Comic Idol returns

[Digifiend]

That's not Laura's responsibility, she isn't the writer. Classic Comics, over to you.

[Classic Comics]

That's not Laura's responsibility, she isn't the writer. Classic Comics, over to you.

I don't think that Meebo & Zuky is a story which would benefit from an ongoing story. There are a number of reasons for this. We do extensive research and we've found that serials are less popular than stand-alone stories. New readers feel like they've missed out and it alienates them. So, when we do something serialised, we have to be very careful about it. If we did run a serial, Meebo & Zuky would be the wrong story to spread over the space of a few weeks. Meebo & Zuky is fast, kinetic and needs to have an ongoing dynamism to the plot. Once it's started, the story escalates, gets wilder, gains momentum until we get to the finale. Breaking that over a few weeks would kill the flow of it, stop the momentum, and it just wouldn't work. The closest comparison I can think of is Tom & Jerry. The 5 minute cartoons were (mostly) fantastic but when they did a longer film it didn't work at all. Meebo & Zuky was always intented as our version of a 5 minute cartoon, so I think it's best to have a different story each week.

[James W]

Oh - Ok ,

I was just sharing my opinion.

[Jonny Whizz]

Jonny, you forgot Minnie, which Laura has done two different ways - entirely her own style, and ghosting Ken!

Yes, I should have remembered that, considering she did several strips a few weeks ago! Although actually, to be absolutely precise, I think she's done Minnie in three different ways - the two you've mentioned, but she also did the strip that was 'drawn' by Minnie herself when she was little!

Returning to Meebo and Zuky, I think it's probably best not to make it a serial - Classic Comics has made some good points there, and I don't think it would be easy to write a story for them that could extend over a few weeks. I also feel that the same points could be made for other strips - to me anyway, Beano Manga seems to stand out as another story that wouldn't work as a serial, for similar reasons.

[Digifiend]

That doesn't mean that there aren't some strips which can be serialised though. Home Invasion and Billy the Cat are two recent examples. Minnie the Minx currently has a serialised arc (getting famous, which I can see ending with her realising she's already famous because she's in The Beano! ) and Ball Boy had one not so long ago (the summer league storyline which introduced Chandra). Most famous of all, of course, were two Dennis the Menace serials: the 1986 storyline in which Gnasher went missing, which led to the introduction of Gnipper, and the 1998 mystery arc which led to the introduction of Bea.

[felneymike]

the summer league storyline which introduced Chandra

Does he like computers? Does he have ideas for artificial intelligence? Does he like space travel?? I think we should be told.

You shouldnt criticise anything unless you can do better yourself etc

Wrong. Have you made a huge blockbuster that took millions? No? Better never criticise any films you watch in the cinema then!

[yanobandy]

If someone said here that Colin the Vet was in the comic a long time longer than Joe Jitsu. That's where you're wrong. They both ended in 2006, although you might be getting confused with Doctor Loo, which was in The Dandy between 2008 and 2011. The characters look identical apart from their clothes, and both of the strips were drawn by Duncan Scott.

[Jonny Whizz]

No, there's no confusion in my mind at last. The last Colin the Vet strip definitely appeared after the last Joe Jitsu strip - I've checked, the final Joe Jitsu appeared in issue 3337 (7th July 2006), whereas the last Colin the Vet was in issue 3350 (7th October 2006). In any case, Joe wasn't a regular after March 2005, whereas Colin was in the comic most weeks up until around February 2006. They might have finished in the same year, but I think Colin was the longer running and more successful of the pair. Hope this helps.