Gunnerkrigg Court

When did The Torn Sea become the new The Stone?

Honestly, the whole webcomic "release a single page on certain days/weekly" just... doesn't work if it's not a gag-a-day sort of thing.

If I ever made a comic like this, I'd probably try to write it so that if I were releasing pages every few days, I could, but I'd hold off on actually posting them until a whole chapter is complete.

That has its own issues though. If we assume the amount of time it takes for Tom to post each chapter roughly corresponds to the time it takes him to make that chapter we'd only get one about every two months. While this format can lead to things dragging it helps keep the suspense up which makes it more likely people will keep reading.

I think that depends on the writer.

Some webcomic creators have buffers that are over three months long.

Tom does have a pretty big buffer.

Tom has a buffer over three months long.

But that's because he waited to start posting the comic until he had three months' worth already drawn. For the first several years of the comic, Tom was posting pages at roughly the same rate that he was creating them: three per week. Of course, that was when he had a regular job, and Gunnerkrigg was something he cranked out on the weekends. Now that he's working on Gunnerkrigg full time, I'm not sure if he's making more pages per week, or spending longer on each page.

Though we know he's working on those side comics as well. So I guess he is making more pages per week, just not necessarily more pages of the main comic.

you need those regular updates to keep people buzzing about your product, otherwise you'll have to rely on actively selling rather than passive word-of-mouth to increase/maintain viewership.

Yeah, it's not ideal in some cases, but you have to keep people coming regularly.

We just need to keep perspective. What feels like a dragged-out story is really just two chapters of intensely emotional things happening. If you were reading it as a book, this wouldn't feel like much. Things are actually progressing faster than I would have expected them to.

edited 30th Jun '15 9:55:38 PM by edvedd

To Eagal if he ever comes back: I would hardly call a character who is so vital to understanding Annie's emotional and mental state 'superfluous'.

Of course, if he is 'superfluous' to you, that would explain a lot, because you just want to get his character arc out of the way right now so you can get back to what YOU consider important; never mind that Tony and his motivations form part of the central mystery of the comic. And Tom's only been building up to this moment since the end of chapter 14, so you've had time.

Honestly, you may as well not bother with the comic at this point, because he's here to stay. And I meant that sincerely. If he doesn't appeal to you, this probably ain't gonna get any better. Don't subject yourself to something you don't enjoy.

edited 30th Jun '15 10:25:40 PM by edvedd

1534

Remember kids - only YOU can prevent the fire inside your selves!

edited 1st Jul '15 12:50:52 AM by Pachylad

Well this is going places!

As for that vaguely depressing argument from before... actually, the idea that we're all biased is kind of interesting to think about in a way. In a sense, most of us are biased in favor of Tom. We've gotten the impression that he's a great writer, so we judge his writing the way we'd judge the writing of a person we expect to know what they're doing. So if a character acts in a way we don't understand, we assume it's character development rather than character derailment, and if a chapter seems pointless, we assume it's building up to something. A positive form of bias?

I guess in Eagal's case, something resonated negatively with them strongly enough to negate that good impression and make it seem like Tom's "showing his true face" as a hack writer and retroactively sully everything he ever did.

Well yeah, we trust his writing enough that a slightly odd character beat doesn't immediately phase us, because he's usually good at explaining things.

I mean, it'll take a lot of bad chapters on his part (not that these last two were bad.) to shake that positive perception.

edited 1st Jul '15 1:51:18 AM by edvedd

>actually, the idea that we're all biased is kind of interesting to think about in a way.

No, it's bunk. It's only a masked way of saying "haha you can't call me out on anything because you're biased too!"

>. We've gotten the impression that he's a great writer, so we judge his writing the way we'd judge the writing of a person we expect to know what they're doing. So if a character acts in a way we don't understand, we assume it's character development rather than character derailment, and if a chapter seems pointless, we assume it's building up to something. A positive form of bias?

That's not bias, that's simply sincere pattern recognition. Bias would only come in after the reveal and if it sucks.

Bias is contorting demonstrated, known and/or obvious facts. I.e. we know the most of Kat's characterisation, so misinterpreting her actions without considering that known characterisation is bias. We do not know Tony's inner motives, we can make guesses about them, but there is no contorting facts yet because we do not know those facts. But misrepresenting outer effect of his actions - that would be bias.

edited 1st Jul '15 3:39:43 AM by Adannor

We're biased into assuming that Annie is a good little girl so we'll all be nodding along as she starts doing her little genocide thing.

Dude what are you even on about? Annie hasn't really caused much trouble and actually likes people.

Her past misbehavior has generally been disregarding the Court's rules. Rarely, if ever, anything intentionally dangerous to anyone outside her inner circle.

It's hcobb. Roughly half his posts are meant to troll you.

@Adannor: Peace, friend. Your feathers appear a tad ruffled.

Now... -skims dictionary definition- ... okay, I guess a negative connotation is pretty deeply ingrained in the word. The idea that we all seem biased just got me thinking about the knowledge we all base our judgments on. It's like a first impression - if you got a good first impression about someone, you'll be more accepting of bad things about them later, but if your first impression is bad, you'll be less willing to accept good things about them. "Bias" probably wasn't the right word choice, but I just thought it's an interesting thing to make yourself aware of.

Using the word "bias" with all it's negative connotations to mean "pattern recognition" is still bunk.

We are all biased to some extent. To be otherwise would be to have true objectivity, and nobody is that lucky.

Anyway, story time. Yay! New information.

I think they've got a point, actually - everyone has their own biases. You're even biased against the word "bias".

edited 1st Jul '15 8:34:10 AM by KarkatTheDalek

And I was over here wondering when anyone else was going to talk about the latest page. .______.

It's just a title page.

Nothing's happened.

Well, we were on the heels of a dumb discussion apparently based on something I wrote weeks ago. This is the aftershock.

This is the chapter icon. It's drinkin' time.◊

edited 1st Jul '15 8:32:59 AM by edvedd