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, March 16, 2006
My Last Word on "Permission vs. Forgiveness."
A dear friend told me last night that she'd run into a couple of people who knew about me, but only from the Scott Kurtz essay. It does still kinda nag at me that, at least for a while, that essay will be the only thing certain people know about me. But I'm not gonna keep on correcting and correcting-- I expect longtime readers are ready to move on to more productive subjects, like them Knicks.
So I'm gonna use this space to get out my all-purpose response to Scott's essay. For longer last words, go to the Meanwhile Podcast 55. I don't plan to refer to it again after this, Murphy willing.
Scott's right that the "world-renowned web comics historian" thing was over the top. Antarctic defends it as hyperbole. I sent them different ad copy which they didn't use. You can pretty much tell it's not mine, because I don't spell my name with a period or "web comics" as two words.
I actually DIDN'T know the proper way to go about doing things when it came to cover permissions in this particular case. That was my call, not Antarctic's. Seemed simple to me-- I had permission to use the art on the interior, so why couldn't I commission a cover piece that represented it? Yeah, I was dumb. But when Scott alerted me to the problem, I fixed it promptly. Nobody's going on that cover who doesn't want to be, and the five characters you can see in Scott's image link haven't budged.
The "Horsemen" concept is going away anyway, so it's kind of a moot point now. Scott doesn't seem to understand it, but neither did most people who read the book, so it probably wasn't clear.
When it comes to who deserves more space than who, you can make arguments but ultimately it boils down to opinions. My opinion is that Scott McCloud had a great influence on the scene, even though he didn't travel in the same sphere as the most popular webcomics. Even the terminology we use to describe webcomics often comes from him.
Chris Crosby is covered pretty extensively in Chapter 4.
It wasn't my intent to marginalize Rodney Caston or to treat him unfairly. The quote Rodney complains about was on the Megatokyo site for more than a year before this, and I also read Caston's account of matters on his own blog and the early Megatokyo site. Since Caston and Gallgher were bound by an NDA about Megatokyo and since both they and others have spoken at length online, and since a number of interviews I had already conducted with other creators had been extremely unproductive, I elected not to interview them (which may have been an error)... but once I heard Caston's concerns, I sent him the relevant chapter for review. I should get his notes in the next couple days at this writing. He probably feels the squeaky wheel is getting the grease, but I also offered the manuscript to Scott Kurtz in order to request more specific corrections than "take this space from Scott McCloud and give it to Rodney." Scott declined.
Finally, when Scott talks about "the new webcomics cognoscenti crowd," I feel like we're at the real heart of his complaint. (Let's ignore that I've been writing comics since 1999.) All of the above is just ammunition-- really, it's the book itself that sets Scott's teeth on edge, and it'd set his teeth on edge no matter how it was done. I understand that to a degree. No one wants someone else to sum up their life for them, unless they can be sure it will be done in glowing terms. But if no one even tries to sum up the astonishingly rapid development of webcomics, if no one weighs one account against another and tries to dig out the facts, we're going to end up blundering around in the dark, making bad, uninformed choices. All of us-- creators and readers.
Although I like Scott's idea for a set of interviews, that's not a history, that's a bunch of people talking. Which is just a slightly more permanent version of what we have now.
Well, this was pretty wordy too. But it's this blog's last word.
Up next: the process of corrections!
So I'm gonna use this space to get out my all-purpose response to Scott's essay. For longer last words, go to the Meanwhile Podcast 55. I don't plan to refer to it again after this, Murphy willing.
Scott's right that the "world-renowned web comics historian" thing was over the top. Antarctic defends it as hyperbole. I sent them different ad copy which they didn't use. You can pretty much tell it's not mine, because I don't spell my name with a period or "web comics" as two words.
I actually DIDN'T know the proper way to go about doing things when it came to cover permissions in this particular case. That was my call, not Antarctic's. Seemed simple to me-- I had permission to use the art on the interior, so why couldn't I commission a cover piece that represented it? Yeah, I was dumb. But when Scott alerted me to the problem, I fixed it promptly. Nobody's going on that cover who doesn't want to be, and the five characters you can see in Scott's image link haven't budged.
The "Horsemen" concept is going away anyway, so it's kind of a moot point now. Scott doesn't seem to understand it, but neither did most people who read the book, so it probably wasn't clear.
When it comes to who deserves more space than who, you can make arguments but ultimately it boils down to opinions. My opinion is that Scott McCloud had a great influence on the scene, even though he didn't travel in the same sphere as the most popular webcomics. Even the terminology we use to describe webcomics often comes from him.
Chris Crosby is covered pretty extensively in Chapter 4.
It wasn't my intent to marginalize Rodney Caston or to treat him unfairly. The quote Rodney complains about was on the Megatokyo site for more than a year before this, and I also read Caston's account of matters on his own blog and the early Megatokyo site. Since Caston and Gallgher were bound by an NDA about Megatokyo and since both they and others have spoken at length online, and since a number of interviews I had already conducted with other creators had been extremely unproductive, I elected not to interview them (which may have been an error)... but once I heard Caston's concerns, I sent him the relevant chapter for review. I should get his notes in the next couple days at this writing. He probably feels the squeaky wheel is getting the grease, but I also offered the manuscript to Scott Kurtz in order to request more specific corrections than "take this space from Scott McCloud and give it to Rodney." Scott declined.
