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By Marc Mason

October 12, 2004

THE SIBAM GUIDE TO PROFESSIONAL (AND UNPROFESSIONAL) BEHAVIOR IN HANDLING CRITICISM

Frankly, I wish I didn’t have to write this column. I shouldn’t have to write this column. I should be telling you about some new releases from Image, Top Shelf, and Cyberosia instead. But last week’s column drew such a strange response that I feel like it needs to be addressed here.

Last week, I ran a list of books that had been passed on to me at San Diego that I had decided not to review. They were small press efforts, and frankly, they weren’t very good. So rather than take the time to write scathing reviews of books that would have graded no higher than a “D-“ I ran the last and offered to privately discuss the books with the creators if they wanted to e-mail me. Instead, one of the creators seemed to lose all sense of perspective and good sense, and this e-mail exchange came about. My responses are in italics, mixed in between his words:

I do not mind taking constructive criticism from anybody, but destructive criticism I will not tolerate.

How exactly did I offer "destructive criticism" considering that I didn't review the book at all?

I would rather of had you left [BOOK NAME DELETED] out of your lousy review.

You gave me the book. I suppose I could have just blown you off.

You have a lot of nerve blasting a comic book designed for children.

Are you actually suggesting to me that a book designed for children should be immune to review or feedback?

Because, frankly, that's just stupid.

Children's entertainment can help form ideas and tastes that will last for the rest of a life. Most of us who love comics certainly developed our love for them early. I was lucky in that my mother bought me a steady diet of Claremont/Byrne X-MEN and MARVEL TEAM-UP. I wasn't stuck reading SHAZAM reprints from the ‘40s.

This discussion can move to cartoons easily enough. Should cartoons not be reviewed either? Is there to be no debate about the merits of SpongeBob versus something like the Care Bears? Of course not. That's just silly.

I bet you feel real powerful in the position you are in as a reviewer, but to me you have disrespected your position by abusing it.

So I abused my position by reviewing your comic negatively, even though I really didn't review it? Am I also to blame for the lack of WMDs, Bush's inability to not look like a half-wit in a debate, and Kerry's lack of charisma? I'm confused how this molehill turned into a mountain in such a bizarre way for you.

Come on, [NAME]... if you want your comic reviewed by someone who loves everything and who will fellate you over its greatness, I recommend The Fourth Rail. Hell, you could have even done what Mike SanGiacomo did when I reviewed PHANTOM JACK negatively: he wrote me, challenged my review on an even level, and asked me to take another look, armed with more information and understanding of his project. I did so without reservation, because Mike came to me like a grown-up, not pouting or crying that I'd done him wrong.

One good review deserves another. [NAME], [BOOK NAME] creator.

I guess it depends on what you call a "review."

I then said I would pass on his e-mail to our Mail Shoot folks so he could be heard publicly and I figured I was done. Not so. A few hours later, this arrived:

"And it damned well isn’t likely to be optioned by Hollywood anyway. Life is too short to waste time reviewing bad comics. There are plenty of good ones that deserve my efforts." Marc, if you really feel that writing things like the above quoted paragraph from your column makes you the respected reviewer that you think you are then please deflate your ego for a minute and do me a favor by take [BOOK NAME] out of that list of comic books you so highly condemn.

[NAME], grow up. Your comic was just not very good. The art was amateurish and the dialog boring. That doesn't mean you have no future in doing comics- plenty of peoples' first efforts have stunk. Not to mention some of their later efforts. But you won't get far in the business ever by showing that you're an immature twit who can't handle criticism. Professionals understand that not everyone will love their efforts. What you are demonstrating here with your asshole behavior is that you aren't ready to be a professional. You're not even close.

I feel sorry for you Marc. Comic book reviewer is all you'll be in life...but mom's still proud of you, so everything is OK.

Case in point. Do you think Joe Quesada sends out stupid responses like this to reviewers who thought DAREDEVIL: FATHER #1 was boring twaddle? Of course not. It's just sad. And just to let you know: as I've discussed in my column on previous occasions that I have been a professional freelance journalist for nineteen years. On top of that, I'm a librarian. Let that sink in for a second, okay? I know more than just a little about writing and books. So while I could return your immature insult quite easily, I'll let my record speak for itself. You can let [BOOK NAME] and your unprofessional conduct speak for you.

P.S. I could care less whether you understand [BOOK NAME] or not. It's just that if you have negative things to say about him say them to my face. Do you need my address?

You have wandered so far from reasonable discourse that it no longer matters. I would have been happy to have offered you serious constructive criticism, just as I said in the column, but you chose to overreact, as though you felt like your book was the second coming of Lee/Ditko SPIDER-MAN and I was a moron for not seeing it. All you had to do was be an adult with an understanding of how to interact with people on a professional level, and you blew it.

