Lose Any Friends Today? (My BF Mission Statement, 1 of 3)
EMO POST AHEAD! FLEE WHILE YOU CAN!
So, yesterday wasn't the best. Less than a week into my tenure at Broken Frontier, I've had someone sever ties with me over something we featured. I'm not gonna get into further specifics about that here or anywhere online: fighting this guy in public is a lose-lose proposition, no matter which of us would "win." I mention it here because it didn't feel awesome, and it made me ask myself questions about why I'm still doing this and my approach.
Writing about comics isn't nearly as much fun as writing comics. It doesn't pay as well. I look back on my old comics and still smile sometimes-- I look back on my essays from a couple years ago and feel mortification. When I write an unpopular comic-strip episode, people get angry with the characters-- when I write an unpopular comics commentary, people get angry with me. I got more praise for Search Engine Funnies, a strip which didn't last thirty installments, than for the 192-page History of Webcomics. I'm not as good at nonfiction as I am at fiction, and I don't know if I ever will be. [Last sentence edited slightly for the permanent record.]
It wasn't always like this. Back in '05 I was losing more than I was making writing comics, the "History of Online Comics" series seemed almost-- almost!-- universally well-regarded, and I felt like I was at the top of my essayist game when I got the call from Antarctic Press. Writing the History stuff was damn hard, harder than anything I've done before or since, but I went into it convinced that it would be worth it, for myself and for the medium.
If you've read anything about it, you know how that worked out. The book does seem popular-ish among comic-book professionals still learning the digital space, but it has fewer fans in the webcomics community, and I'm no longer one of 'em. I still sort of like the ideas behind the thing, the facts are still true, but the execution, the tone, the predictions, the examples, the research mix, the writing-- I've got all these copies in storage and I don't even know if I can keep selling them in good conscience. I may just hold a bonfire.
So why the hell am I still in this?
Next post: the answer.
So, yesterday wasn't the best. Less than a week into my tenure at Broken Frontier, I've had someone sever ties with me over something we featured. I'm not gonna get into further specifics about that here or anywhere online: fighting this guy in public is a lose-lose proposition, no matter which of us would "win." I mention it here because it didn't feel awesome, and it made me ask myself questions about why I'm still doing this and my approach.
Writing about comics isn't nearly as much fun as writing comics. It doesn't pay as well. I look back on my old comics and still smile sometimes-- I look back on my essays from a couple years ago and feel mortification. When I write an unpopular comic-strip episode, people get angry with the characters-- when I write an unpopular comics commentary, people get angry with me. I got more praise for Search Engine Funnies, a strip which didn't last thirty installments, than for the 192-page History of Webcomics. I'm not as good at nonfiction as I am at fiction, and I don't know if I ever will be. [Last sentence edited slightly for the permanent record.]
It wasn't always like this. Back in '05 I was losing more than I was making writing comics, the "History of Online Comics" series seemed almost-- almost!-- universally well-regarded, and I felt like I was at the top of my essayist game when I got the call from Antarctic Press. Writing the History stuff was damn hard, harder than anything I've done before or since, but I went into it convinced that it would be worth it, for myself and for the medium.
If you've read anything about it, you know how that worked out. The book does seem popular-ish among comic-book professionals still learning the digital space, but it has fewer fans in the webcomics community, and I'm no longer one of 'em. I still sort of like the ideas behind the thing, the facts are still true, but the execution, the tone, the predictions, the examples, the research mix, the writing-- I've got all these copies in storage and I don't even know if I can keep selling them in good conscience. I may just hold a bonfire.
So why the hell am I still in this?
Next post: the answer.
Labels: BF, History of Webcomics, Personal, Webcomics
Posted at
9:11 AM
3 Comments:
alright, I gotta ask. Was it about the Wikipedia interviews? I thought they were very interesting.
Sorry, Erik! I understand your curiosity, but if I tell you, the tissue-thin anonymity of the situation gets even thinner.
Well, I guess I got to respect that.
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