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>I actually have no recollection of them doing this in the >"back matter" but just out of curiosity who here enjoys that >sort of trick-explaining?
They have one page, a note from Aaron and the artist, and they both HAMMER the "Love/Hate" theme. And yeah, it comes right after the breathless tree-chopping pages, it was like yanking the e-brake while going top speed...
>It could be a timing issue, too. I don't necessarily want you >breaking down the shit I just read 3 pages ago. Let me digest >it first, you know? We can meet back here in 6 months if you >wanna still talk about it.
One of the best parts of the Bloom County Complete Collections were the notes left by Berkeley Breathed. It seemed that he got to read through the whole set of comics, as proofing, and could leave editorial notes alongside them as he saw fit. And perhaps this ties perfectly into your note, because he was writing these editorial notes with the perspective of 20 years or so, but he was funny as hell in them -- he would blast himself for writing nonsensical stuff, he would just subtly point out on some "I'm still laughing at this one, even if no one else is", he would sometimes add, "I got a strange note / reaction to this from the person it mentioned." So yeah, I guess the beauty is that it was rarely about the strip itself, more about something outside the strip you wouldn't see for yourself.
>I do enjoy in-depth analysis by a third party though. The >cartoon editor for the New Yorker has a book out now where he >gets realllllllly in-depth about NYer cartoons. It's really >interesting on one level, but there's a self-congratulatory >aspect to it that hurts the cartoons for me. If the cartoon >was a 10, the commentary won't hurt it. If it was a 6 and >you're making it out to be a 10, it becomes a 3. Maybe I'm a >hater?
I think I'm with you overall. I'm never quite sure how to feel about the back-matter -- on one hand, it's a totally awesome part of comics where you get to interact with the creators; on the other hand, it can be a total drag that does little besides say how great the totally lame character is that you never read the book for in the first place. For the most part, I don't read Letters Sections, because they get too weird and self-congratulatory. Or they're just big promo sections for other shit the author / writer wants you to buy. But it's hard to ignore them all, because some authors put so much work and love into them (Greg Rucka's Lazarus back-matter standup! Brubaker's Fatale etc. pulp essays take a bow!), but overall they get a skim at best, because I really just want to enjoy the comic without too much commentary hanging over it.
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HOPE! https://vine.co/v/i7JjIBL3Qix https://vine.co/v/i7JtqEFwxDu
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