I don't remember where it was recommended in the first place, but a few months ago I started reading a comic strip called 9 Chickweed Lane by Brooke McEldowney from the beginning. It's a great little strip that focuses, in a kind of real-time way, on the relationships of three generations of women in the Burber family.
There are strips completely focused on the artwork, devoted to watching the youngest woman, Edda, dance. A lot of cat jokes, and a double-heaping handful of romance. Then there are bouts of surrealism involving a character that claims to be god on earth, and an apparently non-human character called Thorax. All in all, an odd but rewarding little strip that I was cruising through just enjoying the artwork and slice-of-life escapades of the characters.
Then, last November McEldowney launched into an extended storyline about the grandmother of the family's romantic life during World War 2, which she relates to her daughter from a hospital bed. I don't know how prevalent multi-month storylines are in the funny pages, but I would guess that one this involved is uncommon outside of strips like Prince Valiant that cover ongoing adventures pretty much exclusively.
But anyway, the whole thing has me pretty much dying to read the next three panels every day when it's delivered to my inbox. I'm totally sucked in...like "Days of Our Lives" sucked in. Now the story is starting to come to a close, and I've been wanting to talk about it.
Knowing the backstory of the characters is nice, but not essential. The WW2 storyline starts here:
http://comics.com/9_chickweed_lane/2009-11-16/
Do not just go to the main page of the comic, because you will almost certainly see something that will spoil the story.
Click and enjoy.
There are strips completely focused on the artwork, devoted to watching the youngest woman, Edda, dance. A lot of cat jokes, and a double-heaping handful of romance. Then there are bouts of surrealism involving a character that claims to be god on earth, and an apparently non-human character called Thorax. All in all, an odd but rewarding little strip that I was cruising through just enjoying the artwork and slice-of-life escapades of the characters.
Then, last November McEldowney launched into an extended storyline about the grandmother of the family's romantic life during World War 2, which she relates to her daughter from a hospital bed. I don't know how prevalent multi-month storylines are in the funny pages, but I would guess that one this involved is uncommon outside of strips like Prince Valiant that cover ongoing adventures pretty much exclusively.
But anyway, the whole thing has me pretty much dying to read the next three panels every day when it's delivered to my inbox. I'm totally sucked in...like "Days of Our Lives" sucked in. Now the story is starting to come to a close, and I've been wanting to talk about it.
Knowing the backstory of the characters is nice, but not essential. The WW2 storyline starts here:
http://comics.com/9_chickweed_lane/2009-11-16/
Do not just go to the main page of the comic, because you will almost certainly see something that will spoil the story.
Click and enjoy.
