Episode 19 - Webcomic Reviewing
Fes, Tanya, and Brett Hainly discuss why we used to review webcomics and why it has worn us numb. Why? Hint: We blame people that never learn. The show runs very long today. Perhaps its because we found so much that pisses us off. Aaron of The Best of What’s Left, a long time contributer to the show has officially become another co-host for the show! On top of that, we decided to go with Mark Savory, of Autumn Lake, to be our new Webcomic Reviewer! Officially! This week he reviews a comic that follows the story of Dracula by Bram Stoker, though it’s done in a furry style! Check out Dracula!
Milestones this week include: Paranoia High hits 200 strips, Roomies hits 400 strips, Ardra hits 100 strips, and Boxcar Astronaut hits 1 Year.
For next week, We’ll be talking about the Open Source, Free-to-use, Jenny Everywhere! We’ll have Nelson Evergreen, Scott Simmons, and Benj Christensen for sure on the show with us! We’ll be broadcasting live on Sunday 13th, you can now listen to the show LIVE on Talk Shoe! Have a question or comment about this week’s topic, or next week’s topic? Get involved with the show by: Getting SKYPE and contact “fesworks”; submit an audio file or plain text e-mail message to us.
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Sites mentioned this week (in mentioned order): Winger, The Webcomic List Forums, 8-Bit Theater, XKCD, Candi, College Roomies From Hell, Aaron Edwards’ Blog, Joel Fagin Tutorials, Darken, Crow Feathers, Dominic Deegan, (and for fun: ) Dominic Durgan, Diana Nock, Rene Engstrom, Something Awful Forums, and Grant Thomas.
Other Webcomic Reviewers: Tangents and Websnark. If you know others, Let me know and I’ll add them to our main Reviewer’s list.
April 11th, 2008 at 11:30 am
It wasn’t Riss Rawzby, it was his litle brother Mobby.
April 11th, 2008 at 11:33 am
While I’m correcting things, the Something Awful site is based on heaping ridicule on…well…everything, so, it pretty much follows that the jackass troll concentration there is higher than average.
April 11th, 2008 at 11:40 am
Oh yes. Mobby. I recall now.
As far as Something Awful, I have not been there myself, but my PERSONAL interactions with individual goons has been fairly close to 50/50 as far as Dick Head/Nice Person… so not really much more than usual for me. Though, I HEAR a lot more about dickery from them from other people, compared to other places. Well, people can go there and decide for themselves I’m sure.
April 11th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
Hm. After listening to that podcast I am feeling a little awkward about submitting a criticism, but… it left me with the impression that you guys really don’t enjoy webcomics! Obviously it’s not the case, since you’re working hard doing these podcasts, but this week focused so much on the negatives and the bad experiences that I could almost start believing you guys don’t think any webcomics are worth reviewing. It was certainly entertaining to hear about your experiences with the worst of the worst, and I laughed right along, but some of it was awfully harsh. If I were a new creator with what I thought was a decent webcomic, I think this would give me a very dark view of reviewers. And that’s unfortunate, given that in your closing notes you say that the Webcomics Beacon is aimed at new creators.
Maybe in an upcoming show you can balance out the bad stuff by talking about what it is about a webcomic that would make a reviewer want to review it, what catches your eye enough to make you want to sit down and go through the archives. It would be interesting to hear how the tastes of your panel of reviewers varies. Remind us why you enjoy reading webcomics!
April 11th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
She ain’t wrong.
April 11th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
I suppose since Tanya, Brett, and myself all used to more actively do reviews, and now barely review any is a factor.
Of course, part of reviews is finding what is wrong and what is good about a webcomic… It just seems that we constantly hit things that are wrong with webcomics… particularly with things that are common mistakes and the Newbies keep coming, but don’t research anything, and do it all over again.
Thus, trying our patience.
I would have liked to have Mark S. or Aarin E. on the show, or even Tangent (which I TOTALLY forgot about asking)… to see what they thought.
But yes, we should have a show about “Bettering Your Webcomic”. I’ll see if we can plan one for May…. then again, I thought we kinda covered that stuff with our FIRST episode, “So you want to make a Webcomic?”… well, I guess a revisit to the idea should be OK once in a while…
Then again, the point of Reviewing is not to tell the webcomicker what to do to make it better, but to tell readers if it’s worthwhile or not. And much of Reviewing kinda involves noticing things that are “wrong”, and this usually is the only way that a webcomicker gets better, is when they take the negative feedback and criticisim, and use it to improve themselves.
