Webcomic Critics. Critics in General.

Someone made a whole blog about web comic reviews.

They recently did a review of Dueling Analogs.

Buried deep within this are some valid criticisms. But they are somewhat difficult to find.

First off, they don't even start talking about DA. For some reason they go into a whole tirade about Penny Arcade and the popular webcomic explosion. That should clue you into the kind of article you are getting yourself into...

It really seems like the author went that extra mile to create some really choice personal insults and disparaging remarks about the author rather than the art.

The "misogynistic shitpile of a comic" comment was by far a high point.

Dueling Analogs is not fine art. It started out crass with boob and sex jokes and might have softened it's tone over time, but to expect something else from a free webcomic that is obviously going after a somewhat narrow audience is foolish. But obviously this is less of a real review and more of an entertaining attack.

But wow, entertaining or not. this review makes the author of Dueling Analogs look like a real woman hating piece of trash with no talent at all.

I have met plenty of losers who took some art classes. In my college art class I took my professor said that my figure drawing was very good. However, I never got into drawing because I think all my crap art looks bad. I would rather work with other media like digital video because I get more pleasure out of it.

But with my limited college art education and some free time I could come up with some truly scathing reviews of ALL the popular webcomics. It would be easy.

But you know what would be more difficult for me? Creating my own webcomic and updating it all the time and improving on my own work as I go.

Creating something that looks OK and has a lot of people checking on it every week to see if a new comic is up...That would actually take some work. Even if you made up some really bad jokes and situations, it would still be a lot harder than making an entertaining "attack review".


In the end this "review" is entertaining, but lacks value due to it's inflammatory remarks. This sort of info-tainment attack used to be amusing. Most people knew that such an over the top reactionary article was just that and was primarily for entertainment. And the whole "Your Webcomic is Bad and You Should Feel Bad" title shows that is what they are going for.

But guess what...most people already are sick of this. They "get" the point of the whole thing and the asshats who waste their time coming up with creative put-downs are the real joke in this whole situation.


There are getting to be too many of these types of reviews.

Would people really be happy if everyone whose art or sense of humor could possible offend some suddenly became more PC?

Would all the critics become placated if every single person who was actually contributing something just stopped because someone thought their work was not good enough?


Of course they wouldn't, because the sad fact is that most of these web critics and the majority of the main stream media critics are more interested in getting people to read or view their own material than informing the public about the flaws of real media makers.


Fine, we get it web critics. You can sit down for a few hours and whip out a few pages or a few mintues of reviews with snarky snappy little insults. You can disparage real media creators to show the world that they suck. All while everyone recognizes how cool you are for creating that review. And while the comments pour in from people that think your material is HILARIOUS and DEAD ON you can rest assured that you can always leach off someone else to get your own cheap material out there.


Well guess what? This gravy train is slowing down. Sure there is alot of crappy shit on the web. EVERYONE KNOWS THAT AT THIS POINT. Eventually nobody is gonna bother reading or looking at your shit anymore. It doesn't matter how much humor or hate you put into it.

I personally didn't like some of the earlier "Dueling Analog" strips. But I keep checking in
because:


1. It's free, quick and easy.
2. Sometimes there is a comic that makes me laugh.
I suppose that if you take that review to heart that would make me a woman hating loser with a poor appreciation of art.

But of course the the point of the review wasn't to be serious, it was to "Piggyback" on the success of a webcomic so people would read the blog.

Well it worked. I read it and in fact I was somewhat entertained.

But honestly Dueling Analogs is better entertainment.