It’s been a long time, I shouldn’t have left you without a dope post to step to.

Thanks, Palette, for reminding me I’ve neglected this blog.

 For once, it’s not just laziness. I’ve had a rough month taking care of a sick old dog.  I think I have him to the point where he can be maintained, but it’s kind of gut-wrenching to know that, at best, I’ve got a year or two with him.

 So, I’m going to rectify that. 

 You know what I miss? INTERNERD DRAMA. Internerd drama is awesome. That’s maybe the thing I miss most about doing The Low Road. I was never Graeme McMillan, or anything, but I loved pointing out and mocking some of the crazy histrionics of the internerd in my own, special way. 

 I thought I grew out of it, actually.   I mean, blogging lightly about comics and classic film? Doesn’t lend itself to the real investment in the happenings of the blogosphere or the forum world or anything like that.  Plus, we’ve got Dick doing it awesomely.

Still, sometimes the drama touches on things I wanted to write about anyway.  This time, it’s turf warfare, a concept as old as, well, turf.  I found a thread on the Classics Forum at Comic Book Resources (arguably the least drama-filled comics subforum on the internerd, those classics cats).  In it, a poster points out an interesting comics-related web site  from Mr. Kitty he stumbled across: 

This website features some fascinating and hilarious material, assembled by one or more people who are both funny and highly knowledgeable about comics. Check it out today! 

However, Stupid Comics rubbed Scott Shaw! (of Oddball Comics) the wrong way:

Gosh, what a unique website. And jeepers, such a clever name, too. I wonder where these geniuses came up with the idea for “Stupid Comics” anyway?

Seriously, ODDBALL COMICS has already covered a lot of this material, and with much more depth, information and humor. (“Stupid Comics” numerous “fucks” and “Goddamns” don’t particularly enhance the commentary material either, in my opinion.) I’ve been doing my Oddball Comics slideshow since around 1975 or so, probably long before the people behind “Stupid Comics” were even born or able to read. Sites like this and “Superdickery” strike me as being amateurish and generally scornful of comics.

So please consider me overwhelmingly underwhelmed.

You know, people express their passions in weird ways.  Some of us good-naturedly mock ourselves and the things we love.  And some of us become very proprietary about ideas we hold dear, evidently.  I’m in the former category–recovering Irish Catholic upbringing, and all of that–and Shaw! appears to be in the latter.  His latter comments in that thread demonstrate some very weird rhetorical tricks designed to make him appear to have the high ground, but fall flat.

 The big one that sticks with me is this:

Speaking of being on “the right track”…

– At SDCCI ‘07, I recently did my ODDBALL COMICS show to a SRO audience of over 1,000 people who were kept laughing throughout the performance.

– I’ve been doing variations on my ODDBALL COMICS show at conventions all over the country, spanning four decades.

– I’ve been writing my ODDBALL COMICS column for the Internet for over seven years, first here at Comic Book Resources (where it won a “Corey Award” for “Best Column”) and now on its own website.

– Kitchen Sink published a boxed set of my ODDBALL COMICS trading cards, which was one of the finalists for an Eisner Award for “Best Comics-Related Product”.

– Avalanche Press published my ODDBALL COMICS calendar.

– Last year, my live ODDBALL COMICS show had a very successful eight-week run at Hollywood’s ACME Comedy Theater.

“Pedantic and tiresome”? Looks like a lot of people would disagree with you, Dave.

On the other hand, as someone who has worked with a number of top Canadian entertainers (I produced and directed two animated SatAM TV series “starring” Martin Short and John Candy, THE COMPLETELY MENTAL MISADENTURES OF ED GRIMLEY and CAMP CANDY, as well as storyboarding a MacKENZIE BROTHERS Internet cartoon, all of which also featured voiceover performances of most of the legendary cast of SCTV), I think that I’m somewhat qualified to congratulate “Stupid Comics” for disproving that often-held theory that Canada’s chief export is comedic talent.

Where to start, where to start…

• Those 1,000 people? Likely older, reverential comics fans.  Let’s face it–humor falls along demographic lines more often than not. 
• The appeal to longevity doesn’t really work if the counterargument is that the method is tired and, therefore, not as funny or valuable as it once was.
• That “other people disagree” with the value of Oddball Comics rings hollow when people are disagreeing with Shaw! regarding the value of Stupid Comics.
• The closing back-handed compliment just, well, isn’t the way to go if the whole point of condemning the cats at Stupid Comics for being too snarky, is it?  It strikes me as kind of like saying to someone “Hey, your antisemitism offends me! Those kikes have feelings too!”

What really bothers me, though, is the claiming of turf.  An idea isn’t something one can really hold onto.  Hell, as I’ve written before, an idea in and of itself is not of any value until it’s executed well.  Here, we have two different sites, both taking inspiration from similar material, and executing it in different ways.  Oddball Comics isn’t my cup of tea.  Maybe it’s yours.  Enjoy your tea, or something, but I’m going to stick with this new flavor of coffee I just found at Stupid Comics.

EDIT: If you want to track the other side of the discussion, you can also view the thread at Shaw!’s forum.

…

Typing that exclamatian point hurts the inner prescriptivist grammarian I thought I had completely eradicated.

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 Unrelated: my friend James sent me this web-comic, and I just had to share it with everyone else.  It’s always nice to see people mocking the white heteronormativity that happens within American superhero comics–not because it’s something that needs saying, as I think most people recognize it, but because it’s fun to watch the people who vehemently disagree with it get all hot-and-bothered about it.