I didn’t post a new comic last week and I feel bad about that. But I’m also actually kind of glad I didn’t.
Something interesting happened this week and I don’t know if you saw it, but it was certainly relevant to the situation I find myself in, as we head into the home stretch toward Theater Hopper’s conclusion.
I’m not certain how much of our audience overlaps, but this week Tim Buckley decided to reboot his long-running gaming comic Ctrl+Alt+Del.
Tim and I started roughly the same time. We socialized a little at the beginning, but it wasn’t long after that his comic took off.
Tim’s kind of an odd cat in webcomics. He has an enormous following, but he’s a bit of a pariah among creators. I’ve never had a personal problem with the guy, but I’ve heard the stories about him and they’re kind of hard to ignore. So on Tuesday when Scott Kurtz, Dave Kellet, Brad Guigar and Kris Straub reassembled to produce a new episode of Webcomics Weekly to discuss Tim’s decision, the armchair analysis and schadenfreude were in full bloom.
I can’t quite articulate what it was about their recording that hit home for me, but a lot of what they expressed was immediately recognizable to me. There was a lot of talk about being burnt out, about maturing, about moving beyond the gag-a-day format and shedding the pursuit of persistent updates to generate revenue from advertising networks that don’t really pay out anymore.
I was listening and nodding my head the entire time.
I don’t know what’s going on right now, but I’m detecting this weird sea change in regards to web comics. Maybe I’m sensitive to it because I’m in the middle of it, but I’m hearing a lot of talk about ditching the traditional models, about moving into new territories.
I kind of consider myself to have caught the tail end of the “First Wave” of webcomics. Most of the big name web comics established themselves between 1998 and 2000 by people that wanted to be cartoonists but couldn’t get the time of day from the syndicates. Theater Hopper came along in 2002. So basically, I’m one of those people who looked at webcomics and said “I’ve never submitted to a syndicate, but I’ve always enjoyed cartooning and this looks viable.”
I don’t know. Maybe I’m Second Wave. Maybe it doesn’t matter. All I know is that 10 years in the game is a long time and it was comforting to know that other creators have struggled with the same issues, have the same thoughts and are afraid about throwing away the brand they’ve built up over the course of the “career.”
Now Tim didn’t exactly throw his comic away. His stripped it down. He got rid of what he thought wasn’t working and says he’s going to go back to more gag-a-day style comics about gaming. Some people have asked me why I don’t do the same thing with Theater Hopper – dump the stuff that I don’t think is working or is too time-intensive.
I know that I’ve expressed it before, but I never wanted to leave Theater Hopper in a “less than” position. In other words, having elevated the comic to a certain level from a time-investment standpoint and being unable to keep pace with it any longer, stripping things away from it for the sake of efficiency doesn’t feel fair to me. Fair for the audience, I mean.
For me – as much as it hurts to do it – letting Theater Hopper go is the best thing for it. That’s why it was important for me to communicate my goals for the last year of the comic – so that you guys knew what was going on and understood. More than anything else with these last few comics, I want to convey the idea that these characters will “be okay.” It’s as much for you as it is for me. Because I’ll be sorry to leave them behind.
I don’t know how successful I’ve been at communicating what I gleaned from Tim’s reboot or the Webcomics Weekly podcast this week. All I know is that it made me feel a little less haunted about the decision I made to end the comic.
Thanks for your understanding. Cheers.
So much of my life has been wrapped up in this place.
It's where our engagement ended.
It's where I treid to redeem myself.
...It's where we found each other again.
WAAAAAAAA!
You guys! That is SO beautiful.
Is that why he's crying?
*sniffle!*
Oh, please!
He's been like this since he figured out how much further we'd have to drive to get to the new theater.
I laughed. Out loud. Good punch line.
I wish I could take full credit for it. My friend Sean McNally on Twitter helped me craft it after a bout of writer’s block.
What does it for me is Tom’s face in panel 4.
