Comments on: The Webcomic Overlook #113: Xylia Tales

By: Nonsensicles

Nonsensicles — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 21:30:02 +0000

I’ve been trying not to comment on these old posts, but this is something that aggravates me so much that I just have to.

“If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.”

As far as rules to live by go, this is a pretty decent one. The problem is that so few people actually think literally about it and turn it into something awful. Everyone seems eager to believe that it just means you should only ever say nice things, but it’s not saying that at all. What it means is that you should try to find something positive to say even when you have to be critical.

I’ve been going on an archive binge of this site for the last few weeks, and one thing that I absolutely love about El Santo’s reviews is that by getting so emotionally involved he seems almost desperate to find something to like about everything. Even 1-star reviews seem more charitable than he could necessarily be. This review has Tychia, for example.

Anyway, while I’m making my first post, can I just say thank you, El Santo? I love your reviews and I think I’ve taken away several good lessons for the comic I’m working on. I hope to reach the beginning of the Overlook eventually. It’s just slow going when I keep getting diverted to binge on comic archives along the way.

By: Tangent

Tangent — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 03:25:42 +0000

I’ve long said with my own reviews that my readers should not necessarily rely on what I say or what any other reviewer says concerning if a comic is good or bad. Tastes will vary as will perspectives. Even if the review is scathingly bad, that doesn’t mean you won’t enjoy it.

Rob H., Tangents Reviews

By: The Slamlander » Public reviewers suxors!

The Slamlander » Public reviewers suxors! — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 09:42:58 +0000

[...] traipsing through my little universe on the internet, I ran across a public mugging by El Santo, of The Webcomic Overlook. The site is Xyliatales by Barb Jacobs and it happened last [...]

By: Adelia

Adelia — Fri, 21 May 2010 12:28:36 +0000

Well it shits me to tears.

I find my happiness in other comics and the webcomic overlook reviews. The criticism Barb got was deserved, she’s a cliche wrapped in derivative writing. I’ve seen her story done better before, Holly Black’s written better.

By: El Santo

El Santo — Thu, 13 May 2010 01:38:37 +0000

Also, while Mama Blade is no doubt a very lovely person, she should understand that the advice works well in small society settings, but does not work all that well in an online setting. Observe: the lowest rated movie on Rotten Tomatoes is, right now, “Furry Vengeance” with a 7% Freshness Rating. It has only gotten 5 positive reviews, and 69 negative reviews. Now, applying Mama Blade’s logic, all 69 negative reviews would have to be eliminated on grounds of not saying anything nice. Hence, the Freshness Rating rises to 100%. Most would interpret this is everybody loving vengeance and those who don’t love Furry Vengeance are simply in the wrong. Not only is this not the case, it is also misleading. So, again, while Mama Blade is quite nice, I have to conclude that her advice does not have much place in the business of critiquing, criticizing, or reviewing.

By: El Santo

El Santo — Thu, 13 May 2010 00:34:12 +0000

if you want to be taken more seriously than a teenager in an armchair criticizing someone with more talent than you have… you would be taking a great step forward by offering useful criticisms – from one artist to another – rather than hurling mud for the sake of hurling mud.

Isn’t it kinda presumptuous to assume that I want to be taken more seriously than a teenager in an armchair? I guess I should let the cat out of the bag: I’m not trying to be taken more seriously than that. Not really.

