“I can forgive bad art - but I can’t forgive a bad story.”

~

Coat

Hm, I guess 50% of Beat posters must now be banned…including THE BEAT!

As to the question of Church losing points for vulgarity and profanity, I’ll agree with Alan insofar as this: any time one employs hyperbolic language in presenting an argument, the argument forfeits a degree of its rational cache. The argument may gain or lose so far as emotional strength goes (as hyperbole tends to be polarizing, alienating those leaning toward disagreement and congratulating those leaning toward agreement), but hyperbolic argument adds nothing to its evaluation on reasonable terms and may even cast doubt on the arguments ability to sustain itself—as an argument that relies on hyperbole is often doing so to cover its weaknesses.

I will never, ever stop pitying people who think this.

(Or people who improperly capitalize.)

Yes. That, however, is not a store-centered newsletter–it’s a published blog for whomever to read at their leisure.

He lets me know when something might not be up to par encouarges me to listen to him when he recommends something that I might not have read otherwise. In the long run, he ends up ahead.

I should add: I’ve been going there for years and he constantly recommends that I stop getting Amazing Spider-Man and helped me cull my pull list when I had financial troubles. This isn’t really comparable to any other retail situation, its more of a long term financial relationship.

Are you fucking kidding me?

If he thinks Astonishing X-Men is something he wants to rail against, he can do that. He is responsible to his own conscience and his own wallet.

But Kevin Church loses any arguments points he earns by resorting to vulgar and Profane language.

And if Fantagraphics had said the same thing in TCJ, would Church attack them, or praise them?

We are far from the only industry where that kind of thing happens.

and that was last week?

If the guy’s going to include reviews in his newsletter, it’s to his credit that he says what he really thinks. In any case it’s a fallacy to think that a “bad” review is automatically going to turn people off.

The only art form wherein the activity of a single store, or the price of a single book, is the meat for endless link-blogging and angry conversation.

The waiter or waitress walking up to you and saying DON’T GET THE GROUPER is an ass.

As far as the Deppey thing, the interview is not about loneliness is any way. It’s about how blogging is like any other job. What full time job isn’t a 50-60 hour a week duty? And that’s without the drive to and from work.

And I still can’t see any reason to buy Kramer’s Ergot #7. $125 is a rip-off. $80 is a rip-off. I love the indies, but I’m not paying some outrageous price just to have a book to show off on my bookshelf. When the art guys do stuff like this, it makes me realize just how screwed the entire American comics industry truly is. Get used to manga dominating the sales charts, it’s going to continue until someone in this industry gets their head out of their ass.

A negative review is trying to do his customers a service. He is saying “Just so you know, I read this and didn’t like it. You might be better served spending your money on something else.”

On a certain level, should a store owner really care how you spend your money, along as you spend it? If he can get people to not buy Book A and buy Book B instead, is that really any skin off his nose (depending on how many copies of book A he may have ordered)?

If, for example, you’re doing the equivalent of telling someone, “What are you, a PUSSY?” for ordering a wine cooler, then, yes, You’re Doing It Wrong.

If, on the other hand, you’re gently steering someone away from biting into a steaming shit sandwich, without mocking their taste or insisting that they subscribe to your viewpoint, but instead, simply by saying, “Look, you might not care for this,” then, contrary to Kevin’s view, I think you can actually generate more revenue in the long run.

After all, if a bad purchase leads a customer to feel like they can’t trust you, they’re going to be less likely to buy from you in the future - Marvel and DC, take note.