DC Conspiracy[dots pattern]

10.06.2005

Here's the Thing #12 - Integrating the Fan

For most of us, we want to do comics because we love the medium. Whether that love dates back to our childhood (fond memories of our mother’s bringing us Superman comics when we’re sick or stealing copies of G.I.Joe out of Pop’s Candy Shop) or a couple of months ago when you finally gave into your friend and agreed to read Watchmen, the drive behind creating comics is a passion fueled by the desire to contribute something to the medium that you feel no-one else can give. There’s a deep attachment to the companies, talents and the creators. A respect for the history (or the continuity, if that’s more your thing). It’s a labor of love that consumes your time, energy and bank account.

And if your love is just that and your desire to create is just because you want to create and not because you want to become a part of the culture – a piece of the history - you can go ahead and do anything you want.

But, if you’re looking to maybe get some exposure, critical acclaim, schmooze well at the convention bar and grow as a creator, you should never say things like “That Mark Millar sucks. Him and Bendis probably get together on Tuesday afternoons and rape babies.”

I hear stuff like that all the time. You get it at conventions, at bars when people are networking and especially at what people seem to believe is the safety net of message boards. I’ve seen people on sites that are for and full of aspiring comic creators spewing hate at other creators like they were responsible for the death of your puppy. These are guys that want to be in the industry – talking about people they will likely meet on their way up. I think my boss has his head up his head but I’m sure as hell not going to go around telling people that “I hope he gets dick cancer and dies”.

And I’m not saying you have to kiss everyone’s ass – you just have to learn to integrate the fan into your desire to be a creator. You need to be constructive. No, constructive isn’t “I don’t like JMS because he turned Gwen Stacy into a filthy whore.” That, right there, is the fan overpowering the creator.

Constructive criticism. It makes you sound professional. It makes you sound like you know what you’re talking about. Opens it up for discussion – doesn’t kill a conversation. Shows your flexibility and leaves it open, down the road, to admit you’re wrong. Because we’re all wrong about creators every once and a while. Sometimes we read something, one little piece of awkward storytelling, and it gets stuck in our heads and makes us unable to see past it. Maybe it turns us off and we drop the material all together and don’t see it when it gets better.

Constructive criticism makes you a creator. Unhinged lashing out and death threats makes you an insane fan.

When we were allowing submissions for Western Tales of Terror, every rejection letter had constructive criticism in it. There was always an explanation as to what parts were good so they can be nurtured and what parts were bad so they can be fixed. Because no matter how bad someone might be there is always some promise and no matter how good someone might be there is always room for improvement. No matter where on the spectrum the talent in question may fall, it is highly unprofessional to ever say they “rape babies”, no matter how much they insulted the fan within you.

Jason at 9:45 PM  |  link to this     

0 Comments

Post a Comment | Back to DC Conspiracy | Blog