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Penny Arcade - Comic - Grace, Part Two
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Registered User, Administrator, Vanilla Staff admin
Registered User, Administrator, Vanilla Staff admin
Penny Arcade - Comic - Grace, Part Two
Videogaming-related online strip by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins. Includes news and commentary.
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I know that krahulik has been checking these comments sections more often now, so here's hoping both of the tag team get wind of this message! If not, I'm happy enough to have expressed my thoughts on an incredibly powerful series of panels! For sure holkins knew exactly what he was doing with his scripting, and - I couldn't say which of the two is more responsible in this regard - I think this strip demonstrates a magnificent understanding of their medium; the three-panel structure is aggressively limited, and I know people have viewed it as inappropriate for PA's dramatic narratives, but this? There is so much information packed into this comic, and each panel is so intense - I think it would be a loss if they expanded to a page and padded out in any way. And that seemingly negligible point of splitting strips across separate pages - well, it's a brilliant method of bookending each segment and allowing the next strip to barrage with full force! So I do believe the guys have tapped into the crux of what makes a three-panel tick, and spun it so differently and refreshingly, that what we're viewing is an entirely new beast from the 'weekly funny'
And regarding the panels themselves, krahulik has blown it out of the park - with these compositions, with the masterful second-panel body language - that shot alone is a ruddy show-stopper in my opinion! Adore the limited palette in the studio, it's perfectly sickly whilst bursting with strange vivacity. Plus camera blurring is a guilty pleasure of mines; never fails to tickle my fancy :P
Running out of ways to stitch my thoughts together. Understatement in the final panel is fantastic. Clancy is an infuriatingly cute little goose (getting the hang of the forum commandments). Grace herself exudes personality through her appearance. Regarding character design and pushing yourself out of your comfort zone, I know that feel so well but want to assure krahulik it's paid off by the boatload. Purely visually, it's a palette with such a different potential; and the number of black people on twitter who saw these kids' concept art and exclaimed, "that's just like me!" "that's just like my sister!"? How heartwarming is that! I think it's worth it for that sort of response alone
I should hope I don't leave a wall of text for the next four strips, but if they keep up like this I'll find it hard to resist! Cannot even begin to envision what's coming for friday's comic!! x
No, wait.. I think I got it. This is going to be an intense series.
Pins!
There's quite a bit of time between the first and second strip. Grace is a little girl in the first strip. She's a teen in the second. We can assume that based on the time shift, the mom died sometime after the little brother was born.
As usual, I find these feature stories to be beautiful and terrible and wonderful. I'm glad you two have found a new world to show us.
I guess with only 6 strips they need to get where they were going pretty fast, but damn!
It's the mother, the kid is the older sister in this panel.
Stuff be dark...
I think Tycho knows that, he's just using a story where a kid dies as an illustration.
The guy couldn't kill a spider in the hallway in the first strip, how was he suppose to kill what was under the bed?
Almost looks like the old guy in "nightlight" is the dad in these strips...
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Same here. The style it's done in, you don't actually realize there is something specific on the canvas at first glance, it just looks like sort of like abstract swirls of color until you pause to look at it closely.
I can understand the theory that Grace becomes her family's designated monster-slayers if her mom is dead and her dad is a broken man. But if we interpret the first comic literally, dad already couldn't kill a spider without Grace's assistance. Unless that was supposed to just be the dad clowning around? It's kind of a strange thing to spend a comic on if so, since there's only six installments to work with.
Definitely feels like this is going to be more of a "tonal piece" or series of vignettes than a conventional, complete story with a beginning, middle, and end to its self-contained narrative.
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I did not notice that.
The first strip kind of felt like it was too happy and didn't give me any idea of the characters or even the setting. Now, we've lost two of the characters (Mom is dead and Dad is broken) but I don't care cause, I don't know em. Also, I had to come here to have someone explain the necklace and the wife in the paintings. I missed it completely. Also, who the other kid? Should I call him Not-Grace? Why are they dress up? Is that normal for them?
I like the first monster slayer cause they took the time to build something up. That last panel in that got me excited. Especially with the kid not knowing what was going on. When it's also the kid knows about the monster but the parents seem to have forgotten. This? I don't know what this is but don't like the taste.
I think some of their best work is when they branch out and do some new story. I think this could be one of those but...I think they wanna tell this story but don't wanna have it take more time than the normal strip. However, how fast this train is going? I might just wait tell the normal train comes back online.
Thanks, it didn't click for me that there was a time jump. Of course looking at it now it's obvious.
While I generally share your feelings to some extent, I think you're going a little far. I don't have to "know" these characters to feel the impact of two children seeing their father reduced to the state of an obsessive, distraught wreck by the death of their mother. This is a gut-wrenching scene to witness, and it doesn't matter whether the characters in it are so well-defined they feel like our close personal friends or complete strangers to us.
Also, you don't have to call the other kid "not-Grace" because his name is right there in the comic for you to read.
Maybe it's just a style thing that doesn't bother other folks, but for me it's frustrating as all heck.
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Okay, we all are saying she's dead. Truth is, she can have left him. She could be married to a millionaire right now and enjoying life on a beach. He probably should have kicked more spiders himself, she might have stayed. Or maybe she has to take night classes and the dad just can't handle being a lone with the kids. Maybe she's in the next room and scared to go into the Studio....
In truth, I think the guys just have more ideas than time to develop them all. So, in essence, we get snippets and 'tonal pieces' (as someone called them) to test the waters on new stuff. When (If) there's enough interest to justify it, then there's further development or additional story lines. And some of the worlds apparently aren't meant to be live primarily in the comic space (like Eyrewood), so we'll probably never have nice, neatly wrapped up comic story arcs there.
It's interesting to me that a lot of common themes appear to exist between Eyrewood and Nightlight. Monsters and protectors, children play a prominent role. I wonder if the newer universe spun out from some ideas that were originally slated for Eyrewood, and just didn't fit there or went in another direction for whatever reason. Or maybe it's all just in my head...
Do they make things other than towers? I think dice towers are pretty awkward/useless. But a nice tray for rolling dice into is something I could use.