HEY CHRIS WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?! WHERE ARE YOU? Finally answe

[AugustWest]

Poor tortured soul.  How very horrible for him.

[Asherdan]

Most of you didn't read Gaiman's piece, I take it.

I did.

Here's the difference between the two that I see...Gaiman made his call in an upright professional way that respected all parties.

'Stad pretty much hasn't. Feeding people an explanation with an undercurrent of "Fuck You" gets you a lot of that same attitude in return. S'OK though, people yelling back at him prolly self-confirms him being non-classy about it.

I mean c'mon, the Daisy Owl guy basically did the same thing but in a way that didn't have a buncha blowback. Civility while remaining true to yourself is not some complicated thing that's never been done afore.

And wombles, that's why I expect you'll be just fine if the Eye just happens to be a good thing.

[wombat]

I honestly don't get an undercurrent of Fuck You from what he wrote. There is one reference to "entitled whining" which I think is completely justified, because I've read much of that entitled whining.

I feel like you are all reading a totally different thing than I read. He doesn't want to repeat himself. The internet kind of bums him out. He wants to work on more long-form stuff. It's not mostly about YOU.

[Asherdan]

I honestly don't get an undercurrent of Fuck You from what he wrote.

That's because you are a nice person.

But it is about the collective audience in part, wombles, mostly from the point of how it makes him feel and its effect on his work.

You want to take the good out of this? Dude just freed himself to work however the heck he wants.

After all, that's what RSS is for.

[edit...my ability to spell and use punctuation is impaired for some reason]

[side_show]

Nice sig Ash.

I've written and deleted several of my own posts in the last strip's thread about why I've left writing.  I was hanging out with a fellow writer on Friday and talking about this.  It's incredibly hard to articulate how fucked up things get in your own head when so many strangers are talking about your work.   When your audience has understood and misunderstood.  When the media has interpreted and misinterpreted.  For me, and perhaps for Onstad, it has been totally irresistible to read about the things people have said about my work.  My ego and my insecurity made it impossible not to read the reviews, the messageboard posts, the emails.  And the weight of a random internet asshole, a gushing fan, a good critic, a bad one... they all feel sort of equal in my head and heart.  I had the work of actors, a director, designers and production people to hid behind - surely it was good because of what she did, it was bad because of how he did it.  I had people to hide behind and also to diffuse any sense of being puffed up because theatre is a collaborative process.  It still messed with my head though.  Deeply.  I can't imagine how much more messed up it would be to be the one and only one to praise and blame.

The thing is, there are people I would like to thank and people I would like to say "fuck you" to.  Some people I'd need to say both to.  Onstad sounds like he wants to hug and punch his readers all within the same message.

I get being this bound up.  I get the toxic navel gazing.  Writing is such an internal, solitary process that it lends to this sort of sickness far too well.

I also understand why he can't just declare it done.  Even though I've stopped writing, I can't escape my identity.  I am a writer.  I have no doubt that one day I'll come back to the work.  The things is, the person who wrote that play that brought me all that attention, and that near decade of work - she's not me.  Even now as I prepare for the scripts publication, the desire to rewrite the whole damn thing because my perspective is so different now is there.  But then the proper intent and the integrity of the work would be destroyed.  I was a angry kid coming to terms with loss when I set out to write that thing.  I'm a happy adult who is on the other side of dealing with that shit now.  That doesn't make the anger and loss any more legitimate.  I just don't draw from that place anymore.

[jay-ell]

Most of you didn't read Gaiman's piece, I take it.

I hadn't before, but I just did. And, yeah, Onstad is not our bitch. I don't expect a damn thing from him. I wish him well and it's good to know he's not lying in a gutter somewhere, but I get the sense that he is really unhappy to not be writing and drawing much any more, and that makes me sad. I want him to get back on the hoss for his own sake, not because I think he owes me free entertainment.

But I think LFM and others are annoyed because he is insisting he is not writing for us while simultaneously asking for money, not for what he has already produced (most of us long-term fans have already bought that in some form), but in exchange for the vague hope that he might produce something again, someday.

If Gaiman doesn't finish a book everyone's expecting, he doesn't get paid. If I don't write any new articles, I don't get paid. (Sometimes I don't get paid even when I *do* the work I'm supposed to.) Onstad seems to think that the mere fact of his being an artist means that people should hit the tip jar regardless of whether or not he produces new content, which is a very different type of entitlement that tends to rub consumers the wrong way.

