From: friedman@adena.cis.ohio-state.edu (Mark "Crimson" Friedman)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.misc
Subject: Two Ways to *Really* Help Comics (was: Popularity in Comics)
Summary: Sticks and stones and name-calling tantrums suck donkeys!
Keywords: splunge!
Date: 21 Aug 92 01:01:02 GMT
Article-I.D.: cis.1992Aug21.010102.7157
Organization: NAIVE - New And Improved Virtual Environment

In article <-y#nc5_@lynx.unm.edu> lazlo@triton.unm.edu (Lazlo Nibble) writes:
>Of course people are frustrated when fools and no-talents like McFarlane
>and Liefeld rake in more money for a single issue of a comic than most
>people in the industry will see over the course of an entire career.

Now wait a minute, Lazzie: this is just plain bitter crybabying!

Obvously you're one of the afforementioned frustrated ones, right?
Your bile-level must've risen so high in you body that it's obscuring
your vision!  No-talent?  This is extremely subjective...and
slanderous to boot!

As for artistic merit, it's *obvious* that both artists have talent.
That's just apparent to those who aren't "blind with rage"!  You're
letting your hatred override your senses.  A "no-talent" could not
possibly get a job drawing a comic for a major company: that's simple
fact.  Somebody along the line must've thought they were good enough
artists to hold a job!  Sheesh.  Maybe they're not as good as *your*
ideal artist, but they're good enough to get hired, and that
constitutes as having *some* talent.

As for writing, both artists need scripters.  Badly.  I'd say that
Robbie's plotting and character privs should be revoked as well.
Personally, I've taken up reading Spawn cuz I like the premise and the
character, whilst my Youngblood #1 is currently being used as a dust
cover for my 4-track recorder! :-) Still, I gave "Robbie's Sandbox" a
chance.  His writing proved intolerable, so I stopped picking it up.

[CUE: STRATEGY NUMBER ONE]

But you see, as a responsible comic reader I try to pick up a copy of
a book I've never read each week.  What's an extra $2-3 a week in
exchange for potentially finding a new regular book?  This way I get
to objectively peruse the work, unhindered by its detractors on
rec.arts.comics. (I've gone to reading practically all B&W indepedents
this way: Tick, Dirty Pair, Holo Bros, Savage Henry, Striker, etc). If
we blindly follow the cries of soapbox-perched fanboys *or* critics,
then our minds become closed to new possibilities.

If you don't like it: fine.  If you don't want to read it: fine.  But
declaring an entire group of people "no-talent" just because you don't
like their work is just plain childish.  To use your own words, "Do
you think that this in any way helps comics as a medium?"  Of course
it doesn't!  It's simply throwing your *own* tantrum because things
aren't going the way they should in your idea of the industry.

[CUE: STRATEGY NUMBER TWO]

If you *really* want to help change the industry, then "act locally":
introduce a better (in your opinion) comic to these blind zombie
fanboy cattle.  They'll see that there certainly *are* greener
pastures out there, and thus they'll soon stray from the herd...

Of course to do this you might have to *lend out* your comics to
people with *sticky fingers*!  But what if your comic gets munged?
Gasp!  Well, if you're simply keeping your comics bagged, backed, and
boxed, then you're really not "helping comics as a medium" anyway!

					- Mark
					  (a guy who got his friends
					   hooked on The Tick by
					   passing his copies around)

P.S.- Yeah, I hear Robbie is a real dickweed anyway, but I won't
unjustly call him a "no-talent"!  My brother tells me that he skipped
a Con he'd committed to once just because he had bought a new house
and wanted to spend some time in it (during the Con).  Can anybody
substantiate this?  If it's true, then the dweeb should have his
kneecaps removed as penalty for being *extremely* unprofessional...

-- 
Mark "Klone Crimson" Friedman is friedman@cis.ohio-state.edu .................
"There is nothing former   "Beat poets,    "If you put a hungry ferret in your
 about King Crimson."       not children."  trousers, he'll run around..."
 - Robert Fripp, 5/11/90    - anonymous     - Nigel Tufnel (Spinal Tap)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.misc