Oh look, they’ve left something seemingly insignificant lying on the ground, and it’s begun to transform as they casually stroll away, aimless, into the horizon-type-thing whilst exchanging witty banter. Let’s see how long it takes before they encounter it again as whatever outrageous and presumably “story”-altering object it morphs into. Or perhaps it’s just that even a disembodied wooden hand can take notice of the trend that’s been developing more clearly and consistently than anything resembling an actual storyline in this comic lately, and it’s simply digging its own way into the endless graveyard of countless other forgotten locations, abandoned characters, dead-end plot twists, and completely random events that occur for no apparent reason other than that absolutely nothing in this universe *has* to make sense and almost all of which still await some kind of explanation.
I’m just constantly amazed at each thing that comes next. I try to imagine what might happen, and sometimes I’m close. Most times though, I could never come up with the level of creativity that shows up in the comic. Bravo!
Holy crap, dude. I admit that even I thought this particular strip’s foreshadowing technique is a bit overdone in this comic, but you need to have a little more faith in the authors. The whole point of reading Blank It is for the experience of not knowing what happens next, and then being floored by how seemingly random and unrelated things actually come together to make perfect sense. The story is still new, so a lot of those things still seem random and unrelated. You sound like a quitter for getting so bitterly frustrated this early on in the story arc, though.
On the other hand (no pun intended), Lemmo losing his hand IS kind of a running gag (or at least a repeating event, gag or no) in this comic. Maybe the overdone “walking away from a mysteriously-changing object” was done here on purpose for a similar reason.
Wow Ven, that is almost an accurate picture of Blank It, if not a bit cynical, or better yet, missing the point… If you’re that jaded with the comic, try, oh say, not reading it? Or write and draw something better yourself? Don’t worry, I’m not going to flame you, and people on these comment sections have always seemed very civil anyhow, but if you are looking for a steady plot and point and consistent characters, try Nickelodeon or the Disney Channel or something. I’ll say one last thing here – I’m a writer, and I don’t know if you’ve ever tried writing this non sequitur sort of thing, with seemingly no plot and all that, but it is much, much, MUCH harder than formulating anything with consistency that runs from point A to point Z. End transmission~
Guys, I don’t know about you, but having Ven’s voice of dissent (which I honestly don’t wholly disagree with) just means we’re growing as a comic.
It’s one thing to have avid fans follow you. It’s another to have people read your comic even though they don’t like where it’s going. I think this comic strip just evolved, Pokemans-style. Thanks Ven!
Blank It is evolving!
It evolved into Blank Alot!
Blank Alot learned Dissent!
I wonder if we’ll see an all out war of hands against hands. We still have a mountain of hands, claws and other monstrous manos where spilt the can of hand juice, and now we have a wooden hand which seems dissatisfied with its lot. Where the two meet, we may yet see battle.
I almost want that to be some background behind the more important events of the comic, like the two asking somebody what’s going on, getting a null answer, and saying, “Yeah, we’re bored, too,” while fighting fingers engage in a thumb war for the ages behind them and out of view.
In hindsight, I’ll admit what I said was unnecessarily harsh. However, I still stand by the general statement I made (if perhaps not the tone I used). Trust me, I love me some good, spontaneous, nonsensical humor as much as the next guy (Hitchhiker’s Guide is in fact one of my all-time favorite books). While this is still certainly one of my favorite comics, I suppose I’m just getting a bit frustrated at how a promising character or turn of events will appear and I’ll get my hopes up that they’ll be there a while, and then eight strips later they’re gone forever. Fergus, the penguins, the mist girl, the purple ocean; these were some of my favorite elements of the story, and Fergus is the only one that ever made another appearance after he left for the first time (and that only lasted for about four strips). Even the shovel beam, the only thing besides Aric and Lemmo that remained a focal point throughout the comic, appears to be gone now (although I certainly haven’t given up hope on that one returning). And now, since the intermission, things have just been magically appearing out of and disappearing into thin air, whereas before we could at least be led to believe that they had existed before somewhere else in the void and were simply just being discovered. Overall, however, I’m fine with what’s been happening since the intermission, since it seems to be going toward some unifying plot, but unless I’m somehow missing something really major, I don’t see how all the other great things from this comic’s past are going to make comebacks that tie together cohesively. I’m not bitter, I’m just hoping for something that will draw me into the comic like the things I mentioned above did, and will actually stay there for at least a little bit to keep me hooked and excited, rather than disappearing immediately and leaving me waiting for the next big draw. Maybe I’m just a fan of the good character development they put into the two protagonists and, since Aric and Lemmo appear to be about as developed as they’re likely to get, I’m subconsciously searching for something else like that. For those saying it’s still early into the story, it’s really not; they’re well over two hundred strips in. I feel like there’s supposed to be something that it’s all moving toward, but I can’t for the life of me guess what it is. If that’s all part of the plan, if everything is supposed to come together at the end in some giant “Aha!” moment (and if it’s done successfully), then it’s pure genius and I would absolutely love it. But until that point, it would just be nice to know for sure whether the comic is just having fun with these two wandering around an unfamiliar world, or if it’s supposed to be evolving into something bigger, instead of appearing to be the former with the occasional tease of a larger overall goal. At the end of the day, however, I must thank Aric and Lemmo with all my heart for the fantastic comic they’re bringing us and I want you guys to know that I have the utmost respect for you and everything you’re doing, and by all means, keep up the wonderful work.
And finally, thanks for trying to understand where I was coming from, Lemmo, rather than getting offended or something as it would have been perfectly understandable for you to do with a comment like that!
Now I’m wondering what would happen if Lemmo drank hand juice. Would a human hand grow on the end of the wooden arm?
I would think Aric would be happy to be ageless as that makes him borderline immortal or something. Also, most people would not be nearly as excited as Lemmo given an opportunity to chop their own hands off.
