Dialogue Free Comic Day!

Dialogue Free Comics Day is this Friday, May 13th! In case you haven't heard of this, you are not alone. I only learned about it this morning, thanks to this article from Robot 6.  This is a chance for artists to let their art speak for itself, rather than get bogged down with dialogue.  As Noel Curry, the organizer behind this puts it,

"Too often, when writing my webcomics (Milton’s Life and  DJ Bogtrotter), I forget that this is primarily a visual artform and so to emphasise that, I’ve set myself the challenge of posting a dialogue free comic on that day and I’d like you to join me."

It seems like such a great concept. All too often, I only concentrate on the story and push the art to the backburner, when most of the time the art is so integral to the story.

After reading about this, I started thinking about how hard it must be to tell a story without words. Since I have been suffering from writer's block and missing (self-imposed) deadlines, I suddenly felt inspired to draw my own dialogue-free comic.  Now keep in mind, this event is originally intended for artists with current running web comics to take part in.  Please be kind; this is my first (and probably last) piece of art. 

What I got out of this was a much deeper appreciation for artists. This was also a great cure for my writer's block; after stressing through this, getting words out doesn't seem so stressful!

If you feel inspired to, go ahead and give it a shot! Even if you decide not to draw something, still make sure that you check out Dialogue Free Comics Day!

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This Month, Let's Work on Respect

I just had a conversation with my boss about respecting artists. It was in reference to the Spider-Man musical (she loved it and only one delay in the show) and how so many people were bashing it for technical problems. She brought up a great point. You should really respect anyone that can take an idea and create something brand new with it. I know how hard it is to just write these posts, so to take on the challenge of producing an entire musical with high-flying people is just impressive.

From toonpool.com

This made me think about some of the things I have seen and written. Have I really been practicing this respect? I had some pretty strong feelings toward Whit Anderson, and while in the end my comments may not have been too harsh, there are some members of the Buffy fan base that have taken things a step too far. While writing this post, I happened upon a couple bloggers that were writing about the same thing. Sean T. Collins of Robot 6 covered the "incident" between an angry fan and Dan Slott. Dan Slott later tweeted that the fan apologized but not before gaining a lot of internet attention. And over at The Beat, they covered a list of recent bashing and theft. The fact that this is coming up at all makes me sad.

Too many times have I seen bashing and hate in comment sections that is totally undeserved. Don't attack a person's character, especially since you don't even know them. If you don't like the show/movie/album/comic, don't say it in a totally negative way that insults an entire group of people. Try to be constructive so you can help this person grow. And, if you really think you can do it better, do it yourself. Until you give it a shot, you can't understand.

From SonoftheSouth.com

I still believe that the industry needs to learn to respect us fans. While it has been getting better, there is still work to be done. That can start with us respecting each other. There is too much geek hate for us to do it to each other. I hope that in this month of giving, we can all take the time to respect any creative ability.