Now folks, we were going to review Jesslyn Stormheart this fine Wednesday, but the author left the Internet in tears, so you're getting this short opinion piece instead.
Lust
Spherical, shiny boobs. Do I need to say more? It's when the artist decides that the best way to gain hits is to draw every woman like she's Katie Andre, complete with enormous, inhumane pout and spear-like eyelashes. Oh, and the tits. The bigger-than-her-head tits.
I hope even the densest of you can appreciate why this is such a grave offense. In case you're a Shredded Moose fan, I feel I must explain: drawing women as nothing but wank-material will not endear you to most people and will show you as the eternal virgin creep you really are. I don't mind well-endowed women appearing in any media, as long as they have a fully fleshed-out character to go with the monster knockers. And I mean a character beyond “tee-hee, I'm a nympho!”
I understand that some people out there have huge trouble talking to the opposite sex and therefore get all their knowledge second-hand from people who have slightly less trouble regarding conversation with women, but that's no excuse. Unless you have full-blown panic attack every time a woman comes near you (and in this case you should see a shrink), you should really gain some female friends before trying to write a female character.
This particular sin also encompasses presenting women as barely-characterized stereotypes, a la the recently-lambasted Hookie Dookie Panic! (incidentally, what a fucking stupid name that is), where the girl is a misandrist and likes ponies and that's the extent of her character. Seriously, people, use the brains your mothers gave you: if you never talked to a girl before, either have an all-male cast or don't bother writing at all until you're capable of facing up to the opposite sex.
Gluttony
“LOOK AT ME EVERYONE I DO A WEBCOMIC!” sums this one up perfectly. It's when an author shamelessly promotes himself/herself in everything they do and say. This is not necessarily a bad thing (there are comics which deserve promotion) but it's an almost constant feature of those folk who wouldn't know taste if it hit their hands with a hammer. When those people bring up their webcomic, it's almost a given that they're not looking for critique or readership. They're looking for hits and praise and some more hits and praise and then maybe a little bit more praise. They want to be the centre of all attention and the one everyone looks up to. They want their gigantic, diseased ego to grow fat on the milk and honey of positive comments from fanshippers.
The difference between readership and hits is that it's a lot easier to measure the latter than the former. You may be getting 10 000 uniques a day, but how many of them are staying? A comic's true popularity isn't measured by its traffic but by how many people will go back to it.
Those guilty of Gluttony are often guilty of Lust too, as in a desperate search for praise and hits they resort to fanservice in the form of TITS TITS AND MORE TITS.
Even though he's just a pretty shitty reviewer and probably never drew a straight line in his life, Robert A. "Tangents" Howard is guilty as hell of this. He tries to ingrain himself in every single thing to do with webcomics. He reviews everyone. And you just know he's only doing it for praise and maybe to get into someone's panties, or, since he can't afford to be picky, boxers.
Fishing for compliments is really, really fucking annoying and so is fishing for attention. Your art should speak for itself and if it's good, people will tell you so without being prompted. The rule of thumb here is: if you have to ask, it's not good enough yet. So cram a sock in your mouth and study anatomy, composition, and for those folk who fall asleep in English classes, spelling and grammar.
Greed
Insane donation runs. Selling wallpapers, books, commissions and the huge, ever-present (usually taking up 1/5 of the screen) gauge showing current donations and amount of money desired.
Well, I'll be honest here, like the previous sin, it's not necessarily a feature of bad webcomics. Some good webcomics do donation runs too. The issue here is the quality of the comic. If it's good, a discrete link to a paypal donation page is acceptable. If the comic is crap ... well, why bother?
Two words, folks: The Wotch.
The Wotch adores donation runs. Its creators actually earn money for something other than hosting via donation runs. It is ridiculous and a kick in the groin for people whose art is actually worth a shit: some guy's half-hearted, badly plotted doodles provide a reliable source of income.
As nauseating as that is, it's understandable. The Wotch is a fetish webcomic, catering to a fetish for which there is little decent porn (or so I'm told). Comics like that are a licence to print money. The thing that baffles me still is the fact that JDR is able to make a killing on her comics. JDR, you insane pile of lies and insecurities, the Devil shall collect his due in a few years.
Really, it's the difference between trying to make money off your comic and being a money-grubbing arse who happens to shit out a comic three times a week.
Sloth
Copy+pasting. Using hackneyed plot lines. Sprites. “Dead Piro day”. Probably one of the most annoying sins in this list, Sloth is when you just don't bother. It's criminal, especially when, like some people I could mention, you make a living off it. It's also a hack thing to do. Real artists do suffer for their art, at least by sacrificing time and paying minute attention to what the fuck they're scribbling on the page. Real artists also take classes and do life drawing and always seek ways to improve. Of course, some real artists then forget their roots and start copy+pasting and using GIS images for backgrounds, but it's nothing a good, sound blow to the head won't fix.
It is possible to make a good comic with limited artwork, but it's not easy and your writing better be damn good. The beauty of sequential art lies partially in the fact that good writing can save less-than-perfect artwork.
However, all the brilliant artwork in the world won't fix a badly-written comic and most people seem to be unware of that. I've seen excellent artwork ruined completely by poor, stilted writing. This stubborn refusal to admit that maybe, just maybe, giving the task of writing to someone else will be better than painfully extracting every word out of your keyboard, as if pulling rotten teeth, only to find that people's eyes glaze over the second they glance over your bloated word balloons.
I digress.
Fillers are annoying and another facet of Sloth, but they're much more excusable – sometimes you really don't have the time. (Hint to people who put up a lot of filler and aren't crippled by an illness: buffer.)
Don't copy+paste. Don't try to cut corners. For the love of god, unless you're positive that you can make a sprite comic something other than eye-bleedingly bad and hideously misguided, do not use sprites.
And seriously, don't use GIS. That's what Buckley does. You don't want to be like Buckley, do you?
Wrath
Very simple sin to fall into: starting feuds with someone. Mostly “just because”. Just because they're more popular than you. Just because they didn't link to you, reply to your emails or some other shit. I'm not quite sure if author feuds are as popular as they once were, so I'll instead mention the wrathful fans of many comics.
Oh yes. We've all seen it, right on this blog. The people who just cannot accept that their beloved comic is shit or, hell, even less than absolutely perfect in every single way. And if you dare to pour some chlorine into the infested pool of webcomics, they shall rally like piranhas and attack with brilliant methods such as sucking up to the webcomic's author even harder, commenting with poorly-thought-out walls of text and yelling pathetic insults into the ether.
But that's fanbases for you, I guess. The old joke about committees applies here.
Envy
This one, oddly enough, does not get much mileage. What we get is the exact opposite – people trying to sycophant by saying things like “I'm so jealous of your talent, I draw so badly compared to you!” Except, you know, with poorer spelling and more Internet slang. It is the beating heart of the Culture of Nice, the knowledge that if you give enough handjobs, someone will finally reach for your metaphorical, sweaty and STD-ridden penis and give it a good hard rubbing. And then maybe you wouldn't be so alone.
It's not real jealousy – it's empty words thrown around like bait, seeing if someone will rise to it and shower you with happy-clappy, fingers-in-ears, strained praise that will further cement your fate as a bad artist, bad writer and your comic's fate as the pefect candidate for our blog.
Sometimes, one does come across people who are eaten up by jealousy to the extent that they steal art and put their own name on it. Those people are known as “veritable goldmines of drama” and my day feels brighter every time I stumble across one of them.
Pride
Finally, we come to the mother of all Webcomic Sins – the one that will forever hang like a noose around anyone who succumbs to it. Pride is personified as the knowledge that you are the best, the very best and even your shit smells of roses and cinnamon.
It is a death knell for all talent. Anyone infected will be stuck in a rut, rehashing their old style and never adding a molecule of experimentation, never improving because the fans like it or because they believe that their webcomic was whispered to them by some god or other and to change even one little thing about it would be a sin.
The first step to shedding the other sins is to shed the pride. Sadly, that requires deflating your ego and not listening to fans quite so much and that seems to be an impossibility. Just look at what Shortpacked! turned into.
Lust
Spherical, shiny boobs. Do I need to say more? It's when the artist decides that the best way to gain hits is to draw every woman like she's Katie Andre, complete with enormous, inhumane pout and spear-like eyelashes. Oh, and the tits. The bigger-than-her-head tits.
I hope even the densest of you can appreciate why this is such a grave offense. In case you're a Shredded Moose fan, I feel I must explain: drawing women as nothing but wank-material will not endear you to most people and will show you as the eternal virgin creep you really are. I don't mind well-endowed women appearing in any media, as long as they have a fully fleshed-out character to go with the monster knockers. And I mean a character beyond “tee-hee, I'm a nympho!”
I understand that some people out there have huge trouble talking to the opposite sex and therefore get all their knowledge second-hand from people who have slightly less trouble regarding conversation with women, but that's no excuse. Unless you have full-blown panic attack every time a woman comes near you (and in this case you should see a shrink), you should really gain some female friends before trying to write a female character.
This particular sin also encompasses presenting women as barely-characterized stereotypes, a la the recently-lambasted Hookie Dookie Panic! (incidentally, what a fucking stupid name that is), where the girl is a misandrist and likes ponies and that's the extent of her character. Seriously, people, use the brains your mothers gave you: if you never talked to a girl before, either have an all-male cast or don't bother writing at all until you're capable of facing up to the opposite sex.
Gluttony
“LOOK AT ME EVERYONE I DO A WEBCOMIC!” sums this one up perfectly. It's when an author shamelessly promotes himself/herself in everything they do and say. This is not necessarily a bad thing (there are comics which deserve promotion) but it's an almost constant feature of those folk who wouldn't know taste if it hit their hands with a hammer. When those people bring up their webcomic, it's almost a given that they're not looking for critique or readership. They're looking for hits and praise and some more hits and praise and then maybe a little bit more praise. They want to be the centre of all attention and the one everyone looks up to. They want their gigantic, diseased ego to grow fat on the milk and honey of positive comments from fanshippers.