And one last, last thing: I’m not expecting everything to fit together perfectly from one mini-adventure to the next, and I know that not everything is going to play a vital role, and I also know that nothing actually has to come back into the story at any point, because I realize that that just isn’t what this comic is about. I even realize that things do in fact lead into the next part of the comic at times, like the giant “bad boys” leading to the ocean leading to the introduction of the robots, or the hand juice spill leading to the handland place leading to the fox being cut into the foxes. I’m mainly just, as I said before, trying to figure out if anything is actually supposed to come together to form a bigger story, or if it’s just intended to be infinite sequences of partly-linked together ministories. Hopefully someone here understands what I’m getting at, because I’m having a hard time explaining it effectively.
I liked the purple ocean and the robot Aric and the penguins and all that jazz best too. The comic seemed to move faster back then too, or maybe it just seemed to be smoother and more cohesive. Not that there is a rush to get anywhere, but maybe Ven was right and it seemed like there was a more definitive build-up…
@Sleepy Ven: For all we know, this is all building up to some giant civil war between the five civilizations(robots, penguins, bugs, cookies, and the Unsettlers), with Lemmo and Aric caught in the middle. The penguins and bugs are already enemies, making this all the more likely. With a story like how it’s gone so far, literally anything can happen.
Anyone remember when the foxes destroyed the map? Lemmo said that death might not exist in the Canvas. Since everything Lemmo seems to offhandedly mention happens, he might be right, which explains the lack of age rings in his arm.
Ven, if it helps you relax, know that Aric and I still feel like we’re setting the proverbial pieces on the chess board, and have barely begun to move them. I know it feels like watching a glacier when we can only provide two updates a week.
If we took the time to introduce a character, you will see them later. If we took the effort to have something world-changing happen, you can guarantee the aftershock will be felt later.
I just talked to Aric about some really good ideas. Stand on us. It may take us a few more years, but this comic will continue onward.
The only way you’ll get Blank It faster is to hire Aric and I to do it full time. So unless that ever happens, just try to enjoy it at the pace we can create it.
also i’m, as bad as it sounds, anticipating the ending of blank it, i’m giving a little thought and imagination, and i know that blank it is supposed to be huge and lasting and it has some plan to it, so i have the patience for it, and i love what i’m imagining, like there is still soooo much more to the story to come, and little things like them being absent minded just adds on to the amazingness of when it begins to end, where it starts trying and intertwining stories and events and characters, there’s no telling how awesome it will be, and i like that they’re taking their time with it.
I know I only began posting recently and since then it’s only been a single post early in the discussion. But I’ve been reading Blank It for about a year now. In that time what I’ve seen is that the style and humor tend to draw the sort of crowd that likes to think about things, that likes to theorize and throw massive wild speculation out into the world(at least that’s part of the draw for me). I think the problem some people are having is that within that group are people who like to find out if their guesses were right, and some if those people are losing their patientice. But guys, Lemmo is right, the fact that the canvas exists is because they want it to. If they had no plan for misty, Fergus, the cookies, and the penguins, I don’t think they’d work as hard as they must to put out two strips a week. So just go with the flow and have a little faith guys.
@Mr.Biggelsworth
Lemmo isn’t random and adventurous? the man just karate chopped his wooden arm off that he got from dragging his pet sign by a vine (rhyme not intended) and he just left his wooden hand into the canvas, i think it’s pretty much the usual lemmo lol
I just found this comic last week and read all the strips from the beginning right up through the current, hollow wooden, development. I did not notice the major changes in style other people are pointing out, so I wonder if some people’s memories of the strip two years ago have faded. Maybe they are more used to the faster pace of comics that post six or seven strips a week; it can be easy to loose perspective sometimes. It all seems congruous and logical to me so far and I look forward to seeing how events play out.
“I did not notice the major changes in style other people are pointing out, so I wonder if some people’s memories of the strip two years ago have faded.”
Other way around. It seems like your memory’s the one that’s faded. If our memories of the strips had faded, we wouldn’t have noticed the style change. If you have an eye for drawing styles and how they can vary, you can clearly see the style change from before the intermission to after the intermission. It’s a bit subtle in this case, but it’s visible.
The only reason I’m good at picking up on style changes is because of reading so much manga. XD
Reading all the very in-depth, profound comics about what we have come to expect out of this strip, what we love about this strip…it’s made me realize exactly what it is that I love about Blank It. I myself am writing stories that I hope to publish as manga, which has made me think more about literature in general, particularly about how predictable stories and plots can be. Has anyone ever visited the tvtropes website? Even a short while reading it can make all books, tv shows and movies look formulaic, predictable, boring, and unoriginal. You can very often see what’s coming. And I was thinking about what I might be able to do with my stories that would be different — something I could do that wouldn’t be on tvtropes XD. No matter how much I thought, I just couldn’t decide on something I liked that wasn’t tropish. And just now I realized that Blank It has achieved that originality of having zero tropes — aside from Chekhov’s gun, perhaps. I think these days, with so many stories in the world, a lot of the viable (i.e. writable, readable, enjoyable) possibilities have been used up, and the only way to be “original” is to write something totally crazy and messed up, like Blank It. I mean, even Stephen King’s novels have certain tropish qualities to them, and they’re about as crazy and messed up as mainstream literature can be. These days, to be original, you have to be as crazy and non-sequitur as Blank It. That is my lesson for the day, hope you enjoyed.
P.S. Incidentally, I’ve been toying with the idea of what I off-handedly call my “Crazy Physics Universe”, which is a story that takes place in a world where the laws of physics and biology, etc., make no sense compared to ours. What I find cool is that I’ve actually been toying with this idea since quite a while before I even discovered Blank It — but once I started being more serious about my story, it started to follow the same direction as Blank It — the laws I was making up for this universe I invented were starting to make SENSE. So much sense that it was scary.
What I also find hilarious about that is that my story won’t really be original anymore because Lemmo and Aric did it first. XD But mine is different enough that I think it would still seem pretty original, even to Blank It fans. :)
@ NoriMori
I am sorry if it sounded like I was referring to the art style. I can see that that changed easily enough; maybe I misread something, but I did not realize that anyone was debating that the art itself changed. Is the point here to discuss or to insult random people? If you did not understand what I meant, let me know and I can try explaining it better.
Friends now? Up to you.
