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.

** 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.