usedbooks

kyupol
XD, ^^, ^__^, ^.^, ~_^, etc. etc. etc... and people will think I'm a girl.

Is that the trick? I'm getting pretty damn tired of being mistaken for a man. No offense to men, but I find it insulting for some reason.

The word "usedbooks" can be used by a guy. Its a gender-neutral name but you'd be assumed as a "guy" by default.

It would help changing your avatar into something that looks more like the cliche anime oh-so-kawaii anime girls. It may annoy you but that may do the trick.

If you hate stuff that has to do with anime and manga, then put a realistic woman face in your avatar. :)

I do like reading author rants time to time. There seems to be more passion in the writing and I can relate to it more because everyone can get pissed sometimes.

There are instances where too much info about the author ticks me off. Like the ones where I talk to him/her irl or online about each other's comics real friendly like. Then the other person doesn't keep in touch for a while. And then you find a big author rant in forum/author notes/blog describing a whole butch of aspects they hate about a comic which is just like mine. So thus I know why they didn't want to keep in touch.

I don't see how anyone could confuse usedbooks for male. She'd be the most sensitive guy I'd ever seen!

Sidwarrious
I don't see how anyone could confuse usedbooks for male. She'd be the most sensitive guy I'd ever seen!

Yeah.. Her avatar is usually a girl character too...

mlai
I believe Ink is a Cherokee male. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Navajo, actually, but I don't specify my tribe too often so I'm not surprised. Well, technically I'm half-Navajo, Half-Irish, though I don't really identify as Irish. I guess it's a little too common. It's not like I have "Irish" relatives so much as relatives whose descendants used to live in Ireland. I've lived on the reservation and gone to a Navajo school; the closest I've been to Ireland is a pub downtown called "The Quiet Man."


Anyway, does possessing that information affect my author mystique? I don't think I write in a particularly "Navajo" way. It does give me an excuse to use a lot of mystical BS about coyotes and herbs and people will assume I know what I'm talking about, though, so that's nice.

So I bought that Navajo hair tampon and it was a waste!? NOOO!

Someone
Anyway, does possessing that information affect my author mystique?

Hells yeah. You got 100 years of Hollywood backing you up. Now you got mystique blowing out your ears.

Half Navajo is actually a lot of Navajo, considering.

Its certainly alot compared to me. I'm 0%, which IS stil la percent.

UsedBooks: That's strange. For me it was obvious enough from Your avatar that You're female. But I know a bunch of girls on DD have had this problem - like Amy (AntComics) or Dawn (Zorphbert & Fred), even though her avatar's is a cartoon version herself. Kilroy (Corpus Mustelarum) is a different story, it sounds more like a name a guy would use. As for gender-neutral names, I guess we all automatically assume they're guys. I tend to imagine every newly met person as a dark-blonde white Caucasian male (I happen to be one, as well).

The inverse happened to me once. Since I only use the initial of my first name in my pen name, you can't really tell. So while everyone usually rightly assumes I'm a guy, this one time at a literary message board I post my short stories at, I was once mistaken for a chick.

As for the whole mystique thing... No I don't think mine's hurt by posting here, or by communicating with my readers. I tend to write mile-long author's comments, in which I'll sometimes talk about inspiring things I saw/read/heard/bought. I keep in touch with my readers via PQ's and I always respond to comments I get. In fact, it actually kind of bugs me when someone just posts their comic and goes away, leaving no author's comments and not replying to readers' comments. To me, mystique = distance. Plus, I like to talk too much to keep quiet ;) Of course, sometimes I have nothing to say or add to what's been said already - and as a result, will not contribute to avoid being redundant - but at other times, I'll be happy to throw in my two cents. Doesn't make me feel stripped of my dignity ;)

However, my friend says that regardless of how much she loves my writings (hasn't seen much of the comics), she can't be my fan since she knows me personally.

Also, online you can easily be whoever you want. You can put on a mask of your choice and get away with it, because no one will ever know. It's more difficult to keep the appearances in real life - and I know my writings and my comics create a very different image of me than what I am like in real life. It's like with seals. See the difference of how gracious they are when swimming and how clumsy they are when they crawl onto the shore? That's how I feel in the real world. Like I don't fit here at all. And that is what actually bothers me.

I write/draw a political comic, but I do so in a way that makes politics understandble (at least I would like to think so). I like the act the same way on the forums.


If I didn't post on the forums I think less people would see my comic. And less people would understand my opinions, if you read the D&D forum you will see my thoughts on alot of things. Which works, because if you hate my political viewpoint, why would you want to waste your time reading my political comic?