And if you’re not referring to the art style then I can only assume you’re referring to how the comic is playing out — the writing style, for want of a better term. Now the last half of your previous post makes sense. XD
You seem to now be acting as if I’ve castigated you somehow, like there’s a need for us to make amends… I’m confused on that point. Did you think I was mad at you, or that I was trying to shoot you down? :S
P.S. I realized that, because you and I were referring to different things, you may have interpreted the last, very lengthy half of my post as being part of my response to you. It wasn’t. I went in a totally different direction. I was thinking out loud, being a bit philosophical… XD
NoriMori:
Far be it from me to try to stop you from creating something as original, and yet interesting, as you possibly can. Do so. Make your own Cat Soup, and make it awesome.
However, you may want to review the trope, “Tropes Are Not Bad.” Is it bad for a story to indicate that War Is Hell? Is it bad for a story to employ a team that makes sense within its context?
Is it bad for a story to have Tear Jerkers? Not just things engineered to make you sad, but storylines that give the -viewers- a Heroic BSOD.
Everything’s a trope if you stare at it too long. Xenogears and VALIS are good stories precisely because they recycle Gnostic Christianity, a sort of old-skool Crystal Dragon Jesus, but VALIS posited this literally within a modern context, while Xenogears interpreted it through physics, a couple flights of fancy, and a large amount of science fiction.
Tropes Are Not Bad. They’re fascinating. Would The Last Unicorn be as good if not for its invocation of The Summer King? (Well, to be fair, I’ve asked Beagle in person; he knows the trope, but doesn’t think he wrote it in deliberately, which is part of why that trope was edited out of the screenplay for the film. It wasn’t ‘intended.’ It just was there anyway. And was still pretty good without it. Just… not as good.)
The Princess Bride and The Blair Witch Project were enriched by their unorthodox story presentation, insistently referencing false events as real. This improved experiences for the audiences of these works of fiction.
Starfish Aliens, for gods sakes! No rubber forehead aliens there, just aliens so Other they’d make Jung cringe. A reminder that Star Trek isn’t the be all, end all of sinus friction. Yet this trope is Older Than Radio!
Here’s an exercise. Find tropes you like. I suggest starting with your favorite work of high literature. Or perhaps just Lord of the Flies. Explore the tropes of this venerable piece of art, and notice that they’re really, really good tropes as often as not. Enjoy them.
And then go make some Cat Soup for me, ’cause I want new tropes as much as the next guy.
Um, sorry, a lot of that went over my head. Of all those works you referenced, the only ones I’ve ever even heard of are The Princess Bride, the Blair Witch Project, Star Trek, and Lord of the Flies. Out of those, the only ones I’ve seen were the Blair Witch Project and Lord of the Flies, and I didn’t enjoy either. I currently have no interest in Star Trek, and I really don’t know what The Princess Bride is, I’ve only heard the name.
As far as your “exercise”, the tropes I’m using are definitely all ones I like. If I didn’t like them I wouldn’t use them. I’m just kind of depressed about the fact that they’re going to be on tvtropes. XD I was reading about “There she is!!” on tvtropes, and you should’ve seen the long list of tropes it had at the end. XD I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, but it was very overwhelming how easy it is to include any given trope. It also made me realize that many tropes overlap. But what the hell, “There she is!!” is a fantastic story, no matter how tropish it is. I never get sick of watching it, and every person I’ve ever heard of who’s seen it has nothing but good things to say about it. And that includes tvtropes. XD People just love it.
I wasn’t saying that I’m not willing to use tropes or that I think they’re a bad thing. I’m just saying that I feel depressed about the fact that there are so many that the stuff I’m writing doesn’t seem original anymore. But they still feel original to me, because no matter how many tropes they have, they’re still my own unique stories. If they weren’t at least somewhat original, it would be plagiarism. XD
Anyway, my intention wasn’t to start some philosophical discussion about the value of tropes and about literature in general, so…yeah. Thanks for your words of wisdom, but I was just thinking out loud. Of course I’m going to continue with my stories aside from my crazy physics universe. They’re my babies! XD And so far they at least have a plot, whereas my crazy physics universe so far just has the laws that govern it, a few of which have potential as plot devices. :P
@NoriMori
I think we were misinterpreting what each other were saying. What I originally said was in response to Sleepy Ven and the others who were complaining about things not fitting together or being forgotten in the plot. I hope that clears everything up.
New wild theory: they are still near the forest, so what if the hand climbs back to the forest and starts growing and making “hand seeds.” We could have the hands in a puddle of hand juice on one side of a war and the wooden hands of the forest on the other…and neither group would like Lemmo. Or they could gang up on him.
I see you’re a troper, and I see you got replies from some other fellow tropers.
But I think I must add something here in order for me to keep existing the way I am.
(for non-tropers, strings below made of capitalized words without spaces between them are pages in the wiki, tvtropes dot org)
So wow, as a person I found TVTropes to be the eigth wonder. It helps me -understand- works in ways I never imagined. As a troper, I’m eager to be helpful and I can never learn enough. But as an amateur storyteller I can tell you something about originality that you won’t find there (or at least I didn’t find it yet).
There’s this book called Making a good script great, by Linda Seger, the first eigth wonder I found. Rereading it after stumbling upon TVTropes was a revelation. The book doesn’t really say anything (that you didn’t know before in one way or another). It could be summed up in a single phrase: use tropes (and use them well!!).
Now what’s a trope? Is it tasty?
Same as you use words to make sentences that convey meaning, you use tropes to make stories that convey emotion.
Let’s see, you could easily picture three possible states of opinion for a story, or a scene:
* original – never seen before, may require some time to understand (little to no emotions conveyed)
* troperrific – seen before, so it -will- be easily understood (emotions conveyed as expected by the authors)
* cliche – seen so many times before everyone’s tired of it already; if we are to keep (ab)using it, someone please start making fun of this, we need parodies now (wrong emotions conveyed)
Got it? Being original can be just as bad as being cliche. Originality doesn’t automatically mean commercial success. Not even fandom. Not anything. Whatever was called original doesn’t stand on its own feet -until it’s tropable-. The audiences need to get used to it.
So before a producer gives money to an author so they can sell the finished product, they want it to be known-and-tested. Especially in times of economic stress: originality is not an option. Everybody knows that. And I know history provides more than a handful of exceptions, which is to be expected, really. They call them pioneers.
