Life on the Fourth Floor

Notice anything different in today’s comic? That’s right — backgrounds. Real backgrounds. Like, for the flat. Hooray for how much I rock! I can only apologise for having taken so long implementing this feature but in fact I’ve spent the past four years drawing them. Actually, it just feels that way. Sweet Jesus’ beard my drawing hand is numb. Scraping through the archives like a transient sifting through rotting trash, you will be able to see I have in the past flirted with levels of background-itude but never quite took the plunge into floors, ceilings, perspectives and detailed decorations drawn out in advance. Now that has changed. It was always my intention for there to be backgrounds, just as it was always my intention for the comic to be well-drawn and funny. In my opinion, none of those elements were present from day one. That’s the face of the medium. You get to watch something grow and evolve, not just sit there whole and the same. That has its draw-backs. (Like, what if I just quit? You’re only half-way through the story. I won’t.) In other ways, it’s better than any other form of story-telling.

I didn’t make this sudden effort to improve the quality of the comic as a conscious response to last week’s delightful surge in page-views, rather I am a fairly self-aware person and I know that unencouraged I lose interest in projects quickly — whilst it only takes the slightest provocation to induce feverish productivity. What I’m trying to say is to a certain extent this is our comic not just mine and you made today’s comic — ripe with backgrounds — happen as much as I did. I say to a certain extent. It’s not like I’m going to start letting you guys draw it or anything. Sorry.

I’ve been listening the hell out of ‘Kiss the Girl’ from The Little Mermaid soundtrack all this week. I don’t care if you’re a Disney fan or not, that song is just plain awesome. It’s number 152 on my list of 200 Easy Ways to Get White People to Dance. Alcohol is number one, by the way. In fact alcohol can make white people do anything — sing, dance, start a fight or impregnate each other. It’s the magic drink.

P.S. Have a nice autumn. It’s my favourite season. Let’s see what it holds in store for the strip.

A new comic is up. There seems to be an unmistakable Thundercats flavour present in the past two weeks’ comics. I assure you this happened completely by accident and it will not become ‘a thing’ that we do here at Fourth Floor Comics. Again, I am as pleased as some sort of punch-like beverage, tickled a number of shades of pink, with how the strip looks with backgrounds. I have actually avoided setting strips in the hallway outside the two flats with few exeptions and as a result the living situation itself — that Jack, Michael and Bob live together and Amy and Charlotte live across the hall — has alluded some of my readers. This is understandable since in the past, all that distinguished locales was a different colour wall in the background — a single infinite 2D wall without floor, ceiling or decoration. Those days are gone and we are in the future-times now.

Okay now I want to talk about Final Fantasy XII. This is old news even for me. I have in the past made Final Fantasy comics and even a (very) short news post to announce… that the game existed. But for most people the airship has sailed. Well, since I spend most of my time reading and writing about 500-year-old works of literature, a game that was published as recently as February is still new in my book. Life on the Fourth Floor is not a video-game comic. It’s about life (specifically on a floor), of which video games are a part, but it is not the only topic on which I am prepared to write. Since most of the comics have been written a full year before their date of publication there seems to be a strong feeling of the past in the comic, with comics about old adverts, old games, old films and old TV shows. Call it nouveaux-retro. Again, this was accidental but this time it is ‘a thing’. So, without further apology, I present yesterday’s news today.

I’ve been playing Final Fantasy for the whole summer. Everyone will tell you the game looks beautiful but I’ve noticed the feel of the visuals — the lighting, the design of the buildings and the creatures you talk to — carry with them a certain Jim-Henson-creature-workshop feel, if you know what I mean, that I find charming. My reaction to the battle system was not love at first sight but, as is the nature of true love, I grew to love it over time. It literally depicts what previous systems have tried to represent — it’s quicker, it’s convenient and it’s unpredictable. All in all A+. Now, onto the real meat of the post: the similarity between the game and the original Star Wars trilogy.

I know I have fandango’d in the past with drawing fairly abstract comparisons between very different works but… come on. My friend James (who actually appears in today’s comic) has noticed this, too. Are there others? Are we alone in this belief? Let’s list some of the things they have in common. By the way, this list will contain spoilers (of both Final Fantasy and Star Wars) but I’ll endeavour to avoid them where possible. (This is where writing months after the release of the game comes in handy.) Stop reading now unless you’ve played the game and seen the film trilogy or you don’t care.

Wearing your underwear backwards: the silent fashion statement.