Finally, when Scott talks about "the new webcomics cognoscenti crowd," I feel like we're at the real heart of his complaint. (Let's ignore that I've been writing comics since 1999.) All of the above is just ammunition-- really, it's the book itself that sets Scott's teeth on edge, and it'd set his teeth on edge no matter how it was done. I understand that to a degree. No one wants someone else to sum up their life for them, unless they can be sure it will be done in glowing terms. But if no one even tries to sum up the astonishingly rapid development of webcomics, if no one weighs one account against another and tries to dig out the facts, we're going to end up blundering around in the dark, making bad, uninformed choices. All of us-- creators and readers.
Although I like Scott's idea for a set of interviews, that's not a history, that's a bunch of people talking. Which is just a slightly more permanent version of what we have now.
Well, this was pretty wordy too. But it's this blog's last word.
Up next: the process of corrections!
Comments:
<< Home
Hopefully this will all blow over once the book gets out the door. It's good that you're not letting it deter you.
Scott Kurtz complains because he enjoys complaining. If he were the creator of some little unprofitable comic that no one read, no one would pay him any mind.
Sadly... that's the case for most things.
The important thing is this: Do you have faith in your own work? If so... if you feel this is a good work... then go with it. The fact you let others put their two cents into it and suggest changes... that says something about you. Most historians aren't that nice about recent events.
So who cares what Kurtz thinks? The smarter of his fans realize that he runs off at the mouth without always thinking at times anyway.
Take care, T.
Rob H.
Sadly... that's the case for most things.
The important thing is this: Do you have faith in your own work? If so... if you feel this is a good work... then go with it. The fact you let others put their two cents into it and suggest changes... that says something about you. Most historians aren't that nice about recent events.
So who cares what Kurtz thinks? The smarter of his fans realize that he runs off at the mouth without always thinking at times anyway.
Take care, T.
Rob H.
Scooter's got a cozy little thing going on there at Image, and what he really doesnt want is the people there to discover that he's the webcomics version of John Byrne: A shrill bully that's not all that smart to begin with.
I'm not surprised he declined to help improve The History. That'd require the grade 8 reading level he lacks.
To put it another way: You've been harrassed by a living, breathing Jerry Springer episode. Hopefully one day even the morons in his fanbase will catch on to this.
I'm not surprised he declined to help improve The History. That'd require the grade 8 reading level he lacks.
To put it another way: You've been harrassed by a living, breathing Jerry Springer episode. Hopefully one day even the morons in his fanbase will catch on to this.
we're going to end up blundering around in the dark, making bad, uninformed choices
???
I don't get that. I mean, sure there have been people who scuttled their webcomics careers by making poor decisions... But I think more often than not those instances are because of the personality involved, someone who can't handle their success or lack thereof. Possibly a good lesson from history would have helped, but I doubt it. Personality problems tend to be stuff you have to work out on your own, and advice or examples can only go so far.
Or are you talking about artistic bad decisions?
Anyways, the cover I might have done differently, but I don't think it is really Kurtz's job to take you to task; his work ain't on it. And as far as the accuracy of your history? Man, you're in pretty rare territory. Few people try to write about history that's ten years old, or two years old, much less still in progress. The fact that your's is the first comprehensive work on the subject means that there *are* going to be errors. Accept them, don't get defensive, but don't let people who yell at you because of them get you down. Generally a what real historian wants is that *he* is the one to correct and update his own text, instead of some other guy. That's the most we can hope for, because nothing is perfect truth in this world.
???
I don't get that. I mean, sure there have been people who scuttled their webcomics careers by making poor decisions... But I think more often than not those instances are because of the personality involved, someone who can't handle their success or lack thereof. Possibly a good lesson from history would have helped, but I doubt it. Personality problems tend to be stuff you have to work out on your own, and advice or examples can only go so far.
Or are you talking about artistic bad decisions?
Anyways, the cover I might have done differently, but I don't think it is really Kurtz's job to take you to task; his work ain't on it. And as far as the accuracy of your history? Man, you're in pretty rare territory. Few people try to write about history that's ten years old, or two years old, much less still in progress. The fact that your's is the first comprehensive work on the subject means that there *are* going to be errors. Accept them, don't get defensive, but don't let people who yell at you because of them get you down. Generally a what real historian wants is that *he* is the one to correct and update his own text, instead of some other guy. That's the most we can hope for, because nothing is perfect truth in this world.
Well, I learned from the example of one cartoonist, who turned his conflicts with Kurtz and Gabe into the defining moments of his career. He simply wouldn't let his anger with them go, and it cost him dearly. I was tempted down that path, but I had others' mistakes to guide me.
People have been jumping into micropayments with no regard for its almost ten-year record of poor results (in America).
If "those who do not know history are condemned to repeat it," then that's true no matter how short and niche the history is.
Post a Comment
People have been jumping into micropayments with no regard for its almost ten-year record of poor results (in America).
If "those who do not know history are condemned to repeat it," then that's true no matter how short and niche the history is.
<< 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
