Brief Introduction, a thought about Consumer Advice, and a commentary on PvP

Hello everyone- I am Jaya Lakshmi, Kevin's co-reviewer. In March 2009 I will have a webcomic up for comments and entertainment. My thoughts about For Better Or For Worse are posted down below Kevin's, if you'd like to read them.

First off-

Kevin got me addicted to PvP. The recent arc involving Skull's return was a break we needed from the characters. Forgive me for saying so, but some strips failed to spark interest because there was nothing entertaining about it.

For example, I disliked the arc involving Jase's new girlfriend Bonnie. Scott decided to include her in only three strips- three strips!- and we only know that she doesn't want Jase to return to his old gamer lifestyle. At least with Jade's mother we got seven strips, all which developed her into a sympathetic if unlikable character. Bonnie disappears before we see how she ticks.
Scott has perhaps introduced too many side characters: Scratch, Kirby, Miranda, Reggie, Jade and Brent's parents, Sam Woods, and Shecky the troll. Bonnie may have broken the camel's back, and not because she fretted about his friends.

For another, the characters have become so serious that even a ridiculous strip when Brent lords over an RPG doesn't fit in with the daily occurrences. (Though the recent one with Jade and WoW made perfect sense.) We need Cole to organize another paint ball round, Francis to install a spy camera in Jade's office, or something!

I commend Scott for having Scratch seek out Skull because Scratch has retained his sense of humor amidst the chaotic wedding and honeymoon. We get some hilarious jokes (the Chimera is my favorite), more insight into the PvP fantasy world, and a chance to wonder how the rest of the gang will react to his reappearance.

Next topic:

Kevin's greatest idea when writing comic book reviews was to put up a "Consumer Advice" box. Not a rating system for age appropriate materials, but an actual description of what parents (and readers) may want to know.

In an old Pearls Before Swine series, Rat said that the newspaper comics have to remain PG-rated and clean for a universal audience. However, comic strips involving certain material would bother me if I read them right next to Pearls and Get Fuzzy. The optimal solution would have certain pages with certain comics according to content, but that practice may lead to abuses.

The best thing about the web is that usually cartoonists have one comic per site, an artist can put a warning for parents if the content is Mature. What should the newspapers do, however? Should the risque soap operas and violent adventures have a page to themselves? Should the newspapers cater towards a universal audience?

For one, I believe in separate pages based on individual newspaper ratings, or at the very least a page filled with Consumer Advice so parents know which strips to cut out for their private enjoyment.