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, October 20, 2005
My Last Word (I Think) On The Kurtz-Straub-Podcast Brouhaha.
"Would it be nice if there was an institution dedicated to examining and lifting up webcomics to the world? Yes. Should webcomics itself be doing it? No. At least, that's MY opinion."
This comment of Scott's actually begs a huge concern of mine. But on the other hand, Kris has frequently denounced those pretentious fellows who try to use long sentences and citations to compensate for their lack of understanding.
Once you eliminate those who have done webcomics and those who do not understand webcomics, who's left? Theoretically, prominent, competent people who know webcomics well but have no interest in creating them.
Name five of those people.
Most critics are writers or wannabe writers of the thing they criticize. That's not a situation unique to webcomics, but the coziness of the medium means the social spheres overlap.
Scott seems to feel like discomfort with being criticized is unique to him. It's not. I blush every time I'm praised and blanch every time I'm criticized. ("T Campbell, he's... you know he's..." WHAT, Scott? He's WHAT???) But criticisms like these-- and The History of Webcomics-- and all the rest of the examination out there-- is not for me. It's for people who are trying to grok this thing.
It's not for you, Scott. It's ABOUT you.
And as long as you are successful, people will be interested in figuring out why.
You can't have the fame without the microscope.
(This is all concept, incidentally. I'm far less sure of myself when it comes to discussing the Examiner's execution, including my own part in it. But concept is where the discussion began.)
This comment of Scott's actually begs a huge concern of mine. But on the other hand, Kris has frequently denounced those pretentious fellows who try to use long sentences and citations to compensate for their lack of understanding.
Once you eliminate those who have done webcomics and those who do not understand webcomics, who's left? Theoretically, prominent, competent people who know webcomics well but have no interest in creating them.
Name five of those people.
Most critics are writers or wannabe writers of the thing they criticize. That's not a situation unique to webcomics, but the coziness of the medium means the social spheres overlap.
Scott seems to feel like discomfort with being criticized is unique to him. It's not. I blush every time I'm praised and blanch every time I'm criticized. ("T Campbell, he's... you know he's..." WHAT, Scott? He's WHAT???) But criticisms like these-- and The History of Webcomics-- and all the rest of the examination out there-- is not for me. It's for people who are trying to grok this thing.
It's not for you, Scott. It's ABOUT you.
And as long as you are successful, people will be interested in figuring out why.
You can't have the fame without the microscope.
(This is all concept, incidentally. I'm far less sure of myself when it comes to discussing the Examiner's execution, including my own part in it. But concept is where the discussion began.)
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Okay, considering that I have put my own foot in my mouth more than once this year alone, and publically, I'm certainly not one to judge anybody in this situation.
But I just gotta say, for an industry this damn young, webcomics has a LOT of in-fighting and personal feuds. Sometimes I think we inhereted a lot of the print comic industry's worst flaws.
But it's an undeniable fact- artists have egos, and none of us are an exception to that that rule. You've always struck me as either a genuinely modest guy or someone whose tried his damnedest to BE modest. However, a lot of us are slaves to our art and what we consider to be art, and when we get criticized of those things... well, some cats are more apt to use their claws than others, ya know? Kurtz was probably genuinely wounded by some of these comments, and I don't know that I can fault his behavior. It may not be professional, but everyone bleeds when they're pricked, it's just not everyone let's the world see their blood.
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But I just gotta say, for an industry this damn young, webcomics has a LOT of in-fighting and personal feuds. Sometimes I think we inhereted a lot of the print comic industry's worst flaws.
But it's an undeniable fact- artists have egos, and none of us are an exception to that that rule. You've always struck me as either a genuinely modest guy or someone whose tried his damnedest to BE modest. However, a lot of us are slaves to our art and what we consider to be art, and when we get criticized of those things... well, some cats are more apt to use their claws than others, ya know? Kurtz was probably genuinely wounded by some of these comments, and I don't know that I can fault his behavior. It may not be professional, but everyone bleeds when they're pricked, it's just not everyone let's the world see their blood.
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