9 CHICKWEED LANE SETS A RECORD

 And now we come to a record of sorts: in his 9 Chickweed Lane strip, Brooke McEldowney has been telling a continuing story about Edda’s grandmother’s World War II romance since early November 2009. And the story is still unfolding. That’s eight months and counting. No continuity strip in recent times has performed a stunt like this. Most syndicates insist that their continuity strips (Judge Parker, Mary Worth, Rex Morgan, Spider-Man, and a few others) regale us with stories no longer than, say, six weeks. Said McEldowney when I asked him about this feat:

“I had no idea, when I started Edie's tale, how long it might go. After the ‘We'll Always Have Brussels’ story [Amos and Edda express their undying love for each other], which stretched over a year (I believe), I knew anything was possible. I've certainly never seen so much mail as I have received for the present story (‘Edie O'Malley U.S.O. Singer and Allied Spy’). And it certainly tells me a lot about conventional wisdom concerning spinning tales in a daily strip (by which I mean, if the wisdom is conventional, it is not wisdom, and it is definitely wrong). Had I informed anybody at my syndicate about what I was planning to do, they would almost certainly have restricted it in countless ways. I think the main thing is to ask nobody anything, especially as regards duration of a story. And never, ever, above all, tell them it will involve sex.”

Bravo, Brooke. Not only is your story long, but it’s deeply engaging and fascinating.