The difference between readership and hits is that it's a lot easier to measure the latter than the former. You may be getting 10 000 uniques a day, but how many of them are staying? A comic's true popularity isn't measured by its traffic but by how many people will go back to it.
Those guilty of Gluttony are often guilty of Lust too, as in a desperate search for praise and hits they resort to fanservice in the form of TITS TITS AND MORE TITS.
Even though he's just a pretty shitty reviewer and probably never drew a straight line in his life, Robert A. "Tangents" Howard is guilty as hell of this. He tries to ingrain himself in every single thing to do with webcomics. He reviews everyone. And you just know he's only doing it for praise and maybe to get into someone's panties, or, since he can't afford to be picky, boxers.
Fishing for compliments is really, really fucking annoying and so is fishing for attention. Your art should speak for itself and if it's good, people will tell you so without being prompted. The rule of thumb here is: if you have to ask, it's not good enough yet. So cram a sock in your mouth and study anatomy, composition, and for those folk who fall asleep in English classes, spelling and grammar.
Greed
Insane donation runs. Selling wallpapers, books, commissions and the huge, ever-present (usually taking up 1/5 of the screen) gauge showing current donations and amount of money desired.
Well, I'll be honest here, like the previous sin, it's not necessarily a feature of bad webcomics. Some good webcomics do donation runs too. The issue here is the quality of the comic. If it's good, a discrete link to a paypal donation page is acceptable. If the comic is crap ... well, why bother?
Two words, folks: The Wotch.
The Wotch adores donation runs. Its creators actually earn money for something other than hosting via donation runs. It is ridiculous and a kick in the groin for people whose art is actually worth a shit: some guy's half-hearted, badly plotted doodles provide a reliable source of income.
As nauseating as that is, it's understandable. The Wotch is a fetish webcomic, catering to a fetish for which there is little decent porn (or so I'm told). Comics like that are a licence to print money. The thing that baffles me still is the fact that JDR is able to make a killing on her comics. JDR, you insane pile of lies and insecurities, the Devil shall collect his due in a few years.
Really, it's the difference between trying to make money off your comic and being a money-grubbing arse who happens to shit out a comic three times a week.
Sloth
Copy+pasting. Using hackneyed plot lines. Sprites. “Dead Piro day”. Probably one of the most annoying sins in this list, Sloth is when you just don't bother. It's criminal, especially when, like some people I could mention, you make a living off it. It's also a hack thing to do. Real artists do suffer for their art, at least by sacrificing time and paying minute attention to what the fuck they're scribbling on the page. Real artists also take classes and do life drawing and always seek ways to improve. Of course, some real artists then forget their roots and start copy+pasting and using GIS images for backgrounds, but it's nothing a good, sound blow to the head won't fix.
It is possible to make a good comic with limited artwork, but it's not easy and your writing better be damn good. The beauty of sequential art lies partially in the fact that good writing can save less-than-perfect artwork.
However, all the brilliant artwork in the world won't fix a badly-written comic and most people seem to be unware of that. I've seen excellent artwork ruined completely by poor, stilted writing. This stubborn refusal to admit that maybe, just maybe, giving the task of writing to someone else will be better than painfully extracting every word out of your keyboard, as if pulling rotten teeth, only to find that people's eyes glaze over the second they glance over your bloated word balloons.
I digress.
Fillers are annoying and another facet of Sloth, but they're much more excusable – sometimes you really don't have the time. (Hint to people who put up a lot of filler and aren't crippled by an illness: buffer.)
Don't copy+paste. Don't try to cut corners. For the love of god, unless you're positive that you can make a sprite comic something other than eye-bleedingly bad and hideously misguided, do not use sprites.
And seriously, don't use GIS. That's what Buckley does. You don't want to be like Buckley, do you?
Wrath
Very simple sin to fall into: starting feuds with someone. Mostly “just because”. Just because they're more popular than you. Just because they didn't link to you, reply to your emails or some other shit. I'm not quite sure if author feuds are as popular as they once were, so I'll instead mention the wrathful fans of many comics.
Oh yes. We've all seen it, right on this blog. The people who just cannot accept that their beloved comic is shit or, hell, even less than absolutely perfect in every single way. And if you dare to pour some chlorine into the infested pool of webcomics, they shall rally like piranhas and attack with brilliant methods such as sucking up to the webcomic's author even harder, commenting with poorly-thought-out walls of text and yelling pathetic insults into the ether.
But that's fanbases for you, I guess. The old joke about committees applies here.
Envy
This one, oddly enough, does not get much mileage. What we get is the exact opposite – people trying to sycophant by saying things like “I'm so jealous of your talent, I draw so badly compared to you!” Except, you know, with poorer spelling and more Internet slang. It is the beating heart of the Culture of Nice, the knowledge that if you give enough handjobs, someone will finally reach for your metaphorical, sweaty and STD-ridden penis and give it a good hard rubbing. And then maybe you wouldn't be so alone.
It's not real jealousy – it's empty words thrown around like bait, seeing if someone will rise to it and shower you with happy-clappy, fingers-in-ears, strained praise that will further cement your fate as a bad artist, bad writer and your comic's fate as the pefect candidate for our blog.
Sometimes, one does come across people who are eaten up by jealousy to the extent that they steal art and put their own name on it. Those people are known as “veritable goldmines of drama” and my day feels brighter every time I stumble across one of them.
Pride
Finally, we come to the mother of all Webcomic Sins – the one that will forever hang like a noose around anyone who succumbs to it. Pride is personified as the knowledge that you are the best, the very best and even your shit smells of roses and cinnamon.
It is a death knell for all talent. Anyone infected will be stuck in a rut, rehashing their old style and never adding a molecule of experimentation, never improving because the fans like it or because they believe that their webcomic was whispered to them by some god or other and to change even one little thing about it would be a sin.
The first step to shedding the other sins is to shed the pride. Sadly, that requires deflating your ego and not listening to fans quite so much and that seems to be an impossibility. Just look at what Shortpacked! turned into.
293 comments:
1 – 200 of 293 Newer› Newest»- umm, can you like, name some more examples of comics that are guilty of lust, please?
- I'm not sure what I dislike more - when webcomics threaten to end or take a hiatus when they don't reach a money goal (though I haven't seen this in a while), or the mentioned use of filler when no new strip can be created. The former is just a silly thing for an amateur cartoonist to do, especially when there are classier ways to ask for donations. Also, it always gives me the sense that donations are not coming in for a reason, and the artist/writer/whatever simply doesn't want to admit there might be a problem. The latter has had more excuses and apologies written for it than I would care to admit. MT is the worst offender, with its fans constantly claiming that the comic is now meant for manga format, and that we should be so lucky to still read it for free, albeit at a slower pace. Considering it started out as a webcomic, and is still being published as one in at least some form, that's just BS. I would tell Piro that he either needs to focus on making a retail product, or a webcomic, and if he wanted me to shell out money then I would expect all his efforts to be poured into that endeavor. Unfortunately he has the type of fans that don't know how to vote with their wallets. Probably because they don't have wallets but allowance.
- Very nice. As much as I enjoy the vitriolic attacks on individual webcomics (and the hilarious drama that ensuse), it's good to see more general commentary on the site. Oh, Shortpacked. A combination of Pride and Gluttony. When he started the latest angst-ridden arc, he went on a little tangent in his update that, along with the For Better or For Worse strip and Batman Does DDR, it was the original Drama Tag story got him the most hits. Which proved that people really do like stories best! (Because all those hits were people responding positively to the storyline, and not people gawking at the horrible trainwreck.) I'll give him credit for trying to keep things fairly lighthearted during the flashback arc, at least, as awkward as it was.
- I wish Shortpacked would just be Batman jokes, all the time. ;_; Not bad commentary, though, Lilith Ester. (Ha, see how I didn't call you John Solomon?) You're way funnier than Ted David.
- This is probably my favourite entry in this blog. Good job, Lilith.
- I agree with everything you say: yes, if the art is terrible, the plotlines are rehashed and the characters are wafer-thin then usually it's not worth reading, but if you want a 5-second diversion from your day and have Adblock enabled so you don't have to make the author money, even Ctrl+Alt+Del or The Wotch is worth reading once. I wouldn't defend these webcomics because your technical criticisms are very true, but can't you just leave the mediocre ones alone? So I can have ten seconds of mild amusement once a week?
- umm, can you like, name some more examples of comics that are guilty of lust, please? It's the internet. You should be capable of finding your own wank material.
- Sometimes, one does come across people who are eaten up by jealousy to the extent that they steal art and put their own name on it. Those people are known as “veritable goldmines of drama” and my day feels brighter every time I stumble across one of them. I read this as "Goldman" at first.
- I remember the first time I saw "*Title of Comic* Is now in print! Go buy it!" I was dumb struck. The concept of buying something I can read for free was really lost on me. It's still lost on me.
- I remember the first time I saw "*Title of Comic* Is now in print! Go buy it!" I was dumb struck. The concept of buying something I can read for free was really lost on me. It's still lost on me. Well, sometimes I can understand. I actually prefer reading print media to things on the internet that I have to scroll through the archives through, and it's easier just to pull a book of the shelf to find a comic than go looking through a million years of archives. I have all the Penny Arcade books, which also include a lot of new things, like new commentaries and bonus artwork, and I enjoy them a lot. It's fine if the webcomic is good and they want to print it, some people like having it on their shelf. And I don't mind giving them money -- it's like Lilith said, there's a difference between being a trying to make a living off your work, or being a money-grubbing douchebag. But if a webcomic is bad and it's in print, it should be burned like Beatle's albums in the sixties.
- I read this as "Goldman" at first. Well aren't you a goony goon. To be honest, Goldman is a perfect example of what I mentioned, but he isn't a webcomic creator.
