A thought...

[benlehman]

This is about webcomics, to start with, but it makes a larger point.

So Scott Kurtz has a big rant on his webpage in which he hates on fellow cartoonists. For those of you familiar with his comic (or at least, those that read his essay writing), this will not come as a big surprise. Like many people, he's pretty much incapable of restraint online.

Anywhere, here's his site: http://www.pvponline.com/ Go read it now -- Kurtz's rants have a tendency to come down once his foot-in-mouth disease kicks in.

Most of the blathering is just blathering, but there's a particular line I want to draw attention to:

Rather than try to make a name for himself by actually CREATING something, Mr. T. has to piggy-back himself on the webcomics creators out there giving it their all.

T Campbell (site: http://www.tcampbell/ ) (and Kurtz knows this, he's linked to the man before) is a writer. He wrote a very long webcomic series (Fans!) which took a shitty premise and developed it enormously deeply. He writes a couple of other comics right now, as well (Penny and Aggie, which is great, and Rip and Teri, which I don't read.) He also done tons of guest-writing stints and so on.

Kurtz's claim is basically that T isn't really a creator, because he's a writer, rather than an artist. This is actually a pretty odd claim, as Kurtz's writing is a much bigger part of his job than his art (he uses clips) and both of these men are talented writers.

This is essentially recapitulating the culture stereotypes around writing -- that it is easy, that anyone can do it, that writers are really just people with connections so they can get their stuff published, and skill has nothing to do with it. It's basically a crock of shit.

Writing is hard. Writing is a skill. Anyone can't do it. In my little corner of the publishing world (RPGs), I've seen game after game suffer from good designers who are shitty writers (and I'm not going to name names, no thanks. If you want my opinion of your writing, pay me.) To trivialize the writing portion of comics is basically to ignore half the artform, if not more. (A lot of people will read well-written comics with shitty art. Almost no one reads pretty comics with crappy writing.)

It's really upsetting to see this being replicated by someone who is a writer himself.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Howdy! I just read the rant. I've met Campbell on the con circuit and he's a great guy, so I don't really approve of said rant, however...
I disagree that him being a writer and not an artist is the point he's making. It seems to me that Kurtz just disagrees about his qualifications to create the book and his summary of webcomic history. And IP issues too.

But you're right. You can't have comics with bad writing. Art has to draw you in to reading the book and writing has you keep you there. I read tons and tons of badly written comics with amazing art...for one issue.

[bar-sinister.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I really like PvP, but Kurtz is a serious blowhard. He's also constantly leaping to other people's defense, when said people don't necessarily need or want his protection. He should stick to outrage about slights to his own person.

[chris-goodwin.livejournal.com]

What I got out of that was that Kurtz was pissed because Campbell was using other people's imagery without their permission. Which I thought was kinda iffy for someone who makes as liberal use of other people's IP as Kurtz does, but snakes on a plane.

[nikotesla.livejournal.com]

Hi Jenn!

I think what he's saying here is "by using others' work without permission, this guy is hack."

I honestly don't think that he doubts that writing is an art and a craft.

Man, I sure respect it.

[evilmagnus]

That is sad; I disagree with Kurtz, but I do think T is too full of himself.