I got accused of being a potential terrorist / school shooter / violent dangerous person. That I just HAD TO put up a disclaimer and a FAQ section.

It is because Eman Cruz (which people accuse of being a self-insertion character) joins a cult that believes in creating a "New World Order" of love and peace and equality and harmony... and don't forget the whole delusion about how all the problems of the world will magically vanish once they have their way. Of course, this cult also believes in violent means to accomplish their goal.

To keep this short and to the point, there are some who actually believe that I, the author, REALLY believes in the ideology of this fictional cult.

I have been told outright that I shouldn't be drawing at all because my art is so awful.

That was a couple years ago. Heh.

Don't let 'em get to you, Kyupol. There are always going to be people who confuse fiction with reality. It just means you're doing a good job on the writing, getting into the character's head. I get that kind of thing too, though not very often. It shouldn't be that difficult to understand: They're characters in a story. If there are bad guy characters, they're going to do bad guy things; doesn't mean the author condones or encourages it in real life. He's just telling a story.

The title of the thread's a bit misleading isn't it? Um, well to address the worst criticism I've ever received, just in general I hate it when people write me advice to the effect that I need to stop doing my kind of comic and start doing their kind of comic. Like, "Well, this comic would be so good if people weren't getting killed every few pages." Well, if people weren't getting killed every few pages, it wouldn't be my comic anymore, now would it? Write your own cuddly family-friendly comic; I like mine how it is.

I think a good critique should focus mostly on technical aspects as opposed to creative ones. Every artist should appreciate a well-meaning tip on how to improve their technique or new ones to learn, but most of them wouldn't like being told how to tell their story or that their ideas are bad.

I get criticisms in this order usually:

1) Book judged by cover literally because of it's name, Pagan Zoetrope. Everyone assumes it's some niche pagan/wiccan comic. I knew that coming into this, so this bugs me least of all.

2) No backgrounds. This was actually a stylistic choice early on, as the comic was an attempt at first to celebrate line variety and design. I kid you not. But more and more, I found it was just easier to put the backgrounds in. :D

3) You draw very "Disney-like". I prefer the comparisons I've gotten to Don Bluth's style, but really, I don't see THAT much of a connection to Disney. But hey, anyone of us would be lying if we said that Disney didn't play SOME sort of influence on our art.

4) The term "slice of life" being used to describe my comic. I just hate that term. Just like the term "dramedy", used to refer to a Comedy with Dramatic elements. I think it's because I hate labels or generalities when it comes to comics.

Mind you there are a fair few out there that fit those labels because they can't rise above being generic, but I believe that most people's work, especially in the web comic world can't be categorized as easily.

"Baby ain't got back, so put that ass away!" -TWRCotW

Every other part of their review I could accept, but this just came off as superficial to me.

I haven't been properly reviewed yet, so I haven't had a lot of criticisms to date. I did have one complaint about the language in Carnies, though. Yeah...I'm not getting rid of the foul language. I ran through a scene in my head where the characters used "clean" swears and it just sounded weird. What's even weirder to me is that the complaint was about the language in a violent and gory comic that was never intended to be read by children.

kyupol
I got accused of being a potential terrorist / school shooter / violent dangerous person.

... holy crap. I haven't even gotten that, and I write a comic about domestic terrorism 0__o

One criticism I tend to get every now and then that just drives me up a wall, is whenever I get something along the lines of "This art is horrible, it just looks like generic anime, the lineart is really ugly, you should use flat grays instead of tones"... and find that it's on one of the pages that I drew four years ago. Half of those points no longer apply to my pages at all, and the other half are subject to personal taste. Really people, you don't need to critique something I did when I was in high school, it's not valid anymore!!

El Cid
I hate it when people write me advice to the effect that I need to stop doing my kind of comic and start doing their kind of comic.

Also this. No I will not add kawaii yaoi bishies, go find another comic then :c

How about:

"you're a dickhead and the comics you do are the lowliest pieces of shit on this site"

Just to summarize.