Oh nos! I have not posted in the forums for awhile. Does I have author mystique again? D:

I dunno... Personally, I tend to like a comic more if I know the author. It keeps your attention more to know the person in my mind.

Also, I don't seem to have anyone disappointed with me as an author after meeting me...?

I admit, sometimes it's a turn-off to someone's comic if you find out the author is a jerk. Like I've pretty well assessed that the author of 8-Bit Theatre is actually not a terribly nice guy and I know from personal contact with him. I don't really read his comic anymore.

And I remember another comic that I really liked, then met the author and found out she was a psychotic, attention-starved type and was a little turned off by it, but it made for an awesome comic. :3

As for my readership... Well... Here's what I notice.

When you find a comic you think is amazing, you begin to idolize the person who writes it and imagine what an amazingly awesome person they must be and really want to meet them.

Then you meet them and holy hey! They're normal.

Depending on how hard you take this, it can either turn you away from their comic or inspire you to work harder or on yours or have no effect on you.

I notice that talking to a few of my stronger fans, at first many of them get this "OMG you're AMAZING!" thing going, and are very respectful and apologize if they think they are being even slightly disrespectful.

Then, by the next time I talk to them, often times they're teasing me or talking to me like someone I met who hasn't read my comic.

But it has yet to cause any of them to stop reading my comic.

So is the idea of author mystique real? Yes.

Does it effect your readership? ... I would think only if you're a real jerk. o.0;

reidavidson
I notice that talking to a few of my stronger fans, at first many of them get this "OMG you're AMAZING!" thing going, and are very respectful and apologize if they think they are being even slightly disrespectful.

Then, by the next time I talk to them, often times they're teasing me or talking to me like someone I met who hasn't read my comic.

Uh oh... I can see what's going on there...
Mm-hmm...

I have wanted to post in the forums for a while, but only recently did I work up the nerve to start, and not because I was afraid of hurting my 'author mystique' but because I always feel out of place in a place like this that has so many experienced people and avid forum goers. Well I had to respond to this topic because I don't this idea of author mystique is good at all.

The idea that you idolize someone, place them upon a pedestal if you will, can only lead to problems later on. I find myself less likely to read a comic where the author has little to no involvement with the fans. It's as though the author doesn't feel the urge to respond and take part in anything with the readers, and by this act of seeming carelessness it makes him or her feel snobbish.

I don't see how anyone can write anything without adding a small portion of him or herself into it. Every character I create has something in common with myself. Not an accent, or a clothing style, or a manner of speaking, but something in their personality. Is that bad? I don't think so. I've exaggerated each of these traits, turning them into something almost alien to my own personality. Each character takes on a life of their own that way.

But though each of these characters has a piece of me, each is also only a mere fragment of who I am. Thus, they aren't the whole me. I can't really see how talking to your fans, posting in the forums, or becoming involved with the community in general would hurt your readership.

Unless your a total ass, but that's a completely different topic to what was posed here. :)

To be perfectly honest, I thought long and hard about my username. Originally, it was going to be Marcus which is my generic forum username but I started acquiring the moniker angry_black_guy because I'm black but I completely loath the modern America "black image" portrayed by the media so a lot of my friends call me angry whenever BET or NBC pops up on the television.

As far as writing goes, my characters always have an accent or speak differently. Always. They either use poor grammar because of their upbringing or I give them a social trademark like saying "yeah" at the end of every sentence or dropping the 'g' off of words like "runnin'" When I want to get really creative with word play, I have them make up words or spell them differently to emphasize this like "colognay" instead of "cologne" or "yeh, wuttevah" instead of "what ever."

Some readers are slightly irritated by having to slow down when they read a character's speach but others find it cool. I think it's neat because by missing words or misinterpreting them, you understand their speach pattern. After all, how many of you understand what someone says to you 100%? Sometimes you mishear something or have to say "lol what?"

Someone
Some readers are slightly irritated by having to slow down when they read a character's speach but others find it cool. I think it's neat because by missing words or misinterpreting them, you understand their speach pattern.

LOL let's be friends. We can found the Unintelligible Characters Union.

(Maybe I should misspell that.)

mlai

reidavidson
I notice that talking to a few of my stronger fans, at first many of them get this "OMG you're AMAZING!" thing going, and are very respectful and apologize if they think they are being even slightly disrespectful.

Then, by the next time I talk to them, often times they're teasing me or talking to me like someone I met who hasn't read my comic.

Uh oh... I can see what's going on there...
Mm-hmm...

mew? o.o