257 – Blood on the Carpet

AH, WEBCOMICS

If I had my way about things, I’d be able to freeze time and spend as long as humanly possible honing each strip. As it is, I not only have a deadline but I have other life stuff too. Only so much effort can go into each strip. And believe me, time = effort.

This is the reality of webcomics as a side hustle.

THE END OF LOST

My first ever trip to Comic-con was in 2004 when my wife, Erin, and I got a chance to be a part of the first audience to see the LOST pilot. We didn’t really know a lot about the show aside from the fact that it was from the creator of Alias (which we both loved) and starred a Hobbit. I remember when the “stars” took the stage (most of whom no one recognized) Erin commented that she really didn’t like “the girl.” She seemed stand-offish and prissy. We later found out that was Evangeline Lilly’s first public appearance anywhere.

Six years later, the show is finally coming to a close. We’ll be celebrating with some friends we turned on to the show only this past January. We’ll have LOST themed food and we’re gonna try to put some costumes together. It’s just the four of us in our house, so we can be as big of dorks as we wanna be and no one can judge.

I’m not under any illusions that LOST is anything more than a TV show, but it’s one that I’ve enjoyed immensely for the past six years. It’s not a perfect show, and not even the best show on television right now (that would be Mad Men), but I can’t really think of any show that I ever looked forward to more or that so completely took over my brain when I watched it.

I think that’s due to one thing that LOST does better than anyone: crackerjack storytelling. Not just good storytelling, but crackerjack storytelling. The kind of storytelling that both resonates and has you DYING to know what happens next. A good episode of LOST (which would be most of the episodes) is like gourmet sugar popcorn–a sweet, ridiculous confection on the outside that stands revealed as having a lot of interesting flavors as you settle in and start chowing down.

I have no idea how it’s going to end. I don’t need answers to every question, I know that much. I just want to feel the resonance, the meaning. If I can feel it, then I know the answers are there and I can figure out the particulars later. Anyone going into Sunday expecting more than that will be, I think, disappointed. More than that, I’d argue that they don’t really understand what LOST has been doing in the first place. A big part of LOST’s appeal is its ability to inspire discussion and debate. Answers have a way of halting conversation, not inspiring it. (Anyone really talking about the nature of the Force anymore? No? Exactly.) LOST isn’t going to take that away from us in the end.

Which isn’t to say that I don’t think answers are in the offing. I think they will be there…for those who are looking. Look, LOST has made a lot more things plain than people give it credit for. There’s just a lot that’s not explicitly stated. It’s left to the audience to figure it out from the clues given. If you think about it, that’s how good comics work. You’re always asked to fill in the blanks. Comics–and LOST–are interactive.

So, yes, I’m very much looking forward to Sunday. I’m fairly certain I’ll enjoy what goes down. I think I’m on the show’s wavelength. But we’ll see.

How about you?

NEXT WEEK:

A new SuperFogeys Origin starts on Tuesday! Be here for “The Life and Times of Soviet Sam” with art by the returning T.L. Collins!