Advice re 2009-2011 Ongoing comics (should I buy?)

[Dominic]

That's not a good thing Dom. Ideas are good to have, but worthless in actually telling a good story by themselves. A writer needs to actually understand what it is they're writing about first and foremost.

A writer needs to understand something other than the franchise in order to write something worth reading.

And the fact that they cite Drift as their example does not necessarily mean they couldn't think of any other examples at all. Rather given that is a *Transformers* message board, Drift works as example everyone on the board should understand given the *common interest* in the franchise.

The comment was framed as "Marvel should know this is a bad idea because......Drift." They were talking about Marvel, (despite plenty of better examples of over-hyped characters in comics), they defaulted to Drift as being a good example of the principle they were arguing for. Yes, Drift was pushed hard (too hard). But, Drift is not even close to the best example of that idea.

I do want to point out though, that I find it funny that Dom often uses how much Transfans like something as an inverse metric for how much he appreciates it (

I do not use the fandom as a reverse barometer (though it might seem that way sometimes). I read and praised "Last Stand of the Wreckers", right?

But, I am not a fan of the "it has Transformers so it is good" or "it does not do Transformers good so it is stupid" mentality. Unfortunately, those strains of thought are common in the fandom.

Having clicked the link though and read some of the comments.... damn. You sure as hell don't win any popularity contests that way. I'm gonna have to watch the whole podcast later.

Most of the cringing I did while listening to that interview was of the "oh, too close for comfort" variety.


-Dom

[Sparky Prime]

A writer needs to understand something other than the franchise in order to write something worth reading.

The writer first and foremost has to understand what it is they are writing about before they can write about something beyond it. It isn't worth reading if you can't get a handle on the central concept to the storyline to begin with.

The comment was framed as "Marvel should know this is a bad idea because......Drift." They were talking about Marvel, (despite plenty of better examples of over-hyped characters in comics), they defaulted to Drift as being a good example of the principle they were arguing for. Yes, Drift was pushed hard (too hard). But, Drift is not even close to the best example of that idea.

Not having read the comments for myself I can't really argue much about it, but I do think you're embellishing. Again, it's a Transformers message board, people are going to know Drift much more readily given the common interest in that franchise. It's not any indication that all that person knows is Transformers comics just for using Drift as an example, especially given they are discussing a Marvel comic.

Most of the cringing I did while listening to that interview was of the "oh, too close for comfort" variety.

Most of it seemed to me to be either an establishment or otherwise simply not at all true.

[Shockwave]

That's not a good thing Dom. Ideas are good to have, but worthless in actually telling a good story by themselves. A writer needs to actually understand what it is they're writing about first and foremost.

A writer needs to understand something other than the franchise in order to write something worth reading.

And the fact that they cite Drift as their example does not necessarily mean they couldn't think of any other examples at all. Rather given that is a *Transformers* message board, Drift works as example everyone on the board should understand given the *common interest* in the franchise.

The comment was framed as "Marvel should know this is a bad idea because......Drift." They were talking about Marvel, (despite plenty of better examples of over-hyped characters in comics), they defaulted to Drift as being a good example of the principle they were arguing for. Yes, Drift was pushed hard (too hard). But, Drift is not even close to the best example of that idea.

I do want to point out though, that I find it funny that Dom often uses how much Transfans like something as an inverse metric for how much he appreciates it (

I do not use the fandom as a reverse barometer (though it might seem that way sometimes). I read and praised "Last Stand of the Wreckers", right?

But, I am not a fan of the "it has Transformers so it is good" or "it does not do Transformers good so it is stupid" mentality. Unfortunately, those strains of thought are common in the fandom.

Having clicked the link though and read some of the comments.... damn. You sure as hell don't win any popularity contests that way. I'm gonna have to watch the whole podcast later.

Most of the cringing I did while listening to that interview was of the "oh, too close for comfort" variety.


-Dom

And that's fine, but a writer needs to understand the franchise in order to be able to write something good set in that franchise (although I also liked Costa's run so maybe he's the exception to the rule). This is a large part of why the movies are so bad and I could also cite the failings that the new Trek movies have as examples as well.

I'm with Sparky on the comment thing, maybe a link to the one in question would help us understand the context completely.

[Dominic]

It might have been on AllSpark. But, I hit a few TF boards (large and small) last week. I could not find it now unless I were going to spend a few hours fiddling with searches (which I am not willing to do).


-Vaguely Directed Dom.....