Bent Corner

Larry Young, publisher at comic book company AiT/PlanetLar has written an interesting piece over at Comic Book Resources dealing with the phenomenon of overly negative comic book online reviews. It’s where people with a website go out of their way to read comics they know they are not going to enjoy so they can have something to review. None of them are actual critics or reviewers per say. None of them get paid for their reviews. None of them make a living this way. They merely write negative reviews because of their supposed love of the medium. Something like that.

I mean, how else to account for what passes for comics criticism, nowadays? When was the last time you read something online or in print that wasn’t a bunch of negativity, or, at best, dissembling? Where is everyone’s passion? Where is the enthusiasm? I mean, if you don’t like what you’re reading, here’s a thought: stop.

Amen brother. If you don’t like what you are reading, stop.

Seems easy enough, right? You would think. The problem is, many online comic critics cannot seem to grasp this. They purposely go out of their way to read things they should know they are going to hate. Things that fall squarely and completely out of their favorite genres.

It would be like me writing online reviews of country western music.

Take for example online comic book reviewer Johanna Draper Carlson. She is the owner of a popular comic review site, Comics Worth Reading. Though I often read her accompanying blog, I rarely read her actual review site. Why? She seems to go out of her way to read material she should know she will not like and then proceed to write overly negative reviews about it. Case in point, the Luna Brothers and their comic Girls.

Girls #6 (Joshua and Jonathan Luna) would be ludicrously funny if it weren’t so earnest about justifying its nudity, violence, and swearing. In this issue, random men are killed by being torn into pieces by a giant sperm in a cornfield. The town tries to evacuate, but they find the area surrounded by a giant force bubble right out of a Silver Age superhero comic. Idiotic, juvenile tripe that only gets attention because it’s got nekkid wimmen in it.

Why did she even bother to read Girls #6? This “review” was after she gave an overly negative review of Girls #1. To me it just doesn’t make any real sense. It’s not a “King is wearing no clothes” type of situation. It’s not like Girls is any sort of top seller or a major mover in the comic book shop. ICv2 recently released the top 300 comic books in sales for the month of October and Girls #6 came in at number 147. It sold only 12,113 copies. What’s the point in dumping on it? Why continue picking on a low selling title that most people seem to be ignoring anyway?

Who knows.

Pat Benatar taught us that love was a battlefield. It appears the world of podcasting can be a battlefield too. The battle in question involves former MTV VJ Adam Curry and programming expert Dave Winer. It involves giving credit where credit is due.

Winer was instrumental in the development of the thing we call blogging. He was also quite involved in the medium we refer to as podcasting. He was behind much of the technology that make both blogging and podcasting possible.

It seems that Adam Curry logged on to Wikipedia and deleted entries that documented Winer’s contributions to the technology behind podcasting and instead gave credit to himself.

For example, one entry he deleted was:

Curry’s and Winer’s podcasts, including several months of collaboration they called “Trade Secrets,” spread interest in podcasting among other widely-read bloggers. Amateur blogs and open source developers continued as important factors in the popularization of podcasting before and after professional broadcasters and entrepreneurs with business plans adopted the form.

He deleted some other entries too. Basically anything involving credit behind the technology involving podcasting got the axe. Unless it included the contributions of Adam Curry. The reason we know this is because Curry’s IP address was logged and stored by Wikipedia.

Adam Curry is a likable guy. For better or for worse, he has become the face of podcasting. He is called by many as “The Podfather”. He gets podcasting in the mainstream media more then probably anyone else. Adam Curry is practically worshiped by some podcasters.

He also has really nice hair.

It would be nice if Curry and Winer could end their feud.

I have a suggestion. It makes more sense then secretly breaking out the Wikipedia eraser. It’s what I do when I have a personal problem with someone. I challenge them to a cage match.

Curry and Winer need to handle this problem like men. They need to wrap some barbed wire around a baseball bat, grab a metal folding chair or two, and clime into a caged wrestling ring. It’s how I settle my disputes with people.

There is nothing like a cage match when it comes to ending a personal conflict with someone.

Who wins or who looses is really immaterial. Getting this spat resolved is the important thing. Blood will most surely spill. Bones might break. Concussions will likely occur. At least this personal feud will come to a halt. It will be resolved.

If I were to guess who would win, I would put my money on Winer. Curry strikes me as somewhat of a Fancy Man. Someone who probably isn’t too familiar with physical combat. Delicate even. Winer on the other hand strikes me as a real scrapper. His Wikipedia bio states that he was born in Brooklyn so he probably is no stranger to having to kick some ass.

Then again, Adam Curry might have secretly edited Winer’s Wikipedia bio to show that. Maybe he is not really from Brooklyn. Who knows.