That and on one of my sprite comics I was helping someone do (I don't really enjoy sprite comics and all but sometimes they can be worth reading), someone really insulted it and wasn't trying to be nice.

As long as they're joking or trying to help someone get better it's a great thing to get criticism but if not they can screw off.

With love,
The 1337 Master

I did have one complaint about the language in Carnies, though. Yeah...I'm not getting rid of the foul language
Well language expresses a character and if people don't like that language they shouldn't be reading that comic.

The worst criticism I´ve gotten so far has been by a nephew of mine. He said that my story was completely stolen from Logan´s Run, My world completely stolen from Fallout and my characters completely stolen from The Lord of the rings.

I had never heard from Logan´s Run or Fallout back then.

I had to rewrite my story for a large part just to make him shut up.

He still doesn´t shut up.

Kroatz
The worst criticism I´ve gotten so far has been by a nephew of mine. He said that my story was completely stolen from Logan´s Run, My world completely stolen from Fallout and my characters completely stolen from The Lord of the rings.

I had never heard from Logan´s Run or Fallout back then.

I had to rewrite my story for a large part just to make him shut up.

He still doesn´t shut up.

That's happened to me before, I'll come up with an idea that I think is amazing and revolutionary only to find out a month or years later it was already a movie.

As for criticism, I receive plenty, also due to the fact I used to bash other people's comics (but they did happen to suck) so they would just send me something back to even out the playing field. Just face it, some people just don't know how to be positive, they may be jealous of your artwork or storytelling because theirs is nowhere near what yours may be. That or they just have a small dick.

Kroatz
The worst criticism I´ve gotten so far has been by a nephew of mine. He said that my story was completely stolen from Logan´s Run, My world completely stolen from Fallout and my characters completely stolen from The Lord of the rings.

I had never heard from Logan´s Run or Fallout back then.

I had to rewrite my story for a large part just to make him shut up.

He still doesn´t shut up.

I wouldn't read too much into what he's saying. Pretty much every basic plot and setting has been done and characters work best if they're based in reality. Seriously, conspiracy plots, post-apocalyptic settings and every personality ever have all been done. How you distinguish yourself from past works is in how you do things differently and how you mix the many, many elements available in story telling.

The worst criticism I've received is worst in two ways:
-1. Badly done and poorly thought out criticism.
-2. Harsh

A typical species of this sort seems peeved that there's sexiness. So I get accusations that it's pornographic, too sexy, that it's only about sexiness and nothing else...

-That is useless criticism. The comic isn't aimed at the sort of sheltered innocent who finds depictions of the clothed but sexy female form offensive. In fact I feel a mixture of contempt and pity for that sort of person. Also, the sexiness is obviously surface stuff, for my own enjoyment and that of the reader who likes that sort of thing, there are other themes and ideas in the comic if a person has the wit to see past a pair of clothed tits- And those that say they hate that sort of thing seem to have the most trouble in that respect, sort of like ultra conservative religious fundamentalists that say they hate homosexuality but secretly they happen to be dating gay prostitutes...

I've been lucky so far; I haven't had any really bad criticism. Early on, I had a couple of people say Shades was very similar to Albion by Leah Moore and John Reppion. I don't know whether that was even meant as a criticism but it did irk me at the time.

I've nothing against Albion (I quite like it, in fact!) but, knowing where my story was heading and how different it was, I was stung by the idea that someone thought I was just re-hashing someone else's plot! Fortunately there are more chapters online now and so readers can see for themselves that, despite being set in the UK, Shades is a very different animal all together.

I don't think I've ever gotten any really bad comments on here. PRobably because I tend to attract most of readers from outside, so obviously they don't comment, haha.

I think the worst I ever got was a friend laughing in a very mean way at the early pages of my old comic... only to stop laughing about 40 pages later, when he noticed the progress in art. So it's all good in the end.

