Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Webcomic Drama!

Damn you Websnark! I truly miss what you once were. The provided link pinpoints exactly why I've fallen out of love with you, but here's a snippet for those who aren't interested in reading two long-winded blog posts today:

"Which brings us to the meat of the subject. I'm not talking about the Webcomics community much these days. I'm not talking about who hates John Solomon or Joey Manley or Scott Kurtz or Penny Arcade or Robert A. Howard and who's defending any of that list to others or who's doing anything like that. I'm not diving into the fray giving my two cents on it or talking about who's being mean or who's being thin skinned or who's right or who's wrong or any of that stuff. And the core reason why is, as stated above, I just don't give a shit any more." -Eric Burns
Well damn... You see, I absolutely love webcomic drama. Hell, I love any stupid drama - I'm a drama hound. Of course I hate to actually have any drama in my life (I've actually spent a lot of effort removing drama-laden people from my world), but it's still one of my favorite spectator sports. And the "webcomics community" has some of the most ridiculously over-blown drama you can find. Am I shallow for this interest? Hell yes I am, I'll admit it. But don't think that I'm any more shallow than most people. Frankly, anyone who watches 90% of what's on television is watching it for the exact same reason I am: because it's fun to spectate on the silly meaningless conflicts and stress in other people lives from a safe distance outside. Whether you watch(ed) 90210, The O.C., Desperate Housewives, House M.D., Bones, Scrubs, or damn near any other non-documentary show, you're into it for the same reason that I thrive on the webcomic scene. Stupid drama. Which brings me back to Websnark. You see, I am what I'd describe as an actively casual webcomic fan. I read quite a lot of them (though I read a good number of those in one monthly digest-like fashion) and have at the very least have some experience with most of the names you'll hear thrown around in the world of webcomics. But, I don't really do the webcomic communities. I don't follow the artists, I don't post and/or read the forums (with only a very few exceptions), and I even most often only skim the accompanying blog posts just in case there is any good drama that catches my eye. But, what I did do was read the webcomic-related Websnark posts. Websnark was my drama-radar. Not only did Eric Burns point me to the juicy fights and hissy fits and whatnot of the comics I cared about, but since he has considerably different tastes than I do, he would even write about the drama over comics I didn't read and thereby would have missed out on entirely! Admittedly, most often Eric had enough tact to not post that much of the actual drama, but he certainly gave me enough info to go and seek out whatever the issue du jour was. But, as Mr. Burns said, he just hasn't been talking about it lately. I understand his aversion to it all - as somebody with a bit of standing in the webcomic world and whose blog has a pretty terrific number of readers, I can imagine that the drama often times encroached into his actual world rather than just being there for him to view from the outside. So I understand him decision to stay out of it, and I respect it. But that doesn't mean I'm not still sad about it. I'm sad not only about missing future stupid drama, but also about knowing that I have already missed plenty. Oh, how much I miss the days of Kris Straub (of Checkerboard Nightmare and Starslip Crisis) delightfully mocking the shit-pile that is Tim Buckley and his trite excuse-for-a-comic Ctrl+Alt+Del (google it if you have to, I refuse to link it). Ah well, I still read all of the webcomic tagged entry at Websnark, even if they are a little less frequent or satisfying. Sorry for such a long post saying so little. But hey, if anyone out there hears any tasty bits of webcomic gossip - don't hesitate to send them my way!

...also, maybe I'm less sad about Websnarks change and more sad about not having Checkerboard Nightmare around anymore. That comic wouldn't have even existed had it not been for drama and other trivial shit out there. Alas.

2 comments:

Kris Straub said...

Yeah, but the other part of it was that I didn't want to do Checkerboard Nightmare after I was tired of commenting on the drama. There really wasn't anywhere to go after Chex went "Hey Lyle! Platinum is doing SOMETHING DUMB, and I gots to get ins on that!" I was rereading CxN a little while ago and the part I miss, lame as it is, is the bad storylines where I had something like "Dot is pregnant" and I had to build some nonsense around it.

The webcomics drama engine is pretty dead because everyone worth gossiping about has graduated to minding their own business. It was fun while it lasted. I miss Chex too.

B Williams said...

Wow, didn't expect anyone to read my entry, much less reply to it... and much much less for it to be you! Frankly, I'm somewhat honored. And as I somewhat alluded to, I understand why anyone who actually *was* a part of the webcomic drama would want to stay out of it - so I certainly understand why you got tired of the drama. I'm just lamenting my own selfish little loss. Lol.