New Brevoort Formspring

“And to further add to my previous point, this isn’t fine art you’ve got up in a gallery. It’s a product, and therefor should be held to criticisms from those you are selling that product to…”

Tom, I would like to address this Anon & several others for a moment.

Anon, listen up. First off, “this isn’t fine art” is one of the top 3 most offensive things you could say to a comic book artist. It proves  you either don’t understand or don’t have a care for an inkling of what it took for them to get where they are. The amount of schooling, practice, caricatures at bar mitzvahs and summer festivals, the sheer amount of unpublished political cartoons that they poured their hearts into for years and years, sometimes costing themselves important amounts of money or even relationships —

Sir, you are so over the line on that comment it’s offensive to me. All I do is write, so that’s saying something. 

ALL ART SHOULD BE CRITICIZED.

The best art IS criticized and critiqued, investigated and discussed. Everything in all forms should be criticized and re-evaluated. Lesson #1 in college: CRITICAL THEORY!

 Tom has never said you or any other reader cannot critique Marvel’s work. I mean he has a gosh-danged public tumblr where you can go in and publicly call him an ass as you an your ilk so frequently do and like a disciple of any religious figure in the history of religious figures he turns the other cheek. (Usually). He’s a pretty good sport about this stuff. “if you weren’t so flippant about the fan base.” FLIPPANT? You just came in here and told off a man you’ve NEVER MET and probably NEVER WILL and are accusing him not caring about the readership because, because why? 

I tried to find your thesis in your argument, apologies for not being able to figure out which one was “Part One” of your spiel to Mr. Brevoort. You have to forgive me though, all you anons tend to post the same crap over and over. 

From what I can tell, the crux of your “argument” is that “Whether or not sales decline shouldn’t be the barometer for change (necessarily). People stay loyal, and yet you dump on them for criticizing the product?" 

Is it safe to infer this is a change in price? Or a change in artists or writer? Or numbering? 

I realize this is a limited character space but, how’s about we utilize it and give Tom a fully thought-out argument before we attack him and his people, accusing them of "dump[ing] on [us] for criticizing the product?” I have seen him, maybe once or twice, “dump” on a fan.

I would hardly call that person a fan. I think taking a funny cheap stab at Adam-X might rile up the singular Adam-X fan base. But I mean, have you been to their site? No? That’s because it doesn’t exist. Nightcrawler has one though, check it out! And Spider-Man!

REAL comic critics/reviewers analyze the piece for what it is. Pictures and letters on a piece of paper. Do these letters and pictures effectively tell a story? Is there an apparent appreciation of everything going on for that character in other titles? Are all characters treated appropriately and like real people, given somewhat realistic features (or as realistic as can be expected in a comic) and given their moment to shine? Is the comic book, for all intents and purposes, actually good? If you can discuss these things you get to “critique” and review these comics and you might have a little more wiggle room to come here and call Tom flippant and uncaring towards his fans. 

Until then, this seems to all come from a place of frustration that the characters in your long-box aren’t the same now as they were then. But guess what?

They aren’t. They won’t be. They won’t even be the same that they are now in 5 years. 

So accept new creatorship/new numberings/new stories or don’t. Enjoy back issues, I sure do! They’re great! They’re not going anywhere!

But don’t bully Mr. Brevoort because he has a public forum for you to do so behind the guise of anonymity. That’s not fair. That’s not right.

Spider-Man would be ashamed. Adam-X too, probably.