- What's the story with Jesslyn Stormheart?
- But I like spherical tits. I think more webcomics should have spherical tits.
- I HAVE SPHERICAL TITS ALL YOU NEED IS TO ACHIEVE MY GIRTH AND YOU CAN HAVE THEM TOO
- > The Wotch is worth reading once. Is it possible to write a falser sentence?
- Is it possible to write a falser sentence? The Wotch is word reading twice.
- Touché.
- I KNOW YOUR REAL NAME, JOHN SOLOMON. OR SHOULD I SAY... JOHN LENNON.
- ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE (NOT WEBCOMICS)
- What's the story with Jesslyn Stormheart? "Spidey-sense... tingling! Someone is about to call my shitty webcomic out! Tim to hide!" I assume so, anyway. If it truly has disappeared forever, we'll call it a pre-emptive victory.
- Is that Squidi guy still around? Who remembers all that copyright nonsense he tried to start a few years ago? That was kind of like a wrath-greed-pride thing all rolled up into a single ball of awful. Or can there just be an eighth deadly sin called "Insanity."
- Ah, I see Anon, as I have rebought DvDs for the sake of extra content and commentary, before I just learned to wait a year before buying.
- Usual lurker, second time posting. I know you probably don't do requests, but, I wonder if you ever read "The MintWhelp Saga"? Apparently, the author of that comic believes he's so bad he's good, or some other shit like that.
- Do you warn people before you bash them on here?
- No, we don't. Occasionally we'll link to them in forum posts or whatever and mention that their arse is on the line, but we do that in forums we know they don't frequent. I think he just saw the link referral from SA Forums and freaked.
- Of course not, half the fun is their indignant spluttering as they scurry to prove how little they care about what people think of them. If they had warning, they might have time to prepare themselves to not make the delightful foot-in-mouth statements we've all come to know and love.
- Even though he's just a pretty shitty reviewer and probably never drew a straight line in his life, Robert A. "Tangents" Howard is guilty as hell of this. Actually, like Websnark, he did create a comic at one time--it's just been wiped from the face of the internet because it was apparently that bad (by his own admission). Not that that invalidates the rest of the statement; it may not have involved actual straight lines. And it's so nice to find someone else who has the same views on copy and paste. I was getting so tired of "professional" webcomickers making excuses about how even the "professional" comic makers frequently use copy and paste because it saves time, money, etc., and that the only way to make it in the "professional" world was to use shortcuts. Define "professional" as you will. Thanks, Lilith.
- I don't think Jesslyn Stormheart is dead. Brian Rich, the cartoonist, left the following message on the shoutbox just yesterday: I'll try to have the next update on Friday but it might be Monday before I'm able. Doesn't sound like he's thrown in the towel. But that still leaves the question of where the actual comics are. (Never saw that comic before, so don't ask me.)
- Lilith is a man. I know this for a fact. The only thing he has in common with a woman is that he is severely on the rag. You can tell by the bitchiness and shrill whine of his blog entries.
- The only thing he has in common with a woman is that he is severely on the rag. You can tell by the bitchiness and shrill whine of his blog entries. BAWWWWW!
- Hey "Lilith is a man," if you're going to be a misogynist, then be up front about it. None of this "I'm too afraid to insult her for being a woman so I'll call her an effeminate man" shit. You remind me of people who go around saying, "Israel causes all the problems in the world...the Jewish lobby runs the US government...OH BUT I"M NOT ANTI-SEMITIC." Fucking coward.
- Where did I miss the newsflash about the validity of one's opinions depending on gender?
- Lilith, I'm so jealous of your talent, you write so much better than me!
- I love it how the self-proclaimed trolls get out-trolled. Then their sputtering little peon followers feebly rush to their aid. Grabbing the popcorn for this.
- Then their sputtering little peon followers feebly rush to their aid. Not like you, right?
- The playground defense just shows how desperate and sputtering you are. You might as well be saying "I know you are but what am I, I know you are but what am I". LMAO
- Don't you read Shredded Moose? Women are not allowed to have opinions, they're just there to satisfy our sexual desires.
- You still haven't answered Lilith's question: Where did I miss the newsflash about the validity of one's opinions depending on gender? If you can't give an intelligent answer to that, then no more playing on the computer today, junior, until your homework is done. It's a school night.
- Where did I miss the newsflash about the validity of one's opinions depending on gender? Last night. It was on CNN. Jesus, Lilith, 'the fuck's your problem? This post actually made me laugh quite a lot, though that shouldn't come as a surprise. The way you worded things made for an easy, enjoyable read.
- The playground defense just shows how desperate and sputtering you are. You might as well be saying "I know you are but what am I, I know you are but what am I". LMAO Vut in the end, doesn't it read and sound better if it is just a bunch of gibberish shit vaguely disguised as language...? ... oh, wait.
- It really has nothing to do with gender. I could care less. Point 1: She writes like a man and probably is a man. Point 2: He, she or it is a whiny little bitch, gender irrelevant. Point 3: I could give a rat's ass who you think is a misogynist. A-BLOO-BLOO-BLOO!
- Oh no! You brought out the A BLOO BLOO BLOO! What a brilliant argument. You win this debate for sure.
- I plan on using Wrath on Teracciano. He's coming to Houston for OniCon, and if he's in a panel, I plan to bring up your review. If it's okay with you, that is.
- So, working backwards: THE BROKEN MIRROR - Pride KISMETROPOLIS - Pride, Envy, Sloth, Greed ABSTRACT GENDER - Lust, Sloth HOOKIE DOOKIE PANIC - Lust, Wrath, Sloth SHREDDED MOOSE - Lust, Wrath, Pride, Greed POWER CHORD - Sloth DUELING ANALOGS - Lust, Sloth WEIRD COMIX - Pride, Gluttony, Greed TITUS AND MAL - Envy, Wrath, Sloth THE WOTCH - Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Pride COLLEGE ROOMIES FROM HELL! - Greed, Gluttony, Pride, Envy, Sloth VG CATS - Sloth, Wrath, Greed SLUGGY FREELANCE - Pride HALF-MASKED - Sloth, Lust BOB AND GEORGE - Sloth CARTRIDGE COMICS - Sloth PVP - Sloth, Greed USER FRIENDLY - Sloth, Greed LOWROAD - Lust EL GOONISH SHIVE - you know, none of them really quite fit? Maybe Pride, I dunno, but... TANGENTS - Envy, Envy, Envy, Envy, and Envy MINIMUM SECURITY - Pride SHORTPACKED! - Pride, Greed PASTEL DEFENDER HELIOTROPE - Pride, Sloth, Wrath SINGLE ASIAN FEMALE - Sloth, Wrath CTRL+ALT+DEL - Sloth, Wrath, Greed, Gluttony, Pride, Lust DOMINIC DEEGAN - Sloth, Wrath, Pride, Envy, Greed, Gluttony, Lust And if it shocks anybody that Dominic Deegan was the only comic to go seven for seven, should they really be shocked?
- Copy and paste is never professional and always avoidable. Whatever you think of the rest of the comic, these two strips from Penny and Aggie illustrate the alternative: http://www.pennyandaggie.com/index.php?p=262 http://www.pennyandaggie.com/index.php?p=263 Penny has the same expression through both of them, but if you look closely, you can tell that each panel was drawn separately. No copy and pasting, just the skill to redraw the character and have it look the same, but not jarringly identical.
- I plan on using Wrath on Teracciano. He's coming to Houston for OniCon, and if he's in a panel, I plan to bring up your review. If it's okay with you, that is. Just be careful that the TORSA(Terracciano's Orc Rape Support Army) doesn't catch you. If they are brain damaged enough to cosplay as characters from such a story, imagine what the horrors they could inflict upon you. Where did I miss the newsflash about the validity of one's opinions depending on gender? Oh, is that a trick question?(I'm sorry; I couldn't help it)
- Hmmm. I see this blog is starting to cave in on itself as the trolls are feeding on the trolls. It's out of control! I'm amused.
- Man what the fuck
- Don't cry, John Solomon. (pat-pat) Go eat your icecreams and you'll feel all betters.
- Maybe it's time, John, to just start deleting the comments that consist of nothing more than "LAWL ur totally sucking john's dick" or "LAWL these blog peeps r a bunch of trolls" or any other witless, intelligence-lacking ad hominem that has been made a zillion times over and adds absolutely zero to the conversation. Seriously, it's not funny anymore. While no one here should be afraid of a good argument, people who can't at least pepper their criticisms of YWiB with some reasoning or wit should not be allowed to clutter up this blog with random homophobic or playground insults.
- I completely agree with what Glyph says. Here-here.
- This is totally off-topic, but I love to see a string of anonymous' who have clearly opposing views. It's like reading the writings of a schizophrenic monkey. Ballooooooon tits. I think this is symptomatic of the porno disease: "The only tits I've seen are fake ones! That must be what all breasts look like!"
- Skipped this one when I didn't see "John Solomon".
- I really don't care about The Wotch; not a fan, don't really hate it. But I do occasionally interact with Anne Onymous on another forum, and she never really struck me as greedy. A bit prideful, I guess, but not greedy. That said, really good article, Lilith. It really applies to any kind of writing. Especially Pride; there are few things that annoy readers more than people that think their horrible books, movies, comics, etc are God's Gift to the medium. Chris Paolini, I'm looking your way.
- Real Envy is rarely(if ever) spoken or written about. It's a shame, though. Yes, deadly sin and all, but being jealous or even truly envious of someone else's craft usually fuels a person desire to further improve him/herself. I'm sorry if this comment comes off as redundant. I guess all in all, and despite this cynic façade, I am a hopeless optimist. As for what glyph says, I don't know. Won't deleting comments prove exactly squat? Eventually they'll get over themselves. As I've said before, I do my job preemptively expecting somebody to call me an asshole, prick, dipshit, etcetera ad nauseam. And this is from people at a few feet distance from me. Why would I be bothered because I'm being called names by a bunch of tap-dancing non-entities? Oh, that's right: I'M NOT.
