Filler Strips: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

[[Most Writers Are Human|Webcomic artists are only human.]] Sometimes they're sick, sometimes they get swamped by their day job, sometimes they just want to [[Series Hiatus|take a break]], dammit! ...and they can't update the strip for a day or two or twenty. They might just leave a [[Schedule Slip|blank spot on the calendar]], or if things get drastic they might change their updating schedule permanently, but the more common solution is to just drop in some kind of non-continuity filler. Generally the filler takes one of three forms:

 

* [[Guest Strip|Guest strips]] by other webcomic artists. Actually quite popular amongst webcomic readers, as guest artists tend to try their best to make a funny contribution, and when you're familiar with the work of both artists it's fun to see the guest's take on the strip.

 

None of these are objectionable, provided they're used in moderation. Once an artist puts up filler every third day or so, the audience's patience starts to wear thin.

The only way to avoid this is to have a [[Strip Buffer]].

 

{{examples}}

 

** Then there are the numerous [[Guest Strip|filler stories by other actual comic artists]], notably "Sluggy Freelance, where are you?" in the middle of "Love Potion" when Pete's child was born and a number of others, apparently led by [[Ian McDonald]], whipped up a story that involved the [[Animated Actors|"cast"]] of ''Sluggy Freelance'' going missing and characters from other comics trying to substitute and looking for them. {{spoiler|It turned out Shirt-Guy Tom had kidnapped them.}} There are a whole number of others scattered around the comic, with authors ranging from [[Ian McDonald]] to [[Phil Foglio]].

** Various sketches and pictures both by Pete and others (including Torg, see below) have also appeared as filler quite often after the strip's initial more fillerless days.

** There are also the regularly scheduled fillers that started appearing on Saturdays and then Sundays, which include sketches by Pete and other things of the sorts mentioned above. Two long-running guest strips on the Saturday slots included Ian McDonald's "Meanwhile in the Dimension of Pain" (or elsewhere) that was received less well for being even wackier than the comic usually was (basically an odd sort of case of [[Beyond the Impossible]]), and "Bikini Suicide Frisbee Days" by Clay Yount, which contained non-canonical strips set in the pre-[[Cerebus Syndrome]] days of the comic's timeline. Pete also drew "No Content on Saturdays", which featured Kiki looking for the "no content", which proved to be difficult because her presence constituted content, and also because she was mailed to Siberia at one point.

** Finally, there has also been a variety of random odd things like photos of ''Sluggy'' characters as Legos, ''Sluggy''-related ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' screenshots, and ''Sluggy'' Mad Libs.

* When ''[[Dream Catcher]]'' doesn't update on time, it sometimes has one of these.

* When Jon Rosenberg of ''[[Goats]]'' takes days off, he allows his friend Phillip to fill in with strips drawn incredibly poorly on post-it notes.

* ''Sam and Fuzzy'' has a set annual period for guest artists, known as the Obligatory Guest Artist Weekly Duration (or O-GAWD).

* Adis of ''Count Your Sheep'' insists on putting something up on the site every single day...even if that means he has to put up a rough sketch of something irrelevant, perhaps the same sketch he's used three times already but with slightly different coloring...it is more than a little frustrating.

** Scratch that. For nearly a year now, the strip has been in reruns. That isn't even filler, that's just lazy.

* ''[http://www.kevinandkell.com Kevin and Kell]'' has never missed an update since 1995.

* One of the worst offenders is ''[[The Wotch]]'', which over its four-year run has had, at this writing, 371 real comics and 148 days of filler — nearly 30% of all its strips are filler. Yes, it keeps statistics.

* Even worse was ''[[Avalon (webcomic)|Avalon]]'', which had more filler than real comics.

* Michael "Mookie" Terriano, writer of ''[[Dominic Deegan|Dominic Deegan: Oracle For Hire]]'' does the "standard" filler comic from time to time. However, he often fills in the space with brief previews of upcoming story arcs.

** Usually these come with warnings ahead of time and tend to occur when Mookie is off at a convention.

* ''[[Bob and George]]'' is an interesting example...the "filler" sprite comics ended up becoming the actual strip rather than the (originally intended) hand-drawn comics.

* ''[[Penny and Aggie]]'' has become particularly notorious of late for completely halting the plotline for filler strips with no explanation as to why. While the strips are supposedly canonical, they have become further and further removed from the plot, culminating in the month long "Min Jung" which was set in Korea and starred a completely new set of characters that were guarenteed by the author to never have any plot impact. The extremely negative reaction to Min Jung caused the filler strips to at least star characters from the comic again when they ran as well as better timing on their runs.

** At one point, Jeph tried something different, and added an uncolored woman to the cast, who was only known as "Sweet Tits." She showed up twice, before disapearing for a long while until the week before new year [http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1566 Here], where Yelling Bird throws a party at her apartment against her will, causing her to eventually throw everbody out in a fit of rage, including [http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1545 Randy]

* ''[[Dandy and Company]]'' has intentionally made a feature of this. For years there was a designated "Total Chaos" week in October (later expanded to two weeks), in which guest strips were run in lieu of the regular comic. Later, the format was changed so that Saturdays were all guest strips, and Sundays were "Community Theater," commissioned artwork by the cartoonist.

* Averted, mostly, in ''[[Girl Genius]]'', in which the 'filler strips' are often of the same quality as the main work, usually involving their own brief storylines. That said, there have been a few exceptions.

* [http://www.jaydenandcrusader.com Jayden and Crusader] debuted on Drunk Duck and happily posted filler when the artist had nothing more, though he removed much of it when he got a specific domain. That which remains the artist views as being of suitable quality for viewers to enjoy in lieu of a comic. Only a few filler pages remain though.

* ''[[Dinosaur Comics]]'', which updates nearly every day, has had a couple of weeks of nothing but filler strips. The fillers do a good job as they generally try different styles outside the comic's normal structure.

* ''[[MSF High]]'': A 'lorecrackers' parody arc was done by Wraith and luckybucket.

* ''[[Casey and Andy]]'' would often run [[Fan Service|cheesecake]] as filler.

* ''[[Today Nothing Happened]]'', when a comic is late, will update with a "fat animal" (exclusive to those who check for a new strip early enough) until the comic is ready. [[Whose Line Is It Anyway?|It all started with]] a one-time joke about a fat dragon that escalated.

* ''[[Venus Envy]]'' has fallen prey to this at many times throughout the comic's history, but the artist eventually became so obviously bad at maintaining her schedule that she gave up and stopped posting anything unless it was a new comic. After its triumphant 2009 return and semi-consistent updates, it's now fallen back on hiatus since March 2010.

* ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]'' sometimes has extremely cute fillers between the chapters, starring pigeons.

* ''[[5 Color Control|Five Color Control]]'' makes occasional use of filler art to keep up its schedule.