Another very special Sunday Comics: The fall of Penny & Aggie

Sunday Comics is a weekly feature where I spotlight awesome comics that you may want to check out.


Some of you may remember way back in only my third-ever Sunday Comics when I spotlighted a little bit of awesomeness called Penny & Aggie. It was shiny goodness, a sort of modern-day, more-complex Archie, and I read it with joy and comfort, savoring especially the well-done characterization and layered character-building. This thing lived on how its characters were written.

Sadly, it has now been long enough that I think I can declare this wonderfullity no more.

It began fairly early this year--P&A wrapped up its longest, most serious, most story-impacting arc ever, called "The Popsicle War." It was well-staged, necessary to the large undercurrent plot, and changed the very nature of several key character relationships. Very soon after the "Popsicle War" arc had wrapped up (satisfyingly but still on some small "what now?" cliffhangers regarding characters who got the short end of the stick), it was announced that after five years, Giselle Lagace, their artist, was leaving the comic to work on some other comics/art projects. Though Giselle did good work, I wasn't initially too concerned--after all, the art was strong, but the comic's bigger strength had always been its writing. The new artist, whose name currently eludes me, actually draws fairly similarly to Giselle--the difference is there, but isn't jarring. So it seemed like things would continue more or less as normal.

I and a couple of friends who also read it quickly started to notice that the writing was feeling a bit off with the new artist. I shrugged it off--it's not like the comic was ever flawless, there was certainly the odd page here or there that fell a little flatter than others. Perhaps T. Campbell was simply having an off day, or as it were, off several days. Maybe Giselle was missed to an extent that it was briefly affecting the writing.

A few months later, I think I can say that whatever it is, Penny & Aggie has not been the same comic since that last arc finished, and the transition was sudden. The characters are caricatures of themselves, some, for no reason, even acting bluntly out of character. Characters revealing motivations and thinking has become clunky and as subtle as a train. Characters we should be checking up on have been ignored completely.

I do not write this to retract or rescind my spotlight--no no, at the time I did so it was a wonderful comic, and I will remember it for that. I write simply to ask what went wrong. To note. To, in a sense, warn.

I don't know what happened, but it's upsetting. Clearly, T. Campbell and G. Lagace had chemistry together...let's hope that they realize this as well...perhaps it's not silly to wonder if she might come back. Perhaps this is simply a bad new arc we find ourselves in for whatever reason. Or perhaps Penny & Aggie ended with The Popsicle War.

~Holden Out.