Interesting things happen when you interact with the public, especially when you interact with the comic book public and talk about things like art in comic books.
As some followers know, I write reviews for 7-8 current comics every week at www.weeklycomicbookreview.com. It's a fun thing to do and I think it has made me a better comic reader because I'm constantly trying to think of ways to put into words what a comic makes me feel.
But, you see some interesting things in the comment thread.... And, I LOVE our comment thread. There's no better feeling that knowing that something you wrote caused someone to spend some of their time interacting back, so I always try to respond to everyone on our threads.
Ordinarily, I think comics should be a no arguing zone. I mean....when I think of the people who get into fist-shaking rages over comic book arguments, I feel kinda the way Allen Iverson used to feel about "practice". My attitude is usually, "C'mon....we're arguing about comic books! Are you fricking kidding me??"
And, you'll see that attitude on most of the "feel good" internet comic forums: Hey! We're all entitled to our opinions!
But....what if their opinion is legitimately dumb?
Or....think of it another way......should everyone's opinion have equal weight?
In the comic community, you occasionally run into dudes who honestly prefer the artwork of Greg Land to that of Terry Dodson? Or who read the new X-Men comics the last couple of weeks and said that Carlos Pacheco did a better job in Uncanny X-Men #1 than Chris Bachalo did in Wolverine and the X-Men #1? Or, stepping away from art..... There are fans who are legitimately happy that Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson might be getting back together even though we've been seeing them break up and get back together for almost 50 years!
Ya know....sometimes these folks are just wrong. They're entitled to their opinion and no one is going to suggest that they "shut up", but they're wrong and their opinions shouldn't have equal value.
I'm a huge fan of analogies, so let's compare to food. We've all known adults with weird dietary preferences like eating chicken fingers for dinner every night. I'm not much better than chicken-finger-dude. Although I've eaten just about every type of food imaginable and dined in fine restaurants everywhere, I honestly think that it doesn't get any better than a good cheeseburger. That's my opinion and I'm entitled to it. But.....it has a downside. One, I realize that it makes me weird and that while almost everyone likes cheeseburgers, no one likes them as much as I do. Two, when a new French restaurant opens in town and my wife and I eat there, people aren't very interested in my opinion of the food because they know about the cheeseburgers. Finally, when you're a little out-of-step, it is normal that people are going to try to broaden your horizons. Most of my good friends have kinda stopped pestering (after going to a Thai restaurant with me 30 times, seeing me eat everything on the menu and realizing that I still prefer cheeseburgers usually while muttering something about that "Fucking weirdo..."), but it comes with the territory.
I guess the point is that even though we're all entitled to our opinions some of our opinions are so wrong or weird that they kinda disqualify us from having any weight in a discussion. And, that we as comic fans shouldn't be quite as shy about trying to change the opinions of these poor souls. We might not be able to change their opinion, but there's nothing wrong with thinking that they are weirdos.
- Dean Stell
I agree with your overall point, but oddly enough, none of your examples.
ReplyDeleteYour bias toward Chris Bachalo art, for example, may make you think it's obviously better than Pacheco's effort, but it isn't. I haven't seen the issues in question, but personally I haven't liked Bachalo's art very much since he became Humberto Ramos. Loved it back in the Shade days...now, not so much.
Someone who is excited about Mary Jane and Peter getting back together isn't wrong on any level. You can't BE wrong about being "excited", any more than someone can be wrong about being afraid of balloons. It's an emotion. We may not fully relate to it, but that's what empathy is for. Such a reader might not have read 50 years of them getting back together, for one thing, and even if they have, it's not a reach to think they might prefer them that way.
I have run into plenty of what I'd consider to be shaky foundations for arguments on comics forums, though.
P.S. I'd take a cheeseburger over French food too.
ReplyDeleteOne more comment since it's appropriate for the topic:
ReplyDeleteJustin Norman/Moritat's artwork on All-Star Western #1 received a lot of praise from multiple quarters, so I guess that's the "popular" opinion. I didn't think much of it.
Today I read All-Star Western #2 and I'll just say it: the art is lazy and awful on at least half the pages. Photos of clouds for backgrounds? A lack of detail and texture on almost every page. An action sequence that is almost impossible to follow, well, sequentially. If I'm just wrong to think this, I don't wanna be right.