Missing Afterthoughts
So you may wonder, “Why does this 3rd rate hack even have these ‘afterthoughts’ in the first place? Who or what put the idea into that tiny hyperdense skull of his?”
It was inspired by James Burke in his TV series, “The Day the Universe Changed” as well as the text that accompanied the comic on “Penny Arcade”. I also rather enjoyed watching the director’s commentary on movies that I like, and it was also fun reading the forwards written by Berkeley Breathed in his compilation books. It just seemed natural to me to write a little something to journalize each piece.
So if you’re a regular, you might recall my futile attempt to get meaningful feedback from reddit. One of the replies said: “Stop putting your description paragraphs after your comic. The [sic] don’t need it. If you have to explain what the comic is about you have failed.”
I still maintain that it’s not really explaining the comic because you really don’t need to read this part, but it frequently gives context and/or some background information on what prompted me to make the comic.
…OK, so maybe I am explaining the comic, but I like to think it’s more like the comic is the illustration that accompanies my written thoughts. Sometimes these texts go way off the rails and literally have nothing to do with the comic other than sharing the same space.
It was for this reason that I wasn’t going to implement any change in policy. I liked it the way it was, but then I noticed that the 4th most popular page on this site was the Pathos category. Upon reviewing the layout, I must admit, the aesthetics were terrible. It just didn’t look right with the skinny comic in the middle followed by a few paragraphs of wide text. I can now see where this text may detract from the enjoyment of the comic.
After an overdue consideration, I decided to use a “more” tag in the template. I even went through the trouble to retrofit all the old posts in the Pathos category as well. It was a grueling and painstaking process that took about 10 minutes.
So now if you want to see these little after-rants of mine, you’ll have to visit the actual post. On the other hand, if you would like to just rate the comic on its own merits and skip the text, click on the “Pathos in the Plumbing” tab in the menu bar. Either way is fine with me since the original purpose of the comic was just to add some eye-candy to the site. Flush Twice is first and foremost a joke of the day site. The crap that I cram into the sidebar is just my own personal filler.
Also, for the story’s narrative, we’re going to blame this idea on Alexis. Just as in real life, when you have an idea that you’re not sure about, and it shouldn’t be a big deal if it works, but it might be if it fails… Well then you set up a person outside of your inner circle in advance to take the measly credit or hefty blame. You see this a lot in business and politics. Let me know in the comments if there’s a name for this particular tactic.
Pax,
-f2x