Ask yourself if you even know how many felonies you've comitted last year.

[dolari]

Two different comments:

Your series, A Wish For Wings, and Closetspace are both wonderful. They show tremendous insight into human beings. I love many of your characters. Hanna is beautifully drawn. I wish I had a friend like that in real life. Andrea is beautifully drawn. Abaddon is beautifully drawn. Carrie is also very interesting. For some strange reason, A Wish For Wings seems more realistic than Closetspace. It seems to be about a struggle to do something worthy. To do something with your life more than mere material existence. Closetspace, on the other hand, seems to be light, and fun. Thank you for doing both series. I look forward to seeing updates every Monday. Good luck on your move to Seattle. It's a beautiful city.

---

As far as I can tell, the webcomic about emotionally repressed transsexuals takes place over a span of three weeks despite taking five years to tell it. During which almost nothing happens, improvement in the "Star Blazers" art style included. In the Closetspace universe, 1980s hair never went out of fashion. Mercifully, there is no nudity or even sex in this strip.

So. Which is it? Be honest, I can take a few punches to the gut. 

UPDATE: I posted this, not because I'm fishing for compliments, but because I really want to know.  Back in the mid 90s, I had a kinda cult following on Usenet.  I was completely surrounded by people who were good friends, others who loved me, and others who adored me.  And the entire time, I refused to buy into it.  I don't want that.  I want to do what I want to do wether it's good or bad.

That reign of terror ended about 1998 or so.  The comics started in 2001, and now we're right back to the friends/loved/adored thing.  And again, I'm doing my best not to buy into it.  Only this time - I'm making taking advantage of it.  The 2008 Prism Guide wants another article.  I've been published (sorta) in three books already.  I'm known in the high ups LGBT circles.  But again, I worry - am I buying into this?  I don't want to - I want to do what I feel I need to do, regardless of good bad or indifferent reactions.  But sometimes I worry if I need someone to stand behind me and whisper in my ear "Respica te, hominem te memento."  Someone to make sure I'm not buying into my own "fame."

Comments

[chaoticset.livejournal.com]

My opinion leans much more towards the first. *hugs*

[paradox-puree.livejournal.com]

I love your comic strips. I read them all the time.

[madrona.livejournal.com]

The art style's improved and grown on me. I want to know what happens next to all the characters. You could speed up the pacing a little.

[angharads-house.livejournal.com]

Jenn:

I'd give this to you straight up, anyway. Count on it.

Both series started slow and built up. Both series start with reasonable level of draughting and writing, although AWFW occasionally reads like an out-take of Aliens at first; it does, however improve quite rapidly.

Closetspace mostly made sense to me; parts of it just left me in quiet, stunned silence, deer-meet-headlights silence, if you recognise the metaphor. But it's good, and the comedic nature does shine through, despite there being some material in there which might be triggering of some folks (self included) for whom it hadn't always been an easy slog at home.

It took me a while to get into AWFW, as your logs would doubtless show if you've been following page requests; but it starts to build steam and make increasing sense, and there is really a lot of thought in there, about the nature of duty and loyalty. It's more adventure, as opposed to the high soap opera of Closetspace.

I appreciate what you've done with both of them, and if I ever get to the point of sketching in combination with story-telling, to half as good as you'd been doing, I'd count myself a happy cat indeed.

--------

Personally, now, I'm not much a reliable source for compliments. Hear this: I tell you three time thus, thus and thus. So, to reinforce what you yourself figured out: it begins, continues and ends with respect. Respect for your art; respect for your readers; respect for you, yourself. One needs all three in order to carry on for any significant length of time.

You strike me as a decent person, a bit down on her luck at times, but one with potential to do good things. I count it as a signal honour to be even remotely acquainted with you, pari passu as it may be.

Maybe more later, backchannel. You'll recognise the source...

Angharad
shadowy writer, watcher of clouds

[paradox-puree.livejournal.com]

Re: UPDATE: Well, regardless. I really like your work, specifically because you continually follow your own path.

[labrat78.livejournal.com]

My honest opinion


Do what you think is right for you and the way you want to present both. True artists don't need any public opinion.

The reader will understand and if they don't?

.....................ehh

[soltice.livejournal.com]

I don't think you're buying into your own fame. I think instead, you're accepting a bit of well deserved notoriety for all of your hard work. The difference, I think, is to know that it's all about the work rather than about the creator.

[jessie-c.livejournal.com]

You're becoming known because you have something to say, and there are those of us who listen to it.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I am your friend because you're a person of integrity, imagination and worth.

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

I LIKE the eighties hair!

[audaciousd.livejournal.com]

Firstly: I know both comics are labors of love. As such, they are both genuine, well-thought-out, and well done, with little artistic compromise. Also as such, I think you hate to leave anything out, sometimes. But you are telling your story for yourself, not an editor or a market (not that you don't edit/rewrite/etc.).

Your art style is your art style - it is somewhat reminiscent of 80s anime style, but so what? You are the artist and writer, and as such, this (again) is not a commercial venture where an artist/art style was picked by committee. At any rate, it does work. And your skill has improved quite a bit, IMHO.

In short, they are both good. :)

Secondly: not to get all ad hominem-y, but the second reviewer seems to be one of those who is more focused on writing something "clever" and "biting" than assessing and trying to appreciate the work for what it is. I could go on with further analysis of the reviewer, but anyway. I also think you're usually aware, by the same token, when someone is being sycophantic. Of course, both should be taken with a grain of salt.

