T Campbell's Blog
Writer of Penny and Aggie, Fans (also called Faans), Rip & Teri, Search Engine Funnies and A History of Webcomics. Experienced webcomics editor, currently seeking full-time work and working on strange and interesting new things...Thursday, February 03, 2005
Fans Finally Snarked! Yay! Wait... Oh.
Yawn!
Today I took a quick spin around Leesburg... it was finally warm enough, and I've got just two more months to take it in, most likely. Fortunately, there's... really not a lot IN Leesburg. I'll miss the area and the rent and maybe the possibility of horseback riding, but the actual city's kind of eh.
Stopped by the comic book shop and picked up the last We3. Did a little bit of phone networking. Got to the gym. Mostly just tried to take a step back after yesterday's setback, relax and enjoy life. Don't know how successful I was, considering it's 3 AM and I'm still busying myself, but y'know.
Also, caught this.
Maybe the nicest negative review I've gotten, certainly the nicest one I've gotten for Fans. And it was also nice to get Shaenon's support. Actually, it's my own need to respond that bothers me the most.
I'm never sure if I should respond to criticism. I usually end up doing so because I love storytelling so much, I'll take almost any opportunity to talk about the process. But I worry that that spoils the magic. I also worry that I might compromise the position of a reviewer by commenting on, and implicitly criticizing, his criticism. When he's supposed to be above me, as a critic. And webcomics need objective reviewers like fish need oxygen. (Which... um... they do. Sure, they need water, but they need oxygen from the water. It works. Shut up.)
Should I do what comes naturally, or just let well enough alone? I dunno. I'll think about it tomorrow, I guess... or the next time this comes up.
Or I could just wait for the reader comments.
Today I took a quick spin around Leesburg... it was finally warm enough, and I've got just two more months to take it in, most likely. Fortunately, there's... really not a lot IN Leesburg. I'll miss the area and the rent and maybe the possibility of horseback riding, but the actual city's kind of eh.
Stopped by the comic book shop and picked up the last We3. Did a little bit of phone networking. Got to the gym. Mostly just tried to take a step back after yesterday's setback, relax and enjoy life. Don't know how successful I was, considering it's 3 AM and I'm still busying myself, but y'know.
Also, caught this.
Maybe the nicest negative review I've gotten, certainly the nicest one I've gotten for Fans. And it was also nice to get Shaenon's support. Actually, it's my own need to respond that bothers me the most.
I'm never sure if I should respond to criticism. I usually end up doing so because I love storytelling so much, I'll take almost any opportunity to talk about the process. But I worry that that spoils the magic. I also worry that I might compromise the position of a reviewer by commenting on, and implicitly criticizing, his criticism. When he's supposed to be above me, as a critic. And webcomics need objective reviewers like fish need oxygen. (Which... um... they do. Sure, they need water, but they need oxygen from the water. It works. Shut up.)
Should I do what comes naturally, or just let well enough alone? I dunno. I'll think about it tomorrow, I guess... or the next time this comes up.
Or I could just wait for the reader comments.
Comments:
<< Home
Stupid Typekey never allows me to log in and comment, so I'll just comment here...
I think a little bit of disjointedness is inevitable in crossovers. You take two different writers with completely different approaches to writing comics, and try to do something together. The result is *always* a little bit weird. It can't be all Narbonic because the context is within Fans, and if it's all Fans then the result is an OOC version of Narbonic's character.
Personally, I haven't seen said disruption in the suspension of disbelief, mainly perhaps because the WHOLE storyline is a bit disjointed to me. You have the "real" world and the "fictional" world, and the result is of course disorientating, but I don't mean it in a bad way. I just think this is how this particular storyline is supposed to be.
Maritza
CRFH.net
I think a little bit of disjointedness is inevitable in crossovers. You take two different writers with completely different approaches to writing comics, and try to do something together. The result is *always* a little bit weird. It can't be all Narbonic because the context is within Fans, and if it's all Fans then the result is an OOC version of Narbonic's character.