I'm not saying I get this from this particular letter, per se; but I can see how his previous actions (setting stuff up behind the paywall and only producing content there, posting prominent notes on the main page about the tip jar even while dismantling the store, pushing the paid content even in his "maybe-farewell" note) might lead some to believe that that's what this is about.

I tend to have more faith in him then that, but then, I tend to take people at face value, and I'm told that's a rare quality these days. 

[wombat]

But also: When Gaiman finishes his book, every time someone new buys it, he gets money.

In contrast, Achewood is up on the web, so new readers get it for free. I don't think it's inappropriate for him to point out to them that there's a tip jar. I don't think it's inappropriate for him to mention that if you pay 2.99 for one month at assetbar, you can read pages and pages of material that you haven't read before. And then cancel.

There is nothing wrong with an artist asking for money for his work. Even work that is already finished.

[Nabubrush]

Onstad was always obviously tempermentally unsuited to the comic strip business . . . that is, the wrong line of work except of course for the tiny little detail of the fact that the work itself was BRILLIANT.

There is nothing wrong with an artist asking for money for his work. Even work that is already finished.

These things here.

I am a bit surprised at the venom. So he's a talented, kind of dickish guy - he's got that in common with how many people? We've all known it for quite some time, as well. I wonder if it's just the immediate contact that is causing a problem.

[littlefallsmets]

Look, here's the thing. Or here's what I think is the thing. I'm in a really weird place intellectually and emotionally right now, I'm probably less stable than usual.

The cult of the idea that a writer or a craftsperson or an artist becomes successful on the sole merit of the sweat of their brow is utter bullshit. This is like the only thing I've learned in the four or five total years of my life I've spent working on sets and in production offices and editing rooms as an assistant/utility-infielder. And I say this as someone who still clings to the idea that I'm going to figure out how to sustain myself through creative effort.

No matter how much work and frustration, no matter how good or how bad your stuff is, depending on your medium, a lot of people decided to invest themselves into the idea of elevating your work along the way. Editors, executives, critics, the people who paid their money at the festival screening, the people who built the fan sites that made some paper or teevee channel think you were worth covering, your mom's college friend who knew an agent. Producers who put their asses on the line to talk to you instead of making easier money making Transformers 4. All kinds of people in the business and the fan-sphere putting their time and money into you, just because they believe in your stuff that much.

On the internet, with something like Achewood? All the early adopter fans who became true believers of your work and got that fuck*ng word of mouth out. These things don't just happen. Hell, you guys and girls who are the real oldbies around here, you were fuck*ng right there at that early kernel doing that work. Without people like you pushing everyone to look at this brilliant thing, there is no success.

You may be able to argue that Achewood as an idea exists on an island first and foremost in the creator's head but the success of the strip does not.

You don't own your work totally, just because you created it, if you put it out there to be consumed. If you sit on it like fuck*ng shiftless cowards terrified of being told they're not God special little snowflakes... like I do... that's one thing. You can own your own little Schrodinger's ideas that both are and are not when you're a gutless pig like myself.

But when you release your work, you do... you do release it into the world and while the initial effort is all yours, the effort toward whether it is seen or unseen, ignored or hailed as a masterpiece and whether you are successful enough to get the honour of releasing other work to significant other eyes is in the hands of middlemen and paying customers and in the case of an Achewood, tens of thousands of unpaid preachers to the cause.

Ownership in the initial work is yours and an artifact of your hard work. Success... if it is a success, if you are a success... of a work of craft or art ESPECIALLY in this day and age, success is an artifact of not just the creator but also that of dozens of middlemen who could make their money on something easier and thousands of unpaid enthusiasts going out and preaching your book and buying your shit.

It is not as simple as having your ball and going home with it. If you never took that ball out to play a game, sure, it's your fuck*ng ball and mazeltov if you wanna be a selgiraffe fuck about your fuck*ng precious-ass ball. If you've been playing a game in the field with it, with seventeen other players and there's been people selling tickets and buying tickets and running around convincing other people to pay for tickets too...

It is not entirely your ball anymore. And that's weird and counterintuitive and terrifying and fucked-up but it is true. Probably always true and probably never truer than now.

Let me, let me think a bit more about this, I'll be back.

[theinevitable]

I don't have any well-thought out ideas about this, but the whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth.

I wish he would have just said, "no more Achewood. It's done. Thanks for buying my books. Check back here for news of my future endeavors."

also, send people the shirts they have paid for.

[pmcd9]

Most of you didn't read Gaiman's piece, I take it.

I read it.  Not only does he come off like an asshole, but he's wrong.  In the example he is commenting on I think there is a responsibility of the author to complete his work.  The mere fact that an author is writing a series demands that he complete his work.  Beyond that, the author in question, RR Martin, teased his audience with the promise of a new chapter in the series.  He then turned his attention elsewhere.  Understandably his fans are frustrated.

