The Meaning of Lila by John Forgetta and L.A. Rose for May 19, 2010

St. John’s Bay? Too pricey for me – Ross all the way!

St. John’s Bay? Blech!

From yesterday: Jamey and Boyd broke up because Jamey was going back to his hometown to take care of his sick mother. So Jamey is out of the picture and Lila is Boyd’s best friend therefore they hang around together most of the time.

Boyd is teaching Lila about dialing it down.

What happened to the Drew storyline? There has been no conclusion to that!

Skarlett: No there hasn’t been — it’s ongoing Lila made her feelings clear to Tad (for what little it’s worth), but realized Drew needed to recover before being hit with another big blow, and that will take time… it’ll be back, but in the meantime Lila needs to land an income.

Head over to Kohl’s! They have the best sales on clothes. I bought my entire wardrobe for my first office job there for less than 500 lol

Thanks, invisifan. Love your moniker. Are you a comic fan superhero? If you’re new to “Lila,” you can catch up on my blog, themeaningoflila.com. The latest post is summary of events up until now.

I hope that the cartoonist drops the Drew storyline. Frankly, I have been frustrated with this strip as of late. I started reading it because the characters were shallow, catty, and fun.

It has of late been in danger of turning into a soap opera strip, though, and not a very good one at that. All I ask from a strip is a bit of entertainment, not preachiness, not role models, and certainly not the sort of drama you can find in women’s magazines. If that is what this strip turns into, though…well, I’ll drop it.

Oh, I know. Some of you will say, ‘the cartoonist can do as he likes.’ Yes, he can. And so can I. Or are you advocating forcing people to read strips?

Or, perhaps some of you will say, ‘go draw your own strip if you don’t like it.’ Why? Why do I have to be a cartoonist to have a preference about which comic strips I read if I don’t like them?

Or perhaps I might be told ‘get with the 21st century’. Right, so if I don’t like something, then I’m old-fashioned. If I don’t like something, maybe I’m not politically correct. Maybe I’m a big, bad reactionary who doesn’t deserve to read this strip. Attitudes like that will really bring in the readers, I think not.

Or, maybe some of you will say, ‘we like it, so go away.’ Fine. But the cartoonist has said he wants more people to read his strip. He has said that he needs the money. As I understand it, as a paying customer of GoComics, a little of the money they receive from subscribers of each comic goes to the cartoonist, so if I no longer subscribe to this comic, that’s less money for the cartoonist.

The Meaning of Lila has 20400 subscribers, which is less than the number of subscribers to the zombie strips, Dick Tracy (22522 subscribers) and Cathy (27598 subscribers). Now the number of subscribers for this strip is not going to grow if they become alienated. If it simply becomes a preachy strip to show off how ‘with it’ the cartoonist thinks he is.

In the end, as with all art, it is the paying customers who determine what they do and do not find acceptable. It is those who pay who command the piper. If the cartoonist wants more readers, and, more to the point, more readers’ money, then he should cater to their tastes. Anything else is just self-indulgence and arrogance.

I’d comment, but the dias is covered in rabid slobber.

I tend to agree it’s getting SO here, but we’ll need the soap to clean up after all the s**ing that’s going on.

On the strip: take her to Goodwill. They actually have designer stuff come in there all the time. (Beyond that, don’t go there. They’ve become insurance industry shills.)

Hi cmread, I’m the cartoonist and I appreciate your thoughtful feedback. Actually I responded to a lot of reader feedback saying Lila was too shallow and her life needed to show growth so I’ve tried to move in that direction. The strip really always had a serial approach from the beginning, but Lila’s once easy life has stepped up a bit as she both matures and is thrown into new circumstances through life experiences. The strip has also evolved as I’ve matured as a comic strip writer. A reader has to decide if they like a serial strip or not. and if they want to dedicate a few seconds each day to Lila There are, of course, plenty of strips out there to enjoy. As an aside, do you pay for GoComics? I signed up free. I ask because the strip does not make money from online publication. You’re basically getting my hard labor free of charge. For me to make money, it has to be published in newspapers. Lila has been a very slow build in print as a result of the economy and the sluggish newspaper business, its controversial nature by having gay characters, and the strong hold of existing strips that are beloved by newspapers’ mostly older readers. I’m sorry to say that the Drew story line will continue because Drew is Lila’s best friend from childhood, but whether or not the strip as a whole continues is always up for question. I’ve been doing the strip for almost five years now and do not make money on it. Newspaper editors and readers ultimately will decide its fate.