- Very strange - Lilith has actually written something constructive instead of completely destroying a webcomic. Well - it's not strange in itself but strange in the case of this blog - you guys (and girls) are getting too soft.
- Don't cry, John Solomon. (pat-pat) Go eat your icecreams and you'll feel all betters. EXCUSE ME MEANWHILST I FURTIVELY TAKE COCAINES
- Why would I be bothered because I'm being called names by a bunch of tap-dancing non-entities? Oh, that's right: I'M NOT. Thank heavens that John, Lilith and co. would never stoop to name-calling. They have too much integrity for that and so should the commenters!
- asila: If you love Anonymous chains, visit 4chan.
- Real Envy is rarely(if ever) spoken or written about. It's a shame, though. Yes, deadly sin and all, but being jealous or even truly envious of someone else's craft usually fuels a person desire to further improve him/herself. Doesn't Envy (in the 'deadly sin' sense) typically also encompass schadenfreude at the failing of others? Plenty of that in the world of webcomics.
- No. Envy inspires people to write hate blogs because they don't have the ability, themselves, to produce comics even up to the standards of the crappy ones they review. BINGO-BINGO! I win.
- Wait I thought I was Josh Lesnick but now I have no talent? So many conspiracy theories, all so different, all so incorrect.
- It really has nothing to do with gender. I could care less. If you openly admit that your theories about the author's gender are irrelevant and that furthermore, the author's gender does not interest you in the least... ...then why the hell are you bringing it up?
- Biblical Sins? Are the Elders of Zion soon going to start the true smiting of webcomics, not with harsh words but with sharper things like knives and bullets and boiled eggs? That was stupid, sorry. I'm a moron. Anyway, onto another matter I've been meaning to ask although it's probably been asked before and I just missed it because of the reason stated above. I guess you guys have a list, since a semblance of schedule has risen since this furious pit of furious ...fury... was spawned, but I wonder how tenative of a schedule it is. Like, if someone brings up another comic (in such a way that isn't total 'review this now or you will never see my precious readership again >:C') that is unfathomably more horrible than the next one in line, will it jump to the front of the line? Though I guess it was somewhat depend on how much research would need to be done, but that bring up another question, being just about how much time do you all devote to researching these travesties in internet form before ripping them apart like insert generic shark simile here? Yes, this is just a miserable attempt at being constructive to the comment conversations. It probably won't work. Oh well. hwhjbeua
- I'll leave you guessing.
- then why the hell are you bringing it up? Because finding out the truth brings him ONE STEP CLOSER TO FINDING OUR TRUE IDENTITIES AND BRINGING ABOUT HOLY JUSTICE UPON THOSE WHO WOULD DARE TALK ILL OF THE BELOVED CREATRIX
- Nyarlathotep : Get someone to video that stuff at ONI con. The Hookie Dookie Panic guy is a guest of honor at Another Anime Convention in New Hampshire. I'm gonna see I can get off work at that time and drive down to ask what he has to say about the review of his crap.
- ...then why the hell are you bringing it up? If I had to guess, I'd say it's because they didn't actually think their attempt at an insult all the way through. There's a real shocker!
- Wow. I saw the title and thought you were going to do a review of Sins, which admittedly has its faults, but I dunno if it's on the scale of some of the titans on this blog. At any rate, it's a fun little retrospective, and an interesting idea for a theme (I remember some collection called The Seven Deadly Sins of Science Fiction, with a story to represent each sin). And the English major in me likes comparing your writing style to the others. It's a little like a rapier among broadswords.
- I thought it was a review of Sins, too XD That comic sucks.
- Goblins is perhaps the most guilty webcomic I have ever encountered for the sin of greed. Before you actually view the comic, you must scroll past a bar of ads for Goblin merchandise, a PayPal donate button, and another ad for a book (you also encounter another ad for the book and various banner ads under the comic). Not to mention the entire Tempts Fate thing, basically a character who lives or dies based on the level of donations.
- JOHN SOLOMON IS WARREN ELLIS you heard it here first or possibly Garth Ennis one of the British people, anyway but not Benny Hill because Benny Hill is dead OR IS HE
- "Chris Paolini, I'm looking your way." Paolini's first novel is essentially a high-fantasy conversion of Star Wars IV: A New Hope, and when he's called on it, he mentions that other writers crib ideas too. This is true, to an extent. But then he has the brass-balled audacity to comment that he's heard Tolkien based The Lord of the Rings on the Nibelungen. Which just goes to show that he's never read The Lord of the Rings, the Nibelungen, or both. And people still love his "work." I hate that kid so much, you have no idea.
- Not to mention the entire Tempts Fate thing, basically a character who lives or dies based on the level of donations. Wow. And people thought the 900 number to decide Jason Todd's fate was in bad taste. Actually, this reminds me of Oral Roberts's infamous plea for donations of $8 million or "the Lord will call me home."
- Paolini's first novel is essentially a high-fantasy conversion of Star Wars IV: A New Hope, and when he's called on it, he mentions that other writers crib ideas too. Yes, us writers do tend to borrow here and there. We use archetype and convention to build our narrative structures. But we stick to method, rather than just replacing "X-Wing" with "Dragon" and calling it a day.
- My comic about the famed 17th-century pirate Captain Dirk and his elven first mate will disprove Solomon's theories about "originality."
- I dunno, Ozark; I kinda like it. Pip's improved the art in his comic quite a bit since the beginning, and even if he does pander to the fanservice people and his forum is a den of munchkins, he's friendly to people and does actually sit down and plan out his comic, which is more than I can say for myself. (The number of times I've done my comic late Sunday night/early Monday morning is probably inexcusable.)
- About the whole "Lilith is a man" thing... according to the Gender Genie, she does at least write like one! (It says I do too, though. Huh.)
- "Chris Paolini, I'm looking your way." Paolini's first novel is essentially a high-fantasy conversion of Star Wars IV: A New Hope, and when he's called on it, he mentions that other writers crib ideas too. This is true, to an extent. But then he has the brass-balled audacity to comment that he's heard Tolkien based The Lord of the Rings on the Nibelungen. Which just goes to show that he's never read The Lord of the Rings, the Nibelungen, or both. And people still love his "work." I hate that kid so much, you have no idea. Haha, wow. I didn't think people would bring Paolini up on a terrible webcomic review blog, but damn, it's fitting isn't it? His work sucks, and his fans are exactly like these terrible webcomic fanshippers. It's kind of scary in a way, but then I remember that idiocy knows no bounds.
- Hey, Check out today's Dominic-Deegan! They're treating that guy with a lobster claw like a credible threat, and it's every bit as hilarious as John predicted.
- "Haha, wow. I didn't think people would bring Paolini up on a terrible webcomic review blog, but damn, it's fitting isn't it?" It fits, yes. Snugly as a strait-jacket.
- "About the whole "Lilith is a man" thing... according to the Gender Genie, she does at least write like one!" Thats probably because she used the word "the" too much. According to Gender Genie it's a very manly word. Unlike the word "and" of course. AROUND AROUND AROUND AROUND AROUND AROUND AROUND AROUND. I just wanted everyone to know how macho I am.
- About the whole "Lilith is a man" thing... according to the Gender Genie, she does at least write like one! (It says I do too, though. Huh.) Yep. Me, too, and I'm pretty damn sure I'm female. I double-checked and everything. Writing style doesn't really count for a damn when determining someone's gender over the internet. It's not like it even matters. No one's accused any of the other reviewers on this blog, who all identify themselves with male pseudonyms, of being women, so why should Lilith be called a man? Anyone who seriously makes a remark like that obviously has some issues with women. Like, what, a woman is incapable of writing direct, incisive critical commentary? Give me a fucking break. Thanks for that link, by the way. I saw it years ago but lost it in the shuffle.
- This was a nice change from dancing down the merry lane of human failure that is normally put on show in this blog, if only because it puts up a fairly decent reasoning of why certain webcomics are reviled and breaks them down succinctly. Also I'm throwing my vote in for Solomon being Benny Hill who faked his own death, in the hope that if his identity is discovered we get a chase with some yakkity sax. I do so love yakkity sax.
- yesterday's dominic deegan - best best thing ever ever?
- John Solomon is really JDR. If any comment deserves to be deleted, it's this one.
- Diana: Some years ago, when I was involved in a quasi-RPG in a yahoo group, one of the other members confided in our moderator that he thought I was a girl, because, he said, "only girls write long posts." Being a guy, I got a pretty good laugh out of this, as did the mod. Ever since then, I haven't put much stock in the idea that you can use writing style to determine the writer's gender.
- baron: Those black things hanging from the shitty character in black's belt kind of look like little black longcats (or tacgnol if you prefer).
- Hmmm. Apparently Gender Genie insists that I'm overwhelmingly male as well. Seriously, the 'male' and 'female' words are kinda weird. I wonder who decided that?
- I think the theory is based on some texts that were analyzed back in the day, like before-internets time. Which is funny, because now that we have a javascript page that can analyze our own writings, it's kind of obsolete - the line between genders has gotten thinner over generations, what with it being more acceptable for us girls to be seen in broad daylight. We've probably grasped it from somewhere else too. I mean, hell, my favorite writer is Hemingway. It probably affects something in my writing.
- yesterday's dominic deegan - best best thing ever ever? So... What the fuck happened in the last panel?
- the last panel revealed lord danovich's real motivation for throwing his wife out of the house: an undisturbed day of s&m with his secret gay lover
- @ Namiya Envy, though, in the sense of the sin, would be the destructive, covetous, grasping sort; the simmering resentment and sense of entitlement. When one takes one's envy and uses it to fuel one's own self-improvement, then it's the much healthier "admiration." Yes, yes, semantic and didactic nonsense, I know. I think the distinction stands, though.