What was the source for each review, just out of curiosity?

All in all - are you doing what YOU wanted to do with the comics? Are you fundamentally satisfied with them? I know that's cliche, but it's a good test of what is useful criticism (positive or negative) and what is not.

Also, it ain't no crime to enjoy compliments once in a while. :)

ALLEZ CUISINE!

[jenndolari.livejournal.com]

>Also, it ain't no crime to enjoy compliments once in a while. :)

You're just saying that cause you're IN AWFW.

Re: ALLEZ CUISINE!

[audaciousd.livejournal.com]

What?! Not me... :) But it's really not why I'm saying it.

At any rate, the reason I returned to this thread - I thought of a good metaphor for the "Starblazers" etc. commenteur: you would expect Jaye P. Morgan NOT to gong you? ;)

[kisai.livejournal.com]

Your comic predates all the other TG comics and isn't so in-your-face about it, which may explain some of the popularity.

The art style, I see '80's (hair) with a bit of anime influence'

And honestly I read certain peoples comics from the start, and them stop checking when they don't update 3 days a week and them come back after they've updated some more.

[jenndolari.livejournal.com]

>Your comic predates all the other TG comics and isn't so in-your-face about
>it....

Jade Gordon may have something to say about that. ;) CS was in the planning since 1993, but wasn't published till LOM and Unicorn Jelly had already been out. Venus Envy started just a week or two before CS.

[mikeyarrum.livejournal.com]

==As far as I can tell, the webcomic about emotionally repressed transsexuals takes place over a span of three weeks despite taking five years to tell it.

It takes 24 weeks to tell the story about what happened in one freaking day on a certain Fox action series whose name I forget.

==During which almost nothing happens,

Maybe this critic means some OTHER webcomic...

==improvement in the "Star Blazers" art style included.

They say the same thing about Anne Onymous and Fred Gallagher.

==In the Closetspace universe, 1980s hair never went out of fashion.

... so?

==Mercifully, there is no nudity or even sex in this strip.

I've seen Brent Sienna's behind and we know he's making love to Jade...

Seriously, there's not one thing in this comment that's a huge criticism. If someone said the opposite of the first comment, then that's something to worry about.

[http://users.livejournal.com/strangelv__/]

I'm closer to the first, although part of it is that the second isn't really a valid counterpoint.

Bad art? look here: XKCD #217.

Webcomics where years correspond to weeks or even days are unfortunately normal, with this one perhaps being most noted for it: Freefall #1006 -- and later that same day: Freefall #1195 (1.2 years).

If you're looking for constructive nitpicks, I suppose it's that you've not had an easy time telling your large, expansive stories in this format. The limiting factor isn't your abilities as a writer or even your skills as an artist. The problem is that there's a limit to how much you can tell in a reasonable amount of time in a comic strip format, unless you resort to putting up half to an entire page six days a week, and sometimes even then it's dragging to your readers, depending on how much happens in a short span of time: Sluggy Freelance 4 October 2005. It can help if your chosen art style facilitates putting out sometimes 2-3 pages 3 times a week: Order of the Stick #200, but I don't see you going that route (not a good fit for the tone of most of your projects).

This said, there is at least one exploitable business model with webcomics. It requires dead tree editions for people to buy: Successfully Reengineering Traditional Comic Publishing For The Web (abstract).

It isn't your writing or your stories that may call for reevaluation. You have a baseline of success with what you're doing right now. The question is what might be done to do better. The operational definition of better should be your level of satisfaction that you're getting your stories out in a timeframe that will allow you to tell the rest of your stories, and ideally allow you to pay your bills in the process.

[red-pill.livejournal.com]

i dont know about descrbing cs as light and fun. i feel kinda sorry for carrie, who broke her gitar

in any case, writeing a good web comic basicly means people will get all goo goo about you. you do, so im not superiesed. certenly, i enjoy it.

and as for 3 weeks in five years. megatokyo fans wish fred could do that. he dosent, but we still stick around...

you know, i think i had a point. i think it might be under my sofa.

[amw.livejournal.com]

I enjoy CS. I've found AWFW a bit laborious because it takes so long to get anywhere that i just lose track of the plot. CS is the same way, but it doesn't matter so much because each strip usually has a short story and punchline in itself so if you've half-forgotten what the story is it's still fun to read.

I guess i agree with strangelv_ up there - i think the only problem i'd see is that it's not really possible to create the comics quickly enough to tell the story at a satisfactory pace. But then, who cares? The real achievement is that you're telling your stories at all - most "artists" never tell their stories because they're too busy worrying the world won't appreciate or understand it, or they're perfectionists and refuse to ever release anything, or they're just lazy and don't do it at all. The fact you've had these stories planned and have been adding instalments almost weekly for years now is pretty amazing to me - and when you go back read all the strips in a row you do get the full impact, so keep on truckin i reckon :-)

[angharads-house.livejournal.com]

And that's a good point right there: having the stories planned with regular installments for quite some time is a heck of a good accomplishment. That bespeaks a dedication to craft and art.

[jenndolari.livejournal.com]

Do you realize we've known each other over ten years. That's...very strange. :D

[amw.livejournal.com]

Tell me about it!!! Way to make me feel old too btw ;-) I'll make sure to swing by next time i'm in town hehehe