if you're not too flooded, here's mine:
http://www.drunkduck.com/Dreams_in_Synergy/

Subcultured, i'll try to. But its hard doing so many of these standard reviews, need to give me some time.

peace,

no rush, don't kill yourself over it...

I think I might start me up a webcomic review blogger...

You know what skoolmunkee and darkedgecomics?
Sorry. I misread the post and thought he was charging for the quick reviews, and then more for the in depth reviews. One thing led to another in my mind and boom, i posted.
So, I take it back and apologize for making that mistake.

That's ok. :) I just thought laying out my impressions of the situation would help the thread in general really, I didn't mean to sound like a big attack against you or anything. That is thoughtful of you to come back and say that though, most internet people would pretend they hadn't made a mistake or something.

skoolmunkee
That's ok. :) I just thought laying out my impressions of the situation would help the thread in general really, I didn't mean to sound like a big attack against you or anything. That is thoughtful of you to come back and say that though, most internet people would pretend they hadn't made a mistake or something.

YOU KNOW THAT IS A BOLD LIE! ON THE INTERNET EVERYONE IS A TOUGH GUY WHO CAN UNLEASH THE FURY OF A MONSTEROUS CAPS LOCK ATTACK. ALSO THERE WOULD BE MANY INSULTS INVOLVED!

Ow. I think I got an 'L' in my eye.

What where you fling those caps!

skoolmunkee
That's ok. :) I just thought laying out my impressions of the situation would help the thread in general really, I didn't mean to sound like a big attack against you or anything. That is thoughtful of you to come back and say that though, most internet people would pretend they hadn't made a mistake or something.

Naaaah, i'm a big boy now and can admit to making mistakes, interenet or not. :)

draxenn
Naaaah, i'm a big boy now and can admit to making mistakes, interenet or not. :)

That reminded me of those diaper/underwear commercials.
*sing song voice* "I'm a big kid now!"

Yeah, it's all peaceful around here!

I'd really like a review, if possible :D my comic can be read on drunk duck (link in my sig) or here, where it has some further information: http://www.seraphim-eyes.net/door [seraphim-eyes.net]

So, I signed up for a review and paid my five dollars. I have to say that, frankly, it's not worth it. Not that I got a bad review... the review was quite favorable.

BUT... it was badly done: poorly written, repetitive and riddled with a lack of insight. I have looked at some of the other comics reviewed and found that to be the case with them as well. It's not that the critic didn't read the comics, it's that they weren't read closely. There is also a lack of general knowledge of the medium (which is an absolute prerequisite for anyone writing criticism of anything, be it politics, sports, movies or COMICS ;)

A good review... even if it's unfavorable... has solid methodology. It starts with a summary, uses examples in the work as a baseline for comparison, highlights strengths and weaknesses in an insightful and entertaining way, compares and contrasts the work with others of its ilk,and issues an opinion. It should be clean, clearly written and entertaining in itself.

As an example, let's imagine a review of a movie where the critic didn't really understand the salient points of the plot, didn't really know much about movies in general, used irrelevant comparisons to make her point and then issued contradictory opinions in the end. "This movie is a lot like Star Wars since there's a villain who laughs evilly and is mean, but it's a great movie even though the lighting was weird like in Citizen Kane. It could be better but it's great." WTF?

If you want to read thoughtful, informed and critical reviews of comic, take a look at Joey Manley's stuff on Webcomicsnation.com.

Skip this "opportunity"... it's a well-intentioned but wholly unprofessional effort by an obvious amateur. There are better ways of getting publicity. I'm not going to show the Clench and Cheese review to anyone, so it's pretty much "lesson learned, waste of money."

Well, everybody is entitled to their opinion.

But I wrote the best review that I could based on the comic that I read. For some comics, I can write a whole list of detailed analysis of ways that the comic can go. It all really depends on the depth and nature that the comic has gone into.
All because your comic lacks depth or insight does not make it a bad comic, but means that I can't really go into detail with what you should change or do better. I read your whole comic and I gave the kind of review that I believe the comic actually deserved.
What really bugs me though is that you were all cool with the review when you emailed me but you have a rant about it here on this forum thinking that I will not bother coming back here. That is what I call incredibly cheap and it would be a serious shame if people all shy away from getting premium reviews because your comic did not have enough proper insight.
Bottom line that goes for you and all is this; show me a comic that you have genuinely spent time and effort on in all aspects and is something DIFFERENT and BOLD, then I will give you a much more detailed review. I will not regurgitate the same lines over the same kinds of comics that all reviewers do.
Well, that's my rant out of the way.

darkedgecomics
Well, everybody is entitled to their opinion.

You're right, they are, as you demonstrated for yourself. The thing is, the man actually paid for a good review and instead of trying to find the depth in his comic, or finding things to actually review if there was a lack of "depth", you wrote a half-assed review. It'd be one thing if he'd just asked for a review for free, THEN your review would not have been complained about. He wanted a review, thought maybe if he paid you he'd get something worth his money. Instead, you "read" the comic, and offered little more than an offhanded synopsis.

I read the review. It was not worth the $5 that you were paid. The dignified thing would be to either offer a refund, or go back and do a better review. He was entitled to feel upset about not getting what he paid for, and reported what he got on the thread where it would be best reported.

Instead of attacking the artist for not producing a comic "worthy" of an in-depth review for you, maaaaybe you should take into consideration what he's saying. At least, if you wanted people to keep doing business with you. Like I said, don't ask for money if you're not willing to actually do the service requested. If you didn't like the comic, THEN SAY SO. SAY WHAT YOU DIDN'T LIKE. Give reasons, give examples!