- "Wow. I saw the title and thought you were going to do a review of Sins, which admittedly has its faults, but I dunno if it's on the scale of some of the titans on this blog." I clicked onto the link for that comic, and the art certainly looked shitty enough to be on this site. Then I went to the cast page and read this: Sin: Lust Vice: None, Lust is an Original Sin Host: Perrin, Rhett, Aska, Harmond, Baxter Special Abilities: Able to transform possessed humans into a female form That is practically the definition of the comics this blog reviews.
- I recognize the artwork. The guy did guest strips for Abstract Gender and apparently links to half of The Wotch's shitty little comics community as well. I haven't even read an actual page yet and it's already not looking too good as a candidate for something that will not appear on this blog.
- I'm probably biased from being friendly with the guy who does the comic. And the Gender Genie says I'm barely male, by a score of 2055 to 2085. This is just not my day.
- That Gender Genie thing is utterly fucking useless. I'm male, and an aspiring writer, and I tested multiple different paragraphs from stories I had written, as well as journal entries. Apparently, I write like a girl, for the most part. What really made me laugh was that, on one of the few occasions I apparently wrote like a male, it was a paragraph written from a female character's point of view.
- Thank you both, Tehkou and Rumpelstiltzkin. I am healthily jealous of your discerning wits. I seldom look for the ill-fate of other people, so I normally don't have much use for such a word. That does not excuse the fact that I should whoop my damn English skills back into shape. Then again, when you're knee-deep in work on a country like Japan(or Sweden; though Swedish is remarkably less difficult than Japanese), it's really hard to concentrate in further developing your English... My constant brushes with Engrish are not something anyone should grow accustomed to(neither is the slight racism, but I'll leave that for later).
- This post has been removed by the author.
- Wow, nice attack and criticisms on webcomics. Personally I don't like Webcomics and Ill rather prefer either a strand of business ventures, political comics, the media and traditional animation. True to the word about the pride, Wrath, Envy, Gluttony and Especially the sloth bit, happens every time when there are really bad influences amongst the web like the fanboys and other bad people.
- You should write this blog entry into a pamphlet and hand it out in comic/anime conventions. Seriously.
- umm, can you like, name some more examples of comics that are guilty of lust, please? Sexy Losers.
- Speaking of CAD's corner cutting, I've noticed that he's gone from drawing his backgrounds, to GISing his backgrounds and applying a vectorizing filter to it (so someone with zero knowledge of anything artistic might be fooled into thinking it was hand drawn), to GISing his backgrounds and applying a gaussian blur. He's too fucking lazy to apply a certain filter that almost looks like drawing. Buckley is the most specialest of all the snowflakes.
- I'll disagree with you on one point, Lilith -- envy as you describe it happens a lot in the animu comic circles. Lots of gluttony, too, but that's a far second. Since those circles are generally pretty incestuous and filled with complete unknowns who draw three pages of a comic before quitting, you may not have seen much of it. It's more obvious among animu illustrators since most of them are too lazy to even start comics in the first place. (See DeviantArt.) Good article. Question for anyone who feels like voicing an opinion: Is it better to abandon a bad webcomic as soon as you realize it's utter crap, or to severely shorten it so that when you eventually end it, whoever's reading can get a bit of closure. ...I figure the length of time said comic's been running would factor into this, but maybe not.
- I noticed that the bloggers can dish out the criticism but they sure can't take it. I see that they are getting their feelings hurt and some of the recent critical posts are disappearing. I'll time how long it takes them to delete this one just for calling them out on it lol.
- I noticed that the bloggers can dish out the criticism but they sure can't take it. I see that they are getting their feelings hurt and some of the recent critical posts are disappearing. Dude. Maybe it's not that they can't take criticism or are feeling hurt. Maybe it's just that they're bored with all the thirteen-year-old boys leaving repeated content-less "criticisms" that consist entirely of "you're gay" or "you're Hitler" or "you're {insert overused Internet cliche here}." Maybe they'd prefer some criticism that actually responds to the arguments they've made. BTW, can you provide examples of recent posts that have been deleted? 'Cause I'm seeing all the same ones that have been here over the last 48 hours till now.
- Comment deleted This post has been removed by the author. 04 October 2007 05:46 removed by the author. removed by the author. removed by the author.
- Dumbass, that means the author of the comment removed it him- or herself. If it were otherwise it would read either "deleted by the administrator," or no longer be there at all. 'Cause that's how Blogger works, you know.
- I noticed that the bloggers can dish out the criticism but they sure can't take it. I see that they are getting their feelings hurt and some of the recent critical posts are disappearing. I'll time how long it takes them to delete this one just for calling them out on it lol. OH BOY, DID YOU HIT THE NAIL ON THE HEAD WITH THAT ONE. You're too smart for your own good, I swear. ... Okay enough with the fucking sarcasm. None of the posts that are being deleted are critical in any way, shape, or form. They are the same assholes who spam with stupid shit like, "REVIEW BLAHBLAHBLAH ITS SUCH SHIT," or "REVIEW MYYY WEBCOMIC," or just "UR GAY LOLOL." I wouldn't be surprised if your post was deleted just because it was fucking retarded, really.
- I've never denied that I delete comments, but like I've said before, I just delete the worthless ones. If I deleted every trolling comment, this blog would hardly have any comments at all. If you post spam or if you post the same stupid thing over and over again - I'll delete your comment. We don't need five hundred comments that just go "HURRRRRR LILTH IS A MAN". We get it, you're a fucking shut in, but you've stated it more than once already and we can do without it punctuating the comments page the way telegrams have "STOP". I never saw anyone complaining I was stamping down on free speech when I was deleting the VG Cats spamfest. Although possibly because I deleted it too.
- Anonymous said... "Hey "Lilith is a man," if you're going to be a misogynist, then be up front about it. None of this "I'm too afraid to insult her for being a woman so I'll call her an effeminate man" shit. You remind me of people who go around saying, "Israel causes all the problems in the world...the Jewish lobby runs the US government...OH BUT I"M NOT ANTI-SEMITIC. Fucking coward." I thought this was funny as hell...subject matter aside, how can someone signed in as "anonymous" call someone else a "coward"?
- Is it better to abandon a bad webcomic as soon as you realize it's utter crap, or to severely shorten it so that when you eventually end it, whoever's reading can get a bit of closure. ...I figure the length of time said comic's been running would factor into this, but maybe not. Why do you care? If you don't like the comic then don't read it you silly fool. The only thing that can truly kill a webcomic is indifference. When no one is visiting then the writer has to come to terms with the fact that their work isn't worth a click of the mouse. Blogs like this draw more attention to these comics and gives them a false sense of popularity. "Wow, look at all my hits. I'm fabulous! I'm famous!" Every comic reviewed here will permanently become more popular.
- It's funny that someone who signs as "voice of reason" would completely misread the post and start bitching. Alright, with extra italics for those who didn't read it or missed the point the first time— "Is it better, as the comic's creator, to abandon a comic once you realize it's crap, or to try and provide some semblance of an ending so your readers can get some closure?"
- I'd say abandon it outright. If your webcomic is a mistake, then continuing it is just going to be a bigger mistake. Besides, if your webcomic is bad then your readers will just move on to the next bad webcomic. They won't care about the ending since they don't have any discerning taste.
- Every comic reviewed here will permanently become more popular. Hahaha.
- Sorry for the deletion of my first comment, but simply there is no way I could edit comments on a blog like this. So whoever is saying "comment deleted" OH IT IS REMOVED BY THE AUTHOR I MUST MAKE DRAMA. god dangnit too much drama made by utter idiots sometimes just for ONE DAMN EDIT.
- Just gotta say this blog rules. Keep it up, gentlemen and ladies.
- Dumbass, that means the author of the comment removed it him- or herself. If it were otherwise it would read either "deleted by the administrator," or no longer be there at all. 'Cause that's how Blogger works, you know. Sorry, different anon -- I was trying to make the same point to anonymous 13:21, that it's the commenters deleting their own comments.
- Actually, the comments I noticed that were deleted were a couple that said how much this blog sucks. I saw them and now they are gone. There are probably more posts that have been axed. And John Solomon has admitted that he deletes stuff at times when it doesn't agree with him. So the moral to the story is that you can say a comic sucks but don't you dare say that the blog sucks. And yes, this is an anonymous arguing with another anonymous and that is HI-larious.
- Was that the twentieth post calling Lilith a man, or was it the guy spamming the same Broken Mirror jokes that have already been told dozens of times by now? Fuck you Solomon, for depriving us of such insightful and meaningful remarks.
- God, yes, I'm always deleting comments about how much this blog sucks. That's why you never see anyone say that. Ever.
- I think you missed something in Envy, Lilith. What about the cartoonists being envious of other cartoonists? The best example I can think of is CAD being envious of PA. Buckley clearly wants to have the same respect and recognition of Gabe and Tycho. he even started his own, failed, charity, because he wanted to be them instead of being a supporter of Child's Play. There's also Kurtz who wants to be a print comic in the worst way. He's submitted his comic to numerous newspapers, only to be shot down 99.9% of the time (one paper picked him up for like 2 weeks then dropped him). He used to consistently bemoan the internet as his medium and wish he was in print.
- Actually, I skip the boring and whiny reviews and go straight for the comment section. That's where I get my entertainment.
- Oh by the way, since I haven't seen in the last three (this one included) comments sections... WEN R U GONNA REVEW MEGATOKYO, JOHN?!
- you should really gain some female friends before trying to write a female character. Unfortunately this sets up creators to say, "WELL MY FEMALE FRIEND SAID SHE DIDN'T FIND IT OFFENSIVE ERGO IT ISN'T".