I get all my St. John’s Bay from St. Vincent de Paul (can’t afford Penney’s…or Goodwill)

JWF, I love the strip, I like seeing Lila and the other characters grow. I enjoy reading the comments here, too. Some of the GoComics strips have mostly negative comments, but the majority of the posters here make intelligent, insightful posts. They seems to be as caught up in these characters as I am.

Thank the Maker for the internet, my local paper would probably NEVER run this strip (not sure since I never buy the paper, just read it online for the obits and the court news)

@cmread When I first started reading this strip I too enjoyed the somewhat “one-off” daily gag type of format. The characters were interesting in their faults. However, if new events don’t take place and the characters never grow then nothing changes and the strip eventually falls into repetition. After reading almost a year, I had almost dropped Lila as I had become tired of the same old shallow and selfish reactions to everything around her.

What JWF has done now, adding characters and situations, even if they are “SO” has put life into this strip. Now, Lila can still have her shallow and selfish days but they have purpose by being set as part of a larger story. If you are not looking for depth in the characters that you read about, then you are probably right and this strip is no longer for you. I hope you enjoy the other strips that you are reading.

@JWF Keep up the great work and thank you for sharing Lila with us.

I personally love the growth that Lila’s gone through. A character needs to evolve as time goes on. I mean, who’d have wanted to watch Friends for as long as it was on if Rachel had stayed a spoiled little rich girl? I think JWF is doing a great job with the strip. Lila’s not a character who’s forever in childhood like Calvin or the Peanuts gang, she’s a grown woman who deals with life.

Hello, JWF,

Thank you for taking the time to read my post and respond to it.

Yes, I pay for my GoComics subscription, a year in advance, and so does my husband (we each have a subscription). That’s what the ‘Genius’ by my name signifies. So, if GoComics puts money your way, then you have been getting a bit of ours.

As for newspapers, I can’t read your strip in them, or any other strip, for that matter as I don’t live in the US (or Canada).

At one time, I had been considering asking whether there was to be a collection, but as it is, if it included the recent stuff, wouldn’t buy it. The early stuff, yes, but not that.

As for gay characters, I can’t say I really like what I see as the advocacy part of the strip. I don’t like strips that try to preach to me or try to present role models to me. I find it boring and tedious. I have the feeling that I am being pushed to like Boyd because he is gay, to show that I am ‘right on’ or something and I don’t like that at all.

I can’t say that I am surprised that American newspaper readers aren’t that thrilled with the strip, as they are a pretty conservative lot. That’s their right, of course, and should be respected.

The problem is that I suspect that these readers do not feel respected by anyone. Every time they turn around, they are having some politically-correct statement shoved down their throats. Mustn’t say this because it might offend that group. Must profess to liking that because it makes some other group feel better. Must feel guilty about this, that, and the other.

They may view the comics page as their last refuge, and then comes along a controversial strip with gay characters… And not just any gay characters at that, but ones that have adopted a little girl. How would you feel in their place? Don’t they have a right to a point of view? Or is that just reserved for ‘minority’ groups these days?

You may think I am over-reacting, but, until recently, I lived in Britain. People have been arrested in Britain for making mild jokes that simply make a bit of fun about gay lifestyles - unless they are gay themselves, of course, and then they have carte blanche. How fair is that?

People’s lives have been ruined by political correctness. One wrong step, the wrong person overhears something you say, or misinterprets something you have done, and you can be banged up in a cold police cell in the middle of winter, with no blankets, no food, inadequate water, and bright lights on all the time. They will then interrogate you for several hours. They might charge you, they might not. They will certainly try to get you to accept a caution (a type of conviction). But whatever happens, your name will go on a list and you will likely lose your job and probably your home. If you have children, they may be taken away from you.

