Original Episode #32

This is my first draft of Episode 32, "A Musical Identity Crisis." Before I had even released the comic, I had had over 50 strips completed, including this one. But as time wore on, I kept thinking back to this one and being vaguely unhappy with it. It was quite some time after the strip had started running that I realized what my problem with it was, namely that the song wasn't really about anything. It had some whimsical lines in it but did nothing to advance or reflect on the story.

Perhaps it sounds silly to worry about the narrative value of a comic that doesn't take narrative seriously. But even goofball humor needs some direction to bring it into focus. So I tossed out most of the lyrics and substituted them with words that actually talk about Sinbad's confusion over why the physical weakling Jaffar has gotten the best of him. I think the revision works better, but I still preferred some of the individual lines in this original.

Click here to see the revised version.