Once an idea becomes established in a medium as a sure-fire way to convey a given emotion, it -will- be used by everyone. Why? Because it works. Especially if they charge for the product, which means they need to make sure they get back the initial money invested in it.
So how does this all fit? Seger tells you how to make profitable scripts. Does this mean they’ll all end up looking the same? That depends on the editors, not the writers. A writer makes a story original by telling something that’s been told before in a different way. And while “different” just means that only those in the know are supposed to notice it’s a ripoff from, say, something that was made a mere 10 years ago in another medium, it also means they’re telling the story their way.
Really, just take a look at the OmnipresentTropes entry, and you should see how pointless it is to try and run away from tropes.
Also, read the book, it’s full of good advice to help you organize your story, and is referenced in tons of other books about making scripts.
So that’s it, I was just trying to make some things clear by sharing my opinion about them. Discussion is welcome, but not encouraged :) This is not the place.
As for Blank it and its authors, I won’t waste a second thinking wether they’re being original or not. Whenever I watch/read something, I leave my mind blank… and they fill it with this. I enjoy, therefore I am. And I’m not into judging unfinished works. So thank you. Just thank you. And keep going!!
I can’t entirely agree. There are tropes that one cannot avoid, since there are tropes into which one hopes very much to fall one way or the other when writing, since one denotes good writing and one denotes bad. However, TVTropes doesn’t say that one cannot successfully do anything new. It gives us a vocabulary by which to judge works. It shouldn’t be considered a framework.
Creativity requires swift gear shifts from searching through what is known to crying havoc and loosing what’s new, then back again. It’s not a simple process, and frameworks are only half the job. That they make a work salable should not be ignored… but I’m all for some pioneering.
Argh, forgot to include a comment about having zero tropes. I found this webcomic via BeautifulVoid, and the work’s page sure lists more entries, like RealityIsOutToLunch, and AmusingInjuries. So there.
@macksting:
Good or bad, only time will tell, that’s why I don’t comment on on-going series :) Rather than focusing on forming a full-blown opinion/critique by applying working criteria on the available material, I’d say we’re supposed to enjoy the ride, wherever it takes us. Judging too soon can ruin the experience for me. Although I have to admit, reading some of the comments can be just as fun as reading the strips XD
I realize this is comment is a little late, but I had to explain something- even if someone has probably already said the same thing…(I’m sorry, I just couldn’t read ALL of the comments, but I did read a good length.)
(In my opinon…) You are missing the point of the comic. I know that you’re disappointed in the constant coming and going of characters and I know that it seems like they’ll never come together. And while I’ve read some other people saying, “It may all come together in the near future”, the fact is-
I don’t think it will.
It’s sad when a good/funny/cool/interesting character goes away, it’s sad when things end, period. But this is a comic about endings and beginnings and an infinite void slowly filling, and the author only embraces these by writing the comic, because they are so rare in real life. After all they’ve gone through, we are learning that, these “main characters” we may follow, but after all, they are only another random occurance. In this place there is no time, no meaning, only happenings. And these happenings affect eachother, interacting, being born in an instant and dying the same way.
You talk as though this were an actual place, but it isn’t.
Just a blank.
And that’s the point. Embrace it.
This is what I think is happening to… And this comic (even if it has had over 2 hundred strips) is kinda new and young. scarygoround.com had the comic from 2002 till 2009 and then a new one, relating to everything, was started. Also i hope the comic is still considered “new” because if you read the little things carefully and you can see the forshadowing things do come together. And i hope that something big like a war with everything does happen because that would be EPIC.
October 28th, 2010 at 1:04 am
Is the hand going to grom into a tree version of Lemmo?
October 28th, 2010 at 1:50 am
Ha! Lipkin was right. Just a shell. So does the shell end at his shoulder or does it extend into him.
October 28th, 2010 at 2:33 am
Oh look, they’ve left something seemingly insignificant lying on the ground, and it’s begun to transform as they casually stroll away, aimless, into the horizon-type-thing whilst exchanging witty banter. Let’s see how long it takes before they encounter it again as whatever outrageous and presumably “story”-altering object it morphs into. Or perhaps it’s just that even a disembodied wooden hand can take notice of the trend that’s been developing more clearly and consistently than anything resembling an actual storyline in this comic lately, and it’s simply digging its own way into the endless graveyard of countless other forgotten locations, abandoned characters, dead-end plot twists, and completely random events that occur for no apparent reason other than that absolutely nothing in this universe *has* to make sense and almost all of which still await some kind of explanation.
I almost hope it’s the latter.
October 28th, 2010 at 4:07 am
Wow. Someone seems bitter.
I’m just constantly amazed at each thing that comes next. I try to imagine what might happen, and sometimes I’m close. Most times though, I could never come up with the level of creativity that shows up in the comic. Bravo!
October 28th, 2010 at 5:29 am
Holy crap, dude. I admit that even I thought this particular strip’s foreshadowing technique is a bit overdone in this comic, but you need to have a little more faith in the authors. The whole point of reading Blank It is for the experience of not knowing what happens next, and then being floored by how seemingly random and unrelated things actually come together to make perfect sense. The story is still new, so a lot of those things still seem random and unrelated. You sound like a quitter for getting so bitterly frustrated this early on in the story arc, though.
October 28th, 2010 at 5:32 am
On the other hand (no pun intended), Lemmo losing his hand IS kind of a running gag (or at least a repeating event, gag or no) in this comic. Maybe the overdone “walking away from a mysteriously-changing object” was done here on purpose for a similar reason.
October 28th, 2010 at 6:36 am
Clearly Sleepy Ven has never read the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, where things are frequently forgotten, but always come back.
October 28th, 2010 at 9:59 am
Wow Ven, that is almost an accurate picture of Blank It, if not a bit cynical, or better yet, missing the point… If you’re that jaded with the comic, try, oh say, not reading it? Or write and draw something better yourself? Don’t worry, I’m not going to flame you, and people on these comment sections have always seemed very civil anyhow, but if you are looking for a steady plot and point and consistent characters, try Nickelodeon or the Disney Channel or something. I’ll say one last thing here – I’m a writer, and I don’t know if you’ve ever tried writing this non sequitur sort of thing, with seemingly no plot and all that, but it is much, much, MUCH harder than formulating anything with consistency that runs from point A to point Z. End transmission~
October 28th, 2010 at 10:50 am
Guys, I don’t know about you, but having Ven’s voice of dissent (which I honestly don’t wholly disagree with) just means we’re growing as a comic.
