(Note that I'm providing the link not for endorsement purposes but really just for posterity. Read me first before clicking!)
There is a website ostensibly for the purpose of webcomic criticism named Websnark, but primarily it devolves into weepy self-pity and indulgent back-scratching between the commentors and the authors. Why this bothers me, I don't know. Part of it is probably because there is no other real resource for criticism focusing on an ephemeral medium that might not last all that long, nor will gain any artistic credibility among the mainstream in a hundred years or so. But that's not entirely the point.
One of the things Websnark did originally that attracted my notice was a feature called "You Had Me and You Lost Me," in which Eric Burns (principal author) would catalogue the features of a webcomic that caused him to generally lose interest. One of those webcomics was Megatokyo, which I was in the middle of losing myself (it started all right but became an exercise in glacial patience).
I'm all for people writing about what they want to write about, and perhaps my criticisms of Websnark are insincere or hypocritical (feel free to point this out if you so desire). The first step toward Websnark's losing me was its own loss of focus. The aims of the blog changed more from analyzing the webcomic as an artform and more for allowing Burns to write about the traumas, real and imagined, that had dominated his on/offline life. Which is fine, as well, if this is what you've advertised, but to switch horses midstream is somewhat disingenuous and not entirely psychologically healthy. What he seems to have created is an atmosphere where he maintains a facade of hiding these traumas, only to let them out in preordained intervals and preordained manner, so that when one of these massive expository dumps does occur, his audience feels not only privileged to have listened, but encouraged to admire his own skill with words and personal conviction.
Note also, in the recent (and by "recent" I mean several months ago) occurrence of Internet Drama between the artists of Penny Arcade! and a good majority of the indie comic world. There was a documentary made about webcomics, Penny Arcade! didn't agree with it, and they called the makers of the documentary on their pretensions. Eric Burns seized on this satire and immediately charged Tycho and Gabriel of incredible insensitivity toward Cat Garza (a man portrayed in both the documentary and the parody), even going so far as to demean Penny Arcade! as nothing more than video game jokes and the color purple. The end of the article was, and I'm not paraphasing, "Fuck you, Penny Arcade. Fuck you guys."
What bothers me about this is not that Burns is missing the point of Penny Arcade!, nor that he's a hypocritical douchebag. It's mostly that he's manufacturing some kind of insult to himself as a way of generating pathos. In the thrust of his argument against PA, he mentions how much he's been ridiculed his entire life by "the cool kids." He positions himself as the underdog to PA's Goliath. Somehow, he even dredged Aaron Sorkin's show Sports Night into the matter. There was much bluster, much self-righteousness, much indignation.
And it was all shit. By all means, stand up for what you believe in. But if someone parodies another person, and if the target of that parody does not mind (nor even by all accounts notice), don't attempt to create a crusade for your own embittered past. No one made fun of you, Burns. No one even mentioned you. Cat Garza does not need you or your help. And your attempt at laying PA in their place is, in fact, doing what you believe PA to have done in the first place. Tycho and Gabe made fun of Cat Garza only superficially; namely they were leveling criticisms at pretensions to the revolutionary in a new medium. Especially pretensions toward being revolutionary when you're only repeating the footsteps of the genuine forefathers you're unaware of. To say that PA's seven-year presence on the web means nothing, to sneer at them for playing video games, to mention that they're not even really artists (when Burns until only recently did not have a webcomic), is sneering self-righteousness of the worst sort. "Fuck you, Penny Arcade"?
Shut up, Eric Burns.
That isn't even the original point of my post... one of the points of this post was to argue that Burns has created a pathology among his commentors and frequent audience that generates this odd ego cult. The recent inclusion of Wednesday White, Burns's romantic interest and now co-author, is indicative of the strange me fixation present in Websnark. Perhaps it's odd to call someone's vanity on a project that deserves little more than vanity, and perhaps it's doubly hypocritical to do so on this blog, but at least here, we've acknowledged that the primary focus of this is Us (Genie and Djinn) and not some other subject matter. To force someone looking for other material to wade through the detritus of your shipwreck life is self-absorbed. To initially position your material as the documentation of your own life is fine. To masquerade it is not.
Take his posting about November 19th, which is up right now. What he would like for you to believe is that these posts are about his friend Richard, who is deceased. This is not the case. What he has really done is manipulated the telling of his friend's death into a cause celebre for his own steadfastness as the "good friend." It's not a post about how Richard was a good person. It's a story about how Burns has remembered all these years, and my God, shouldn't we be glad Burns is gracing us with these notes from his exemplary life? Oh, look at the poor dear, he can write so well. Richard's death is nothing but the springboard from which you should leap to the conclusion that Burns is a great writer and a sensitive person. This, at least, is what he wants you to believe.
It's disgusting not only that he's coopting his friend's life for his own self-satisfaction, but more that everyone at Websnark is buying it. Stop patting him on the back. That his commentors are as blind to his presentation is not much of a surprise. To return to Websnark requires delusion of the grandest sort, and to participate requires swallowing the Kool-Aid with a smile on your dying face.
"Fuck you, Penny Arcade"? No. Not quite.
