archives don't work (yeah, this was a real upgrade-that-just-wasn't), but the tag system works after its fashion, so searching for "Senna" gets the job done.

And while I doubt that we'll see Senna again here (there must be a slightly better chance in SotR), she's kind of a random factor with use of a private jet, so who knows?

I do agree with you there's no much point in talking about us forers and our likes & dislikes...

And yet you jumped to conclusions about my tastes, ignoring what I've actually said about myself in the past. Really, I thought that "borderline" was worldshaking being polite.

[Fairy Glade's Fairy]

Nope, I'm not gonna answer that, I'm done talking about your taste and tolerance for sodomy... go find someone else to talk about sodomy with you.......
I only talked in the first place about it cause you brought the thing up... I was like 'why is this guy talking about having taste and tolerance for sodomy, what do we care?' but I still humored you... it didn't change anything to facts (fact is, va-a-ast majority of boy readers out there don't like identifying with a leading man who takes it in the ass) but I still humored you... but I'm done with that.

unless you got something, anything, meaningful to say about Giz making this comic for girls' enjoyment mostly (which is main debate point here) don't bother, k?

[Spidrift]

And you’re still ignoring Dave01...

[Cortez]

So....Gary's allowing himself to be talked into this because Tracy implies he'll get to bone her after the deed is done when she could just be talking about literal chocolate cake.

I was wondering if she meant the chocolate cake bit as innuendo or literally too.

[Vitocap]

Man, I miss True Avery. She would have loved all this discussion on readers and their taste for sodomy. She would have laughed so hard.

It was the recent developments in SotR that chased her away, I think. Her favorite couple Eloise/Nadine was kinda ruined for her after it was established that Nadine loved to have sex with hunky young men -- so much that, if someone were to present her with a chance to bed the whole male population of a high school, she would eagerly jump at it. Which, as it happens, she did, paying no attention to Eloise's disapproval. A lot of the humor in that arc came from contrasting Nadine's enjoyment of her massive (hetero)sexual romps and Eloise's irritation at the spectacle of all those boys pulling a train on her girlfriend. I'm guessing that TA, unlike other readers, didn't find it so funny.

Come to think of it, SotR is a good example of a comic specifically targeted at the male audience, unlike Ma3 where the target segment is not so clearly cut. Giz and Dave have very different styles. If you compare the brands of humor in both comics, the disparity is quite obvious.

[Spidrift]

I agree that those two have noticeably different styles, and working out which parts of Ma3 are down to Giz and which are down to Dave would be an “interesting” exercise for a literary critic or semiotician with far too much time on their hands. But I wouldn’t take the subsequent results too seriously. When any two creators collaborate, they seem to have a funny tendency to absorb and instinctively emulate each other’s styles, so that anyone who says “that bit was clearly X” can find themselves being told “no, actually, that was Y”.

And anyhow, while Giz and Dave do seem to have somewhat stereotypical “female” and “male” styles — I associate Giz with soap-operatic stories and Dave with brash anything-for-a-laugh gags and geeky references — I don’t think they end up hitting very segregated audiences. Men have a greater interest in soap opera than some like to let on, and women can be joke-chasing geeks.

[Vitocap]

Heh.

There are three comics in the Ma3-verse:
Ménage à 3, the main series, written by Giz and Dave.
Sandra on the Rocks, written by Dave.
Sticky Dilly Buns, written by Giz. (Oh, and Shouri, too -- but no Dave here.)

How do the two spinoffs compare to the original?

SDB, authored by Giz, is very much like Ma3. Actually, it's identical to Ma3 in everything. The mood, the humor, the way the characters think and behave... the two series are like clones. In fact, the SDB strips could be intercalated in the main Ma3 continuity and nobody would notice anything odd.

SotR, Dave's own story, is a completely different sort. Everything that happens is exaggerated to the extreme and played for jokes. Characters don't even pretend to act or react like real human beings. The difference with Ma3 is like day and night. You would do better comparing it to Megatokyo or Exploitation Now.

You draw your own conclusions. I have already drawn mine.

[Spidrift]

I disagree that there are no differences between Ma3 and SDB, though I agree that they’re more subtle than the differences with SotR. Don’t let the art similarity distract you. SDB takes more time to develop a character like Ruby, who in Ma3 would probably have been pushed off to the side after getting laid in the first volume. It also deconstructed Dillon’s “27 guys” boast, which in Ma3 was allowed to stand as just another consequence-free wacky sex gag.

Like I say, the differences are relatively subtle. But subtracting the Dave01-esque goofy geek gags gives SDB the space to engage in a bit more soap-operatic character development — which is, incidentally, why I personally prefer it of the two. I’d guess that Giz mostly defined the characters in Ma3, which would be why they’re similar in SDB and more flamboyant in SotR, but in SDB they get more room to breathe.

