Author Topic: Ah Kurtz this is what makes you so fun  (Read 8236 times)

The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers

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Re: Ah Kurtz this is what makes you so fun
« Reply #30 on: January 17, 2005, 09:57:13 AM »
then don't argue, but I don't know that there's any record of him saying that. And there's not any excuse at ALL for copying back.

EUOL

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Re: Ah Kurtz this is what makes you so fun
« Reply #31 on: January 18, 2005, 04:13:42 AM »
I'm going to go with Sprig on this one.  Kurtz is like Michel Jackson or Bill Orilley.  I like to see what kind of loony trouble they get themselves into.  That makes him fun, in my estimation.

Plus, he's got a nice apology up now, including this:

Quote
This message was for all you 12-year-old-anime-cat-girls out there who want to scratch and hiss at me because I offended your God. Take a deep breath, eat some Pocky and put in the latest Ranma DVD into the player. Everything is going to be okay. Cool?

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The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers

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Re: Ah Kurtz this is what makes you so fun
« Reply #32 on: January 18, 2005, 07:43:43 AM »
see, i still don't find that funny.

Oseleon

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Re: Ah Kurtz this is what makes you so fun
« Reply #33 on: January 20, 2005, 09:46:27 AM »
Meh I think it's Hi-Larious
Kurtz is like that loudmouth friend who says inapropriate things, But is fun to be around so you keep him.  

Course, bieng that I am part of a Gamming group called "Ale and Whores" based on one of Kurtz's strips....  I might be a bit biased
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Re: Ah Kurtz this is what makes you so fun
« Reply #34 on: April 05, 2005, 12:29:51 AM »
Yea! More Kurtz fun!

reprinted in it's entierty since you never know if/when he might remove it.

Quote

Man, it was a huge mistake for me to join that Daily Grind Cartooning Challenge.

First of all, I felt a lot of resentment from some of the cartoonists about joining in the first place. There were a couple of shots fired across my bow in the forums and the individual strips of some of the contestants about me and my work.

Second of all... the rules of the contest, which to me were simple and clear to understand, are being changed or "clarified" in the middle of the contest. People who should be disqualified (in my opinion) are being given second chances, or making excuses.

This may seem a little harsh. It's just a friendly competition, so what's the big deal? Why are you being such a hard ass, Kurtz?

Well, let me try to explain myself here.

If I had to pick one single moment that was the turning point for PvP moving from being a hobby into something real, it was the day I decided to start posting M-F, and never miss a day, no matter WHAT!

My wife gets upset when people dismiss the year I spent working a day job, then coming home and working all night on the comic. It was grueling, it put a strain on everything (including our marriage) but ultimately it paid off. I got lucky and got links from some high-traffic sites and my work attracted people to come back. So now here are all these guys committing to the same workload and now it's my turn to give back. Beacause I've been blessed and now I have a high traffic site. So I can link to them and give THEM a lot of attention as they make the committment to this challenge.

The spirit behind this challenge is sound, noble and ulitmately could pay off for these cartoonists. My involvement has already gotten them traffic (from my site), even more traffic (from being slashdotted), and some of the cartoonists have been approached by one of my advertising clients. That really excited me because I prefer the idea of hard work paying off. I certainly prefer it to the fantasy that everyone is so special and art is so subjective that there's a way EVERYONE can succeed and money will be delievered to them by micropayments on a unicorn or whatever.

Life is a juggling act and you have to juggle your time. I'm stressing right now about my schedule. I'm stressing over letting go of habits to make way for new habits and opportunities.

Isn't the webcomics community already full of enough back-patting and self-masterbatory gestures? Everyone is very busy kissing their own asses instead of just rolling up their sleeves, getting critical and kicking ass. You can justify the lack of interest in your own work by writing essays on why the popular strips are really crap, or you can use that time to examine where your OWN work could be improved upon.

And that's why I liked the idea of the Grind. And why I get upset when I see some of the participants whining that same "woe is me" horsecrap that I already see too much of from the webcomics community. IRON MAN challenge. Seperate the pros from the amateurs. Hard assed. No excuses (which, ironically, is one of the actual rules).

The thing is that there was a time, when I was bitter about the popular strips. I was bitter about why PvP wasn't "making it." I was stressing about whether all this work I was putting in would ever pay off. I remember that vividly. But it wasn't until I said "screw it" that things paid off.