One of the perennial frustrating ones is the old, "I don't like manga" chestnut. I have a fusion style, it's practically just as heavily influenced by Jack Kirby, Stuart Immonen, Bryan Lee O'Malley and Adrian Alphona as is it by people like Kubo Tite, Tetsuya Nomura and Hiromu Arakawa. The humour is usually very British too, and the cast is written avoiding or subverting the Japanese stock character types. What this results in is the hardcore weaboos not wanting to read because it's not Japanese enough (because apparently they can't live without pervy men who look like women or shy schoolgirls in glasses who accidentally show their knickers all the time), while the 'I hate manga' crowd not wanting to read because it has a clear stylistic Japanese influence to the art, layout and pacing.
The ones who actually TRY reading the comic, usually find they enjoy it, so I'm very happy that I get comments saying "I don't normally like manga/OEL, but I enjoyed this", but once in a while somebody will pop up just to tell me that they haven't read my comic, and they're not going to read my comic because they don't like Eastern-influenced sequential art. Wow, uh...thanks for sharing, surely your not speaking would have made an obvious statement of 'I don't have an interest in this'. I can understand if I approach the person and say 'wanna read my comic?' and that's their response, but appearing out of the blue just to say they're not interested...weird.

A good criticism is something that makes suggestions for improvement of the piece in question. It should try to be objective and take into account that makes the work what it is. The worst criticisms are usually entirely subjective and don't give any explanation for why, or how it may be rectified or improved. The worst, most useless criticism is usually something like "This comic is bad".

The harshest criticism I got described the three main characters as follows-
Homo-Hawk
Downsy (as in has down syndrome)
Half-Nigger.

Ouch!
Honestly though, I just found it funny. Yeah I would rather people like it, but they are entitled to their opinion.
At least they read it!

Darth Mongoose, I must confess to having said the "I don't like Manga" thing a few times myself. I just dont find it visually very appealing. Its not bad in itself, it just feels over done and the characters in each Manga seem to look the same as each other but with different hair styles. Yes, I've heard all the arguments about how different they all are, but that's just my impression.

Don't let 'em get to you, Kyupol. There are always going to be people who confuse fiction with reality. It just means you're doing a good job on the writing, getting into the character's head. I get that kind of thing too, though not very often. It shouldn't be that difficult to understand: They're characters in a story. If there are bad guy characters, they're going to do bad guy things; doesn't mean the author condones or encourages it in real life. He's just telling a story.

... holy crap. I haven't even gotten that, and I write a comic about domestic terrorism 0__o

I haven't really read your comic yet but here's the reason why I got accused of being a terrorist. It is because the fictional cult seems to be very realistic (at least that is what some people have told me).

1) First, they may look like the good guys and sound totally reasonable. Wolf in sheep's clothing.
http://www.drunkduck.com/MAG_ISA/index.php?p=514455
http://www.drunkduck.com/MAG_ISA/index.php?p=514674
http://www.drunkduck.com/MAG_ISA/index.php?p=562002

2) And then pieces of their true colors get shown. Some people fail to spot the clue that this is how the "bad guys" operate -- through threats and intimidation.
You shall know them by their fruits (Matthew 7:16)
http://www.drunkduck.com/MAG_ISA/index.php?p=578535
http://www.drunkduck.com/MAG_ISA/index.php?p=588283
http://www.drunkduck.com/MAG_ISA/index.php?p=588459

3) And this is where the fireworks fly. Some people only connect "1" and "3" and leave out "2". That is why I get accused of promoting terrorism. lol!
http://www.drunkduck.com/MAG_ISA/index.php?p=641090
http://www.drunkduck.com/MAG_ISA/index.php?p=641325

So I get accusations that it's pornographic, too sexy

At least my thumbnail is. :)

That's just my way of getting people to read my comic. I understand that the cute girl always gets clicked.

