Aging Without Pause
Today is Jon Rosenberg’s annual reminder that he and I are connected by the day of our respective births, no matter how he might try to forget that fact. Nevertheless, in an act of stunning generosity he texted me four years ago to congratulate me on my shift from list 3A to 3B, which is the greatest gift I’ve ever received. Happy Birthday, Jon and remember — you don’t want to break out the stasis chamber until next year when you hit 40.
In the meantime, life has gifted me with some coincidental birthday presents.¹
- Present Number One: Octopus Pie is back, and it looks to becoming at us three times a week until Meredith Gran says “enough”. On the one hand, I’m extremely bummed that the reason that Gran is back to updating Octopie with a vengeance is she’s finished her work on Marceline and the Scream Queens on account of I love that series and this is irrefutable proof that there’s only one issue left.
On the other hand, I’ll take Octopus Pie three times a week over nearly anything in the world, especially as Gran does something so very, very rare in large-cast storytelling — taking the time to flesh out the peripheral characters², give them their own stories and lives and decisions that happen while the main cast are doing other things. Nobody’s a placeholder, put into storage when off-screen, just waiting for Eve or Hanna or Marek to interact with them; Ollie, Julie, and even Puget Sean are people, and people aren’t static.³ Everybody’s got something interesting for us to discover about them.
Typing that out, I realize that in that respect, Octopus Pie is actually quite similar to Adventure Time and that just makes another reason why Mer was a crazy good choice to set loose in the sandbox of characters that is the Land of Ooo. A’course, she’s only better with her own characters, and now’s the time to get caught up with Octopus Pie.
- Present Number Two: Oh, and there’s a new episode of the increasingly-misnamed Webcomics Weekly; Scott, Kris, Brad, and Dave have so much fun together that I’d listen to them read the phone book. In fact, I’m listening to it now as I type, and that means that I’m doing neither thing very well, so I’m going to focus on the listening part now. See everybody tomorrow, which is not my birthday and therefore a much less interesting day.
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¹ Cue Andy Serkis: Precioussssss.
² In this case, Marigold — once a stoner artisinal soap-maker, presently working for The Man and reasonably okay with that, despite feeling a bit adrift since breaking up with Will.
| ³ Possible exception: | America Jones | . |
Oh, and sorry about the sparkly text, but it’s justified in this case.
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