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Jake,
I think the comic is great. I had a really good laugh at a few of the strips.
Even though the colour change is a bit of a stinging point with me, I found
myself reacting very positively to the strips. Humour is a wonderful tool.
As you mention, and others have pointed out, some AFOL characteristics are more
“universal” than others. Most “sleepers” would have experienced pages 7, 8, 10
- 13, for example, but pages 4 - 6, 9, 14 - 26 refer more to AFOL within the
community. To achieve the ends of actually connecting with the true “sleepers”,
you should stick more to these universally experiences, common to ALL fans,
regardless of their exposure to the community.
Page 10 is an excellent example of one of these universal experiences. I
guarantee every AFOL, sleeper or otherwise, has gone through this. More could
be done about the simple pleasure and relief in actually finding the AFOL
community after years of thinking you were the “only one”. That’s really the
whole crux of the comic, no? Why not play that up. Other topics suggested have
been “Dark Ages”, stepping on pieces and being more concerned about the piece
than your foot, lusting after (and perhaps visiting) a Legoland park, etc.
I would love to see a strip or two about the “Sound” of Lego; I can picture an
AFOL running his hands through a pile of Lego, over and over, with a big grin on
his face, kind of like a “Fabreeze” commercial. Or, how about the way you can
tell eighties Lego vs. modern Lego just based on the sound it makes when you
search through it, or click it together. Or the horrible sound, imprinted in
the brain of every AFOL, of a favourite MOC smashing to bits on a hard floor.
There are tons of possibilities around the sound of the brick.
A comic that focuses on Brickfest events, AFOL lingo, Space vs. Castle,
Brikwars, or even the colour change, will actually serve more to potentially
alienate a “sleeper”. It points out more differences between us and them,
instead of highlighting the common experiences we all share.
Perhaps there could be a series of comics, or at least sections within 1 volume,
each with an overall theme. The reader goes on a journey, the “awakening”, with
the character in the comic. Heck, a comic like this would even be a great way
to “explain” our hobby to “concerned” friends and family ;-). Here’s a
suggested format for 4 volumes, or at least 4 sections within 1 volume:
1 - What a sleeper looks like - all those universal characteristics and
experiences, totally separate from any sense of AFOL community
2 - The sleeper discovers he’s not the only freak out there (discovers
“AFOLnet”, local clubs, other online activity), experiences the intimidation and
exhiliration at learning he’s not alone! Begins learning the “lingo” (BURP,
SNOT, MOC, etc.)
3 - The sleeper truly “awakens”, and meets other fans online and actually in
person, finds out his niche (castle, space, robotics, etc.), whines about colour
change. You know, starts doing all those AFOL things ...
4 - A sleeper no longer, the AFOL starts building and displaying MOCs to the
community, and attends his first con (Brickfest, etc.)
A sleeper reading volume 1 would be saying all through it “That’s ME!”, and
could be introduced to the concepts of each successive “step”, to understand
better what our community is really like. Having met many sleepers, I can tell
you that even the hardcore sleepers are a little intimidated by us truly
“aclimatized” AFOL, and need to be “broken in gently”. ;-) The sleepers I’ve
met, at events and displays our club has done, are almost universally
intimidated at first (comments like “I don’t have that many bricks”, “I could
never build like that” are common). It takes a while for a sleeper to realize
that there is absolutely no difference between us and them.
So, the comic is fantastic. The real problem is, and alway has been, how to
find the sleeper? That’s a good question, for which I have some ideas, but
that’s another topic. Given that we can put this comic into the hands of a
sleeper, I think it’s a fantastic tool.
Having said all that, I think it’s important to highlight the post made in this
thread by Ian Sly, a self-proclaimed sleeper. He says TLG should concentrate on
making better product instead of comics. That’s certainly in line with the
corporate mandate of “returning to the company’s core values”. Certainly words
to take to heart, keeping in mind that this is coming from a sleeper (albeit one
obviously thinking about waking up :-).
Oh, and Greg, you’re AWESOME, a truly gifted artist, with a beautiful simplicity
in your work, perfect for this task. Can’t wait to see more.
Regards,
Robin Sather
Vancouver Lego Club
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | AFOLs - The comic!
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| Wow. It's been a week and a half since BrickFest PDX, and I'm just now starting to get caught up. I went straight from PDX to Enfield and had some terrific Community Development meetings with the team. Lots of good things happening! As mentioned in (...) (20 years ago, 25-Feb-04, to lugnet.lego, lugnet.general, lugnet.org, FTX) !!
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