MagickLorelai

darkedgecomics
Well, everybody is entitled to their opinion.

If you didn't like the comic, THEN SAY SO. SAY WHAT YOU DIDN'T LIKE. Give reasons, give examples!

Ah a believe that's the definition of a review!

and from Wikipedia

A review is an evaluation of a publication, such as a movie, video game, musical composition, or book or a piece of hardware like a car, appliance, or computer. In addition to a critical statement, the review's author may assign the work a rating (for instance, one to five stars) to indicate its relative merit. More loosely, an author may review current events or items in the news.

and a critique is (since the above mentions critical statement)

Critique, especially in philosophical contexts (where it is used to translate the German word Kritik), has a more clearly defined meaning than criticism. (Confusingly, the adjectival form of both critique and criticism is critical, making some uses ambiguous, e.g. "critical theory"). In this broadly political context, a critique is a systematic inquiry into the conditions and consequences of a concept or set of concepts, and an attempt to understand its limitations.

This is just for the sake of reference.

There is a misunderstanding here: I am not complaining about the tone of the review, but rather its quality. It was poorly done. You can rip my comic to shreds for all I care... I've been drawing comics for more than twenty years and have had them published in books, newspapers and on the Web. Clench and Cheese, updated every weekday, is well-liked and well-respected. It's usually in the top 100 of comics on Drunk Duck and has a great, positive following that's growing all the time. I do the best I can every day and I believe it's getting better. I love doing it and plan on continuing for as long as I can. The opinion that it suffers from "lack of depth" is neither here nor there. It's the reviewer's opinion, and he is certainly entitled to it, however poorly he qualifies it.

My complaint is that this is being offered a professional service and that it is clearly not one. My business relationship with the reviewer was positive and polite, And I paid promptly as I agreed to do. However, in this public forum I feel responsible to alert the DD community that, in my opinion, this service is clearly not worth the money and that the DD artists should steer clear of it.

If you really believe that the review is not up to the standard that you think that it should be, then I think you are entitled to a refund. At the end of the day you paid, and I think that the refund option should be available in certain circumstances.

But I still defend the review that I did for the particular comic, and that's where I stand. But Carrolhach, would it not have been better to actually tell me in the email that you do not think the review was up to your standard rather than just posting it on here?

Well, let's just have peace and love webcomics.

peace out people,

i would love for mine to be reviewed.
demon revolution and bamboo blues

darkedgecomics
would it not have been better to actually tell me in the email that you do not think the review was up to your standard rather than just posting it on here?

You misunderstood his reasoning for posting his complaints here. I can't assume I know all of why, but my guess is that not only did he know you'd be able to see his complaints in this threat, but also he wanted to alert other DDer's as to what he got for his money. If other people are satisfied with their review, that's great, but the fact that the artist paid money in this case prompted him to let people know not to pay money for a service that isn't much better than when it's free.


Or are you more upset that his posting here could cost you the money that people might pay for your reviews?

The whole comic review thing is a good idea and a great way to make a lottle bit of money on the side ^_^
Try not to be too harsh with the guy, DD is a nice place for nice people to be nicey nicey!
Nice? Nice!

This is really an add for a comic related service though... Is General he best place for it any longer? I'm thinking it should go in the comic review section, because that what it's really about.

Moved! I checked the rules here and this thread is allowed:

Eggbert
4. Threads about reviewery without actually being reviews. This happens sometimes. I usually let them fly.

Ok, cool

So, the cat rewrote (sorta) his review of Clench and Cheese.

Here's my response:

This fellow clearly doesn't get the strip. He criticizes the main characters for not having depth, but in this he is mistaken. It's shown subtly: Clench likes to tune his guitar. He wanted to be famous. He's often in a bad temper. He sips tea and bitches at Cheese. Cheese, on the other hand, doesn't know who Walt Disney is or even what year it is. They are broad caricatures of semi-real people and their entire purpose as such is to drive the strip while allowing the more clearly defined foils (such as Jonny and Alice) to bounce off of them. Their dialog is based on Birmingham dialect and I strive to keep it authentic. You know their history, where they live, etc. They have nothing whatsoever to do with Spinal Tap, which was a glam hair metal band. They have more to do with Television and Sex Pistols as well as Oi! and other, lesser known Brit punk bands from the '70's.

The twisted storylines and daily updates were not mentioned in the review, nor the obvious effort that is made to make every strip stand on its own as well as fitting into the story. The color palettes in the strip are not just slapped together, but rather very carefully thought out, as is the cold realism of some of the backgrounds. There are also many times where angles are used for story purposes (walks down stairways in particular).

As a nail in the coffin, here's a sample of the guy's prose:

Maybe some more deeper characterization could be warranted as you can sometimes always predict what will come out of the mouths of our two friends. But that doesn't mean their laughable lacklustre personalties does not give you a grin.

Sometimes always? Maybe certainly! Definitely... um, indefinitely!

In short, I would avoid this guy's reviews because he's just not qualified to write them. Poor prose and a lack of insight add up to a waste of your time and money. He means well, but the guy is, for want of a better word, a hack.

Well, I'd like others to make up their own view on the review rather than just listening to one side of the story.
The review I gave perfectly reflects the comic, nothing more and nothing less.

okay, we've heard from both sides. so everyone just move on. i don't want this to become a flame war leading to a locked thread

please review mine

drunkduck.com/Cheeworld_24X_trigger

You're kinda late.

This thread isn't going anywhere, and I'd perfer to have it not clogging up the forums.

So, we're done.