- Anyways, Solomon. Have you done a damn review on the press start to play webcomic? I haven't seen a review done on it yet. It would be an enjoyment to see you criticize that for the entertainment. I just hope also for an option in a blog to remove anonymous reviewers... god some of them are a pain!
- Ah, yes, Buckley's penis envy of Tycho and Gabe. I think my brain blocked out all memories of that shitstorm.
- Press Start to Play hasn't updated in months so there's probably no point.
- Press Start to Play hasn't updated in months so there's probably no point. I thought they did, but again, I concentrate too much on things like http://cagle.msnbc.com/, forums and mostly work, It just seems so damn confusing.
- Unfortunately this sets up creators to say, "WELL MY FEMALE FRIEND SAID SHE DIDN'T FIND IT OFFENSIVE ERGO IT ISN'T". Yeah, there's plenty of misogynistic women out there. And stupid women. And women so lonely and eager for acceptance by/dominance over nerd groups that they'll basically say anything if it will let them remain "the cool chick." Men knowing "enabler" women like this tends is probably more often the cause of this sort of behavior than just not knowing any women at all.
- Would the IMO STEEL UR READERZ!!! people that burble up from time to time (usually unsuccessfully; are we only allowed to read one comic at a time ever or something? how's that work?) count as Envy, or just terribly, terribly out of touch with reality?
- I wonder if i'm the only person in the world (ZOMG *sob*) who thinks Something Positive is terrible and would pay to see someone like one of you four, whose skills are worthy of respect and encomium, give it a good rip.
- Something Positive is incredibly boring, and as far as I can tell (I can't make it through the entire archives) Mulholland's art has improved less than fucking Mookie's since he started. So much for the guy wanting to become a legitimate cartoonist. I don't really care if this blog covers it, though—just felt like ranting.
- how can someone signed in as "anonymous" call someone else a "coward"? Yeah, because it's far braver to sign one's comments under psuedonyms like "Lilith is a man" and "Dar-El", right? Unless your name really is Dar-El, in which case you have my condolences. You must miss your home world very much.
- Aaaaand Boneman is the bravest signature of all!
- Aaaaand Boneman is the bravest signature of all! You're missing the point.
- Unless your name really is Dar-El, in which case you have my condolences. You must miss your home world very much. Especially since it was destroyed in a big planetary explosion.
- I'm sure that you have all noticed that the big Sonty Mick comment hasn't been made yet. This is because I've been thinking and meditating (nonreligiously) about what I can say to this, and how I can personally enrich this environment. The people who make webcomics have no concept of what is wrong and right in how to make their comics. They are ignorant of their craft, and so that is why they fall into "sinful" patterns. Many of them have never even seen what it means to be right (correct). It takes a special kind of person to do something right. I don't have much more to say this ti,me. Sorry to let you all down, but it's all I can do to build up enough strength to say what I have already said. See you in the dust... -Sonty Mick
- I think Pride should not only apply to thinking one's own webcomic is great but also that one's knowledge of webcomics is great. For example, T Campbell, Scott Kurtz, and Kris Straub all think they're experts about webcomics when they've done nothing of value (T Campbell's comics aren't horrendously bad, but his "History" book was poorly done). So it's not just portraying one's webcomic as being awesome, it's also portraying one's "expertise" about the stuff behind the scenes.
- LOOK AT HOW FUCKING BRAVE I AM: MY NAME IS ROBERT. I'M PUTTING MY FIRST NAME ON THE INTERNET I'M A MODERN DAY CONAN.
- I'm sure that you have all noticed that the big Sonty Mick comment hasn't been made yet. Your comment makes a good point, but I'm desperately hoping this statement and your entire blog are examples of internet sarcasm. If not...ladies and gentlemen, we've got a little Pride and a whole lotta Envy to add to the comment section's usual Wrath.
- Yeah, it's sarcasm dude. :P
- I agree, by the way - seeing S*P get ripped a new one here would be all KINDS of awesome. Does the way they say "s'posed" instead of "supposed" annoy the hell out of anyone else? Even if you say it like that, it's close enough to the standard pronunciation that it's not necessary to point it out. It gives me this horrible Family Circus vibe... "I'm not s'posed to do that!"
- After reading the article again(good thing its succinctness allows for a quick read), I've come to wonder: Pride could have been a but more fleshed out. Yes, it goes straight to the point, but I guess it's not really as thorough as with the prior ones. I'm sure that you have all noticed that the big Sonty Mick comment hasn't been made yet... ... Wow. To describe my reaction to this comment as anything less than a kneejerk mirth would be an understatement. Unintentional comedy gold? Tremendous over-confidence? You be the judge!
- Do I have bad taste for liking the now defunct Sexy Losers? (I already have bad taste for finding VGCats funny.)
- mehdan said... You should write this blog entry into a pamphlet and hand it out in comic/anime conventions. Seriously. Well, they don't do conventions. Or if they did, they do them incognito. So just like you precious Megatokyo & Something Positive reviews, maybe this is something that the YWiBaYSFB fandom should take up on its' own to do. Simple as copypasta- format the blog into a trifold on 1 sheet of paper, go to Kinko's, and then distribute. Might keep some of the webcomics community from falling into these traps. Or even run a panel in honor of this blog. Other than bashing, you could instead structure it around the 7 deadly sins, the rules in Fenimore Cooper's literary offenses.. then casually drop the names of perceived violators of these rules. What these violations do to a comic to make it Bad. There are similar panels, "Your Favorite Anime Sucks", "Totally Lame Anime", etc. already. It seems the fandom isn't afraid to bash some of it's own... yet on Webcomics, okay, it seems to be all glad handing & smiles, like everyone is afraid to look like they're assaulting some creatrix's fragile self esteem. And if the focus of your literary efforts is a collection of gender-swapping furry humanoids who've all been abused as children by British role-playing gamer parents and work in a video game store- you had best develop a tough skin. In fact, if you're in any of the groups touched on in which you write about, shouldn't you have developed that tough skin in the crucible that is high school by now?
- the YWiBaYSFB fandom doesn't exist.
- I haven't seen this mentioned yet so it might be interesting for you guys to see what our good friend El said on the TWCL forums . . . "I wound him up on SA to get a review; a far better tactic than emailing asking for one. Now it's so long and thanks for all the hits. ^^" Me? Methinks she might be lying. That's just what I think.
- And how irritated am I that she mangled a Douglas Adams quote in a vain attempt to be funny? Quite irritated, thanks for asking.
- The YWiBaYSFB fandom doesn't exist? I always suspected I was a creature of myth... P.S. My word verification for this post is "diebube". LAWL.
- There's only one thing worse than being talked about... and that's being so desperate for attention that you're willing to let other people shit on you and your "art" so that more people will look at you. You're a real winner, Elbag.
- Do I have bad taste for liking the now defunct Sexy Losers? Yes... yes, you do. (But don't take it from me, I like other crappy webcomics. Just not this one. ZOMG random cursing is funny.) Also, it's not defunct, as Clay/Hard/SecretEmoMan has posted at least two new comics after he supposedly "quit".
- Not Sexy Losers, next you will be proclaiming that Ghastly's Ghastly Comic (speaking of defunct webcomics) isn't worthy of regard! Though I have been somewhat suspicious of the claim that "fap" originated from Sexy Losers.
- The YWiBaYSFB fandom doesn't exist? I always suspected I was a creature of myth... Let's face it, this blog is unpopular and will probably no longer update by this time next year. The number of people who actually could consider themselves fans of it number in single digits. There's an anti-fandom, a hatefest if you will, but no fandom. Something built around telling existing fandoms that what they are fans of is stupid and, by extension, they are stupid isn't going to endear itself to people. Especially since the Culture of Nice rules the so-called "webcomics community". Fandom's a fucking stupid word anyway. Stop using it.
- John makes a great point. Quit being a stupid fantard. Makes you look pathetic. You've all sucked him dry and he's tired of you. Both of you.
- Even if you guys don't have a "fandom" (and I don't know why you would want it if you did), this blog is still providing a service. For every 30 fantards that see this blog and become so angry they shit themselves into the ceiling, there's at least one person reading it and seeing the shit of the internet just a little more clearly for what it is. I myself have already dumped CAD (I had to leave before I drowned in B^U B^U B^U B^U B^U B^U B^U B^U B^U B^U B^U B^U B^U B^U B^U B^U B^U B^U B^U), and am probably a few choice words and maybe some microns of thought away from hacking Better Days out of my Webcomic list. Speaking of Better Days, I wonder how many of these Sins ol' conservafag Jay Naylor is guilty of? There's Lust, obviously, as he draws canonical porn somehow, then Greed because he sells said porn. ...Er... well, he's probably guilty of some of the other ones, but these fan-o-vision goggles are being really hard to get off. I may require assistance with outside opinions. Or maybe some butter or something, I don't know. zgqyxbl
- John makes a great point. Quit being a stupid fantard. Makes you look pathetic. You've all sucked him dry and he's tired of you. Both of you. Actually, when I said this blog would probably stop updating in a year's time, that was a conservative estimate of how much time I have left before JDR finds me and murders me in my sleep. It's inevitable.
- Now it's so long and thanks for all the hits. The "hit" argument really needs to be added to the bingo board... By the way - I am responsible for many hits on El's site - and I found her comic pathetic. Does that make her a winner? Actually, when I said this blog would probably stop updating in a year's time, that was a conservative estimate of how much time I have left before JDR finds me and murders me in my sleep. It's inevitable. Alternatively he/she/it could just send you some nude pictures of him/her/it. *shudder* - just the thought of it will probably give me nightmares.
- I'm hoping that one of these days you guys will get around to "Punks and Nerds". I think if anybody needs to be taken down a peg, it's Josh Mirman.
- This article was witty, straight forward, and almost respectful, in a John Solomon kind of way. Finally, retribution for that lame review you did of Tal and Titus. Or whatever.
