I used to feel this way but then the years kept going. Look at this, it's pathetic.
I've been saying, 21 pages a year for a story-driven stick figure comic with thousands of pages that could've been wrapped up YEARS ago is utterly laughable work ethic that I never see called out more often.
Tbh especially when you factor in he has poseable vector models of the characters so in theory its really easy for him to make a page
People had patience with creators fifteen years ago when OOTS was newer, but the economy has turned to shit and everyone has to work harder for less, besides the earlier days of crowdfunding where backers were burned by unmet goals. There just is no excuse for this level of output for so much compensation. He just released Dim Sun, a comic special. Why don't you finish your main fucking story for your backers. Maybe I'd be a patron if his work ethic wasn't absolute trash.
D&D released two editions since the comic started. The first page was a gag on stats upgrading to 3.5.
Nothing interesting is happening. Well, lots of interesting stuff is happening, but it's so slow it feels like nothing ever changes. The story can't keep momentum, and the goofs and gags aren't charming or funny enough to cover for the snail's pace anymore.
Yeah that's inexcusable. I don't care about a hand injury or whatever bullshit excuse. This isn't hard labor. Drag your worthless sack of fatass self out of bed and get to fucking work.
The Rapewolves really did get the last laugh in the end when it comes to PennyArcade. I can't believe how different, and shit, the artstyle is now.
Do Pigbald even make the newer strips? I remember these guys having interns or underlings make their strips. It's lost in time, but a while back Pigbald got into some trouble with a job listing because somebody exposed how awful it was to work with them (over 70 hours a week, no decent pay, get rewarded with video game time and maybe a meal with Pigbald, etc).
What is really infuriating is befor Gabe went on mood stabiliziers and was sent to Leftard reeducation camp and was still a gamer, he and Tycho at would at least do something moderately interesting once a year or so. Cardboard Tube Samurai was a shitty oversold meme given there's like 10 comics of said character, but while fairly lazy retreads, the dialogueless story telling was different. But they haven't done anything with it. Same where they had the week where they pitched some different comic premises to gauge reaction. Their D&D comic was shit but the others had promise. But we got one Arc of the Noir Robots comics, and then nothing. They did like 3 twisp and catsby comics and never thought of it again. Just the same CAD-tier shit over and over as Gabe's art degrades.
Gabe still draws them, but it woudn't suprise me if he turns sketches over to some slave labor intern or has some shlub doing the backgrounds. Its been an open secret since...2012? I can't remember when they tried to make their cringe Office rip-off (PennyArcade TV I think? It was mostly paywalled and just too cringe to watch) and they had some of the scenes in the writers room - so I think sort of in a Jim Davis kinda way, Tycho still rides lead over the writers room and hands down direction, but I suspect its more about vetoing ideas that others come up with.
Speaking from my psychologist armchair, I think that Burlew doesn't really like working on OOTS any more, but I think he wants to give it a satisfying ending regardless. If that's true, I can respect that.
I honestly don’t think it’s his art but his writing that has slowed his output. He’s not in a position to where he can rough draft the completed story to revise later; his mentality has been that OotS will be a completed work for longer than it is serialized and he aims to treat it as such.
I’m pretty sure he still has complications and pain from almost severing his thumb like fifteen years ago.
On one hand i feel you on the other hand its a stick figure comic that updates about as often as Desden Codak.
I guess. As long as it’s still releasing and it’s still good I don’t see what the issue is. The heady days of three-a-week webcomics died with Dr. McNinja, and OotS is on the downstroke, it doesn’t need to try and build an audience outside its niche because that part of the work already exists. Just being a quality final product puts it head-and-shoulders above its competition, both in new media and old.
I used to buy those excuses until the misadventures of airship bandana dyke yelling at her crew. That arc was pointless and drawn out, and those characters are thankfully gone.
The pace is slow and not consistent. I don't want him to churn out slop. I want him to reach the finish line at a faster pace. Throw Dim Sun into the fireplace and give us that many pages of the main story. Hilarious how all his excuses meant absolutely nothing when Dim Sun released.
Boohoo, my thumb my thumb. Patreon isn't welfare. People with worse injuries and chronic pain show up to work every day at jobs they hate. No excuse, no pity anymore. He's not even starving for his art.
That’s a lot of words to dance around your real issue, which you’re too intellectually dishonest to outright say: you don’t believe he works hard enough to justify the compensation he receives, which is retarded. The fact he puts out anything at all already puts him above the vast majority of patreons, and the fact he, per this thread, averages a strip every two weeks puts him in the top percentile of the remaining.
I did outright say it, in several ways.
Oh wow, so you think better than terrible qualifies as good.
It would have been easier to accept if it were brief. And by brief I mean paucity of pages dedicated to them and quicker production of the main line.
Burlew doesn't have a workflow. He has a lazeflow.
Battered spouse mentality. Sad.
"He already has a wife, he doesn't need to appreciate or earn her loyalty. Look at all these other dead relationships."
It's not even a final product until it's finished.
Man, I just keep eating these grapes, waiting for them to be sour like you’re telling me they are, and they just refuse to be anything but sweet.
To an abuse victim, battery and neglect feel like love and devotion. I'm sure Burlew is gearing up for his final stretch of 2026, all of five pages. My thumb my thumb
You’re the one angry Burlew doesn’t come back with the milk more frequently.
Yes. I've been a longtime fan of OOTS and want to see it finished.