Comic Genesis Forums

LibertyCabbage wrote:you should apologize to ian and offer him a blowjob

I tried that with David Willis after I drew a picture of him and his girlfriend engaging in BDSM, but it just made him run faster.

Tonight I drew him in Santa-themed boxers. Not making it a thong was restraint on my part.

I do!

What goes around comes around

Escushion wrote:I don't even put my comic's link when I send out E-mails unless it's for a necessity like signing up for a comic-related event. Maybe that's why I only get 70-80 unique visits a day, but I'm just not willing to stoop to a level where everything I do's end is in me being an attention whore.

Says the person with a giant banner in their signature

princess wrote:I do!

What goes around comes around

So... do you write fan mail? Or do you give people blow jobs if you mess up their name. Cause y'know, my name's Joan... just saying...

Maybe I didn't word this correctly. Maybe what appears to be my initial post really says "GO WRITE TO WEBCOMIC AUTHORS OR YOU'LL CONTRACT HEMMEROIDS! EXTREME ONES!" If this is what my post really says, please let me know so that I'll be aware that I don't know how to read.

I see you insist on caricaturing the situation, though I don't know whether you're aware of irony that you're applying the same kind of exageration to my post, as the one that you think I am applying to your post. But about being pain-in-the-ass that I am here, seeing that you were just the same kind of pain-in-the-ass elsewhere *cough*Buster's thread*cough*, I didn't think you'd mind that much.

This is only insincere dependent on the attitude of the person reading the thread. If the person reads the topic and says "Uggh, well okay, I guess. Geez, what a pain in the ass. I gotta' write fanmail to people and arrgh, it's such a hassle", then don't do it. Doing so then would be sincere. But if the person reads the topic and says "Hey, y'know, I do like this one author's comic, and I wanna' tell 'em that. Maybe it'll brighten up their day and let them know their work is appreciated at least by me", then do it. That's sincere, it's just that the topic was a catalyst.

People might have problems with getting on writing E-mail after reading a good comic; If they do, they'll probably have problems with getting on writing E-main now as well. However, there are differences:
1. In first case, E-mail is a product of direct enthusiasm for the comic. In second case, it's forcing, even if you're forcing yourself because you wanna do the good thing.
2. Comics you pick for writing a mail will probably be a random choice to the extent. Remember those polls where you have to name your favourite song? Five minutes later, you remember a song that you like more, but it's too late now. A hour later, you already have the entire list of songs that you love more than the one you named. If I was trying to come up with the names of three comics that, I think, deserve fanmail from me the most, I'd probably be lost.
3. And probably the most important: this is all about ego-boosting, isn't it? Am I supposed to write a mail to CRFH!!!? Wouldn't you reccomend if I wrote a mail to someone less popular? Should Derenge, for instance, write a fan mail to PA? PA gets so much fan mails on daily basis that they probably don't even care anymore. I'm reading your text as a suggestion to write a mail to another small comic, a kind of comic that wouldn't get mail otherwise, which boils down to ego-boosting of small comic authors. I know we all need ego-boosting, I was craving for it three years ago, but now I'm over it. But if we really wanna be open about it: what is the reason to boost the ego of your comrade small webcomicker? Because you're in the same situation as he it. It has more with compassion and sence of community than it has with love for the comic. And frankly, fan mails should be mostly about the love for the comic.

However, there are many other ways of giving someone a notice that I like their comics. Save for a lot of fanart that I've given when I had more time, I usually simply link the guy. If he finds the link through his refferals, he will know that I am a fan, because my link page isn't overcrowded with links which says that I'm not putting just about anything there. Perticulary, I favor getting a link with a little blurb next to it, that some link pages have. That way I am linked, and I get an opinion too.
You can also go and post in the forum of the webcomic, I think it will make many people more happy than a fan mail if you stick around there for a while. Which requires time, but then again, time spent shows how much you appreciate the comic.
There is also fan art, which, as nice as it is, isn't the most selfless because you're usually expecting the fan-arted personto credit you. But never mind, fan art isn't as much about being the fan as it is about seeing your characters interpreted about the other person.
Many people have blogs or newsposts on their sites. Many of them will link the thing they're currently reading or liking there. And artist who occasinally does the ego-search in google will eventually find it. Helping spreading word of mouth in any way helps.

Fan mail is nice in that it has that personal note: you feel like someone was so thrilled by your comic that he sit down and wrote mail specifically for you. You were mentioning that people are hard to get on it and actually write the mail. Therefore, when you get the mail, you know that this person not only liked your comic, but he liked it so much that he got himself to write the mail. This feeling is degraded if the person is writing you a mail only because he decided to write a mail to someone. Plus, if he wrote mails to two more people on the same account.
There's a reason why fan mails are cherrished more than any other kind of fan display I mentioned above: because they are so rare, they mean more.