In the case of Onstad, his fans are frustrated for a similar reason.  Onstad's fans expect a comic on a daily basis because Onstad is writing a daily comic strip.  These are not expectations that we as his fans have created. 

When, over the course of the past two years or so, when his production began to slow, missing a strip or two a week at first, until ultimately grinding to a complete halt.  He gave us not one word of explanation until now.  All of this time he has ostensibly been on the job, so is it unfair that we began to speculate?  Is it unfair of us to be frustrated that he's not delivering the product he's promised in a timely fashion?

And to hide behind the claim that we have no rights to complain because everything hes produced has been given for free.  Well that's just a shameful lie.  It insinuates that he hasn't made any money out of this enterprise and we all know that's not the case.  The truth of the matter is his free comic has provided him and his family with a comfortable living over these years.  Even now, in the absence of new material, It's still providing. 

Does he owe us a comic?  No, of course not.  I've never felt that he did.  I did expect one because it's natural to expect a daily comic strip to be updated daily.  I'm glad he's finally taken the time to explain himself even though at this point it's unnecessary.  I had already given up on expecting the strip to ever update.  I wish him well and hope he returns to Achewood someday. If not, C'est la vie. 

[AugustWest]

I don't have any well-thought out ideas about this, but the whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth.

I wish he would have just said, "no more Achewood. It's done. Thanks for buying my books. Check back here for news of my future endeavors."

also, send people the shirts they have paid for.

What Inev said.

[littlefallsmets]

I dunno.

I've spent the last coupla years watching some of my creative heroes go sort of crazy putting themselves on islands of accomplishment, disregarding the roles that fandom/critics/the press had in creating their careers now that they feel they've earned their places and fandom/critics/the press aren't being totally lock-step supportive despite a sense of entitlement toward lock-step support. And it fuck*ng woogs me out. Makes me doubt my own intentions creatively.

The Red Letter Media reviews of the Star Wars prequels hit the nail on the head of a lot of what I'm thinking here, I suppose. It's just...

The only reason anyone learned to care about Achewood over a sustained period of time was because a dedicated fandom donated a lot of Paypal, bought a lot of books and shirts, bugged the shit out of their friends to archive-binge the website and so on.

There are little blips of genius all over the creative landscape that never last long enough to start feeling bad and conflicted about success and little amounts of fame because they never found an active fanbase. There's all kinds of awful pandering wasteful bullshit that are successful as all hell because they found their particular niche of an active fanbase.

To say "I'm uncomfortable with this very limited amount of fame that allowed me to make a living selling t-shirts about drawings, I'm going to stop making those drawings because I no longer think they're perfect but by all means, keep paying three bucks a month for my bar napkin doodles until I stop feeling the awful pressure you ungrateful entitled assholes are putting on me and start being perfect again, three bucks a month, buy it now" ummmmm...

It seems like a "fuck you". Not a big bold screaming "fuck you" but a little passive-aggressive "fuck you" and a "fuck you" nonetheless.

Entitlement is a two-way street, here. Gratitude is a two-way street, here.

He doesn't owe people to keep doing something he thinks he just can't do anymore but considering these peoples' enthusiasm and financial support allowed him to make his hobby into his full time job, yeah, he owed those people the graciousness of a more honest answer a lot more promptly.

He owes them more than "yeah, I'm not doing anything now and might not be doing anything for a long time but you're all a bunch of pushy entitled assholes and keep paying three dollars a month for scans of cocktail napkins in case I can ever get past the terrible pressure you pushy entitled assholes have placed on me by allowing me to turn my hobby into my profession and you won't want to miss anything will you then, you pushy entitled assholes?"

Yeah.

Entitlement and gratitude do go both ways.

[pmcd9]

I'm going to stop making those drawings because I no longer think they're perfect but by all means, keep paying three bucks a month for my bar napkin doodles

I'm canning this because It made me laugh, but also because I almost made the same point.

[Nabubrush]

also, send people the shirts they have paid for.

Can't argue against this. Not doing so, well, you know what kind of move that is.

The rest of it is interesting as an intellectual exercise, but I'm pretty sure the only artist whose work I enjoy - really, really enjoy - who isn't sort of a cock is Stevie Wonder. And he's gone somewhat downhill over the last twenty years or so. Still, it comes off kind of shitty for me to say stuff like "why can't you people enjoy what we did get?" so I'll just say tear that fucker a new ass!