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Re: Critics do to Mack what builders do to sacred

Posted By: MACK!
Date: SUN, 2/1/04, 6:00 a.m.

In Response To: Critics do to Mack what builders do to sacred land (smokinghawk)

: David, forgive me if I'm asking something I shouldn't,
: but I've been very concerned and saddened by the harsh
: comments made by bunches of internet reader who don't
: "get" your work. Doubtless, you are aware of
: people taking swipes at your Daredevil arc. People are
: so used to heroes-in-tights in neat panels with
: distinct speech bubbles and two-dimensional thinking
: and generic villains that when you throw something
: cerebral, challenging, and progressive at them they
: freak out. Sales fall. Lowbrow readers gripe that
: "it sucks!" and they "can't follow
: it."

: Now, I have a theory that the adaptation of traditional
: Native thinking and process-orientation (you and I
: talked about that earlier in the arc) means that a lot
: of people who demand very literal, ordered, brickwork
: storytelling just can't see the work through new eyes.
: I think POAH (51-55) are simply the best work you've
: done yet, and I've said so before. I read it as an
: Indian man and it feels
: natural...familiar..."right on."

: But then I got to thinking...Suppose I had labored to
: produce that kind of work, fastened down feathers and
: cloth in collages with pencil art and paint, and
: really given thought to the work...And someone tossed
: the whole thing aside by writing online, "It's
: terrible! Five issues of nothing happening!"

: I wanted to ask what you think of those reviews. Do they
: hurt you? Do you ever doubt whether or not you really
: did something worthy? Do they shake your confidence?
: Or do you understand them for what they are, and just
: regret the inability of some to "see it?"

: It's a similar process to when my tribe was recently
: trying to protect precious burial land and sacred
: ceremonial sites from developers. All they saw were
: trees and stuff, and they didn't see it as worth

I appreciate your thoughtfulness about that. And I think I do relate to it similar to the analogy that you mentioned. But also I look at it in the positive way that you mentioned. The truth is that the DD sales didn’t fall. All those issues sold consistent with the previous DD issues. You can see a conservative estimate of the sales of every DD issue on the manwithoutfear.com site.
And though there were those critics that you mentioned, there were many more, and many more readers, that related to it profoundly and personally.

And that story still has a huge life after the monthly issues. It hasn’t found its entire audience yet. It will live on in bookstores in paperback and hardcover collections and find new readers in book stores. I look at the life of the story in long term, not short term.

And I don’t hold anything against those “critics”. Many of them are very young kids. Some fresh out of high school (or still in) , or veteran critics with a one track mind. Many will out grow their narrow mindedness. Others will not. But I don’t subscribe to their limited paradigme of what is a good or bad work. In fact, sometimes a critic has blown off my Echo story, and then praised books that I myself find shallow, boring, redundant, and meaningless. When they hold up one of those books as an example of their perfect comic book, it becomes very clear to me that I should be glad they do not like my book! It shows that I am doing something right. Then I am grateful for them not liking it. Because if they think those other books were amazing, I’d prefer to know my story was not their kind of story. It shows a natural barometor for their grading scale, which I think is obvious to anyone who reads their criticisms.

So I don’t feel a need to argue. I think it is pretty evident to readers when a so called critic isn’t as smart as they think they are. I trust the readers and give them credit to see past the narrow-mindedness of these critics. And I appreciate those that perhaps are able to look beyond their usually reading habits and face the work with an open mind, and see it for what it is, rather than what they are used to, or the box they had hoped it would fit into.

It doesn’t crush my spirit about it at all. I do the stories for a reason. Not to get critical praise and not to make money. I know how to do the kind of stories that would lead to fast praise and fast money, but I am driven by a need to tell the stories that I am compelled to tell. The act of doing them is their own reward. It is a meaningful process for me. And those readers that share in it bring a huge additional ripple effect reward.

I always get this kind of reaction to every one of my books, from some place or another. I have from the beginning of my Kabuki work. Some critics hale an issue as amazing and innovative, others dismiss the same issue out of hand because it does not look like what their version of a comic book is.

I vary the style, and story pace, and media in my books. So every issue of Kabuki, there has always been someone who has been upset that a story is in black and white, or upset that it is in color, or upset that it is painted, or upset that it was too dense, or upset that it was not dense enough, or upset that it read too slow, or read too fast, or had too much action, or not enough action, or whatever. I vary each of my issues in storytelling pace and structure. I like the contrast it builds in the over all story. The more insightful people get it right away. But others have trouble fitting it into their paradigme because it doesn’t play by their rules. My books play by their own rules. Not by the rules of other books.

Then years later, they decide that it is good and innovative. Often some readers or “critics” need to let some time pass, and then re-read the work, years later and they see an entirely different story than they thought they saw. Sometimes they just need a bit more life experience before it can have a deeper meaning for them. That is just the nature of doing something beyond what others are used to in an artform. To get that kind of reaction is a GOOD sign. Not a bad one. But then there are the people who don’t get it, even in re-readings or after a space of time. And in that case, as you suggested, you do feel for them that they have not grown, or cannot see beyond their own box.

But the reality is, that most of the readers learn to appreciate it over time. Even if only half the readers get it, then that is a huge number that would never have gotten it if I did not do it. If I didn’t do it, then no one would have liked it or gotten something from it. It is always a win, win situation.

You realize early on, that what the critics say, reveals more about them, than it does about the work.

The work finds its audience. And I make sure that my work stays in print. So it has years and years to gain new readers who aren’t even born yet. Some mean spirited people who couldn’t get their head around the story in the monthly version because it did not fit into their narrow view of what a comic book should be, is nothing compared to all the brand new readers who will find the story in paperback and hardcover in the next few decades.

And often people cannot fully appreciate the contrast of each issue to issue, because they do not understand how the pieces come together as a whole in the story. But I view this unpredictability as a good thing.

Many critics, are so used to being able to predict the cookie cutter structure of a story, because that is all they get, that they think that status quo is the right way to do it. Then when you stray from the status quo it makes them uncomfortable, and they think you are doing something wrong, which I find hilarious.

I love a story that challenges me, and does not talk down to me, but forces me to put the pieces together.

By the way, thanks for choosing to buy those pages of Echo art! I’m sure you’ll hear from Anh asap.

Best,
David

: anything until it was built up in the structures of
: gas stations, malls, Wal-Marts, etc. We felt they just
: couldn't see why it mattered to us, and it made us sad
: that they missed so much understanding. And yeah, I
: guess it hurt that they surveyed somethnig very
: special to us and just shrugged and said we were
: foolish for ascribing any value to it.

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