There's this Tumblr called Escher Girls, which dedicates itself to critiquing flawed female anatomy in comics, often with various re-draws of a more human proportion.

One of their more popular subjects is the work of Randy Queen and his sex-bomb good-ol' down South girl of dreams and nightmares, DarkChylde. Oh, memories. I used to read DarkChylde when I was young and naive and looking for good comics with girls in them. Personally I used to think the art was beautiful, until I realized it was actually the colouring I loved. Sorry, I deviated.

Well, Mr. Queen wasn't too happy about this and filed a bundle of DMCA notices to have the critique taken down. Oh, and he also threatened to sue the woman behind Escher Girls for defamation.

Gail Simone and John Scalzi tweet their thoughts.

Randy Queen tries to clarify his position: "You're mocking 18 year old work. You think it's so bad, YOU make a comic!"

Rob Liefeld facepalms.

Full write up on The Mary Sue.

As of four hours ago, he apologized!

Hey everyone,
Just wanted to clear up a few things that happened this past week. I have been having a very hard time in my personal life with the loss of my mother and my marriage having fallen apart and found myself in a very vulnerable and fragile state of mind. There were posts on the web criticizing my artwork that were brought to my attention and added to my stress. I reacted without thinking it through, but have now stopped, realizing my response was the wrong one to take. I am doing my best, each day, to get myself back on my feet and getting my life in a better place and realize now that I have just try to move on and get back to my art, the thing I find the most joy in these days. I want to thank those professionals, friends and family who have been giving me their support, understanding and love.
Thanks for listening.
~ R

Avengers fandom uses the tag "science bros" on tumblr to mean Bruce and Tony. Then Pacific Rim fans started using the tag to mean Newt and Hermann. Clearly, there can be only one.

[Note: This wank was posted once before but had to be deleted when it turned out one person cited was underage. Ze has been removed and now there's new fresh wank added.]

ask-science-boyfriends collects a giant number of complaints about the shared tag and says, "So yes, this is all meant in respect. It’s just getting a little crazy, and I want us all to be friends and I want you to have one ship name to rule them all! Thanks guys. Anything we can do here to help the quest for one true ship name, just let us know. <3))"
( Read more... )

(Thank you to a mousey at wank_report! I have c/p your commentary verbatim, only adding links.)

Ten days ago, author FelicityGS posted "There's Nothing There" a Loki/Steve Rogers fic, and lo, there was squee...for three comments. [ETA: Added correct link, because I'm apparently a dumbass before coffee.]

Until, that is, the following mild concrit is posted by "J":

"Almost all of the parenthesis and several commas were unnecessary. If a sentence goes on for more than two lines, it should probably be broken up into two or more sentences. You might want to get a beta who is really good with grammar/punctuation. Otherwise, great story. Very cute and well thought out. (:"

Felicity GS does Not Take It Well, and in a series of comments compares her work to that great author "Nabakov", and claims her "style" trumps such things as "proper grammar" and "readability", closing with this flourish:

But do me a fucking favour:

don't fucking tell me I need a fucking goddamn beta who knows grammar really fucking well and that I could get rid of all those fucking parens and had too many fucking commas because I did not use any of those fucking lightly and you are a fucking douche.

Because if the above didn't give it away?

I know fucking grammar. I know style. I am comfortable in my style, I have given thought to my style, and I know the difference between grammar and style. I write fanfiction as a labour of love and to share stories, to hone my craft and to practice what I have been doing since I could hold a pen.

Fuck.

You.

<3

Her commenters are rather boggled, except for an anon who immediately starts rending garments in response to someone leaving a critique on - GASP! - a Yuletide fic:

But you're probably also someone who tells their granny the Christmas socks scratch and the cookies are dusty instead of doing the right thing. What a miserable bunch of hypocrites and nasty bitches claimed Yuletide this year!

Unfortunately, the fic has nothing whatsoever to do with Yuletide, and fellow anons take him/her/zie/them to task for the mistake:

Gift exchange? Yuletide? Also, the author was the one reacting with hostility to a helpful comment-- vile, abusive hostility. WITH AN EPIC NOVEL OF OVERLY DEFENSIVE BABBLE.

I don't even-- what is with your comment? Are you trying to paint me as some sort of hands-rubbing, world-domination-wanting Grinch? Where are you going with this absurd reading into things that aren't there at all?

