I feel like I've been ragging on Jeph Jacques' Questionable Content a lot recently, both in my writing and in conversations with friends who are long-time readers of the strip. I thought Jacques had essentially punted on a major potential plot development that had been a long time in coming. And so I feel like I have an obligation to say I was wrong, and that Jacques surprised the hell out of me last week, delivering one hell of a narrative punch in the process.
I absolutely love the process of discovering a new webcomic and reading through the archives in a tear. But last week's QC was a reminder of how satisfying serials are. Of course, we have the serial experience on television. But I have this intense nostalgia for what it must have been like when novels were routinely serialized before they were published. I can only imagine what that anticipation and communal cultural experience must have been like. I want a world where we're all rushing out for the newspaper or the latest installment of a literary magazine because we've just been left hanging, and we're going crazy, and we're collectively desperate to know what happens next and to talk about it. I want it to feel like the night of a Harry Potter book release all the time.