The Joy of Feedback

NOTE: Now that rough pages are being posted for public review elsewhere (click HERE) I will continue to use this blog to muse about the process. Why keep these comments separate from the other blog? I want readers of that other blog to put their energy into critique of the product, not get blogged down in the process. This is the place to get blogged down in the process!


Professional graphic novels involve specialists:


writers
editors
pencilers
inkers
letterers
layout
camera angle
colorists
humorists
casting
dialog coaches
costume
cover art
setting
props
continuity
philosophy/theology
scanning/uploading 
and more.


Since I'm an amateur doing each of these tasks I'm setting myself up for harsh criticism. Pick any one of those tasks and compare my work to the work of pros and I'm toast. What will keep me optimistic even in the face of likely negative feedback? 


1.  my task-cluttered brain overlooks a zillion glaring mistakes, omissions, and gaffs. Clear eyed critique from others will help me see those mistakes and suggest improvements.


2.  The computer that beat Garry Kasparov at chess could not play backgammon. The computer that beat the world backgammon champ could not play chess. The human brain loses chess and backgammon when pitted against specialized computers. However, no computer can multitask like a human. Not only can we play chess and backgammon simultaneously, we can sing, cook, love, and do a zillion other things machines can't. Thus, when my skills as writer, inker,  etc. are compared to pros I know I fall short. But ask any random person to complete all of the above tasks and odds are they'd not come up with 428 pages of stuff. 


3. I feign no illusion of greatness. What I lack in quality I make up for in quantity. While I'd rather come up with 10 pages of brilliance rather than 400+ pages of piffle, I'm content to crank out what I crank out. Mediocre is better than nothing.


4.  Woody Guthrie has been quoted, "I write 1000 songs in the hopes that one or two of them will be good ones." I concur. I crank out volumes of stuff in hopes that one or two items may have merit on the scale of Washington's state song by Guthrie, "Roll On Columbia."


5. Einstein is credited with the following quote, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” One can either reinforce a negative self image by judging one's self by what they can't do (write like CS Lewis, draw like Albrecht Durer, beat Deep Blue at chess), or take comfort in what they can do (a bunch of things at once).

6.  My success won't be measured in book sales but the bliss of creating. So by that criteria I've been successful for a long time. 

So with these thoughts in mind bring on the critique, I'm ready!