And there, once again, I thought I was done with this nonsense. I forwarded it on for the Mail Shoot, and put it away. But minutes later this came:

Hey Marc, _ _ _ _ you! Can you fill in the blanks?

Can you believe this nonsense?

This had clearly passed beyond the pale, so I contacted our esteemed Editor-In-Chief and decided to take this matter from the Mail Shoot and put it back here where it now belongs.

Comics are a creative endeavor, no different than painting, writing poetry, or writing a short story. Art is the most interpretable of creations; you can create a recipe, but taste is mostly subjective to “I like it” “I hate it” or “It needs more salt.” Artistic efforts have a greater degree of latitude, and comics perhaps more than most. A superior story can be aided by equally superior art or nearly ruined by art that strays from the script. However, even in that case, you can critique the story and the pictures as separate entities. Feel free to rearrange any of those attributes in any combination you’d like and in all the ranges from great to stinky. No matter which way you look at it, it’s all open to interpretation and taste. But if you put the art out there, as a creator you’d better be ready and mature enough to know that it will be discussed and you need to develop the thickness of skin required to listen to the discussion.

True story: my college minor was Creative Writing. In one class I took, the students each took home a copy of the stories for the week, read them, wrote comments and criticisms on the stories themselves, and then returned them to the writer. Then the stories were discussed out loud in class to boot. So when you turned in a story, you had to not only see the comments on paper, but also hear your fellow students take on your efforts while you sat there silently and took it.

One week, I had a story turned in. A fellow student came into class that day and handed me my story, many pages missing, a few torn in half. I looked at him with a “huh?” look and he said to me, stone cold, “I ran out of toilet paper this week. Your story was perfect.”

I knew immediately that he meant it. He had literally shat on my work. I was floored., and I suspect most of you would have felt the same way. In retrospect, my first feeling should have been elation that he didn’t try and return the “used” pages as well. But as I pondered what had happened to me, I kept my mouth shut. I didn’t call the guy names, I didn’t insult his mother, I didn’t question his own talent. That wasn’t the way the class worked, and not only that, it made me start thinking: did my story just suck that badly?

As a writer, I respect the creative process above all other things. But I also respect the back end of the process just as much: the audience’s end. It’s always a wonderful smokescreen when you hear people say that they “write for themselves.” People who keep diaries write for themselves. Everyone else is writing for an audience. It may be a small audience, like the e-mailer above, or it may be a large audience, like Stephen King. But if you’re going to write for an audience, you had better be ready to hear what they have to say.

Like it or not, critics are a big part of your audience.

Even more so, they’re a part that can influence the rest of your potential audience. That’s why, when you buy David Sedaris’ latest book in paperback, the back cover is full of quotes from people who love the book. Or in comics, you’ll open up Previews and see ads for a new book with quotes from guys like The Fourth Rail. Plenty of people ignore what they have to say; on the other hand, when it comes to film, millions of people check Rotten Tomatoes every week to see how the critics feel about a particular movie. That leads us to:

THE RULES OF PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT FOR A CREATOR (COMICS OR OTHERWISE)

• Don’t hate the player; hate the game. Critics are a fact of life. If you don’t want a critic to review your work, don’t let them see it. If you can’t handle criticism, don’t seek out reviews of your work. Believing that your work will be universally beloved is wishful thinking.
• If you must respond, be professional. If you don’t like what a critic has to say, and you feel like you need to respond, take high ground. Unless the critic attacked you as a person in the review, there is absolutely no reason for you to do go on a personal attack yourself. Separate yourself from your work. Taking any negative feedback personally is unprofessional and demonstrates a lack of creative maturity. Most critics are willing to discuss their feelings with you because they are interested in seeing good work. No one is rooting against you to succeed.
• Consider the future. How you comport yourself in the face of criticism or disappointment can affect your future career. Consider the number of public implosions and bridge burnings we’ve seen in comics over the last couple of years. Mark Millar vs. DC. David Choe vs. Marvel. John Byrne vs. Marvel and half the creators working in comics. There are plenty of others. It’ll certainly be a cold day in Hell when Bob Wayne gets a job working at Marvel. Not only have each of those folks acted poorly and said things they can’t take back, they’ve cost themselves future income possibilities in doing so. You don’t like how someone treated your work? That’s common. But being a dick about it? That’s suicidal. You never know who’s reading, especially if you decide to speak up in a public forum. You should treat any public area like a job interview area: you’re wearing a suit and tie, and you’d better be nice to the secretary. Otherwise, you’re still eating ramen.