[Fairy Glade's Fairy]

IMO there was a transition
at the beginning, Giz & Dave both contributed to Ma3... remember the beginnings of Yuki, or the Vindicator story, or that part where Gary is KOed and to take him to the hospital they drag him by the feet down the stairs and he hits his head with a loud CLONK on every step of the stairs?
that was Dave's work, certain.....
but at some point Dave left the series to Giz, prolly to concentrate on SotR, and now Giz is in charge... now when Gary is KOed his gf doesn't drag him down some stairs, she calls the paramedics from Peggy's hospital and they bring a stretcher and an ambulance and they pay special attention to not moving Gary's neck!

I say right now, and it's been like that for a long while already, Ma3 is Giz's......

[rogermart]

My order of preference is 1. Ma3 2. SotR 3. SDB, having said that, i like that the characters in SDB have more chance to develop, specially Ruby, i just love her...

[Spidrift]

at the beginning, Giz & Dave both contributed to Ma3... remember the beginnings of Yuki, or the Vindicator story, or that part where Gary is KOed and to take him to the hospital they drag him by the feet down the stairs and he hits his head with a loud CLONK on every step of the stairs?
that was Dave's work, certain.....
but at some point Dave left the series to Giz, prolly to concentrate on SotR, and now Giz is in charge... now when Gary is KOed his gf doesn't drag him down some stairs, she calls the paramedics from Peggy's hospital and they bring a stretcher and an ambulance and they pay special attention to not moving Gary's neck!

I say right now, and it's been like that for a long while already, Ma3 is Giz's......

You might have a case, except that the current storyline is a sex comedy idiot plot which I'd bet a little money is mostly Dave's work. In fact, the continuing presence of Tracy tells me that Dave is still around; she's just a little bit too much of a male geek's fantasy figure. (Sure, all the women in this comic are totally hot and shag like bunnies - but Tracy is also a fanatical video gamer who specifically enjoys administering blowjobs.) If I had to guess, I'd reckon that the wrestling plots are probably much more Dave than Giz, too - I suspect that his main function in the comic is keeping it male-geek-friendly.

(Again, contrast all the wrestling, video game, and Transformers stuff in Ma3 with SDB, where the geekish elements are mostly limited to yaoi references.)

My order of preference is 1. Ma3 2. SotR 3. SDB, having said that, i like that the characters in SDB have more chance to develop, specially Ruby, i just love her...

I tend to think that Ruby is what Gary was meant to be before the obsessive geekiness and wacky sex comedy drained him of personality and subtlety. Which is why I'd personally rate SDB highest, if I had to vote. SotR is more consistent in its way, and reliably fun these days, whereas Ma3 is less consistent but still has some truly superb moments.

[Vitocap]

Ah, good point about Tracy. The grapefruit-blowjob arc had a Dave-ish quality in it. Like, it was impossible to take it seriously. Same with the current story and the coming threesome.
But, as for the wrestling, I'm quite certain Giz does have an interest in it. Don't ask me where I heard this dialogue, but I distinctly recall Giz and someone else (a radio journalist/interviewer, I guess) agreeing that Zii's line about porn "What's not to like?! The cheesy scripts, the horrible acting, it's so kitsch!" could be used to describe wrestling narratives.

[Fairy Glade's Fairy]

I tend to think that Ruby is what Gary was meant to be before the obsessive geekiness and wacky sex comedy drained him of personality and subtlety.

LOL naaah
Gary never was crabby, pushy, bossy, judgemental, pettish, grouchy, compulsively voyeuristic, a scrounger, a grudgebaby, a loudmouth, and a dozen more bad traits......
Gary's one ruling trait is: being kindhearted & unselfish & obliging & meek to the doormat point... that's all him... the opposite of the SDB girl!

The bad news are: Giz is in NY doing the con, no more strips till the 10.

The good news are: they didn't stop her at the border. Looks like her name wasn't blacklisted even after the incident that other time, thank goodness.

hey where's the strip? we're already the 11th...

Double post merged. The DAMNed

[suranae]

Canada is really big into professional wrestling. Probably as much if not more than the United States & Mexico.

It's not fanatical levels but I think most Canucks male & female enjoy some wrassling.

[worldshaking00]

Just from previous times @FGF, I wouldn't expect an update until the next regularly scheduled one. Not complaining here, just sympathetic to Giz on her trip. Con crud/convention illness and constant drawing jams can take their toll. While a continuation of the 'drama' from this strip would be sweet, I'm not going to begrudge her some extra time off. Plus there's Kickstarter mailings (still haven't received mine yet ). Plus, I'm still on 10/10/17 right now (6:29 pm) and Giz is like 3 hours ahead of my time zone.