- This is funny. Apparently, Lilith managed to shoot past John Solomon, and took the crown for being the most hated writer of this blog. Just look at all the comments. Is it because this post attacks bad comics in general, re-opening the wounds inflicted on already reviewed comics? Is it because the writer is female - and seeing women write things makes people scared and confused? It it because the author claims to be female, even though there are no women on the internet... Which means they must expose her as an alter-ego of John (to bring his house of glass cards crumbling down like ashes in the wind)? "The REAL sin is this stupid blog!" "Lol - oh my god! You sure burned them! That was an awesome burn! Hahaha - look at those Trolls getting Trolled - I'm gonna get POPCORN!!! Me getting Popcorn shows that you have been clearly bested!!" "Your blog sucks!!" "Haha - you're awesome - they're all cryin' n' shit now, because you told them off!"
- The only problem I have with Litith's article is the fact that she said, "He reviews everyone. And you just know he's only doing it for praise and maybe to get into someone's panties, or, since he can't afford to be picky, boxers." It's harder than it looks to get into a persons boxers. And let's face, Howard A. Tangent's "friends" don't wear boxers they wear stained whitey tidies.
- I've never left a comment here before, but I've been reading for a while and I'd like to challenge the assumption that the blog has no fanbase. I wouldn't be surprised if you guys were attracting a lot of lurkers like myself; people here not because they care about the comics or the reviews, but because they fucking love the inevitable real-life drama!!! that follows in the wake of every post. It's that same desperate hunger for shit kicking off, for people making loud arses of themselves, and for the vague sense of superiority that such spectacle fosters that keeps a lot of reality TV shows on the air and celeb expose mags on the shelves, right? As far as I can tell, there isn't another steady, reliable, three-times-a-week source of that that's a)on the internet, and b)tailored towards that particular breed of sad-eyed emotion-leech concerned with comics and other geeky pursuits, that which I shamefully find myself belonging to. I think it might be an untapped niche, you know? You guys have more in common with the transgender cartoonists than you might think! Although that does raise the issue of whether or not it's a vein that you'd be proud to tap. No matter how good it got, you'd still really be kind of like the guys videotaping angry working class people with poor relationships, shoving microphones into the faces of untalented people that enter talent contests, etc. Although, um, in this case, as you're setting off the drama yourself, I guess you'd kind of be more like the wealthy gadabout fucking poor Joe's wife raw while he works for Mr. Tudor at the mine, or the tight-vested television-face joylessly crushing every single one of the lisping red-headed only-child's dreams with your calculated lip-glossed smirk. So, uh, hmm. Depends what you're into, I guess... anyway, what I'm saying is that for every self-assured fool that sets his three-panels-worth of voluptuous hermaphrodite werewolf LARPers flying from the flagpole and rallies his forumful of deluded simpletons underneath it, there's almost always going to be at least as many of us hollow vultures hovering on the horizon, waiting for you guys to charge in and get the sweet vino flowing. It's a service demanded by many, and you're providing it free of charge. (ps. please do Megatokyo so that I can pleasure my wife again)
- Actually, when I said this blog would probably stop updating in a year's time, that was a conservative estimate of how much time I have left before JDR finds me and murders me in my sleep. It's inevitable. Can I please turn that into a comic pleaaaaaase? If only to read more hysteric posts from the kind and queen of cheese? (JDR)
- Otherwise known as "How to have successful webcomic." Get a fucking grip.
- Dar El said... how can someone signed in as "anonymous" call someone else a "coward"? Boneman said.... Yeah, because it's far braver to sign one's comments under psuedonyms like "Lilith is a man" and "Dar-El", right? Unless your name really is Dar-El, in which case you have my condolences. You must miss your home world very much. Bonewoman said... Aaaaand Boneman is the bravest signature of all! Boneman said... You're missing the point. Dear Bonewoman, since you missed his point let me explain... Boneman has two points actually. First: he was using humor to point out what he perceived to be an ironic and absurd situation and Second: only he is allowed to do so, not you or I.
- I like the foul-mouthed homophobe better. More Solomon!
- Let's face it, this blog is unpopular and will probably no longer update by this time next year. The number of people who actually could consider themselves fans of it number in single digits. There's an anti-fandom, a hatefest if you will, but no fandom. Something built around telling existing fandoms that what they are fans of is stupid and, by extension, they are stupid isn't going to endear itself to people. Especially since the Culture of Nice rules the so-called "webcomics community". Fandom's a fucking stupid word anyway. Stop using it. I would be inclined to disagree with the single-digit estimate. Perhaps only double digits if we include the people who care enough to post positively in the comments, but many of the commentators bait/debate/insult your detractors. Combining this with the four people who write some of the articles and therefore probably enjoy it, I'd say that the number of your fans easily exceeds ten... perhaps even twenty. Plus you have an article on encyclopedia dramatica, which means you obviously have an external segment of your fanatic base. I cannot say for certain, but I would rate your "fanbase" as in the low double digits at least. Is that Squidi guy still around? Who remembers all that copyright nonsense he tried to start a few years ago? That was kind of like a wrath-greed-pride thing all rolled up into a single ball of awful. Or can there just be an eighth deadly sin called "Insanity." What the hell are you talking about? Squidi emailed webcomic artist/giant "Gabe" (don't know his real name) requesting that he deal with someone on Gabe's forum using and editing his personal artwork for his own purposes without crediting him. Even if you considered it to be a stupid request, he did it privately and via email, unlike Gabe who decided to post it the front page. That's not wrath.
- Penny Arcade is by definition all 7 sins. Quite frankly I'm looking forward to the review. Lust- Gabe draws his wife a lot hotter than she is. Gluttony- They have a fucking con for Christ's sake! Greed- Site was totally run on donations for awhile. Sloth- More Copy and Paste than you can shake a stick at. Wrath- As you said the Squidi thing. Envy- Gabe is always kisses ass to his influences. Pride- They're still doing a fucking gaming comic for almost 10 years. Give it a rest. You outta put me on staff, with this handy guide making a review for any comic is hella easy.
- http://venusenvy.comicgenesis.com/ This is a pretty bad web comic. What's funny is... it actually IS a "transgender" comic, that is it is a "slice-of-life" tale about a high school age male-to-female transsexual. And it's got it all: rape, death, drugs as portrayed by someone who's never so much as read about them, bad art, donation bar, and poorly executed update schedule. As for s*p being bad, well... I see it. But the guy tells a story in a way that seems very "right" to me, and while it may not have great art, overused template jokes (you know character expresses opinion, opinion is shot down with a witty retort, or my favorite jokes about why friends are kinda more like enemies)... but I think his execution is good. I don't think he's OMG teh best webcomic evar. But he seems to know what people like -- be it good or bad, it's certainly admirable.
- The difference between readership and hits is that it's a lot easier to measure the latter than the former. You may be getting 10,000 uniques a day, but how many of them are staying? A comic's true popularity isn't measured by its traffic but by how many people will go back to it. If you're pulling 10,000 uniques a day regularly, odds are most of them are reading it. Fluctuations are one thing, but for it to stay consistent or grow means there is a core base. True, not all of them are regulars or might not have even seen the site before. But if comic A has a regular uniques of 3k and comic B has a regular uniques of 10k, clearly B has the larger fanbase. And no amount of linking, minus a permanent front page link from VG Cats or PA, is going to keep a comic with no fans that high in numbers. Sorry, but this seems more like a way for someone who finished in 10th place to still feel good about themselves. And if its about fan loyalty, then Fred "Fucking" Gallagher is a GOD! Besides, the anonymity of the internet makes all these statements hard to back up. Its impossible for any of the comics with 10,000 uniques a day plus to know all of their readers and what their thinking or why they read it. All we can do is speculate.
- When are you going to do an article about Liz Groenveld? Someone needs to let that bitch know her shit stinks, too.
- Sorcery 101 = Ass Kel McDonald = Condescending Bitch Did you know that if she comes out of Mookie's ass and see's her shadow, that mean her comic sucks even worse for another six weeks.
- Actually, when I said this blog would probably stop updating in a year's time, that was a conservative estimate of how much time I have left before JDR finds me and murders me in my sleep. Are you kidding? Tracking you down to murder you would require *effort* on her part. She'd probably try to get her housemate Steven to do it and then write another comic denouncing him as a pathetic weakling for not doing absolutely everything she demands of him.
- Not Sexy Losers, next you will be proclaiming that Ghastly's Ghastly Comic (speaking of defunct webcomics) isn't worthy of regard! Bob and George was defunct, why should that stop anyone from shitting on Sexy Losers (or that other one)? Also, SL didn't invent "fap", it came from some hentai fanlation or something.
- I have discovered the true name of Mr. John Solomon: Fuego Fish! HAHA your secret is revealed, Mr. Fish, you dirty latin cheat!
- Sorcery 101 = Ass Kel McDonald = Condescending Bitch Did you know that if she comes out of Mookie's ass and see's her shadow, that mean her comic sucks even worse for another six weeks. Oh my god! You figured out that Kelhound has shown some minor support for this blog! You're going to turn your mighty wit on Doctor McNinja next, I just know it. Then, you'll turn on other Web Comic artists that make somewhat passable comics while posting on SA. They deserve it. Many of them have spoken to "Fuego Fish" in a public forum without calling him a giant whale-donkey. With all Web Comic Authors that support the Dark Empire of Solomon brought to their knees, you'll be set to strike at the Ruler himself. ... Or maybe you're suggesting that Solomon is Kelhound. Or Lilith is Kelhound. That second one might be possible, I guess.
