I donât understand that âtheyâre indie, so you canât criticize themâ mindset. Just because someone posts a comic out of âlove for the art,â does that suddenly make them immune to criticism?
Trying to be as empathetic as I can, I get the idea of posting something ârudimentaryâânot as a professional, but just to practice or for funâand feeling bad when it gets criticized. I can't speak from experienceâmaybe it's easy to say but hard to actually go through, since I haven't experienced it firsthand yet. And I understand the feeling, but the thing is, man, you can't escape people who aren't going to like your work for one reason or another; you need to hear everything that can be said about something, whether it's good or bad, whether you like it or not. It's a part of the process.
But do you really think professionals started out with their talent already fully developed? Most of them also started small and published work after work that was eventually rejectedâsometimes in ways far crueler than receiving a ânegativeâ comment on a Tumblr blog.
And on top of all that, the comparison the guys make to 4Chan users towards you cracks me up, lol. Even if I donât agree with your takes or the way you express yourself sometimes, I donât see you using the ârâ word or telling the creators of the comics you criticize to kill themselves? It seems like people need to be spoken to like a baby, with 20 words of apology, so they donât âtake offenseâ? God.
By the way, the whole âindie and freeâ nonsense falls apart a bit when you remember that several of these artists still monetize their work in some wayâwhether through Patreon, Ko-fi, or merchandise. So IF they believe their work is good enough to generate profits from itâand essentially have people pay them to receive the content they createâI think they have the right to criticize the quality of the product.
Also, thereâs been a recent increase in âindieâ publishers, productions, and companies, and I donât see why no one is saying anything similar about this when criticism is directed at them.
The Glitch's animated series, video games like Deltarune, the books that various authors publish on Amazon, etc.âthey all fall into the âindieâ category, and yet they still get criticized because, at the end of the day, even if theyâre released freely, that still means consumers will have the freedom to voice their opinions about them.
I also donât think itâs much different from submitting a comic to a major publisher or production company, you know? Maybe they demand higher quality and offer less freedom, but theyâre still creators at the end of the dayâsome of them probably newcomers to the field trying out a crazy idea.
Hell, even major examples in xenofiction donât escape this. Look at Richard AdamsâWatership Down was published by a small publisher that was practically bankrupt. And besides, ever since its release, there have been people criticizing the book for misogyny because of the limited focus on female characters. Do you see Richard blocking newspapers and crying because âtheyâre being mean to me and donât understand my workâ? No, he acknowledged that problem even though, from his perspective, it was somewhat accidental since he hadnât planned that aspect of his story. He takes it and accepts it.
If you think that all you should receive as an author are pats on the back and a little star that says, âNice tryâdo better next time,â then youâre a long way from the progress youâre seeking.
Sorry for the long post, I wanted to say it
Do not apologize for this beast of an ask, I don't think I can add anything else. Really well said.