FelicityGS deflects blame by claiming she was "stressed" and wrote the fic to ease said mental strain. She also complains about the meanness of the author who dared leave her concrit, up to and including misrepresenting the content of the feedback:

"No. It was not helpful nor constructive. It said "this sucks, this sucks, do better, oh and the idea was nice."

That is not useful."

Still active and ongoing, as FelicityGS's comments have hit both Yuletide Coal and Fail Fandom Anon, where, unsurprisingly, is hilarity at FelicityGS's overreaction.

BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!

FelicityGS has taken the wank to her own tumblr (all stylistic choices original):

I.

Love.

Parentheses.

And you can pry them away from me and my style over my cold, dead body.

(fuck you)

(no seriously)

(but not you guys that actually explain why you don’t like parens, you guys are cool)

Commas? Okay, yeah, there are some comma splices in the story. No big. Whatever. I literally typed it up and posted it, and there are some spots I wouldn’t mind smoothing a bit. And I am willing to bet most the commas that you think are ‘unnecessary’ are, in fact, doing things. Like separating lists, or clauses, or, you know, THINGS THAT COMMAS DO.

I actually feel delightfully, refreshingly vindicated and good for breaking down that comment and addressing it in that manner, because I can look at it and see that, no, no, I’m not fucking crazy.

You may not be crazy, sweetie, but you are certainly a wanker.

So...This happened:

Apparently Rob Liefeld and Scott Snyder are having an e-pissing contest on who's the better Batman.

Bleeding Cool brings the goods.

More details courtesy of loopywafflehead. I've basically stolen all of this with her permission. Thank her for the diligent work, kids! (But just like Rob, I won't erase my mistakes I'LL JUST LEAVE THEM THERE BECAUSE PSHHHH!)


( Rob Liefeld Insults Everyone )

Rick Olney is a comics producer, comics convention organizer, and comics con-artist. I haven’t heard of this guy until today, but he’s been up to no good since the mid-2000s by not paying artists for their work or for making appearances, including big names as the dearly departed [I don't know why I thought that] Chuck Dixon and Gail Simone, and then threatens anyone who DARE speak out for what he did to them! You can read more about him here (2009) and here (2006) and witness his assholery in the comments on both links (he’s “orcafresh” in the Gail Simone Forum thread on CBR)! Oh and Sep pointed out to me that he was featured here in 2007! i.e. He implied that “Gail Simone” (quotation marks Olney’s, not mine) slept her way into the industry. Seriously.

( Some people like to dig their own grave. A few will not stop until they reach China. )
( ETA 1, 2, and 3 )
ETA5: wankismyfandom has pointed out that we've been spotted. Let's give him a round of unenthusiastic golf claps!

I have three close friends inside this hobby and business of comics, as well as outside the realm of imagination mediums for each other of them!

HE HAS THREE FRIENDS. THREE. THAT'S MORE THAN ONE AND TWO. IT IS ONE PLUS TWO!

(And WHY HELLO THAR, GAIL SIMONE FORUM! :D)

ETA5: It's official. Lucasfilm is sending Rick Olney a Cease and Desist. He is to return both the remaining maps and any monies (haha- Rick's fave word) that he collected back to me. Shazam. All the maps must be accounted for and any missing from the number I sent shall be paid for. - Matt Busch

And now for some old fashioned people fighting in public that we can rubberneck at.

The gist: oakenshields13 and stardustcities run 1stclass Kink, apparently.

Emails have not been getting through.

Stardustcities makes a daring gambit. How will it turn out?

Well, apparently by Stardustcities not being a mod anymore.

Feel free to mock (or real) fight amongst yourselves.

edit: They've been here before

Over at girlgenius_lab on LiveJournal, midnightchemist vents about being laid off and hating the world. The person then decides to use this opportunity to vent their frustrations about Girl Genius.

( I have been a fan of Girl Genius since the time it was only on dead trees - over ten years ago. Quite frankly, and I have been thinking this for a while now, this story is going nowhere, and nowhere fast. How long have we been in Castle Heterodyne? More importantly, how much longer are we going to be here? At this rate, it will be way past volume 20 before we ever see anything outside Mechanicsburg )

This is crossposted as a comment on the Girl Genius comic account as well as midnightchemist's own LJ. So far, there are no responses. On the other hand, there are 42 comments and counting on the girlgenius_lab post, the second of which points out the irony of the situation.

You are asking them to basically fire themselves and hire somebody else. After complaining about your own life sucking because you were fired.

