Upon Reaching Salisbury Plain

I am a great fan of webcomics. I’ve always enjoyed the comic format when it appears in newspapers, but since I don’t read much else in the newspaper, it was a bit pointless. Thankfully, there’s the Internet. I read many webcomics on a daily basis. I love the quirkiness of Pixie Trix Comics’ various offerings. Tom Siddell’s Gunnerkrigg Court might be one of the loveliest things on the Internet. Jeph Jacques’s Questionable Content was my first ever webcomic and it is still one of my must reads each weekday it updates. Aaron Diaz’s Dresden Codak may have one of the slowest update schedules, but it is always worth the wait. The sad fact with the last of these is common among webcomic artists; time and money, specifically the time needed to make money to live on, often mean a webcomic which doesn’t support the author/artist must lose attention. This, in part, is what has happened to Paul Gadzikowski, author and artist of my favourite webcomic, Arthur, King of Time and Space (often shortened to AKOTAS), with a side helping of cancer in the family. The severity of Gadzikowski’s decision to end AKOTAS is all the clearer once you know that he once updated the webcomic from hospital after a heart attack (He is a legend).

Today was the last AKOTAS strip, and I came very close to crying. Last week, reading about the end of Gadzikowski’s (very successful) attempt to transcribe Arthurian saga into webcomic format felt like a punch to the gut, not just because I love the work, but because Gadzikowski and his wife seem like genuinely lovely people. He did, after all, give me permission to reproduce his Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy parody in my thesis. I would give anything to live in a world where a storyteller as talented as Gadzikowski need never worry about money, but only about getting on with his art. As I don’t live in that world, and can’t make it, I will instead encourage all of you who read this blog to go read AKOTAS. And here are my four main reasons, out of many:

1. Characters

I am not, in general, a huge fan of Arthuriana. The inevitability of Arthur’s fall, and the betrayal of Lancelot and Guinevere, tends to make it hard for me to stomach. In addition, most retellings, like the movie First Knight, make at least one of the three lead characters absolutely unlikable. I like all of the characters in AKOTAS, not because they are without flaws, but because their flaws are well-examined by Gadzikowski. They are clever flaws. And I love all of these characters, to the point where the end had me thinking ‘Oh, Arthur’, missing him – and all of them – already.

2. Storytelling

This man can tell a story. And when he feels the story hasn’t worked, he’s not afraid to admit his mistakes. The unfortunate side of writing webcomics is that the work is posted almost on the go, so early work can lack the polish of later work. Artistic styles can change – see Howard Taylor’s Schlock Mercenary for just how much they can – and the story can often take an unusual turn, but Gadzikowski’s handling of these is what made me like his work so much. He often says he is the only one who likes his triangle drawings (and I’ll confess a preference for his line drawings as I love the character expressions), but he has taken those risks and made something quite wonderful. And the more tiresome stories for me in most retellings of the legends, namely the affair, are some of the most interesting and emotionally rewarding. And the mere mention of Sir Balin now leads me to say ‘Oh, crap, what’s he done now?’ Even the hiatus periods intended to prevent burnouts were interesting enough that I checked the update every day. That’s talent.

3. The Art

Gadzikowski describes himself as unashamedly amateur. Maybe he doesn’t make money off AKOTAS, but I would not call his art amateur. It is his and it is wonderful and I could not produce something half so expressive.

4. The Newsposts

When I reread the archives, as I have done at least three times if not more, I reread the newsposts, because Gadzikowski always says something interesting when he puts one up. And the last newspost broke my heart, because he apologised for not continuing, as if he were letting someone down, when he’d given a wonderful gift to every reader: characters to love and stories to wrap ourselves in until a day seemed too long without another update.

5. The Puns.

Few people can pun well. This man can. On top of everything above, this comic is genuinely funny. And that is not easy.

There are dozens of other reasons, but I want to keep this spoiler-free.

I hope AKOTAS makes it into book format some day. I want it on my shelf, to take down and leaf through and remember the days when my Internet was slow and every page took forever to load. And I find myself already thinking of when I can next read through the archive, knowing I’ll be coming to the end, revisiting Arthur, Guinevere, and Lancelot in their teens, watching them grow up, find their destinies, and meet their ends again. I want to revisit the things Gadzikowski says about being a writer and artist, because these are things I read when I needed to read them. 3518 uninterrupted days of storytelling made paths I will retread all of my reading life. I’ll be sticking around to read his other webcomics, The Hero of Three Faces and Creative Process, because I love his sense of humour. And while I will always miss my daily Arthur, King of Time and Space, I will be eternally grateful to Paul Gadzikowski for sharing this story with us.

So until my next stroll through the archive: goodbye Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, Merlin, Nimue, Tristram, Isolde, Gawaine, Galahad, Mordred, Morgan, Morgana, Gaheris, Kay, Ector, Bedivere, and all the rest. You are all the heroes (or villains) your creators hoped you could be. Thanks for making them that, Paul. You did a good job.

Now go take care of yourself.

EDIT: It has just occurred to me I have neglected to include the link for the first comic. Go here for it: http://www.arthurkingoftimeandspace.com/0001.htm