Been thinking about this a lot lately, pardon me if it’s a bit scattered, I have to jot this down between deadlines and may mess it up a little.
I have seen, a million times, people with complaints about art or comics or film or music, dismissed online with the simple comment, “Make your own,…I must respectfully disagree. While I am a comic book artist and writer who loves ”making my own then,” not everyone… can. Or wants to. Not everyone can be a producer. Consumers are important, and while they may not always understand why things in comics are one way or another, there’s a lot of legitimate opinions coming from people who can’t/won’t make them themselves.
I guess an analogy would be… say you’re not a chef. Most people aren’t. You still have taste buds and you may still love to eat. You may not know how to cook a steak, but you do know what it’s supposed to taste like, or at least you know it shouldn’t taste like shoes. You know the difference between “I dislike eating green beans but recognize that this is my opinion and they’re still food that other people enjoy” and “Shoes are not food. Why do you keep serving me plates with shoes on them? This isn’t about opinion, that ain’t fit to eat!”
The chef can’t run a restaurant and tell every customer who doesn’t like the food to get in the back and cook it themselves. They came to this restaurant for food. When the chef needs their house painted, they hire a house painter. And if that house painter unevenly coats the house in the wrong color, the chef can get mad without being told to paint it himself. We can’t all be good at everything, but we can demand quality from those who make something their profession.
Is that enough metaphor? :P
Comics are a lot of work to make! Fun work, but still so much work. We can’t ask everyone to do this kind of work when they’re dissatisfied with what they’re being offered to consume. “Make your own then” is the worst kind of dismissive, not only to critiques of the comic industry, but to the comic creators themselves! These four words make it sound like it’s so easy, dismissing the hard work we do, and we should cut it out saying them.
Now, people who want to do this work absolutely should. More avenues are open to us than ever before, and if you have the ability, don’t let anything stand in your way. (Which I’m pretty sure is the main thing you meant to say, but it wasn’t too clear.)
What she said. Perfectly stated.
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never-not-nora reblogged this from aim2misbehave and added:
I am willing to try to make a comic with free software. I bought a tablet, last fall (when I probably shouldn’t have...
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demonweasel reblogged this from gailsimone and added:
I think Gail got...of unjust flak over this, but she’s not wrong. Yeah, making something...
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mrnexx reblogged this from gailsimone and added:
Somewhat apropos, follow Scott Johnson (the Marvel artist) on twitter. Amidst...usual...
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bigandtalltales said:
You’re right, of course. It wasn’t until I actually made my own comic that my career started going somewhere. Now that I do a few online comics, opportunities are cropping up like mad. Any aspiring creator needs to absorb this.
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bevismusson reblogged this from gailsimone and added:
suspect I’m going...lot of what both you (Gail) and others
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peppers-pray reblogged this from aim2misbehave and added:
I would make my own. Lord knows I’d love to. But I would have to quit my job to dedicate time and effort and improve on...
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junkieofdata reblogged this from gailsimone and added:
This is an amazing idea,...really wish there were something similar for
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aim2misbehave reblogged this from rosalarian and added:
I do agree that people should try if they want to. But I don’t think everyone can. Often, a major obstacle for amateurs...
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ealperin reblogged this from gailsimone and added:
Great post, Gail! I, for one, agree...on this. Thinking
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