Wait a minute... sexual suggestiveness in a comic that touches on spiritual topics?!?

If the devil likes to parade an appearance of holiness in order to deceive people, why can't I do it the other way around?

harkovast
Darth Mongoose, I must confess to having said the "I don't like Manga" thing a few times myself. I just dont find it visually very appealing. Its not bad in itself, it just feels over done and the characters in each Manga seem to look the same as each other but with different hair styles. Yes, I've heard all the arguments about how different they all are, but that's just my impression.

Wouldn't you be rather perturbed if someone used that same rationale in relation to your comic, but just replaced "Manga" with "Furry"?

----------------
When I started out with my comic I tried forever to put Manga stuff in there, but the trouble was that I'm just so horribly bad at that style that I couldn't do it. I've had people praise the work for not being Manga... Oh the irony. ^___^

I think the worst I ever got was when Last Words was up for a DD award, and someone wrote a review saying it was "maybe worth looking at again if the artist ever gets his act together." I think it was just bad to me because of how invested I was in the comic and that it came from a source a lot of people seemed to place great faith in.

harkovast
Darth Mongoose, I must confess to having said the "I don't like Manga" thing a few times myself. I just dont find it visually very appealing. Its not bad in itself, it just feels over done and the characters in each Manga seem to look the same as each other but with different hair styles. Yes, I've heard all the arguments about how different they all are, but that's just my impression.

To be honest, the first time I picked up and tried to read an American superhero comic I thought the exact same thing. "They all look like the same big chiselled muscly guy/poofy lipped woman with insane cheekbones with different hair stuck on top". I think it's eventually only a matter of how you perceive it. The way the differences between characters are shown varies between art styles. It may take a little bit of effort to appreciate a form or style you're not familiar with, but I think it's worthwhile.

Ozone- You cant please everyone. I am sure people say that about Harkovast all the time, but its their opinion. If someone doesn't like talking animals, I cant really demand that they should.

Darth Mongoose- I think what puts me off Manga is (and this is not a statement about your comic, just a general trend I 've noticed) that they tend to all be a bit the same.
Not just in terms of look, but in terms of plot and characters.
I've read a few that were exceptions but the majority seem to be just variations on one or two ideas.
Since I dont find the art very appealing its a struggle for me to get into them, and usually when I do I end up being unimpressed, so I normally just dont put in the effort.
But I'll go look at your one, so I dont seem like a complete tool!

Well so far in the digital world ED hasn't gotten any criticisms just some double entendre (I think it confuses people). But that aside IRL I do get a lot of random critiquing especially when I'm hashing out layouts and character designs.
Worst criticism I think I’ve ever gotten about my comics has been "Don't quit your day job." it's trite and all but damn that can cut someone deep.
I'm actually biding my time and waiting for some sass about the comic till then, I'll just continue to enjoy what I'm doing until I get disillusioned by some snark from someone. Then I'll mope for a week and start drawing again while listening to "Defying Gravity."

Also, just cause I do have to put my two cents in... there are two sides to every coin in the manga/furry comic debate. I'll try any kind of comic once regardless of its theme. This has in the past lead to some horrification but overall my motto is try it before you knock it, and thanks to trying I've found a lot of neat and fun comics all around the interwebs just by clicking.

harkovast
I think what puts me off Manga is (and this is not a statement about your comic, just a general trend I 've noticed) that they tend to all be a bit the same.
Not just in terms of look, but in terms of plot and characters.
I've read a few that were exceptions but the majority seem to be just variations on one or two ideas.
Since I dont find the art very appealing its a struggle for me to get into them, and usually when I do I end up being unimpressed, so I normally just dont put in the effort.