Also, without conflict, there would not be much need for discussion. Which is healthy and good for keeping people honest. I’m sure we’ll have lots of Fun with the “B&W vs Grayscale vs Color” episode in a few weeks.
April 12th, 2008 at 8:15 pm
This’s what it boils down to. If you see a site you don’t like, don’t review it.
So, while I only speak for myself. It isn’t that I don’t like reviewing comics anymore, it’s that the few comics out there that I like have already been reviewed so many times there’s no point and their self-esteem doesn’t need the massage.
The many comics out there that aren’t to my liking… What good does it do me to tell them that I don’t like it, honestly?
If I like your comic, you know who you are, I tell you as much as I can. If I don’t like your comic, you’ll never hear from me. Simple as that.
I’m sick of getting myself and my comic pissed on for giving someone’s comic a negative review after they asked for it.
April 13th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
“like a Minnesotan chases a sunbeam”… that cracked me up.
April 14th, 2008 at 9:10 am
tbowl, that’s certainly a fair and understandable opinion. I only wanted to make you all aware that from the perspective of a podcast, it all came out a little one-sided. Or… is that in reality just the way it is? Webcomics suck the soul out of all aspiring reviewers with good intentions? Would you recommend to new webcomickers *not* to ask people for reviews for this reason, and suggest that they just wait patiently (as they keep drawing) and hope that they may come to the attention of a reviewer? Would you tell people thinking about starting a review blog to run for their lives?
(Also, just to be perfectly clear: I am not now, nor have I ever been, trying to angle for a review. Or a spot on the show, or anything like that. Just making observations and discussion.
)
April 14th, 2008 at 9:34 am
Your feedback and perspective is welcome, of course
April 14th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Tara,
Would I recommend that new webcomickers not ask for a review? No, not at all - but I would recommend that they read through a couple dozen bad reviews and see if they’re making any of the same mistakes first. I certainly wish I had.
Would I tell aspiring reviewers to run for their lives… no. But I would tell them that it’s rather hard to keep up and their work won’t always be appreciated or respected. *smiles*
t
April 14th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
Would I recommend that new webcomic authors not ask for reviews? No. Would I recommend that new reviewers not start? No. But I would recommend that both of them try to get into some more respected field…I believe there are several openings for underpaid sugar harvesters in Cuba and Brazil…
April 14th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
oh you
April 15th, 2008 at 7:21 am
Before asking for a review you really need to think about a few things.
1) Do I already know I have a ton of problems, but want other people to point them out before I’ll fix them?
2) Do I just want traffic, and I’m going to ignore everyone’s reviews?
3) Am I a person that attacks anyone with an opinion different than mine?
If you answered yes to any of these, you really shouldn’t ask for a review. Just look at common mistakes, and other people’s comics, and try to do a little improving by yourself… Then maybe later start by asking people that you actually trust their opinions… Then maybe later… Go eat some pie or something… Then a long long time later, ask for reviews, , then go to sleep, then in a few days, have someone else you trust read them all, and filter it to you, only telling you the constructive parts, or parts that they agree with.
That’s what I suggest these days.
April 15th, 2008 at 10:39 am
“I will explain to you how to you how to use semicolons later!”
“I won’t believe you…”
I’m glad that Aaron is now an OFFICIAL co-host-type-person - he’s funny! Constantly sounds like he’s kinda drunk! That is awesome.
I hear your crazy American keyboards have “ ; “ as the standard and “ : ” when you hold down shift and press the button. What is up with that? Who uses ; more than : ?
Also: your name is DAVE, not FES? Then who the hell have I been stalking all this time?!
April 15th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
Hehe, thanks jakob. My voice sounds weird, I don’t know why. I assure you I’m not drunk though.
Also I partially take back the ‘back’ taking place of the ‘previous.’ I want to clarify that ‘back’ works if you use it in the proper order of where the previous would be. But if you stick Back next to First, or Back next to Last… VERY CONFUSING. So I wanted to put that in context.
April 16th, 2008 at 4:51 am
Yeah, I think ”back” works well when you want symmetry with “next,” but, like you said, “last” should defiantly never be used in place of previous!
I mean, come on. That’s not what that means, and creating an understandable navigation bar is not too difficult.
April 16th, 2008 at 4:53 am
Uh, I meant “definitely not.”
April 21st, 2008 at 12:33 pm
It’s not that newbies can’t do certain types of comics; they can. It’s that they don’t always do it well.