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Every couple of months, for no good reason, I visit the DC message boards. Here's what I found that may be of interest to members of Barbelith.
John Byrne on Doom Patrol?
Darqueguy has quite a good list of reasons why this may be Byrne's big DC revamp (scroll down). I've always enjoyed Byrne's rendition of the Doom Patrol, though I haven't been impressed with anything he's done in over ten years. I hope he doesn't bring Rita Farr back. I'll be waiting for the trade on this one.
Which of you are those...people? Jess Levins on retiring his Smax annotations.
I'm probably not going to be doing the annotations for Smax any more. If I do, I'll do them quite some time from now--six months to a year.
Thanks to those...people...at Barbelith, among other places, I've been getting a stream of very insulting e-mails. They suggest things to add to the Smax and 1602 annotations, but they do so in very insulting, condescending, and demeaning ways, to the point where the joy of annotating has been entirely destroyed for me. I just don't need daily suggestions that I'm not bright enough to do this or that annotation, that I'm not as smart or literate as the people e-mailing me, and that I'm not doing a very good job. Annotating comic books was a hobby for me, a pleasant diversion, and a substantial portion of online comic fandom has made it unpleasant and a black cloud for me.
I'll continue to do the 1602 annotations, because Gaiman links to them on his blog, if not reads the annotations themselves, and because a substantial number of people who otherwise wouldn't read the annotations do. But I've pretty much decided to stop on the Smax annotations. I'm so disgusted with online comics fandom right now that I'm seriously considering retiring from it altogether. It's one thing to get insulting e-mail from people who feel I've insulted them directly; it's quite another to get daily e-mails from people who casually demean me.
I have a choice. I can spend time and effort on the annotations, with no physical reward and a constant stream of comments from people who think I'm not doing a very good job and am not qualified to do the job. Or I can spend time and effort writing my books, which will pay me and give me pleasant feedback. Right now I can't think of a single good reason why I should spend a second longer on the annotations.
When the third League miniseries comes out, I will annotate it. And if there is a 1602 miniseries, I'll annotate it. But as far as Smax and the 49ers go, right now I doubt there'll be any more annotations. Likewise, I doubt I'll be frequenting bulletin boards any more; having people allege that I lied about a Moore quote, and then having no one defend me, told me all I need to know about my standing on the bulletin boards. That being the case, there's no need for me to go to the bulletin boards.
So--good bye.
I originally saw this quoted in a different forum, and mention it only for the title of the thread ("The frightening selfishness of comic book fans") and the only reply so far.
I (unfortunately) agree with your assessment, and find too that an already nervy bunch has become infamously catty with the advent of internet derision.
You bastards! |
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