As for the caricaturing, you're just gonna' have to put up with it (or complain about it), because that's my sense of humor and you can't call your man to keep me down. And responding to a post isn't having a problem with it; if you post something, you shouldn't be shocked and run screaming when someone responds.

Anyway, I've sent one single fanmail in my entire years upon years of reading webcomics. Solely because it had a tonal relationship to my own, and because it was the first non-big guy where I just had to write, as the person wasn't feeling too motivated at the time and I didn't want the comic to stop. Isn't that forcing? He didn't ask for fanmail to make him feel better, but I probably wouldn't have written it if his motivation wasn't decreasing.

I suggested this because fanmail means more. I'm a writer before an artist. Honestly, I've wanted to write to Paul Taylor a number of times, but I figure he's very busy and there's no point. Hell, I've thought of making this topic suggestion after reading that newspost by Ian Jones for a long time, and I just never got around to it. I just kept thinking "I should do that some time..." Yesterday morning I just happened to get motivated to do it by the other fanmail thread.

And so, after making this thread, I did E-mail Paul Taylor. I don't expect a response, hell he may not even read it, but it was sincere and thought-out. If you're randomly doing it, that's not sincere. The only person who I hadn't considered beforehand was Chio of AaaSoC, because I was worried about the comic going on another long hiatus. The only reason I numbered at three was because I was getting enthusiastic. Three E-mails takes... 15 minutes? Maybe? It's not like I was asking you to... No... no, I won't go there.

This was a motivational suggestion. I think it's really a glass-half-empty perspective to view that as insincere, but that's entirely your decision. Do the other things you've suggested; you're good at making up alternate suggestions. I certainly don't see anything wrong with them. Mine, too, is a suggestion. I think it's nice to let other people know they're appreciated.

1. In first case, E-mail is a product of direct enthusiasm for the comic. In second case, it's forcing, even if you're forcing yourself because you wanna do the good thing.

As for this, I fail to see how that first example could be seen as direct enthusiasm while the other's forcing. But aside from that, now we've moved off of me forcing people to do it, which is ridiculous, and now onto forcing yourself to do it. "Forcing yourself" is in a case of doing something you don't really want to do, but you've got to get done. I "force myself" to get an essay finished on a certain day. I didn't "force myself" to do that guest comic for Fade to Black even though I was stressing over it a bit to get an idea. Doing something that requires effort and work shouldn't be considered insincere even when there's something else you'd rather do, when it's something you do on some level genuinely want to do.

Lastly, what is your suggestion then to the people who read this topic and thought "Hey, that is a good idea, I'm gonna' go do that!" Change their minds and not do it? Send an E-mail if they already had done so to the authors saying "Wait, wait. I take back what I said. McDuffies told me I was fibbing"? Boil a hotdog inside of a hamburger? What is your advice if they actually liked the idea and wanted to do it?

Says the person with a giant banner in their signature

Which is everyone on the forum? That isn't whoring; whoring is posting a link about your comic in every post. Whoring is going to other forums solely to post about your comic. I have links in my sigs on other forums, but I'm an active member at them, as I am here. I think I've gotten more oout of becoming an active member here in finding new comics I like to read than others' actual interest in mine.

Eh, don't let me stop you. If you suggested this, that means that you, for one, are feeling like writing fan mail.

If nothing else, we all did get to learn a lot more about sincerely than before.

I don't believe in fanmail. It's a myth perpetuated by the Illuminati. Who are themselves a myth perpetuated by fear. So I guess the whole myth thing is really perpetuated by people such as myself. I think.


Yeah, I don't get any, don't expect any, and give it when I feel its needed.

Escushion wrote:If nothing else, we all did get to learn a lot more about sincerely than before. :)

I have no idea how to respond to this statement.

sincerely wrote:

Escushion wrote:If nothing else, we all did get to learn a lot more about sincerely than before.

I have no idea how to respond to this statement.

Sincerely,

Sincerely.

*beep*

[Goes to check his email...]

I expect it to be friggin' overflowing people.

*spams Jackhass' email*

Escushion wrote:I remember a while back, Ian of RPG World had a newspost telling people to just write a fanmail to one of their favorite webcomic authors--not necessarily him --because it's nice to get something like that.

Funny you should say that, because a few years back, before he was too popular to update, I sent some fanmail to Ian and never got a response. And I remember seeing that newspost and thinking "pfft!" I've sent fanmail to other webcomickers and nobody has ever responded. Not even a one-sentence "Thanks, I'm glad you like it" deal, which is all I'd expect. I'll be honest, I don't take praise very well, but I do make it a point to acknowledge it if I ever get any.

Glarryg

Operative word being "if", as opposed to "when".

Yeah, thanks for the reminder. I really appreciate it.

Glarryg