There are calls for balletion, a tl;dr, and even some expressions of sympathy.

Apparently, this isn't the first wank this person has been involved with in girlgenius_lab, they posted in their own journal that they've been banned before from the comm.

Remember Rob Granito? Well, he's still out there, attempting to channel the 'controversy' (read: having his art-tracing, resume-faking ass busted) into some kind of career.

At last word, he was trying to sell his story to the highest bidder, but ended up just doing a couple of email interviews with Bleeding Cool.

( Hold your nose, there's some serious bullshit ahead... )

RPG.net has often been accused of having a Liberal Hive Mind, or being unfriendly towards right-wing posters. Today morgonstjarnan takes a stand against this tyranny by posting a thread titled Superman & socialist self-loathing to Other Media.

( Cut for right-wingnuttery, patronization, and deliberately missing the point. )

The mods, who while competent and gracious often have a habit of spoiling the fun, are quick to evict him after this revelation. The Trouble Tickets thread also reveals this isn’t his first violation.

Silly Superman trolls. Don’t they know it’s Captain America who’s commanded to wank?

From a mouse at wank_report .

For at least the last six years, a guy called Rob Granito has been going to comic book conventions and getting them to give him a free table as an official guest by showing his resume which includes various cartoons and DC and Marvel Comics.

Then some unnamed anonymous person noticed that his convention bio claimed "his most recent projects have been the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes". Say WHAT? Calvin and Hobbes, the comic that ended in the 90's and was produced singlehanded by Bill Watterson? This anonymous benefactor put Rich Johnston of comic site Bleeding Cool on the case.

And Rich didn't need to be Sherlock Holmes to crack it - a few phone calls proved none of the comic book companies he claimed to be connected to had even heard of him.

Granito's rebuttal? He claimed he "was a ghost artist for most of the projects I did", despite the fact that Marvel and DC don't hire ghost artists. Also, he claimed to work with the famed DC Editor "Jay Diddilo" who... does not exist. Maybe he heard of DC head Dan DiDio and didn't remember properly? The mind boggles.

( Money, lies and plagiarism )

Did your inker mysteriously disappear from your totz awesome, no pay job? Need a new inker for free? Just ask yourself, what would Rob Tracy (a.k.a. quikthnkr) do?

1. Post your request on DA. In the Paid Job section.
2. Argue when people inform you of the rules. (Rules are like, opinions, man.)
3. Grudge against artists who want to get paid for their work.
4. Grudge against previous co-workers.
5. Argue with people who give you solid advice.
6. Insult possible volunteers.
7. Calmly explain that the poor economy means that artists should be grateful for no pay, dead end jobs.
8. When all else fails declare yourself the winner.

Thanks to anon's wank report.

ETA: Locked post at artists_beware (open membership). Cache for original post by issendai (deleted).
Also, previous wank from the same guy, courtesy of issendai.

We all love plagiarism wank, be it the saga of Cassie Claire or Aja going nuclear on someone. But it's always better when it involves pro authors!

Wendy Pini is best known as the co-author of Elfquest, a comic about elves. I've never read it, so just fill in the blanks here, look it up in wiki, etc. She's now publishing Masque of the Red Death, inspired by the famous Poe story but with gay romance in outer space. Of course, she's totally been getting hate mail from gay men about this series.

But, you might say, as you look at this extensive writeup of comparisons, doesn't that look a lot like Colleen Doran's A Distant Soil?

We're catching up on this one a little late, so if you look at the version on LJ, there's a whole host of ETAs, including the claim that Wendy Pini has never seen ADS...except a preview of it was published in one of the Elfquest issues. Oops!

You can see Colleen Doran's work at her website, if this writeup sparks your interest.

Thanks to the anons at wank_report.

My Lord,

I hope this missive finds you well, for I write to you now with the most dire of news. A new enemy threatens our homes, our families, our very existence.

I am speaking, of course, of that movie about Scott Pilgrim.

( Read more... )

ETA from ilinana: Banned!

Thanks to wtf for the Write up at fandom_lounge.

Alrighty. It seems that Nick Simmons, son of Gene Simmons, is a comic book artist. And a huge fan of Bleach. So huge that he apparently copied from it wholesale. Especially Orihime and Captain Badass, er, I mean Kenpachi. But not Byakuya *is secretly a Byakuya/Kenpachi shipper, ZOMG THEIR LOVE IS SO EPIC AND TRUE!*

Ahem.

