the end of the beginning of the end

[davemerrill]

Seems the Comics Journal has updated their site again; gone are a lot of the extraneous stuff, some columnists, and the message board, which is the part of their site that I definitely paid the most attention to. And yet it's a mercy killing; the board had gone largely unmoderated for years and as such had degenerated into press releases, people debating the merits of whatever superhero film had recently come out, and political rants from people seemingly unaware there are such things as Facebook, Livejournal, or "blogs".

In fact I first became a regular visitor to the board when the whole Ted Rall / Dirty Danny thing went down; as you will remember from ten years ago(!!), Danny Hellman sent out a prank email with Ted Rall's name on it. Lawsuit ensued. This was debated, updated, dissected, mocked, and generally gave the TCJ board a focus for a few months, and when that subsided it was replaced with a raft of sock-puppetry, gag threads, fake controversies, and the kind of nonsense that the internet of 2001 really excelled in.

For me it was a lot of fun to read in those heady times, to see some of my favorite cartoonists pop in to comment or goof off. Trouble is cartoonists need to cartoon, it's their job, and when you're goofin' on a message board you aren't drawing cartoons. So a lot of the hijinx by Hellman, Millionaire, etc., dwindled away.

Most message boards reach a point where the shenanigans start to overwhelm the on-topic messages. It takes a firm hand at the moderating rudder to keep the conversations going in the right directions. I think the TCJ board had that moderation for about ten minutes. As a result it became a backwater of rants, kooks, and self-promotion that didn't reflect well on the magazine or its readers.

TCJ has struggled with its direction in this post-print world and the site redesign seems to be a step in the right direction. I'll miss the message board, but it's like missing that second candy bar you really didn't need to eat. Tom Spurgeon, as usual, says it better than I can.

In other news, there's a new ZERO FIGHTER strip up that was drawn in spite of seeing, this weekend, the worst film I've ever seen all the way through, a masterpiece of ineptitude titled "Birdemic: Shock And Terror". Bad acting, bad special effects, nonsensical script driven by superficial ecological preaching, bad sound, bad editing, you name it about this film, it's bad. Do not miss a chance to see this film, your mind will refuse to accept how terrible it is. But your eyes tell you it's true!

Comments

[frustratedpilot]

You are the second person I've seen today call Birdemic the worst movie ever. Three times and I'll know it's true.

[lolotehe]

It's true. It's dreadful.

[childings.livejournal.com]

The fact that Ted Rall actually makes money is one of the world's greatest injustices

[mr-sadhead.livejournal.com]

This is a drag. I was part of that community.

[(Anonymous)]

"Trouble is cartoonists need to cartoon, it's their job, and when you're goofin' on a message board you aren't drawing cartoons."

True, indeed, but unless you share your studio with other artists, you become starved for the interaction you need to energize your work. A couple years ago, I saw practically no use for Facebook, now I'm checking it about half a dozen times a day. It stops me from drawing for that time, but without it I'd be far less connected and aware. Until I get back into staff job at an office where I can, you know, talk to people, it's a valuable substitute.

The potential is always there for abuse, but if you start doing the breaks more often than the work, it's time to reconsider the work. (That same potential can be found on a staff job; Lordy, some guys just can't keep their butts in a chair.)

-Tim Eldred

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

Well, there's "checking your Facebook", and there's "creating five different sock puppet accounts that all team up to attack a Vermont comic shop owner who did something to piss you off ten years ago." Or starting a thread to answer questions as if you were Hitler. Or accusing Dan Clowes of plagarizing you, or defending your decision to promote Holocaust denial, promoting your anti-Jihadist comic book in a thread that keeps going for two years, blaming Democrats for the comic book censorship of the 1950s... it was the kind of message board where arguments got ugly fast and stayed that way.

FB and LJ are much better ways to stay connected; as contentious and heated as some of the discussions get, I have yet to see one ended by one of the participants changing all his posts to images of a clown-faced urinal.

Proper message board moderation, kids; it's crucial.

[rootstudio.livejournal.com]

The only good things I got out of the TCJMB were learning about Shiot Crock (http://fileunderother.blogspot.com/2008/05/shiot-crock-12-slight-return-edited-by.html) and reading about the infamous Sam Henderson/Scott Russo practical joke (http://themagicwhistle.blogspot.com/2009/12/kar-tunz-and-tuna-casserole.html).