Personally, I haven't seen said disruption in the suspension of disbelief, mainly perhaps because the WHOLE storyline is a bit disjointed to me. You have the "real" world and the "fictional" world, and the result is of course disorientating, but I don't mean it in a bad way. I just think this is how this particular storyline is supposed to be.
Maritza
CRFH.net
I don't think critics are supposed to be above the work they're criticizing (reviewers, on the other hand, might be, since value judgements are pretty clearly a part of the review process), although they do need a bit of critical separation from the work, to give them perspective.
I haven't gone back there yet today, but I read your response lsat night, and it was quite reasonable; I think it is very useful to engage criticism at that level, both for the critic, the author, and any interested onlookers. The critic and the author can both gain additional perspectives on the work, and onlookers can gain both of those, as well as excellent insights into the creative process.
For my part, I didn't find it jarring in the same way, possibly because I haven't read Narbonic for very long (although my copy of the book just got here from Buy.com the other day). On the other hand, the idea that "A" was a character from someone else's strip does disturb me a little, coming, as it does, this close to the end of the series. It also seems strangely out of place in a storyline whose other defining feature has been the seeming reappearance of every other character who ever had so much as a walk-on part in Faans!, from Hyperman to the Sandwich Board Aliens to Akane to Lord Ruthven(!).
Mind you, I'm still cool with it, as long as at least some of the characters I want to have happy ending actually get them. :-)
I haven't gone back there yet today, but I read your response lsat night, and it was quite reasonable; I think it is very useful to engage criticism at that level, both for the critic, the author, and any interested onlookers. The critic and the author can both gain additional perspectives on the work, and onlookers can gain both of those, as well as excellent insights into the creative process.
For my part, I didn't find it jarring in the same way, possibly because I haven't read Narbonic for very long (although my copy of the book just got here from Buy.com the other day). On the other hand, the idea that "A" was a character from someone else's strip does disturb me a little, coming, as it does, this close to the end of the series. It also seems strangely out of place in a storyline whose other defining feature has been the seeming reappearance of every other character who ever had so much as a walk-on part in Faans!, from Hyperman to the Sandwich Board Aliens to Akane to Lord Ruthven(!).
Mind you, I'm still cool with it, as long as at least some of the characters I want to have happy ending actually get them. :-)
I'm pretty obsessive about commenting on comments about Websnark, if that means anything. ;)
For the record, I think it's perfectly acceptable for the creator to engage in the critical dialogue. A long while back, I wrestled with whether or not I could post something negative about a strip I liked drawn by a person I liked. When I went ahead and did it, it just felt right to me. By the same token, I've always fought down the urge to argue when someone disagrees with me in comments... because the expression of commentary, whether in agreement with me or not, is a validation of what Websnark is. When I get defensive of my opinion at the expense of the conversation, any credibility I have as a critic dies.
I'm always -- always -- going to call it like I see it. But it's always going to be opinion instead of fact, and the nature of criticism is collaborative. Your input and Shaenon's input do more than "answer" the snark. They provide context and perspective I don't have, so that the people who read the snark and the comments come away with their own opinions. That's the most important thing.
Now, the thing that bothers me is the "finally" in the "Fans finally snarked." You deserve better than that from me.
Post a Comment
For the record, I think it's perfectly acceptable for the creator to engage in the critical dialogue. A long while back, I wrestled with whether or not I could post something negative about a strip I liked drawn by a person I liked. When I went ahead and did it, it just felt right to me. By the same token, I've always fought down the urge to argue when someone disagrees with me in comments... because the expression of commentary, whether in agreement with me or not, is a validation of what Websnark is. When I get defensive of my opinion at the expense of the conversation, any credibility I have as a critic dies.
I'm always -- always -- going to call it like I see it. But it's always going to be opinion instead of fact, and the nature of criticism is collaborative. Your input and Shaenon's input do more than "answer" the snark. They provide context and perspective I don't have, so that the people who read the snark and the comments come away with their own opinions. That's the most important thing.
Now, the thing that bothers me is the "finally" in the "Fans finally snarked." You deserve better than that from me.
<< Home
Archives
January 2005 February 2005 March 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006