Fuck you, Eric Burns.
There is a website ostensibly for the purpose of webcomic criticism named Websnark, but primarily it devolves into weepy self-pity and indulgent back-scratching between the commentors and the authors. Why this bothers me, I don't know. Part of it is probably because there is no other real resource for criticism focusing on an ephemeral medium that might not last all that long, nor will gain any artistic credibility among the mainstream in a hundred years or so. But that's not entirely the point.
One of the things Websnark did originally that attracted my notice was a feature called "You Had Me and You Lost Me," in which Eric Burns (principal author) would catalogue the features of a webcomic that caused him to generally lose interest. One of those webcomics was Megatokyo, which I was in the middle of losing myself (it started all right but became an exercise in glacial patience).
I'm all for people writing about what they want to write about, and perhaps my criticisms of Websnark are insincere or hypocritical (feel free to point this out if you so desire). The first step toward Websnark's losing me was its own loss of focus. The aims of the blog changed more from analyzing the webcomic as an artform and more for allowing Burns to write about the traumas, real and imagined, that had dominated his on/offline life. Which is fine, as well, if this is what you've advertised, but to switch horses midstream is somewhat disingenuous and not entirely psychologically healthy. What he seems to have created is an atmosphere where he maintains a facade of hiding these traumas, only to let them out in preordained intervals and preordained manner, so that when one of these massive expository dumps does occur, his audience feels not only privileged to have listened, but encouraged to admire his own skill with words and personal conviction.
Note also, in the recent (and by "recent" I mean several months ago) occurrence of Internet Drama between the artists of Penny Arcade! and a good majority of the indie comic world. There was a documentary made about webcomics, Penny Arcade! didn't agree with it, and they called the makers of the documentary on their pretensions. Eric Burns seized on this satire and immediately charged Tycho and Gabriel of incredible insensitivity toward Cat Garza (a man portrayed in both the documentary and the parody), even going so far as to demean Penny Arcade! as nothing more than video game jokes and the color purple. The end of the article was, and I'm not paraphasing, "Fuck you, Penny Arcade. Fuck you guys."
What bothers me about this is not that Burns is missing the point of Penny Arcade!, nor that he's a hypocritical douchebag. It's mostly that he's manufacturing some kind of insult to himself as a way of generating pathos. In the thrust of his argument against PA, he mentions how much he's been ridiculed his entire life by "the cool kids." He positions himself as the underdog to PA's Goliath. Somehow, he even dredged Aaron Sorkin's show Sports Night into the matter. There was much bluster, much self-righteousness, much indignation.
And it was all shit. By all means, stand up for what you believe in. But if someone parodies another person, and if the target of that parody does not mind (nor even by all accounts notice), don't attempt to create a crusade for your own embittered past. No one made fun of you, Burns. No one even mentioned you. Cat Garza does not need you or your help. And your attempt at laying PA in their place is, in fact, doing what you believe PA to have done in the first place. Tycho and Gabe made fun of Cat Garza only superficially; namely they were leveling criticisms at pretensions to the revolutionary in a new medium. Especially pretensions toward being revolutionary when you're only repeating the footsteps of the genuine forefathers you're unaware of. To say that PA's seven-year presence on the web means nothing, to sneer at them for playing video games, to mention that they're not even really artists (when Burns until only recently did not have a webcomic), is sneering self-righteousness of the worst sort. "Fuck you, Penny Arcade"?
Shut up, Eric Burns.
That isn't even the original point of my post... one of the points of this post was to argue that Burns has created a pathology among his commentors and frequent audience that generates this odd ego cult. The recent inclusion of Wednesday White, Burns's romantic interest and now co-author, is indicative of the strange me fixation present in Websnark. Perhaps it's odd to call someone's vanity on a project that deserves little more than vanity, and perhaps it's doubly hypocritical to do so on this blog, but at least here, we've acknowledged that the primary focus of this is Us (Genie and Djinn) and not some other subject matter. To force someone looking for other material to wade through the detritus of your shipwreck life is self-absorbed. To initially position your material as the documentation of your own life is fine. To masquerade it is not.
Take his posting about November 19th, which is up right now. What he would like for you to believe is that these posts are about his friend Richard, who is deceased. This is not the case. What he has really done is manipulated the telling of his friend's death into a cause celebre for his own steadfastness as the "good friend." It's not a post about how Richard was a good person. It's a story about how Burns has remembered all these years, and my God, shouldn't we be glad Burns is gracing us with these notes from his exemplary life? Oh, look at the poor dear, he can write so well. Richard's death is nothing but the springboard from which you should leap to the conclusion that Burns is a great writer and a sensitive person. This, at least, is what he wants you to believe.
It's disgusting not only that he's coopting his friend's life for his own self-satisfaction, but more that everyone at Websnark is buying it. Stop patting him on the back. That his commentors are as blind to his presentation is not much of a surprise. To return to Websnark requires delusion of the grandest sort, and to participate requires swallowing the Kool-Aid with a smile on your dying face.
"Fuck you, Penny Arcade"? No. Not quite.
Fuck you, Eric Burns.
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