Metapost: Going on another hiatus … in style
August 23, 2009 at 2:45 am | Posted in The Webcomic Overlook, metapost | 9 Comments
Looks like what we got here is another hiatus.
Got another wedding to help out at this week, and we’ve got relatives coming in from out of town. (Always, these weddings!) A lot decorating, a lot of rehearsals, a lot of touring. The Webcomic Overlook should be back around the end of September. (Can’t quit now that I’m so close to 100 Webcomic Overlooks.) Thanks for checking out my blog over the summer! To occupy your time, I’ll be shortly posting an e-mail response that you may enjoy, if only for the pictures.
By the way: I’ve been hinting that I’ve been reading one of the reputably worst webcomics ever written. You may be wondering if I still plan on reviewing it. Answer: yes. Unfortunately, the comic is living up to its reputation. I thought I’d be done two weeks ago, but each page is pure torture. May God have mercy on my soul.
* – Above image illustrated by Argentinian artist Sol Rac. Full panel can be seen here at From Parts Unknown. Visit his MySpace page here.
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When I think about the gap between the markets for comics, web or print, and the medium’s readership-potential, the first observation that comes to my mind is that, at half the current US-population, C.C. Beck — one guy — had a readership of about 10 million readers, from his various Marvel Family publications being sold and passed around. The reasons comic-readership doesn’t approach its peak — a peak reached by material mostly unreadable to anyone today — are circumstantial. And for circumstances perhaps locked-in today by those who benefit the most from those circumstances.
Unlike the arts, the highest levels of exchange in the sciences and athletics take place between master practitioners. While exchanges between master practitioners may take place in the arts, the highest levels of exchange in the arts takes place between the master and complete outsider. And so we have the circumstance in comics where the complete outsider to the medium has no obvious point of entry to the master-practitioners we have only reasons to believe they’ll enjoy. The outsider only expects comic-stores to cater to fantasies of domination, naive and otherwise. And what we have online is even the most popular webcomics establishing thousands and thousands of intimate connections with those perhaps predisposed to be dedicated to the material — which is fine. The labor that takes place on the popular sites is second to none. But if we all consider our favorite webcomics, it only seems common sense that the market shouldn’t suffer so far from the medium’s peak.
Unless my requests for reviews have gotten lost or disqualified, my own webcomic should be in the review-queue of the obvious review-sites (maybe I’ll see a review in the next 12 months). I say this to establish my own interest in this topic. My idea is for each webcomic-review site to restructure its review-archive by variety to serve as a friendlier starting point for outsiders. My own submission qualifies as all-ages — centered on themes of creativity, play, and/or simple pleasure without themes of hard-principle to alienate a sophisticated readership (as opposed to material presented for a kid-readership). You can’t get more outsider-friendly than “all-ages.” I’ve restructured my own links-page to reflect what I’m talking about, and have gone so far as to contact the all-ages webcomics I list. I invited them to isolate the all-ages comics they link to (with no regard to which sites they link to — just that they make the genre prominent), and asked them to allow me to speak for them to encourage the various review-sites to restucture their archives to also be more outsider-friendly. So that every review-site can better serve as a starting point for outsiders to the medium.
Being busy competent-practitioners of an artform, they haven’t at all been quick to act on a suggestion perhaps outside their expertise to evaluate, but I thought it was worth a try anyway. If this idea somehow makes sense to you, and manages to stick with you throughout your hiatus, will you consider writing a post to challenge the other review-sites to do the same? Your site seems the most friendly to all-ages material, and your recent meta-post seemed make this a good time to mention it. Thanks.
Comment by Mike Leung — August 23, 2009 #
Unfortunately, the comic is living up to its reputation. I thought I’d be done two weeks ago, but each page is pure torture. May God have mercy on my soul.
Yeah, I was afraid that would happen. I went nuts just glancing at stuff again. I can’t really blame you for taking your time, especially given that some of the arcs are unnecessarily long. (Well, OK, I guess in a way, I think most of them are.) I’m just glad it hasn’t killed you.
Comment by Quijotesca — August 23, 2009 #
The Better Days quasi-crossover is surprisingly the most turgid storyline so far. Everything else had a trainwreck quality. This one’s just draaagggginggg.
Comment by El Santo — August 23, 2009 #
You mean the Badly Drawn Kitties thing? Eh, you’re not even to the suicide bomber one, it looks like. x.x
Comment by Quijotesca — August 24, 2009 #
Wait, what comic is it? I must not have been paying attention when it was brought up… Was it Jack or something?
Comment by Tofumaster — August 25, 2009 #
Shhh! No one tell him!
Comment by El Santo — August 25, 2009 #
Good. Maybe I’ll have a lousy comic of my own to subject you to by then.
Comment by William George — August 23, 2009 #
Hiatus! noooooo… Well, I’ll just have to look forward to the end of September then. I hope you’ll be gravid with unwritten webcomics reviews by then.
Comment by alexds1 — August 23, 2009 #
[...] Hostility and Other People’s Business… A bunch of the other review sites are on hiatus, vacation and changing schedules. I ran into this ultimate review site but I’m not sure if [...]
Pingback by Strip News 9-4-9 | Strip News | ArtPatient.com | ArtPatient.com — September 4, 2009 #