It’s one thing to have avid fans follow you. It’s another to have people read your comic even though they don’t like where it’s going. I think this comic strip just evolved, Pokemans-style. Thanks Ven!
October 28th, 2010 at 11:14 am
Blank It is evolving!
It evolved into Blank Alot!
Blank Alot learned Dissent!
I wonder if we’ll see an all out war of hands against hands. We still have a mountain of hands, claws and other monstrous manos where spilt the can of hand juice, and now we have a wooden hand which seems dissatisfied with its lot. Where the two meet, we may yet see battle.
I almost want that to be some background behind the more important events of the comic, like the two asking somebody what’s going on, getting a null answer, and saying, “Yeah, we’re bored, too,” while fighting fingers engage in a thumb war for the ages behind them and out of view.
October 28th, 2010 at 12:13 pm
Hrm, I either see a Lemmo copy growing out of the hand… Or it’ll be an Adam’s Family ‘Thing’ (The disembodied hand that ran around by itself…)
October 28th, 2010 at 1:01 pm
The Danger sign made Lemmo’s arm wood, so now that the hand was cut off will it be reborn as a wooden Lemmo?
October 28th, 2010 at 2:53 pm
*heh* We just watched “Army of Darkness” last night.
The title could be applied to this if we were into puns. ~_^
October 28th, 2010 at 3:29 pm
So, is Lemmo’s wooden arm gonna regenerate?
October 28th, 2010 at 6:10 pm
but that’s the fun of evolving stories.
October 28th, 2010 at 6:10 pm
I think it’s gonna make a new jungle :D
October 28th, 2010 at 11:02 pm
Wow! Maybe you will soon grow your own little fan-haters! Look’s like your widdle comic is growing up ;P
October 28th, 2010 at 11:16 pm
In hindsight, I’ll admit what I said was unnecessarily harsh. However, I still stand by the general statement I made (if perhaps not the tone I used). Trust me, I love me some good, spontaneous, nonsensical humor as much as the next guy (Hitchhiker’s Guide is in fact one of my all-time favorite books). While this is still certainly one of my favorite comics, I suppose I’m just getting a bit frustrated at how a promising character or turn of events will appear and I’ll get my hopes up that they’ll be there a while, and then eight strips later they’re gone forever. Fergus, the penguins, the mist girl, the purple ocean; these were some of my favorite elements of the story, and Fergus is the only one that ever made another appearance after he left for the first time (and that only lasted for about four strips). Even the shovel beam, the only thing besides Aric and Lemmo that remained a focal point throughout the comic, appears to be gone now (although I certainly haven’t given up hope on that one returning). And now, since the intermission, things have just been magically appearing out of and disappearing into thin air, whereas before we could at least be led to believe that they had existed before somewhere else in the void and were simply just being discovered. Overall, however, I’m fine with what’s been happening since the intermission, since it seems to be going toward some unifying plot, but unless I’m somehow missing something really major, I don’t see how all the other great things from this comic’s past are going to make comebacks that tie together cohesively. I’m not bitter, I’m just hoping for something that will draw me into the comic like the things I mentioned above did, and will actually stay there for at least a little bit to keep me hooked and excited, rather than disappearing immediately and leaving me waiting for the next big draw. Maybe I’m just a fan of the good character development they put into the two protagonists and, since Aric and Lemmo appear to be about as developed as they’re likely to get, I’m subconsciously searching for something else like that. For those saying it’s still early into the story, it’s really not; they’re well over two hundred strips in. I feel like there’s supposed to be something that it’s all moving toward, but I can’t for the life of me guess what it is. If that’s all part of the plan, if everything is supposed to come together at the end in some giant “Aha!” moment (and if it’s done successfully), then it’s pure genius and I would absolutely love it. But until that point, it would just be nice to know for sure whether the comic is just having fun with these two wandering around an unfamiliar world, or if it’s supposed to be evolving into something bigger, instead of appearing to be the former with the occasional tease of a larger overall goal. At the end of the day, however, I must thank Aric and Lemmo with all my heart for the fantastic comic they’re bringing us and I want you guys to know that I have the utmost respect for you and everything you’re doing, and by all means, keep up the wonderful work.
October 28th, 2010 at 11:18 pm
Also, sorry for the essay-length comment, I’m just trying to get all of my thoughts out there without sounding like a jerk this time :)
October 28th, 2010 at 11:21 pm
And finally, thanks for trying to understand where I was coming from, Lemmo, rather than getting offended or something as it would have been perfectly understandable for you to do with a comment like that!
October 28th, 2010 at 11:55 pm
Now I’m wondering what would happen if Lemmo drank hand juice. Would a human hand grow on the end of the wooden arm?
I would think Aric would be happy to be ageless as that makes him borderline immortal or something. Also, most people would not be nearly as excited as Lemmo given an opportunity to chop their own hands off.
October 29th, 2010 at 12:22 am
And one last, last thing: I’m not expecting everything to fit together perfectly from one mini-adventure to the next, and I know that not everything is going to play a vital role, and I also know that nothing actually has to come back into the story at any point, because I realize that that just isn’t what this comic is about. I even realize that things do in fact lead into the next part of the comic at times, like the giant “bad boys” leading to the ocean leading to the introduction of the robots, or the hand juice spill leading to the handland place leading to the fox being cut into the foxes. I’m mainly just, as I said before, trying to figure out if anything is actually supposed to come together to form a bigger story, or if it’s just intended to be infinite sequences of partly-linked together ministories. Hopefully someone here understands what I’m getting at, because I’m having a hard time explaining it effectively.