- You outta put me on staff, with this handy guide making a review for any comic is hella easy. No. No, they shouldn't. Why? Because you are an annoying idiot who thinks he gets it. You don't. This isn't a "Penny Arcade sucks and is bad because it's so popular and I don't think it should be!" kind of blog. John Solomon has already stated, several times, that Penny Arcade (despite the goddamn anti-fanboys that scream "Penny Arcade sucks!" from any roof-top that won't throw them off) does not count as a bad comic. This is a Bad Webcomic blog - not a "lots of people don't like this comic because it's so big - and it's pretty bland at times!" blog. Penny Arcade has decent art - art that got to a point where it really can say it has its own style. It has writing that does not suck. Despite its long history, it managed to avoid devolving into any sort of moronic drama. There are no evil organizations out to get the main characters. None of them ever mentioned a scarring rape, or parental abuse, in a tear-stained flashback. The closest it ever came to drama was a "girl goes to game tournament!" storyline, and a "zombies!!" arc. None of that stuff was all that different from the usual strips. It sticks to its formula, and it avoids sucking on cosmic levels. Yes - a writer who managed to produce ideas for comic strips for as long as he did without getting completely retarded with worthless "character building" comedy/drama/action/sci-fi hybrids counts as pretty good. We're going by web-comic standards here. It is, for all intent, competently made. Yes, people goddamn know that you think Penny Arcade is really overrated. Yes, whenever anyone mentions web-comics, someone'll scream how Penny Arcade is just awful, and needs to be "brought down a peg or two". Yes - we get it. There are just as many morons who hate Penny Arcade as there are morons who love Penny Arcade. Shut up about it. People who don't even read Penny Arcade are sick of this "lol - yeah, this is bad - almost as bad as Penny Arcade!" crap. No, Penny Arcade is not that bad. It's not a comic that has all that many moronic, cringe-worthy moments. It's not always funny, but you can't really make making fun of it funny, because it's not horrible. Your standard "yes it is bad! Penny Arcade sucks!" crap doesn't amuse anyone. Penny Arcade isn't that great, but most people trying to make fun of it for being awful are morons.
- What the hell are you talking about? Squidi emailed webcomic artist/giant "Gabe" (don't know his real name) requesting that he deal with someone on Gabe's forum using and editing his personal artwork for his own purposes without crediting him. Even if you considered it to be a stupid request, he did it privately and via email, unlike Gabe who decided to post it the front page. That's not wrath. This is true. Though Squidi did go on to depict himself pissing on one of the characters of PvP in response to being mocked in a strip. The fellow was more than capable of raging in a cage when he felt moderately slighted.
- I would pay money to see Darken get publicly tarred and feathered. The fact that the comic has been around since 2003 and has shown no artistic improvement whatsoever is astonishing. Her scribbling is an eyesore and a blight on the internet. Perfect target for this blog. What's worse is that she's another self-important bitch hanging out on forums all day. She thinks she sits high on the cat's turd. Needs to be knocked down a few pegs.
- Penny Arcade is by definition all 7 sins. Quite frankly I'm looking forward to the review. Lust- Gabe draws his wife a lot hotter than she is. Gluttony- They have a fucking con for Christ's sake! Greed- Site was totally run on donations for awhile. Sloth- More Copy and Paste than you can shake a stick at. Wrath- As you said the Squidi thing. Envy- Gabe is always kisses ass to his influences. Pride- They're still doing a fucking gaming comic for almost 10 years. Give it a rest. You outta put me on staff, with this handy guide making a review for any comic is hella easy. Buckley, you cad! (haha, cad), I'm onto you! Your petty jealousy and anonymous posting won't fool me! I could break this post down into why it's retarded, but Grey pretty much said everything that needs to be said.
- http://venusenvy.comicgenesis.com/ This is a pretty bad web comic. Ha, ha! I've read the "about" section: What IS Zoë? Zoë is a teenage transsexual; someone who was born one sex, but with the distinct instincts and thought patterns of the other. She was born a boy, but grew up with a girl's mind What is Larson then? Larson is also a transsexual; a female-to-male. And Lisa? Lisa is a lesbian. Now - that's a pretty funny choice for characters - TWO TS and one lesbian? Where's the homosexual guy? I laughed so hard when I read the other answers (especially since the author seems to be really proud of his/her work). But then cam the bomb: What the hell is the deal with Brianna? Brianna is probably the lone stand of weirdness in what would otherwise be ca very realistic, dramatic comic. Ha, ha! Lone stand of weirdness! Because all the other TS freaks are totally normal! Hell yeah! And of course with so many "normal" characters in one place the comic is like the Mecca of realism and drama!
- I have discovered the true name of Mr. John Solomon: Fuego Fish! HAHA your secret is revealed, Mr. Fish, you dirty latin cheat! That's not his true identity. That's his fursona. The reason he refuses to face any of the artists he criticizes face to face is it would require him leaving the comfort and warmth of his fursuit.
- You people are actually seriously trying to find out my real identity? Jesus Christ, what the Hell? I thought that shit was just a joke.
- You people are actually seriously trying to find out my real identity? Jesus Christ, what the Hell? I thought that shit was just a joke. Because it's not fair John. You act like your bringing fire down the mountain to the people, but once your done you're climbing right back up the mountain and yiffing it up at an anthro-con. The people deserve to know that your a furry. So that they may set you blaze with the fire you had once given them.
- "I would pay money to see Darken get publicly tarred and feathered. The fact that the comic has been around since 2003 and has shown no artistic improvement whatsoever is astonishing. Her scribbling is an eyesore and a blight on the internet. Perfect target for this blog. What's worse is that she's another self-important bitch hanging out on forums all day. She thinks she sits high on the cat's turd. Needs to be knocked down a few pegs." That's adorable :)
- Actually I think a little more sloth would help... I guess you could say it's an issue of quality over quantity, but I'd settle for a little less quantity. I don't know where the notion came from that having an archive of 80,000 strips is a good thing. I guess if they're all brilliant, OK, but since that's NEVER EVER EVER the case with these regularly-updated comics, I have a hard time imagining such a thing... Basically, the idea of a regular update schedule is a bad thing. If you're a pro and you HAVE to keep up a certain output or if you actually have a REAL (as in not imaginary) rabid fanbase that will become suicidal if they don't get a new comic every monday, wednesday, and friday, then OK, you're stuck. But otherwise, if you're an artist who's just doing it for fun or to amuse your friends or whatever, I'd say you should only be making a comic when you have a GREAT inspiration. I mean, OK, if you have an amazing work ethic and you want to pump something out every day, then fine, do that, and then take the BEST ones and put those on-line. Not every drop of ink you spill needs to be seen by the whole world. You want to show people an example of the best shit you have to offer and nothing else!
- Because it's not fair John. You act like your bringing fire down the mountain to the people, but once your done you're climbing right back up the mountain and yiffing it up at an anthro-con. The people deserve to know that your a furry. So that they may set you blaze with the fire you had once given them. Ah, I see. False alarm, you really don't know anything about me.
- Wow, quite an astute collection of the worst of the worst of net comics. I'm just surprised you having gone after 8-bit theater yet.
- You people are actually seriously trying to find out my real identity? Jesus Christ, what the Hell? I thought that shit was just a joke. I'm not, I just heard that you posted on SA and used google to find out what your account there was. It took like three whole seconds.
- I just want to find your true identity so I can email it to all the authors you reviewed along with your address and phone number. Now THAT would be comedy gold.
- In regards to Venus Envy, it's not even that it was always a bad comic. I use to read it fairly regularly, and get a good laugh out of it. Then it stopped making jokes and fell pray to drama with a capital "d". Then it stopped updating for months at a time. Then, and this is what really got to me, author/artist Erin Lindsay responded by treating all her fans with absolute disdain. Not even a simple "if you don't like it, leave", but actually posting angry rants directly targeted at the people that faithfully read her comic. I think to this day she probably still bitches at them about election results, and how they didn't do enough to prevent the republicans getting reelected. It's almost a step by step guide of how not to relate to your fanbase. That was really what made me decide I wouldn't be checking it anymore.
- "I just want to find your true identity so I can email it to all the authors you reviewed along with your address and phone number. Now THAT would be comedy gold." Harassment and threats of bodily harm are always HI-larious, and a perfectly rational way of responding to what some guy on the internet said.
- John Solomon Said: I love to Yiff yiff yiff yiff yiff yiff yiff yiff yiff yiff all day long I yiff yiff yiff yiff yiff Guys you need to stop being fucking enablers. Being a furfag isn't normal. Even the assholes on 4chan know this. John Solomon, you are not a fucking fish. You are a man. Get out of the fucking fursuit. Burn the damn thing and take a 30 minute shower. Come back when you are done.
- So the insult du jour is to call Solomon a furry? Clutch the pearls, Agnes! At least it's more original than calling everyone faggots, but it strongly implies that loving shitty webcomics either requires or leads to having the emotional intelligence of a 12-year-old. It never fails to impress me how passionately some people will defend UTTER FUCKING SHIT. This is why Britney Spears and Michael Jackson still have fans. You're not making anybody but yourselves look bad here, kids.
- Oh I totally agree with John Solomon about every comic he has reviewed, but just cause he does one thing right doesn't mean everyone should just sit back and let him throw his life away jerking off to Ozzy and Millie. Stop being an enabler Zee. Hate the sins, not the man, Zee.
- LAWL u gYUS JON SLOMOMOLN IS AN FURRY LOL SO EVERTHING HE SAYS iS AUTONATICALLy INCOReCT SO TAT MEANS SHREDED MOOSE IS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND IT DOESNT EVEN MATTER THAT IM MAKING IT UPQ!!!!!!!!!!! Glad to see that being a moron never goes out of fashion.
- Oh I totally agree with John Solomon about every comic he has reviewed, but just cause he does one thing right doesn't mean everyone should just sit back and let him throw his life away jerking off to Ozzy and Millie. Stop being an enabler Zee. Hate the sins, not the man, Zee. Do you actually have any evidence that he's a furry apart from the supposedly damning fact that his Something Awful username has "fish" in it?
- Someone's jerking off here, alright.
- Solomon jerks off to tears, not yiffy.