Other WebComics

[Madican]

No one's taking down Sohmer. Not when he's got actual good webcomic artists under his company banner and his company isn't running itself into the ground.

[Omnithea]

Those who can, create.
Those who can't, hate.

Congratulations on chasing a webcomic artist off. You do the world a service, assholes.
Sohmer's ego is fed by two things, your hatred, and his unparalleled work ethic. You can't kill one of those things.

Go ahead and keep mentioning the names of the webcomics you hate, and the artists you hate. Give them traffic and watch them grow.

[Gryewolf]

I didn't know Sohmer was an asshole, never heard anything about him. I stopped reading LICD because it got kinda, eh I didn't care for it after a while.
And I didn't read LFG because it was too much reading.

[Omnithea]

That's what I do to webcomics that bore me or fail to entertain me. I stop reading them. I stop talking about them. But there are people who put actual energy into "taking down" these things. And most of the time it just makes it worse.

[Gryewolf]

We need more Oglaf.

[Valbrandur]

I don't really care much about Sohmer, my opinion only extends to that LICD serves as a world he created where he can do anything he wants and get away with it and that he has a huge ego and shows it.

If people really want to read it, they can go ahead and do so, I'll just use it as an example of webcomics that I think aren't good and leave it at that.

I ignore LICD and LFGcomic most days anyway and I never read any of Tom Preston's comics, so it hardly has any effect on me.

The shame is that when Tom Preston got legitimate criticism (on one occasion, I really didn't bother searching for more), he helped dig his own hole rather than accept it.

Which is of course forgivable but he had attracted a crowd which preys on every mistake he made, so if he decides not to fully quit, he'd benefit from laying low until that crowd starts to disperse.

[Madican]

What unparalleled work ethic? Sohmer is a writer by the barest definition of the word. It's Lars that does all the work for those strips.

[Mr. Mander]

I'm not the kind who actively antagonizes people like Dobson or Sohmer (in fact I don't believe Dobson deserved most of the hate he got), but I do think that Sohmer is one of those people who needs to be taken down a peg. Over the course of his comic he has actively insulted just about everyone who isn't Sohmer. His short "web-comic crossover" storyline and Gutters prove that.

[Omnithea]

Lars isn't the only artist he works with and hasn't been since he started. He's the owner and manager for three webcomics, two comic bookstores, and his umbrella company, Blind Ferret. And a dad. He works for what he's got. I find that LICD has lost of lot of it's bite, but I lost interest in the sex puns some time ago. The jokes and stories that reference his life as a parent are pretty endearing. He exists at one extreme of the webcomic writer/artist/creator that can be pretty hard to take. Egotistical with an amazing and consistent output. On the other end, we have the self hating webcomicers who update once a year and apologize profusely for not writing more panels. Gutters is designed as a jab at the comicbook industry, that's the point. And when one of those comic book companies came gunning for one of his artists, he took to arms and told them to come after him. That's a solid trait. So he makes fun of stuff in his comic? Manga, MLP, anime, politicians, other webcomics, etc. So what? Who doesn't? I know he's on the internet, but he doesn't have to agree with everyone else, or keep silent when he doesn't. I've never met the guy, but I've never met anybody in the business. You see how the sausage is made, you might just lose your lunch. He's a human being, flawed and with body odor.

[Madican]

Yes, he does guide the company, but I didn't say anything about that. I take issue with his writing, in that it can't really be called such. He puts out the basest and most juvenile jokes that require no effort. It's easy to have a high and consistent output when everything is shit. It is Lars that puts in the work to draw Sohmer's fantasies.

He also has an astronomical ego and to be honest I don't care if people are flawed. Yes, they are, but that doesn't mean I'm going to like them if they have certain faults. Sohmer is a blowhard who derides everyone he considers beneath him. And the fact that he even considers anyone beneath him speaks to the size of that ego.

[Omnithea]

But what bothers me isn't that people dislike him, it's how they react to it. Destroying something on the internet requires ignoring it. I figure the best thing people can do in a thread like this, is bring up webcomics they like. But every once in a while someone brings up that something terrible is ending. And now they've redirected traffic to it. Didn't this start with a discussion about Brentalfloss? Was that the mediocre comic I read a few pages of and abandoned? Did you guys keep following it? Were you waiting for something good to happen? Or were you hoping for something bad to happen?

Sohmer writes a comic that's original premise was a guy who f**ks a lot of women. How far did some people get in the archive before finally going..."Oh...it is about sex jokes!"?

Where did you guys learn about Sohmer's douche status? Did you follow his Twitter? Read his blog? Don't do that. You need never have learned a single thing about a writer for a webcomic you don't like. Why pollute your head with it?

It's also presumptuous to believe you know the full extent of a writer's input in a product. Comics need writer input at all levels. You can't just paste word bubbles in there after the artist finishes.

[Madican]

I learned about Sohmer before I even touched LICD. I read the comic to see whether the allegations were true and did more research to confirm. Same with Buckley and CAD. Sometimes I grow to dislike a comic because I learned about the creator(s).

I already know all that about writers. Hence why I said Lars does all the work creating Sohmer's fantasies. He draws what Sohmer wants.

I don't go around trying to "destroy" a comic. I ignore it. If someone goes about trying to recommend the comic to anyone though, I do counter them with my reasons.

[Omnithea]

[Supaaku]

If someone recommends something that you dislike to someone else, let them form their own opinion about it. Not everyone shares the same tastes.

[Reyo]

I can't help but agree with Omnithea. If you dislike something, fine, but leave it alone. The worst thing you can do is keep badgering at it.