October 29th, 2010 at 9:27 am
I liked the purple ocean and the robot Aric and the penguins and all that jazz best too. The comic seemed to move faster back then too, or maybe it just seemed to be smoother and more cohesive. Not that there is a rush to get anywhere, but maybe Ven was right and it seemed like there was a more definitive build-up…
October 29th, 2010 at 10:55 am
@Sleepy Ven: For all we know, this is all building up to some giant civil war between the five civilizations(robots, penguins, bugs, cookies, and the Unsettlers), with Lemmo and Aric caught in the middle. The penguins and bugs are already enemies, making this all the more likely. With a story like how it’s gone so far, literally anything can happen.
October 29th, 2010 at 2:26 pm
I didn’t read all of SleepyVen’s posts. Too long….
This comic made me lol in real life. That would be pretty badass to chop off your own hand.
October 30th, 2010 at 11:41 am
Anyone remember when the foxes destroyed the map? Lemmo said that death might not exist in the Canvas. Since everything Lemmo seems to offhandedly mention happens, he might be right, which explains the lack of age rings in his arm.
October 30th, 2010 at 5:52 pm
I just found this on Wednesday and I LOVE IT!!!!! I am going to fail my math test because I was reading these instead of studying.
There’s a scary thought: math test on the day after Halloween. I bet half the class gets sick and the other half comes with a sugar high.
October 30th, 2010 at 11:38 pm
Ven, if it helps you relax, know that Aric and I still feel like we’re setting the proverbial pieces on the chess board, and have barely begun to move them. I know it feels like watching a glacier when we can only provide two updates a week.
If we took the time to introduce a character, you will see them later. If we took the effort to have something world-changing happen, you can guarantee the aftershock will be felt later.
I just talked to Aric about some really good ideas. Stand on us. It may take us a few more years, but this comic will continue onward.
The only way you’ll get Blank It faster is to hire Aric and I to do it full time. So unless that ever happens, just try to enjoy it at the pace we can create it.
October 31st, 2010 at 12:34 pm
i’ve noticed that every time lemmo throws something away that has to do with his hand it ends up growing into something crazy o.o
October 31st, 2010 at 12:47 pm
also i’m, as bad as it sounds, anticipating the ending of blank it, i’m giving a little thought and imagination, and i know that blank it is supposed to be huge and lasting and it has some plan to it, so i have the patience for it, and i love what i’m imagining, like there is still soooo much more to the story to come, and little things like them being absent minded just adds on to the amazingness of when it begins to end, where it starts trying and intertwining stories and events and characters, there’s no telling how awesome it will be, and i like that they’re taking their time with it.
October 31st, 2010 at 9:43 pm
It seems that many things have changed..
1. Lemmo isn’t random and adventurous
2. They have grown to be more violent and smart.
3. No exploding candy objects full of sombreros and streamers.
What has happend??
I miss the old art style back in ’08
October 31st, 2010 at 10:24 pm
Maybe the hand will turn into a handtree, supplying wanderers with extra appendages whenever needed… but that’s too logical right?
November 1st, 2010 at 1:28 am
I still say that there’s a very good possibility that his hand will grow back.
November 1st, 2010 at 1:44 am
I know I only began posting recently and since then it’s only been a single post early in the discussion. But I’ve been reading Blank It for about a year now. In that time what I’ve seen is that the style and humor tend to draw the sort of crowd that likes to think about things, that likes to theorize and throw massive wild speculation out into the world(at least that’s part of the draw for me). I think the problem some people are having is that within that group are people who like to find out if their guesses were right, and some if those people are losing their patientice. But guys, Lemmo is right, the fact that the canvas exists is because they want it to. If they had no plan for misty, Fergus, the cookies, and the penguins, I don’t think they’d work as hard as they must to put out two strips a week. So just go with the flow and have a little faith guys.
November 1st, 2010 at 10:26 am
@Mr.Biggelsworth
Lemmo isn’t random and adventurous? the man just karate chopped his wooden arm off that he got from dragging his pet sign by a vine (rhyme not intended) and he just left his wooden hand into the canvas, i think it’s pretty much the usual lemmo lol
November 1st, 2010 at 4:40 pm
I just found this comic last week and read all the strips from the beginning right up through the current, hollow wooden, development. I did not notice the major changes in style other people are pointing out, so I wonder if some people’s memories of the strip two years ago have faded. Maybe they are more used to the faster pace of comics that post six or seven strips a week; it can be easy to loose perspective sometimes. It all seems congruous and logical to me so far and I look forward to seeing how events play out.
November 1st, 2010 at 7:13 pm
Speaking of moving the comic along faster, I’m afraid that today’s update never made it to the page. Lemmo, Aric, tech support? :)
November 1st, 2010 at 8:02 pm
Has anyone noticed that Aric’s Shoes are back?
November 1st, 2010 at 8:34 pm
*Bad Pun* Lemmo’s giving the canvasverse a helping hand! *Bad Pun*
Anyway, I wonder what happened to the other buzzkills (besides the one that got mouth hugged)
November 1st, 2010 at 9:01 pm
@Sir Matt:
“I did not notice the major changes in style other people are pointing out, so I wonder if some people’s memories of the strip two years ago have faded.”
Other way around. It seems like your memory’s the one that’s faded. If our memories of the strips had faded, we wouldn’t have noticed the style change. If you have an eye for drawing styles and how they can vary, you can clearly see the style change from before the intermission to after the intermission. It’s a bit subtle in this case, but it’s visible.
The only reason I’m good at picking up on style changes is because of reading so much manga. XD
Reading all the very in-depth, profound comics about what we have come to expect out of this strip, what we love about this strip…it’s made me realize exactly what it is that I love about Blank It. I myself am writing stories that I hope to publish as manga, which has made me think more about literature in general, particularly about how predictable stories and plots can be. Has anyone ever visited the tvtropes website? Even a short while reading it can make all books, tv shows and movies look formulaic, predictable, boring, and unoriginal. You can very often see what’s coming. And I was thinking about what I might be able to do with my stories that would be different — something I could do that wouldn’t be on tvtropes XD. No matter how much I thought, I just couldn’t decide on something I liked that wasn’t tropish. And just now I realized that Blank It has achieved that originality of having zero tropes — aside from Chekhov’s gun, perhaps. I think these days, with so many stories in the world, a lot of the viable (i.e. writable, readable, enjoyable) possibilities have been used up, and the only way to be “original” is to write something totally crazy and messed up, like Blank It. I mean, even Stephen King’s novels have certain tropish qualities to them, and they’re about as crazy and messed up as mainstream literature can be. These days, to be original, you have to be as crazy and non-sequitur as Blank It. That is my lesson for the day, hope you enjoyed.
