Everyone's a Critic...

Everyone is especially a critic when you ask for it... But sometimes unwarranted critiques find their way to you.

My friend Sarah and I co-write and in some ways co-draw the comic Teacher's Pet, which follows the lives of two college-aged superheroes who are best friends, but whose superhero alter egoes are mortal enemies. This is an idea we got during the planning for a party -- and we have managed to turn it into a webcomic of which we have written about 14 chapters, though only 1-4 are available online right now. Anywayyy...

A website called "bad webcomics wiki" has seemed to find us (HOW?!), and has decided we have made their list. They haven't officially reviewed us yet, but if their forum post is any indication it won't be pretty. They doubt our age (and apparently our sanity) and say that pretty much everything about the comic sucks. Here's why that bothers me...

One, because well... I'm a fragile artist. Wah wah and all that. But really, I try to work really hard on my writing, and I have never done a comic before. I'm figuring it out as I go, but I never look at a script and go, "meh, that's good enough." So the work they tore apart was my BEST work as far as comics go, and I'd like to think that I'm improving as I go. I can say the same for the primary artist, who has also never done a comic before. We both try very hard, and we never ASKED to be torn to pieces.

Two, I'm a writer, musician and hopeful English teacher. Sarah's a musician and therapist and athlete. None of those read "visual artist." This isn't our medium, but we're doing our best.

Three, if you look at chapter one and then look at chapter four, we have both come a long way in a short time. Saying "you suck" is like saying that all the improvement we have clearly made counts for nothing. We are genuinely trying, and they don't care. They just want to take a dump on our efforts and make us feel bad.

Five, what "sucks" is so subjective. Are people really yellow with huge overbites and four fingers? No, but The Simpsons, anatomically incorrect though they may be, will always be my favorite show. It's not fair to say something is "bad," when what "bad" is has no remotely clear definition.

Okay - I know I've been hard on things, in the same way that badwebcomicswiki hates on us. Like Twilight. But that's because Twilight isn't well-written OR a good influence on its readers. Not only do you have to interpret Twilight as you read it, you have this horrible, dysfunctional, even abusive relationship staring at you from the pages -- and these terrible ideals are glorified! I maintain that if Twilight were a Lifetime movie, Bella's friends and family would have had an intervention and removed Edward from her life. The creepy guy who "loves her a little too much" is not supposed to win. No. That's not okay. That kind of relationship should not be what young readers want to pursue, and yet thousands of teenage girls are out there looking for their Edwards.

So it's justified in saying Twilight sucks, I think. Our story, however, is about friendship, tragedy, moving on, and good vs. evil -- while often questioning where evil comes from and what actually makes something or someone "Evil." We.... might not have gotten to all that just yet. I'm wondering if my pacing is off -- but that's the downside of publishing as you go.

In conclusion, unwarranted critiques by self-proclaimed experts are not nice. Cut that out.