The old Frog Blog used to repost comments from readers often. It was almost a mainstay, actually. Back then, haters ran rampant on the Frog Applause GoComics page and their heated vitriol (when the comment got a screenshot* before being flagged or censored by the Overlords) was hearty entertainment, particularly when dissected on Frog Blog. I can only imagine how betrayed some haters felt when their hate backfired and became a source of laughter instead. Good times. I'm posting the comment from ggrumpy because 1. He (or she) has, apparently, NEVER left another comment on any other comics page, despite a large number of comics he follows 2. He (or she) is a premium member so it stands to reason that this is not some contrived "inside job" meant to drum up fake hate.
ggrumpy (Let's be informal, please, and just call you grumpy, okay?)
Anyway, grumpy is not peddling any hate today. We don't know how long a reader he (I'm tired of adding she) is, but he can't be a founding reader because 1. He didn't mention Shoecabbage which was about as educational a comic as you can get before it got the ax. 2. Merkins have been mentioned more than once, maybe even twice or thrice (never miss the opportunity to use thrice in a sentence) in Frog Applause comics of yore.
I'm not sure where I'm going with this. I guess I just appreciate a new reader who decided to leave his only ever comment on a Frog Applause comic. That alone is worth celebrating.
Just because I am spotlighting grumpy doesn't mean I value my founding or off-and-on readers any less. Readers come and go and I get that. I've even had a few readers die on me. My favorite was a reader (Rudy T) who told me that my comic made his cancer more tolerable. I consider that a high compliment. This reader ultimately left this world, but I will always be grateful to him for telling me that. Other readers have also shared things that made my heart go pit-a-pat because of what my lame comic meant to them. Believe me, most cartoonists live for this kind of acceptance or gratitude, and I am no different. It's nice to feel appreciated in some small way. For example, I will NEVER forgot the campaign organized by various readers when GoComics wanted to send Frog Applause to the comic strip graveyard. Postcards and comments of support rained down until the ensuing flood was too much for GoComics to ignore. I don't know for sure, but I don't think any other comic on the chopping block was saved after the infamous emails from you-know-who started to appear in the inboxes of various cartoonists. I was a little surprised that The New Adventures of Queen Victoria didn't survive the carnage, but I guess Pab had his reasons to end things. I could go on, but additional thoughts are best left privately between me and my core (founding and most trusted) readers, who know who they are.
As always, forgive my typo-filled stream of consciousness.
#FB00845