(ETA He swiped from a whole bingo card worth of fandoms. Hellsing 1/2, Deathnote, FMA, One Piece, Naruto 1/2, Deadman Wonderland, Lupin the Third, Neon Genesis Evangelion, More Hellsing with touch of Death from Sandman, various artists on Deviantart, and probably a few others I've forgotten about. The most blatant stuff is Bleach and Hellsing)

Bleach fans mobilize on Twitter, LiveJournal, Facebook and Nick's Deviantart.

VIZ and Kubo Tite respond on Twitter. A rough translation for Kubo here.

Nick's publisher responds:

We at Radical Publishing, Inc. and Radical Comics, Inc. are quite concerned to hear the news surrounding Nick Simmons’s Incarnate Comic Book. We are taking this matter seriously and making efforts now to contact the publishers of the works in question in an effort to resolve this matter. We have halted further production and distribution of the “Incarnate” comic book and trade paperback until the matter is resolved to the satisfaction of all parties. Rest assured that Radical is taking swift action regarding this matter and will continue in its efforts to maintain the integrity and protect the intellectual property of artists throughout the world whose creative works are the bedrock of our Company and the comic book industry.

See RDR Books? This is how you respond to situations like this.

Comic Book Resources and Anime News Network on the issue.

ETA:We have fanarts!

Flammable by *speedking on deviantART

ETA 2: tetradecimal has a hilarious sporking.

Son of ETA: The obligatory Encyclopedia Dramatica page. Use protection and avert your virgin eyes.

CNN GO

ONTD

ETA 4: A couple reviews on Youtube pointing out the problem SIX MONTHS AGO! Here at 2:53 and here at 3:56. "This is just another horror show of copy write infringement."

ETA 5: Yulieana is Yulieana. And proves that it is possible to bring shipping wank into everything. Thanks schoenschoen!

Return of the ETA: Nick Simmons kinda sorta apologizes. New York Times arts blog.

“Like most artists I am inspired by work I admire. There are certain similarities between some of my work and the work of others. This was simply meant as an homage to artists I respect, and I definitely want to apologize to any Manga fans or fellow Manga artists who feel I went too far. My inspirations reflect the fact that certain fundamental imagery is common to all Manga. This is the nature of the medium.

“I am a big fan of Bleach, as well as other Manga titles. And I am certainly sorry if anyone was offended or upset by what they perceive to be the similarity between my work and the work of artists that I admire and who inspire me.”

Thanks reeve!


Hey someone do me a favor? I suspect that that spine-thing Blondihime attaches to Mot and Chadichigo's spines might have been swiped from Blue Beetle. You know the scene where the Beetle welds itself to Jaime's spine and it's all glowy and blue and you can see every vertebra. But I don't have any scans of either scene so I can't check myself. Thanks tetradecimal and perletwo! I think at most it was inspired by BB, the poses are too dissimilar, but you decide.

Jules Rivera, author of the webcomic Mash Rocket, posted an article to Comic Related a couple of months ago titled What qualifies as art in webcomics. Comics such as XKCD, Order of the Stick and Surviving the World are called lazy and crap. Jules even recommends hiring an overseas artist because their work is beautiful and "affordable."

Well, Dante from Surviving the World saw this two months later and decided to defend this new wave of webcomic mediums with a well thought out and executed argument. Some of his fans, however, not-so-much, and soon go to the two month article to share their opinion on the topic, as well as Jules' comic and art style (just scroll through the comments to see them, there's too many to choose from).

ETA: Spell-checked by grammar-freaky boyfriend!

ETA 2: Apparently, while I've been sleeping, there's been a bit of fighting on Dante's and Jules' twitter pages. Here's a classy little response from Jules

@danteshepherd if youre going to act like a child about this (as you clearly have) I rescind my offer and my apology. You are a lazy bastard

Some of you might know, but Shatterstar has officially come out of the closet in the latest issue with a kiss with Rictor, written by PAD. This character as originally created by Rob Liefeld (lol I know) and of course, he has something to say about this.

“… I have nothing against gays, I have gay family, nuthin’ but love here,”

“As the guy that created, designed and wrote his first dozen appearances, Shatterstar is not gay. Sorry. Can’t wait to someday undo this. Seems totally contrived.”