I can't deny that the Japanese are awfully fond of their established archetypes. This is one of the reasons I'm a manga fan, but not a manga purist. 90% of pretty much everything is crap, as the say, and this applies to manga too. For every Akira or Deathnote or Fullmetal Alchemist there are many many derivative, boring comics about a pervy guy who ends up surrounded by a bunch of floaty-skirted young ladies who tick the 'moe' boxes like it's an exam, or a predictable romance between two young men, one of whom looks and acts like a 14 year old girl and the other looking like a 30 year old woman and acting like a sociopathic git. Just as for every Watchmen there are so many awful old Liefield comics sloshing around.

I don't consider manga better than other forms of comics, but manga were the comics that got me, as a female reader, reading comics again, because back in the 90s, manga was really the only place I could find stories, art and characters that appealed to me as a teenage girl. American comics were in their 'dork age' back then, full of hideous cross-hatching and garish early CG colours. I think the manga style is appealingly elegant and dynamic in its clean lines, exaggerating the eyes for empathy, using visual metaphor to enhance the reader experience.
These days, many of the things I liked about manga have been taken on by western creators. Things like the visual metaphor, pocket-sized books and chatacter-driven stories covering a wide range genres. It's become so inherent in comics now that a lot of creators aren't even aware that they're using techniques which originated in manga.

So yeah, I understand exactly what you dislike about manga, because to a large degree it's what I dislike about manga, even as a manga fan and artist. My advice is to forget the term 'manga' and view the individual comics for their individual merits.

I really haven't had too much criticism for my webcomic. All of the reviews (only 4 or 5) have been positive.

I did follow a referral link back to Facebook once to a discussion some teenager and his friends were having about my comic. One comment was like "The webcomic is so horrible, but I can't stop reading it." At least I kept their interest. :)

Also a couple people were a bit critical of the Billy Mays zombie appearing so soon after his death. Okay, but I wasn't being malicous about it. And I would think more people would be repulsed by the fact that companies were still using him in commercials after he died.

When you put yourself out there for the world to see, you have to expect criticism. Especially on the internet, I think some people think that's what Al Gore invented it for. :)

I take criticism with a grain of salt, both good and bad.

Zaymac if you want I can say some nasty things about your comic so you can feel included.

harkovast
Zaymac if you want I can say some nasty things about your comic so you can feel included.

Well, I believe I'm up for review in a few weeks in your webcomic review comic. So if you feel it deserves your brand of harsh criticism, so be it. :)

Don't worry zaymac, I am sure our review wont be THAT bad.
*starts sharpening his axe and laughing evilly*

zaymac
Also a couple people were a bit critical of the Billy Mays zombie appearing so soon after his death. Okay, but I wasn't being malicous about it. And I would think more people would be repulsed by the fact that companies were still using him in commercials after he died.

I once had a comic talking about Anna Nicole Smith's death about a week or two after she died. It was pretty malicious, yet I didn't get anything on that one, and this was when I still was publishing for a college newspaper, long before I made webcomics.

Worst criticism? Not so much now, but back when I made college comics, I got a few "you suck" emails (then again, egging them on by publishing my email address as a place to send hate mail probably did that more-so). A few classics:

"I saw your comic while in the bathroom, and it sucked so hard that I wiped my ass with it." Didn't give this asshole the benefit of a response.

"Your comics are not funny. I want to see the funny pages be funny once more." This was sent from a cartoonist who hadn't submitted anything in over a year, and whose stuff that I saw was incredibly lame. This prompted a response in comic form.

And finally, my personal favorite:

(paraphrased)"I waited until the end of the semester to tell you your comic sucks." This was when I was doing Bad Apple, which was different from my normal stuff. When I tried to have a somewhat rational discussion with this guy saying that, he replied back something along the lines of "I can't draw, but if I did, it would be on the level of you". Did I also mention that he sent a message to one of my friends about how his one-shot comic sucked and that he was friends with a person neither me nor my friend got along with? No? Yeah, that's why this guy was my favorite. Total troll.

Elektro I was really worried you were going to say something like-
"The worst was from those jerks Harkovast and Kev! Where do they get off?"

Nah. You guys at least are constructive in criticism.