And regarding including negative reviews, well, I get that, that the negative reviews help appear to balance the positive so that it doesn't seem that you give everyone an online blowjob... I don't live with those fears and worries. You see, I'd really prefer not to bring attention to the works that I dislike, and I'd prefer to give attention to the works I did like. It doesn't come from the growing up adage of not saying something unless you have something good to say, I say shit all the time. I offend people left and right. But, if someone sends me their creative work, if I can't find a way to review it, I'd prefer not poop on a person's creative work. However, there are certainly works that I dislike, and works that I find to not have been well done.
I've written reviews, and at some point I realized that my reviews resulted in getting me more reviews. If you review and review positively people want you to review their work. That is a natural response. However, in doing so, there were people who read my reviews, sent me their work, and then were pissed off that I didn't care for their work, or, after they sent me dozens of emails saying why aren't you reviewing my work, I finally did a review that was less than positive, they didn't respond well. It would seem foolish, as comics and entertainment are not the most important works in existence, but I've received death threats from people, not many I worried about. But I did get a number of them. Frankly I received more death threats from my early support of Obama from Gun Nuts than I did comic people who hate me. (I've lost a great deal of faith in all political parties, so my Obama faith was misplaced, I am afraid).
Rob Zombie
This work was not written or drawn with me in mind. While I like horror, I do not like vile, obscene, morally corrupt, ugliness. And the art was not to my taste, the writing was bad. So despite my desire to support Crossgen works, this was one that if it had been my first Crossgen product, it would also have been my only Crossgen product.
JHTM
Jhonen Vasquez One of Slave Labor's biggest hits was Johnny the Homicidal Maniac. The quality of product, as far as quality of production, and paper was fine. But the work that it collected was something that offended my senses. There are a great many people who love JTHM and consider it to be a form of catharsis or personal therapy or self help. It is relentlessly dark cynical black humor and violent. It makes a mockery of human existence and shames itself by doing so. Well, I thought so. I refused to leave a review grade when I read this. I knew others would feel very different than I did. And from the dozens of emails, I know they did.
X-MEN: APOCALYPSE VS DRACULAFrank Tieri
At one time I liked aspects of this title. I didn't think it is was a genius work, or something I had to read, but I loved the four covers by Jae Lee, I enjoyed the concept of villain versus villain, and Frank Tieri's writing of evil characters absolutely has a ring of truth versus a number of other more heralded writers. Jae Lee's covers did in fact make me buy this work. As a fan of his work I let the beauty of his work make my decisions to buy. Apocalypse being ancient, and Dracula being eternal, both have clans of warriors and kin who they gather around themselves. And the two sides fight. As I said, at one time I liked this, but upon rereading it, I wondered, what the hell was I thinking. I guess I was lured in by the pretty pictures.
CAPTAIN ATOM: ARMAGEDDONWill Pfeifer
I have no issues with DC or Wildstorm, Jim Lee or anyone involved in this book. But this nine issue comic book series was the series that made me stop buying any comic not written or drawn by people I know or support. I am a fan of the character of Captain Atom, and had enjoyed Will Pfeifer's writing, but damn... This work was a 9 issue $27 event meant to drain my wallet of money in order to get me to read the last page of the 9th issue. That is, the first 8 issues and 90% of the 9th meant really nothing. The final two pages were a blink of cosmic dust or something and the worlds rebooted. And then I realized again, as I've always known, imaginary stories don't matter but for the amount of entertainment they provide. And I stopped caring about the world of continuity or anything similar in the world of comics.
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