Anyway, real Tom: Thanks for sharing your thoughts on Tim’s reboot, the latest WW and so on. It’s interesting to read a perspective where it has hit so close to home. Most of what I’ve read has been annoyance (with Tim for all the usual reasons or with WW from people already making long-form comics) or bemusement. Your take is quite different and very personal, and I greatly appreciate your willingness to let the rest of us in on it.
Kurtz seemed to question the sincerity or authenticity of Tim’s decision to reboot the comic. Tim claimed that he had this ending in mind for years and Kurtz wasn’t buying it.
I haven’t been following Ctrl+Alt+Del closely enough to know, but Kurtz’s criticisms hit home for me because he positioned himself as a proxy for Tim’s audience – claiming Tim had done them a great disservice
More than anything, that kind of response is what I fear most about Theater Hopper’s conclusion. Real or perceived, I don’t want people to think that I’m not as emotionally invested in this as they are. I never want to betray that.
You’ve made it very clear that this is something you have to do, and that it is emotionally very difficult. You have spent a lot of time giving your characters — even Truman! — the ending you think they deserve, so I don’t really see how anyone could think you weren’t invested in this. Whatever parallels there are between your webcomic life and Tim’s are coincidental; you guys started at nearly the same time and are ending/rebooting at nearly the same time, but that’s about it.
Something about this specific comic appeals to me… Can’t quite put a finger on it.
It makes me sad that with each comic we get closer and closer to the end.
As far as CAD goes I’m upset about the change but I would never want to force a writer to continue working on something that he think could be done better. Just gotta hope that it doesn’t fall the way of certain/most hollywood re-boots.
I didn’t listen to the Webcomics Weekly until seeing you mention it in your post. I have to say everything they mentioned in the podcast rung true for me. After reading that final comic it was pretty much a huge WTF to me and I felt jipped in the end. It felt really contrived and nothing felt authentic to me. It really felt like an Oh crap this has gotten out of control for me let’s just shut it down moment than a I’m tired of this itteration moment and need a change. I’m going to continue reading CAD just because it’s on my daily list but I don’t think I’ll ever be able to get as involved in it as I do Theater Hopper, QC, GWS, SP, LICD, or DoA.
I have been reading both Control Alt Delete and Theater Hopper for the past 5 to 6 years on and off. The ending of CAD seemed sudden. I do not read every post he puts up but I thought the the characters were growing and not remaining stagnant. But that is from my perspective. If the creator/writer feels that they have gone as far with a project that they can, it is selfish as a reader to ask them to keep going on a project that their heart is not behind. It saddens me to think that some of the webcomics that I started on are finishing up now. I hope that whatever reboot Tim does and whatever your future projects are, they are as lovable for you as they are for your readers.
That’s kind of where I’m at with Tim deciding to reboot the comic. If it’s not working for him, going through the motions isn’t going to make it any better.
I’m kind of in the same boat. If I feel I’ve taken the comic as far as I can artistically, I’m not doing myself or the audience and favors by treading water.
The one thing that made me feel comforted about the Webcomics Weekly podcast was that they mentioned Bill Watterson of Calvin and Hobbes retiring after 10 years.
Granted, I haven’t put in as many hours as Watterson did OR produce the same level of work (I mean, *obviously*). But it was a comforting reminder that everyone reaches their limit and there’s no shame in that.
I was away from the internet for a while and I return to find one of my favorite webcomics is no longer around. Reading your posts I can understand why you did it. Time keeps rolling on, and some doors have to close so that others can open. Even in the best movies, the credits have to roll. Thank you for the stories, Tom, for all the heart and sweat your poured into them. If you get a mind to write a sequel let us know, we’ll be ready and waiting with the popcorn.
Maybe it is time for Theater Hopper 2: Gag-A-Day Boogaloo!
As much as I hate to see Theater Hopper go (it’s been my all-time favorite since I began reading webcomics) if your heart’s not in it and your life is too busy for it, I understand. I only hope that someday a TV Producer stumbles upon this website and realizes this would be a fantastic cartoon series. 😛