By: Blade

Blade — Thu, 13 May 2010 00:31:17 +0000

Mama Blade always told me that if I can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.
In all honesty, that’s usually impractical.
So I offer, instead, the following:
If you have the talent as an artist of similar genre (webcomic, print comic, what-have-you) then I feel that it is more than acceptable to ask (of the subject’s creator) and then offer constructive criticisms of a work if or when you find flaws.
As I have little talent personally in the illustration genre (though I can draw a mean stick-figure) I choose not to follow that route. Who am I to make criticisms of someone with far greater talent that I have? That would be arrogant and presumptuous.
I know what I like, I read what I like (and send encouragements to the illustrator); conversely, I know what I don’t like and thus (simply) choose not to read something if I dislike it.
Actually discouraging others from reading something because you dislike its layout or its illustration or plot seems mean-spirited and serves no useful purpose other than draw attention to oneself.
If one doesn’t have constructive criticism (aka you aren’t an artist of similar calibre) then critiquing another’s artwork comes across as a bit of an ‘armchair hockey player’ scenario… those people who yell and rant at the television screen when a player on the team they choose to cheer for makes a mistake.
A completely worthless exercise.
I have little talent in illustration, thus I choose not to criticize and instead read (and bookmark) the comics I like and simply not read the ones that I do not. I recommend the ones that I like and pay no mind to the comics I dislike. I certainly don’t stand on a soapbox and discourage others from reading something they might enjoy (anyone seen or read the Twilight series?)
Now as for writing… I have some knowledge and experience in *that* genre… which brings me back full-circle to Mama Blade’s advice…
“If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.”
If one were to write a future criticism about a subject (be it a webcomic or a criticism of same) then I have a piece of advice:
Lose the snark.
As you stated previous, it may come across as teenagerish… and if you want to be taken more seriously than a teenager in an armchair criticizing someone with more talent than you have… you would be taking a great step forward by offering useful criticisms – from one artist to another – rather than hurling mud for the sake of hurling mud.

By: Groundhog

Groundhog — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 20:39:17 +0000

About the ‘Tinkerbell-mentality’, there is actually one comic which does a fair job of representing fae(that’s the term for the entire ‘race’, right?) in a respectable way.
It’s called Gossamer Commons.

Link: http://gossamercommons.miercoles.org/

It is unfortunately quite dead, but what there is is a fairly interesting read.

It’s a bit embittering that utter shite will be allowed to fester for decades, while some most enjoyable webcomics die long before their time.
Maybe an idea for a future theme-week? A Graveyard Mash of unfinished webcomics

By: GoGoRainbow

GoGoRainbow — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 19:21:51 +0000

I read lots of webcomics but the thing that drew me to barb’s comic was THE CORGI!! I love Livvy. I am a corgi fanatic =)

more seriously, I think Barb’s drawing is SO good. Her poses, clothing, hands, expressions are always so impressive to someone like me who is an amature artist, and who sees SO many bad bad bad web comics (read’m anyways) as far as form goes. I don’t put as much stock in coloring as some people seem to and think that you might have under-valued her drawing skills.

I think the story is actually pretty neat because even though its been going really slow, I still am sticking around and waiting because I’m so curious to learn more about the fairy world and what’s going on there. I think when she went back and she did some history, showing the current eeeevil king and his court and his plan of getting rid of death and it seems, also getting rid of birth is very interesting.

The problem indeed is a lack of development. When the whole 200 day, magic-learning thing happened, Barb said she really had wanted to whole story lines on it and had some planned out, but she just didn’t have the time. I think that’s the problem that’s going on. Life gets in the way. SHE has all the backstory on everybody but to put everything into a comic, the story would take FOREVER. I almost think she should do less coloring, so she doesn’t have to spend so long on each comic, and just get some more story out there. The problem with story comics like this, Ellerton’s stuff, Earthsong is that we are torn between making it great, and keeping a good webcomic schedule with regular updates. Often they’re trying to make it into a book. Penny arcade’s original art is laughable, and that’s no problem for a weekly comic!

I also think things should be judged -relatively-. Like some other people have said, its her first comic and she’s doing it really just because she loves the story and for her faithful readers. I think that sort of webcomic should be given more of a benefit-of-the-doubt than a professional comic that the artist is living off of.

By: El Santo

El Santo — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 23:08:13 +0000

Thanks for the input, Tim. I try not to overload on the snark, but, let's face it, I did give it two stars, so I'm not going to be overwhelmingly positive or even slightly positive about it. I do try to make it sound like it's the worst thing ever, though. I reserve that vitriol for the one star reviews. If you check those out, you'll notice a strong shift from the slightly snarky review here and the full-on anger-filled snark you'll find in reviews of, say, Las Lindas or Grim Tales From Down Below.