Review of Property of Gwen

[Scott H]

Hi everyone, this is Scott Hooper, creator of Property of Gwen. Just wanted to comment on Nate Frisoli's review of my comic. newsletter.keenspace.com/d/20050423.html

Well, first I guess I should say thanks to Nate for at least thinking I'm worth his time.

Nate bud, sorry you don't like Gwen. Heh, I don't like it much myself sometimes. I'm actually surprised you didn't mention how several of the early black and white comics have an ugly 'faded out' look to them. I'll fix those.............. one day.........

Sure, the art is horrible at times, the writing is poorly paced at times, and most of the main principles for creating a comic are often missing, but I've had fun doing it so far! And the art may be "an american kid (well, kid-ish) drawing anime" but it's the best I've ever done, and I'm damn proud of it, and again, I have fun doing it, and I'm still reeeeaally new at this whole 'comic' thing....

I never set out to please everyone or to create the next Megatokyo or get rich and famous. I do PoG for me and even though as you say, I do have a decent fan base, if I only got four or five hits a day and those were only from people who stopped by to see how lousy the new comic is, I'd still do it.

It's fun for me, plain and simple. I'm not trying to compete (although I do like seeing my work ranking high on sites like TWC and Buzzcomix), and I hold no dreams of pleasing everyone all the time. I'll settle for some of the people some of the time.

Well, guess I'm done. Better get off my soap box, I'll break it, and we won't have anymore soap.

Thanks again for you time Nate!

-Scott H.

[spriteville]

=] No need to explain yourself, but I perfectly understand the desire.

I can't speak for all people, but since most of us are web comickers ourselves, we know how hard it is to do a comic at all, let alone for any period of time. We all seek to improve and hopefully the review brought some things to light you haden't thought of perhaps. (although a comic's maker is usually their harshest critic). Your comic wouldn;t have been reviewed if it wasn;t felt worthy of a review or attention, we're not huge, but unworthy comics who don't deserve hits won;t get our review space. =]

If you wish for it we could link or attach your repsonse to the article, after all you deserve your say as well.

[Dawson]

Hola,
this is dawson (seen occasionally in PoG).
nothing particlular to say that Scott hasn't already, except that I think Gwen is a way to perhaps dissasociatle yourself from what a "normal" web comic is. It's a fine line between brilliant and confusion. The main reason I always liked it is probably b/c I'm in it ;D
but if you want a truly terrible comic (good art sometimes) but just plain out bleh. then check out www.tinkeryama.com and click on the "G&S" banner.
laters!

[Yunie]

What really frightens me about the whole thing here is that someone would go out of their way to do a review that, not only seems to just bash Scott and his artistic talent, but does a poor job of being a review altogether.

Maybe I'm missing the point, but in the experience I've had, most reviews are given in order to help the person improve. Not to bash them and give them a bad time.

Everyone's entitled to their own opinion. But truly, I think the review was a waste of time. If you aren't going to actually do something constructive, then, you might as well not do anything at all. Don't be giving reviews like that just to fill space and grab attention. There's no point in that.

~Yunie

[Dawson]

Guest-Dawson said:

Hola,
this is dawson (seen occasionally in PoG).
nothing particlular to say that Scott hasn't already, except that I think Gwen is a way to perhaps dissasociatle yourself from what a "normal" web comic is. It's a fine line between brilliant and confusion. The main reason I always liked it is probably b/c I'm in it ;D
but if you want a truly terrible comic (good art sometimes) but just plain out bleh. then check out www.tinkeryama.com and click on the "G&S" banner.
laters!

I'd like to make an apology to my friends at TYS. My statement was made in haste and without thinking of the people involved. The truth is I like G&S and PoG and many others for that matter. I have no authority to rate or judge any comic and I'm truly sorry I hurt my friends

[Phalanx]

It was a fair attempt at a review, but I think it didn't work because it seemed to focus more on saying it didn't work for the reviewer instead of WHY it didn't work for the reviewer.

Writing reviews takes some practice too... but a good rule of thumb for the explanation part is to provide an example for what you say:

For example, if you say: "who in this day and age would actually consider doing a comic like this?" follow it up with "The plot doesn't make sense..." and give examples for from the comic explaining why that point at the plot doesn't make sense. ("In panel one character X meets character Y, who is a secret agent pretending to be a school student. In panel two, character Y tells ALL the details of his top-secret mission to character x, whom he has never met before. No secret agent in real life who does that will last 30 seconds.")

<i>Note: I have not read the comic in question. These are just random examples</i>

In essence, writing reviews are like writing essays back in high school. You need to start with the What, move on to the How and finish off with the Why.

Anyways, I know it's a little disheartening to get negative response, but keep your spirits up. It's a fair effort, I'm sure it'll be better next time

[Reaver]

Hey, I noticed the link to www.tinkeryama.com and read the comics there. Yeah, they really suck.

Why don't you give scathing reviews for pieces of garbage like this?