Well, now that my site numbers have hit rock bottom once again, I guess that gives me carte blanche to say something mostly unrelated to webcomicry:
I mocked Aarin for quitting awhile back, but now I see why he decided to take an extended vacation from this stuff. There's only so much you can say about the world of webcomicry before getting tired and walking away. This goes double to the folks doing it in their spare time for little or no change on the side.
At first, webcomics were a world full of wonder and amazement, and I decided to do a little review site in a corner of the internet that no one but myself and a few folks from the Megatokyo forums would care about. But then something happened...people recognized the existence of my blog, and they would come rushing to me in hopes of getting some more exposure for their own comic no matter if I praised their comic to the heavens or burned it down around them. Hell, when the webcomics boogeyman called John Solomon slammed the now-ended
Hookie Dookie Panic (it has since been transformed into a more story-driven affair called Geist Panik!), the artist of that comic linked to myself and Aarin to portray us (I guess) as a sort of foil to his mean-spiritedness.
Suddenly, I had attention, and I felt it was my duty not to just review comics, but to run through them with a scalpel and bring the bad shit to light. Doctor Haus the character became more of an asshole than Doctor Haus the writer. The Internet Haet Machine had to be fed. Granted, there were a couple of comics that needed it, but sometimes my need for cynical snark outweighed the need to simply review the subject. I started hating webcomics in general.
Now I find that I don't have enough time on my hands to dish out the hate anymore on such petty things. With all these important responsibilities the real world has decided to throw my way, it just seems so unimportant now to hate on some poor shmuck making Fantasy Comic #4,632 starring Marty Sue and his Dragon Pal.
If you really want webcomic review sites that update regularly, there's
Comic Fencing (of which I almost joined, but just didn't have the time), there's
ComixTalk with the always awesome Xaviar Xerexes keeping things running smoothly, and there's the
Gigcast, which involves this newfangled "podcasting" technology to talk about the drama of the webcomic world.
As for me, I would like to reiterate that while I'm not quitting this blog or that small spot at ComixTalk, don't expect me to update regularly. I've been involved in things including politics and comedy, sometimes both, and next to my class schedule at the ol' university I've got very little time for the drama of the webcomic-o-sphere. But every so often, I feel that itch to just voice my opinion, and there's the occasional artist who still asks me to review their comic. So chances are there will be new written content coming up in the near future.
One last note: I did manage to find a spot of free time a couple days ago to do a brief review in the classic Dr. Haus style for Comixtalk, which should be getting posted soon. I'll post the link when it comes out. I also wrote about half an article about comedy in webcomicry. Maybe you'll just spit flames into my inbox if I ever get around to finishing that piece, but I hope you'll at least enjoy some of it. Just remember
...my opinions are serious business