My point is that political correctness isn’t just some abstract thing that is harmless. Its followers have destroyed and killed people. Putting gay characters in a strip, especially ones that adopt a child, cannot be seen as anything but political correctness, even if that is not how you mean it to be seen.

Again, thank you for responding to my comments. I’m sorry that the story will continue because then that means I will drop the strip. At least you now know why and that may help.

JWF THANK YOU! I greatly enjoy watching Lila grow as a person. Thank you!

JWF I agree completely with Monkeyhead..

@ cmread,

The cartoonist can’t please all of the people all of the time. Many of the readers like the direction that the comic is taking. Should they be alienated to please you (and those who feel as you do) or should you be alienated to please them?

Any change will bring new readers and lose some of the old ones. Not changing will keep some old readers and repel some potential new readers.

In the end, we just have to allow the cartoonist to indulge his creativity as he sees fit.

If the cartoon becomes something that no longer entertains you, that is just something that you will have to deal with. I know that I have abandoned many cartoons that ceased to entertain me.

Maizing,

I never thought that a cartoonist or anyone else could please all the people all the time. The point I have been making - and the one that JWF has made - is that he isn’t pleasing enough people to make the strip pay and there has to be a reason for that. You see, indulging himself isn’t going to pay the bills: that’s the reality of life, including life for cartoonists.

As for dealing with it - your way of saying, go away if you don’t like it - I am. I will be dropping the strip. I just wanted to be polite and see if JWF had anything else to say in light of my response to his response.

Before I dropped it, I wanted to let JWF know why I was dropping it. If I just do it without saying, which I know would have made you more comfortable, then he would never be able to learn anything.

Feedback, you might have heard, is about more than just pom-pom girls cheering from the sidelines.

I note, though, by the way, that the majority of the pom-pom girls don’t have ‘Genius’ by their names. If you are all so fired up about this strip, why not pay to subscribe to this site like I do?

Thank you John for keeping the strip going. I enjoy it everyday and I’ll read it as long as you write it. I didn’t realize online publication paid nothing. I wonder if you could set up a site to make a little on advertising. I would make it a daily stop to see Lila and the rest.

Thank you cloudnine, Maizing, Monkeyhead, WallyCuppaJoe, Magasek, TexasProudCowGirl, DewSolo, and others for your kind words and thank you cmread for your honest and farewell feedback. I genuinely appreciate everyone who follows “Lila” and those who take some extra time to leave comments on this Web site and Comics.com. Please always know I read your words and try my best to listen to your suggestions. I combine your collective wisdom with the message I want to send through Lila and her friends to create the strip you see everyday. It’s true, it may not last, but it’s a fun ride while I’m here!

cmread,

if you want to post 20 paragraphs of socio-political analysis and generate multi-page threads, go to any of the hundred+ political blogs that are out there. Or set up a FaceBook page.

I’m here for rest & recreation. Please SHUT UP and GO AWAY.

jwf - great strip the gay folks in it seem just folks, which i appreciate it’s like will and grace but with a lot less cash

i’m sort of tired with the media’s recent, look there’s our gay token- sort of like how there used to be with races and such - as in, honey, let’s go meet our new neighbors from Brunei

please, keep going - we’ve lost haiku ewe and joe bullet, annie’s next let’s at least keep your ex-orphan annie

Amazing. You ‘tolerance’ types certainly are intolerant. You scream, shout, and pout at every sign of criticism.

Looking through the comments, I discovered that JWF has a blog. Tsk, tsk. Seems that any sign of criticism, however minor, is interpreted by you and your followers as a ‘right wing Christian plot’. Get real. This comic simply isn’t that important. You’re not oppressed, any of you, you just want to be.

Well, I’m through with this strip now. JWF, I would have posted this on your blog, but, given your response to criticism, you now strike me as the type to scream ‘harrassment’, so I’ll put it here.

You, in my opinion, are listening to the wrong people. You like your pom-pom girls here, but they aren’t the ones who are paying or would be paying for your strip. If you want to make your strip successful, why don’t you follow the money? Note, again, I pay for my subscription to GoComics, but most, if not all, of your cheerleaders do not. Think about it.

Hooray! Let’s open some champagne!!!!!