P.S. Incidentally, I’ve been toying with the idea of what I off-handedly call my “Crazy Physics Universe”, which is a story that takes place in a world where the laws of physics and biology, etc., make no sense compared to ours. What I find cool is that I’ve actually been toying with this idea since quite a while before I even discovered Blank It — but once I started being more serious about my story, it started to follow the same direction as Blank It — the laws I was making up for this universe I invented were starting to make SENSE. So much sense that it was scary.
What I also find hilarious about that is that my story won’t really be original anymore because Lemmo and Aric did it first. XD But mine is different enough that I think it would still seem pretty original, even to Blank It fans. :)
November 1st, 2010 at 9:02 pm
*comments. I said “in-depth, profound comics”… I meant to say “comments”. WHY ISN’T THERE AN EDIT BUTTON???
November 1st, 2010 at 9:24 pm
ITS ALLLIIIIVVVVEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
November 1st, 2010 at 9:50 pm
@ NoriMori
I am sorry if it sounded like I was referring to the art style. I can see that that changed easily enough; maybe I misread something, but I did not realize that anyone was debating that the art itself changed. Is the point here to discuss or to insult random people? If you did not understand what I meant, let me know and I can try explaining it better.
Friends now? Up to you.
November 1st, 2010 at 11:12 pm
@Sir Matt
Who’s insulting random people? I’m confused.
And if you’re not referring to the art style then I can only assume you’re referring to how the comic is playing out — the writing style, for want of a better term. Now the last half of your previous post makes sense. XD
You seem to now be acting as if I’ve castigated you somehow, like there’s a need for us to make amends… I’m confused on that point. Did you think I was mad at you, or that I was trying to shoot you down? :S
P.S. I realized that, because you and I were referring to different things, you may have interpreted the last, very lengthy half of my post as being part of my response to you. It wasn’t. I went in a totally different direction. I was thinking out loud, being a bit philosophical… XD
November 2nd, 2010 at 2:35 am
NoriMori:
Far be it from me to try to stop you from creating something as original, and yet interesting, as you possibly can. Do so. Make your own Cat Soup, and make it awesome.
However, you may want to review the trope, “Tropes Are Not Bad.” Is it bad for a story to indicate that War Is Hell? Is it bad for a story to employ a team that makes sense within its context?
Is it bad for a story to have Tear Jerkers? Not just things engineered to make you sad, but storylines that give the -viewers- a Heroic BSOD.
Everything’s a trope if you stare at it too long. Xenogears and VALIS are good stories precisely because they recycle Gnostic Christianity, a sort of old-skool Crystal Dragon Jesus, but VALIS posited this literally within a modern context, while Xenogears interpreted it through physics, a couple flights of fancy, and a large amount of science fiction.
Tropes Are Not Bad. They’re fascinating. Would The Last Unicorn be as good if not for its invocation of The Summer King? (Well, to be fair, I’ve asked Beagle in person; he knows the trope, but doesn’t think he wrote it in deliberately, which is part of why that trope was edited out of the screenplay for the film. It wasn’t ‘intended.’ It just was there anyway. And was still pretty good without it. Just… not as good.)
The Princess Bride and The Blair Witch Project were enriched by their unorthodox story presentation, insistently referencing false events as real. This improved experiences for the audiences of these works of fiction.
Starfish Aliens, for gods sakes! No rubber forehead aliens there, just aliens so Other they’d make Jung cringe. A reminder that Star Trek isn’t the be all, end all of sinus friction. Yet this trope is Older Than Radio!
Here’s an exercise. Find tropes you like. I suggest starting with your favorite work of high literature. Or perhaps just Lord of the Flies. Explore the tropes of this venerable piece of art, and notice that they’re really, really good tropes as often as not. Enjoy them.
And then go make some Cat Soup for me, ’cause I want new tropes as much as the next guy.
November 2nd, 2010 at 8:02 am
Um, sorry, a lot of that went over my head. Of all those works you referenced, the only ones I’ve ever even heard of are The Princess Bride, the Blair Witch Project, Star Trek, and Lord of the Flies. Out of those, the only ones I’ve seen were the Blair Witch Project and Lord of the Flies, and I didn’t enjoy either. I currently have no interest in Star Trek, and I really don’t know what The Princess Bride is, I’ve only heard the name.
As far as your “exercise”, the tropes I’m using are definitely all ones I like. If I didn’t like them I wouldn’t use them. I’m just kind of depressed about the fact that they’re going to be on tvtropes. XD I was reading about “There she is!!” on tvtropes, and you should’ve seen the long list of tropes it had at the end. XD I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, but it was very overwhelming how easy it is to include any given trope. It also made me realize that many tropes overlap. But what the hell, “There she is!!” is a fantastic story, no matter how tropish it is. I never get sick of watching it, and every person I’ve ever heard of who’s seen it has nothing but good things to say about it. And that includes tvtropes. XD People just love it.
I wasn’t saying that I’m not willing to use tropes or that I think they’re a bad thing. I’m just saying that I feel depressed about the fact that there are so many that the stuff I’m writing doesn’t seem original anymore. But they still feel original to me, because no matter how many tropes they have, they’re still my own unique stories. If they weren’t at least somewhat original, it would be plagiarism. XD
Anyway, my intention wasn’t to start some philosophical discussion about the value of tropes and about literature in general, so…yeah. Thanks for your words of wisdom, but I was just thinking out loud. Of course I’m going to continue with my stories aside from my crazy physics universe. They’re my babies! XD And so far they at least have a plot, whereas my crazy physics universe so far just has the laws that govern it, a few of which have potential as plot devices. :P
November 2nd, 2010 at 8:53 am
@NoriMori
I think we were misinterpreting what each other were saying. What I originally said was in response to Sleepy Ven and the others who were complaining about things not fitting together or being forgotten in the plot. I hope that clears everything up.
