* Recently on Robot 6: Ming Doyle sure can draw;
* the astonishing cartoons of Abner Dean;
* and Hickman and Bendis bust Guggenheim’s chops, sorta.
* Here’s a fine Tucker Stone piece on Taiyo Matsumoto’s Blue Spring, with really excellently selected art. You should be able to “get” the comic just by looking at this review, let alone reading it.
* Sylvester Stallone says Rambo V isn’t happening, but a bunch of other things indicate otherwise, including a producer who gives a summary of the story in its “Rambo kills his way through Juarez” iteration.
* Kristin Thompson talks about Paul Wegener and Karl Boese’s Der Golem, one of the few German Expressionist horror classics I haven’t seen.
* Kevin Guhl’s list of The Top 10 Cryptozoological Creatures That Have Yet to Be Exploited in Film and Television for Topless Robot does a great job of capturing the mix of plausibility and absurdity, familiarity and terrifying unfamiliarity, that makes cryptids so fascinating to me. 50-foot alligators swimming around the Congo basin, you know?
* Real Life Horror: Glenn Greenwald provides a round-up of the ways American citizens’ rights are being eroded should they be accused of terrorism. The John Walker Lindh example he quotes from Digby is really instructive, I think. It’s very scary and strange that this is happening even as, or even though, the wars in whose name this stuff is being done slip further off the radar and the attempted attacks on us get more and more amateurish. What would happen if things really flared up again?
* I think this Alan Sepinwall interview with Lost honchos Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse (spoilers for this week’s episode abound, so if you haven’t seen it yet, don’t read this) marks the precise moment at which “fan backlash over the final episodes of our series” went from being something the pair anticipated and studied and prepared for via other shows like The Sopranos and Seinfeld and Battlestar Galactica to something they’re currently experiencing and have realized they will continue to experience for the rest of their lives. Even though you’re bound to find some of their answers frustrating, and there are a couple of turns of phrase I’m sure they wish they could take back, I actually think they’re handling themselves much better than the characteristically uncharitable representatives of Lost fandom who show up in the comments are giving them credit for. Of course, I don’t share their complaints about the show right now, either. (Via Todd VanDerWerff.)
Fan entitlement is fucking gross.
Sure, but so is the other side of the coin.
What’s the other side of the coin?
Creators who don’t have some respect for their fans (and I’m not referencing anybody in particular here).
Look, I understand the nature of creativity and all that comes with it, but if you truly want to produce pure art that’s your vision, accept that you may have to do so in something of a vacuum.
If you’re doing anything else and particularly if you’re working commercially, understand that your consumers do get some stake and ownership in what you’re now making at least in part for them; do your thing and do it your way, but have enough courtesy to acknowledge the right of your audience to take issue with your work, don’t just dismiss them callously because it’s only “your” work.
Entitled fans are bad, but so are creators who claim their goal is to entertain an audience and then react with petulance if said audience dares not to be entertained.
One man’s opinion.
The only person I’ve ever seen do that, really do it, is Billy Corgan.
Do what?
Also, to clarify, I’m certainly not casting aspersions on every creator who is defensive of their work. Some guys (and I’d even use Lindelof and Cuse as a good example) are very respectful and articulate in basically saying “That’s not what I was going for, but you’ve got the right to your opinion.” Other guys are very clear from the start that they’re creating more for themselves and if the audience embraces it, that’s a bonus.
I’m more on the guys who will go on about how their show/comic/book/album/etc. is “for the fans” so long as the fans love them, then do a vicious 180 when faced with criticism and pull out the “this was for ME” routine. Pick a side and stick to it, y’know?
My point I guess is just to stand up for the audience on some level. There are many many fans out there who give the rest of us a bad name, but certainly there are creators out there who you can say the same about and it’s not a one-way street.
I like to think I’m sympathetic to both sides here, but it’s always been a hot button issue for me for some reason where I feel like the audience in general gets unfairly demonized.
The thing is, though, I think the best creators NEVER give their audience “what the audience wants”. They give them something different – something you, as an audience member, couldn’t/wouldn’t have thought of yourself, but that is so compelling that you accept it – embrace it! – anyway: it eclipses your vision/idea of what the show/comic/book could be. Part of being a good reader/viewer/etc., IMO, is being open to someone else’s vision. I think fandom (especially on the internet), tends to develop a sense of “ownership” over the object of that fandom that leads to a lot of bad habits when it comes to reading/viewing/etc.
I agree with you to an extent, but I’m not talking about giving the audience what they (think they) want, per se, I talking about creators being gracious and not pulling the “well I didn’t do this for you” card when their work isn’t well-received.
Again, I have no problem with the creator following their own vision–the SHOULD–but they should then man (or woman) up and be satisfied that they did so, not go after their fans if they’re not onboard with that vision.
Fans should absolutely be open-minded, but they’re under no obligation not to have issue with the finished product (though I wish some would express their dissatisfaction better obviously).
Ben, I’m now thinking of artists as Dr. Frank N. Furter asking Janet what she thinks of Rocky Horror, and when she says “I don’t like men with too many muscles,” snapping at her “I didn’t MAKE him for YOU!”
The thing I’ve seen Corgan do is really just out and out say fuck the fans for not getting his genius.
Generally I’m always going to be more sympathetic to the people who created something than the people who see that creation, although obviously in general you want to see respect on both sides. I think the problem facing Lost is that the creators really have cultivated an active, invested audience–but at the same time, a large segment of that audience really does seem invested in “beating” the show, either by solving its mystery beforehand or dismissing the way the show itself does so. It’s a conundrum for Darlton.
Well put.
And fuck Billy Corgan then.
Seriously, there has to be some way to hate entitled fans AND Billy Corgan or my life as currently constituted isn’t worth living.