(He made those comments in his private forum that need an account for log in. This blog reported them)

It starts slow. Most people laugh and point. A bunch of commenters say this comment was rather homophobic and even tough Liefeld created the character, he retained no right on him, Furthermore, many posters comment that the reveal was long in the making and the romantic tension between Shatterstar and Rictor has been developped thoroughly.

It gets a bit more heated when PAD shows up in the comments to mock Liefield some more:
"I find particularly distressing Rob’s contention that Shatterstar can’t possibly be gay because he’s a warrior. That might come as a bit of a shock to Alexander the Great. For that matter, among his assortment of gay friends, I suppose Rob has none in the military since of course gays aren’t allowed to serve unless they keep their mouths shut. Perhaps Rob would like to see “don’t ask, don’t tell” implemented in the Marvel universe."

A few commenters don't agree with the accusation of bigotry and explain so but it stays rather civil. It gets more interesting when Liefield shows up, defending that he was misquoted and PAD is piling on for no reason.

PAD responds : Back in the old days I’d spend entire columns trying to figure out what you meant to say as opposed to what you actually said. But honestly, I don’t have that kind of time anymore. Trust me when I say that you’re not doing yourself any favors.

And he shows off his nice ego: "And just a thought, Rob: people are talking about Shatterstar for the first time in years. He’s making national news. Because of me. Maybe, just maybe, that’s the thing that’s pissing you off the most."

And just when you might think Liefeld is the reasonnable one in this, he throws out a stupid comment: "So anything other than, “Cool, they’re gay after 19 years and hundreds of appearancesl” in regards to Rictor and Shatterstar is unacceptable. Yeah, I didn’t get that memo. Maybe Jack Bauer will be next…." LOL wat. He then proceeds to prove his gay credentials and debate Batman/Robin.

The non existence of bisexuality even shows up! Party for everyone.

And they go some more back and forth and it's really hard to say who is being the biggest hairsplitter in this. Also, had no idea who Shatterstar was but now I kinda one to pick this issue up.

Watchmen screenwriter David Hayter writes a sincere but slightly tongue-in-cheek open letter on Hardcore Nerdity to Watchmen fans and non-fans, to urge them to see the movie more than once in order to understand it.

One of his other points is that he thinks those who hate the movie on principle without having seen it should let it marinate in their minds and give it a chance:

It may upset you. And it probably will upset you.

And all along, we really meant it to. ...All this time, you’ve been waiting for a director who was going to hit you in the face with this story. To just crack you in the jaw, and then bend you over the pool table with this story. With its utterly raw view of the darkest sides of human nature, expressed through its masks of action and beauty and twisted good intentions... Like the Comedian on the Grassy Knoll. ...You'll be thinking about this film, down the road. It'll nag at you. How it was rough and beautiful. How it went where it wanted to go, and you just hung on. How it was thoughtful and hateful and bleak and hilarious. And for Jackie Earle Haley.

Trust me. You'll come back, eventually. Just like Sally.

Comments begin in the 'we love Watchmen (although some of us have reservations about the swinging massive blue dong), go Dayter' mould, until people, from page three onwards, suddenly notice the metaphor he used to describe how the movie should make you feel:

DUDE. No one asks to be cracked in the jaw and bent over the goddamned pool table. Was there NO OTHER ANALOGY you could have used? Do you realize that you're comparing your movie to a rapist and the moviegoers to victims asking for it? And what is this "You'll come back. Just like Sally" crap? Do you have any f***ing idea how offensive that is? Could you not have come up with some other analogy, some other pithy tag, something that doesn't make it out like the Comedian was doing Silk Spectre a f***ing favor when he beat her bloody and tried to rape her?

Did you mean to do that?? If not, erm, consider your words more carefully next time you do the "open letter" thing, because wow, did that part get away from you.

Dayter comments on page 7 with an apology claiming he does not condone violence against women, which is edited into the original article. People briefly thank him for apologising, and then attack him again. Dayter responds graciously via huge spoonfuls of sarcasm and retracting his apology (page 8):

Clearly, you can't get less hateful or spewy than that. I humbly retract the statement.

Anyway, I'm sorry you disliked the film.

And you're right, I don't know why I ever set out to do this in the first place. It's really the world I'm hurting. Damn my family, and their almost-constant need for food!

On top of all of this there's huge amounts of movie rage, but the best thing about the whole altercation is the people at Hardcore Nerdity going so far as to make a video response urging people to LEAVE DAYTER ALONE, starring a very angry Dr. Manhattan.