New wild theory: they are still near the forest, so what if the hand climbs back to the forest and starts growing and making “hand seeds.” We could have the hands in a puddle of hand juice on one side of a war and the wooden hands of the forest on the other…and neither group would like Lemmo. Or they could gang up on him.
November 2nd, 2010 at 6:47 pm
@Sir Matt
Yeah, I got it. :P
November 2nd, 2010 at 9:41 pm
@NoriMori:
I see you’re a troper, and I see you got replies from some other fellow tropers.
But I think I must add something here in order for me to keep existing the way I am.
(for non-tropers, strings below made of capitalized words without spaces between them are pages in the wiki, tvtropes dot org)
So wow, as a person I found TVTropes to be the eigth wonder. It helps me -understand- works in ways I never imagined. As a troper, I’m eager to be helpful and I can never learn enough. But as an amateur storyteller I can tell you something about originality that you won’t find there (or at least I didn’t find it yet).
There’s this book called Making a good script great, by Linda Seger, the first eigth wonder I found. Rereading it after stumbling upon TVTropes was a revelation. The book doesn’t really say anything (that you didn’t know before in one way or another). It could be summed up in a single phrase: use tropes (and use them well!!).
Now what’s a trope? Is it tasty?
Same as you use words to make sentences that convey meaning, you use tropes to make stories that convey emotion.
Let’s see, you could easily picture three possible states of opinion for a story, or a scene:
* original – never seen before, may require some time to understand (little to no emotions conveyed)
* troperrific – seen before, so it -will- be easily understood (emotions conveyed as expected by the authors)
* cliche – seen so many times before everyone’s tired of it already; if we are to keep (ab)using it, someone please start making fun of this, we need parodies now (wrong emotions conveyed)
Got it? Being original can be just as bad as being cliche. Originality doesn’t automatically mean commercial success. Not even fandom. Not anything. Whatever was called original doesn’t stand on its own feet -until it’s tropable-. The audiences need to get used to it.
So before a producer gives money to an author so they can sell the finished product, they want it to be known-and-tested. Especially in times of economic stress: originality is not an option. Everybody knows that. And I know history provides more than a handful of exceptions, which is to be expected, really. They call them pioneers.
Once an idea becomes established in a medium as a sure-fire way to convey a given emotion, it -will- be used by everyone. Why? Because it works. Especially if they charge for the product, which means they need to make sure they get back the initial money invested in it.
So how does this all fit? Seger tells you how to make profitable scripts. Does this mean they’ll all end up looking the same? That depends on the editors, not the writers. A writer makes a story original by telling something that’s been told before in a different way. And while “different” just means that only those in the know are supposed to notice it’s a ripoff from, say, something that was made a mere 10 years ago in another medium, it also means they’re telling the story their way.
Really, just take a look at the OmnipresentTropes entry, and you should see how pointless it is to try and run away from tropes.
Also, read the book, it’s full of good advice to help you organize your story, and is referenced in tons of other books about making scripts.
So that’s it, I was just trying to make some things clear by sharing my opinion about them. Discussion is welcome, but not encouraged :) This is not the place.
As for Blank it and its authors, I won’t waste a second thinking wether they’re being original or not. Whenever I watch/read something, I leave my mind blank… and they fill it with this. I enjoy, therefore I am. And I’m not into judging unfinished works. So thank you. Just thank you. And keep going!!
November 2nd, 2010 at 11:35 pm
I can’t entirely agree. There are tropes that one cannot avoid, since there are tropes into which one hopes very much to fall one way or the other when writing, since one denotes good writing and one denotes bad. However, TVTropes doesn’t say that one cannot successfully do anything new. It gives us a vocabulary by which to judge works. It shouldn’t be considered a framework.
Creativity requires swift gear shifts from searching through what is known to crying havoc and loosing what’s new, then back again. It’s not a simple process, and frameworks are only half the job. That they make a work salable should not be ignored… but I’m all for some pioneering.
November 3rd, 2010 at 4:37 am
Argh, forgot to include a comment about having zero tropes. I found this webcomic via BeautifulVoid, and the work’s page sure lists more entries, like RealityIsOutToLunch, and AmusingInjuries. So there.
@macksting:
Good or bad, only time will tell, that’s why I don’t comment on on-going series :) Rather than focusing on forming a full-blown opinion/critique by applying working criteria on the available material, I’d say we’re supposed to enjoy the ride, wherever it takes us. Judging too soon can ruin the experience for me. Although I have to admit, reading some of the comments can be just as fun as reading the strips XD
November 4th, 2010 at 7:50 am
@Ven
I realize this is comment is a little late, but I had to explain something- even if someone has probably already said the same thing…(I’m sorry, I just couldn’t read ALL of the comments, but I did read a good length.)
(In my opinon…) You are missing the point of the comic. I know that you’re disappointed in the constant coming and going of characters and I know that it seems like they’ll never come together. And while I’ve read some other people saying, “It may all come together in the near future”, the fact is-
I don’t think it will.
It’s sad when a good/funny/cool/interesting character goes away, it’s sad when things end, period. But this is a comic about endings and beginnings and an infinite void slowly filling, and the author only embraces these by writing the comic, because they are so rare in real life. After all they’ve gone through, we are learning that, these “main characters” we may follow, but after all, they are only another random occurance. In this place there is no time, no meaning, only happenings. And these happenings affect eachother, interacting, being born in an instant and dying the same way.
You talk as though this were an actual place, but it isn’t.
Just a blank.
And that’s the point. Embrace it.
November 5th, 2010 at 8:03 am
@PyroForge…
This is what I think is happening to… And this comic (even if it has had over 2 hundred strips) is kinda new and young. scarygoround.com had the comic from 2002 till 2009 and then a new one, relating to everything, was started. Also i hope the comic is still considered “new” because if you read the little things carefully and you can see the forshadowing things do come together. And i hope that something big like a war with everything does happen because that would be EPIC.
November 5th, 2010 at 8:03 am
@madness
i agree
November 5th, 2010 at 8:04 am
@madness
wait no i dont agree. Only with the missing the point part
November 5th, 2010 at 12:50 pm
@AllCaps
Elaborate.
November 8th, 2010 at 12:03 pm
@AllCaps
I think everything should end that way.