|
Another LJ-based comic. You know it's a good one, it takes a lot of positives to get past the horrid LJ-system (mysterious file names, no first-entry link, no archives page, no additional pages, and so on).
World history is such a wonderful thing. So many events have turned into unbelievable legends and plenty have well documented, but crazy, causes. History repeats itself regardless of our knowledge of it; it's easy enough to translate memes through time to laugh or study them. All sorts of writing from science fiction to Gulliver's Travels contain commentary of that nature. And you never run out of history, just because Peabody and Sherman (if you don't know who those two are, reserve a week or two to watch the original Rocky & Bullwinkle TV shows, it's worth it) tramped through it, doesn't ruin it for the next writer.
And plenty of challenges remain for the writer. Where do you strike the balance between realism and your story? History is messy and boring. Just as my life is uninteresting to all but a few people and in time will have no value, the medieval peasants and knights were mostly uninteresting. Mud and disease don't make for an interesting tale either. Clean up too far and the historical setting is replaced by another swords & heroes fantasy. Get Medieval keeps history for setting the background while using mostly generic events (i.e. events that don't force their story).
Get Medieval also does well on the content front. Modern western culture developed from this time period, allowing strong analogies on our customs. Superstition is easier to pull forward and laugh at in the context of a religion-ruled civilization. Relationships can be shown more clearly without a thousand years additional years of customs obscuring them.
There's always quick jokes for when life won't provide decent material. Get Medieval does a good job of setting up a simple joke. Context does great things for one-line jokes as well. And if nothing else, the artwork is especially clean and often detailed (look at the background in this strip. It's not elaborate, but note that it's in perspective). Little details don't have as much an impact given Get Medieval's quality in content, but in a marginal strip going past talking heads can make the difference.
That's pretty much all I have. I could ramble about dodging scientific errors by letting a character make them, but I'll leave off with this: normally when I start writing one of these, I have 6 or so strips that highlight my points. I picked out 27 favorites from Get Medieval before stopping my reread of the archives.
| 
