STANDARD ATTRITION

[brianwood]

I've been reading some of the interviews posted up by Tom Spurgeon with comic book commentators, and even at my most jaded-ness I've been shocked at the anger some readers have in reaction to comics.

Semi-related, I have a question I invite anyone to answer truthfully: think back to times when you really felt burned or let down by a comic book story, when it either underwhelmed you or wasn't what you thought it should be, and it was something that actually made you mad. Did you find yourself transferring that anger over to the creator? Were you like "fuck that asshole!" or "I hate that guy!"

And if so, why?
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“I wish I had eight pairs of hands, and another body to shoot the specimens.” - John James Audubon

[Alan Alda is a gangsta]

Never the Creator but I would get pissed at the character...for example..I got annoyed at how bad the Punisher War Journal (Matt Fraction's run)..that I almost stopped reading Garth Ennis's run on the Punisher Max series...just because contained the Punisher in it...I still read most of Fraction's stuff...
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que?

[Reuben]

I can't think of any examples off hand. I think I may have mellowed with age and often put things down to creators having a bad day or more likely company interference. I get disappointed but not mad. If you don't over hype or over charge for a comic it is a start.

I am actually careful about what I say these days. As I've mention on Lapham's forum,I use to write reviews for a UK magazine called Comics International. I quit not long after Eddie Campbell called me a wanker and a bastard, then offered me money not to review his comics. I was giving him average reviews because I was frustrated with what his Bacchus comic had become. He is a talented creator and I still buy and usually like his work. I saw my reviewing as talking to other comic readers and forgot that comic creators read reviews and have feelings too. (if you wouldn't say it to their face, don't say it publicly at all)

Since joining SA I've always wondered what would I'd do if I purchased a comic by one of the creators on here and thought it was really really bad. If you love something they've done you tend to post something on here to that effect. But if I loathed it should I say something or just ignore it, pretend I'd never read it?

[dave golbitz]

I think Frank Miller's Dark Knight sequel was absolutely underwhelming, though I wouldn't say I felt anger toward Miller. It was more akin to disappointment. But Miller has more than made up for it with his hilarious, delirious, insane All-Star Batman, which I am enjoying to no end.

I honestly don't think I've ever felt anger toward a creator. Toward a company, sure, for certain company-wide editorial edicts, various overblown crossovers, etc., but not toward the creator. I mean, if someone writes something I don't like, I just stop reading it, y'know? Which doesn't mean I drop everything that creator is writing, just that particular comic.

For instance, I love Bendis and Oeming's Powers. Love it. But in recent years I grew extremely disappointed with Bendis' superhero stuff at Marvel (way before Secret Invasion). I stopped caring, so I stopped reading it. I wasn't angry, just indifferent, I guess. But I still grow giddy whenever a new issue of Powers drops.

Isn't it kind of silly to get pissed off at creators anyway? Not that anger isn't a valid emotion sometimes, but it's so wasteful, all that energy directed toward something you don't even like. Better to just wash your hands of it and move on to something you do like than to dwell on something you don't.
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"It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything."

[lwc_2001]

[seth hurley]

I can't get angry with entertainment.

[XIII]

I remember wanting to do some very ugly things to Chuck Austen when he was writing Uncanny X-Men cause it dropped to a level of bad that I had never known before. In the end, I just decided to drop the book which is probably one of the best thing I ever did regarding my pull list.

[olethros]

Well, I did want to shoot Garth Ennis over the last page of issue 15 or so of Preacher (the one where Tulip gets shot), but in a good way. Beyond that, not so much.

I think the vitriol you see (I'm assuming it's mostly on the net) comes from the sense of entitlement/ownership longtime readers have WRT their favorite characters/universes combined with the ability to be an utter fuckbag with no danger of someone retaliating in any meaningful way. A bunch of keyboard blowhards who'd never say anything approaching the stuff they type if they actually were face to face with said creator.

Myself, if I don't like a book, I quit buying it anymore, and if a pattern emerges, I'll avoid the work of certain creators (notably Bendis - his stuff just doesn't do it for me).
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"Just leave one hand against the wall and you can lead yourself out of the labyrinth"

- David Yow

[Mark R]

[olethros]

[Duncan Falconer]

I think the internet is home to low-level complaint elevated through hyperbole in really all fan-oriented interactions.

Can you cite which interviews were brimful of anger, Brian? I read the Abhay, Fraction, Tucker Stone, Busiek and actually got quite annoyed myself at the (banal, insightless) Batton Lash one. Not Spurgeon's fault, the guy is just clearly - to my mind - a douche. I didn't really see any nerdrage, particularly, but I may have missed something.
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Mindless

[brianwood]

[Aristagon]

I realy dont understand those angry or offending comments. They are just deconstructive and stupid. I mean most of the people able to read something should be more or less able to criticised something without Killingwishes.

i am often disapointed about boks when i get them and they are not like i hoped for, because i life in germany and order over the diamond/Preview catalog, so i sometimes order stuff thats not my taste. I was often disapointed by books from Warren Ellis / Garth Enis and Steve Niles, in some case becouse I dont like the artwork or the story was not on the level what they do in other stuff i liked. But i dont call out great Cthulhu to swallow them to the deeps of doom for it. Or with Bendis, i dont like his new stuff, i dont buy it, finito. Also i once buyed Ashley Wood stuff like crazy, and now i cant even see something like a storyline in his stuff, dont know its his storytelling thats strange, because the old spawn stuff he did i still like, but his newest stuff i dont realy understand at all, so I just wonder if I only dont understand the stuff anymore or have my taste changed?

The only strong emotion I have regarding Comics is admire, Boring, faszination for artwork/Storytelling, or a kind of fandom feeling^___^ for example I took a flight from germany to New York, at a Book fastival, where I wait 2 hours at the Forbidden Planet place to meet Brian and getting autographs (Yeah I was the silly looking Vietnamese who was #1 at signing, the one who was giving strange noise like "OhMyGosch, Hi..... ohmm hello... I am a big Fan...etc") ^____^ My first travel to the US for 2h waitings and 3 M talk with Brian : D anyway was a funny and realy cool trip.

As a result i think those extreme comments from people who reads comics, are making a bad reputation for comicfans. I just dont get it. If someone is to see on tv or stream, whatever, one have a responsibility to the public and the community of Whatever it concerns.

Greetings Aristagon


PS.: Sorry for my bad English : D

[odessasteps]

[joe.distort]