And I was lucky. I had a wife and a good friend (I'm talking about you, Jackson), who had a "no excuses" attitude with me. They NEVER let up and they never let me make excuses.

So that's why I'm being a hard ass. I'm trying to return the favor. But I don't think I'm very good at it. I think I'm just alientating everone.

Man, it was a huge mistake for me to join that Daily Grind Cartooning Challenge.


I think he's got some good points, I know its a different medium but EUOL can tell you if he just stood around cretiqueing popular books and never takeing his own writeing seriously he wouldn't be any where.  Yet webcomic people seam to lilke to do such things, I think there also could be some jeliously in the community too, artists tend to get bitter when their work isn't as popular as they think it should be.  But part of both PvP's and PA's popularity is they just did the work no matter what.
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Entsuropi

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Re: Ah Kurtz this is what makes you so fun
« Reply #35 on: April 05, 2005, 12:37:12 AM »
Heh, he does make that point well. A lot of guys in the comic community sit around and ego-wank themselves a lot, and snipe bitterly at the big comics. Just shut up and get to work people! :P

Also, I demand you pay royalties on my IP's.
If you're ever in an argument and Entropy winds up looking staid and temperate in comparison, it might be time to cut your losses and start a new thread about something else :)

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Re: Ah Kurtz this is what makes you so fun
« Reply #36 on: April 05, 2005, 12:42:35 AM »
Quote

Also, I demand you pay royalties on my IP's.


Psh, I don't see your name on them.  I'm the Microsoft of this forum and I just plow over EU loosers.  Money means nothing, only domination!
Screw it, I'm buying crayons and paper. I can imagineer my own adventures! Wheeee!

Chuck Norris is the reason Waldo is hiding.


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Re: Ah Kurtz this is what makes you so fun
« Reply #37 on: April 05, 2005, 09:48:27 AM »
for once, I agree with Kurtz. It's supposed to be hard. You either posted your comic or you didn't. Technical problems are part of life. Sickness in the family is part of life. You still have to deliver. You didn't post, you get disqualified. That makes sense to me.

EUOL

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Re: Ah Kurtz this is what makes you so fun
« Reply #38 on: April 07, 2005, 06:08:00 AM »
I actually went to the forums in question and looked up what was going on there.

I'm sorry, but in this case, Scott is being a prick.  The people in question did not miss a post.  They violated a different rule--one that said they could have a single one-panel-comic for every nine regular comics they had.  Some interpreted this to mean that every nine days, they could post one single-panel-comic.  Others interpreted it to mean that if you divided the total posts they'd done since the contest started by nine, they were allowed that many single panel comics.  (So, if they went eighteen days, they could post two in a row.)

So, someone did this (posted two in a row) and others cried foul.  They took it to the judges, who decided that the original wording was vague.  They reworded the rule to mean nine multi-panel-comics in-between any sinlge-planel posts.  

The judges made their decision, and Kurtz (and others) think they made the wrong one.  However, I read Kurtz's posts...and he was being a serious jerk.  If you have a disagreement with someone, you should explain yourself, not swear at them and rant and rave.  (But, we all know how Kurtz is in this area....)

The funny thing is, this doesn't really have ANYTHING to do with the rest of Scott's post, which makes real and honest sense.

(There also was another rule clarification made that allows artists to post their comic to the forum if their website crashes for some reason.)
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Spriggan

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Re: Ah Kurtz this is what makes you so fun
« Reply #39 on: April 07, 2005, 06:23:54 AM »
Kurtz posted on his forum that he was being a jerk but also said he was sick of the other authors patting each other on the back when one makes a mistake. Also they broke another rule which was "No Excuses" and the judges let them get away with it, that would make me mad. I think he feels slighted becasue he's giveing them a chance at getting popular via his involvement and some aren't takeing it serious enough. But I'm not an aplogist for Kurtz, I do think he over reacted, I red some of the other forum's posts too that's why I didn't comment about that but instead commented on the part of the post that isn't direcetly related to the contest.

« Last Edit: April 07, 2005, 06:26:51 AM by Spriggan »
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EUOL

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Re: Ah Kurtz this is what makes you so fun
« Reply #40 on: April 07, 2005, 05:58:58 PM »
I'll also admit that I think Scott has some good points.  I like the guy (as much as you can like someone you've only known through reading his blog posts)--when he's not being TOO mean to people.

Yes, people need tough love some times.  To be honest, I wish that other professional webcomic artists had Scott's dedication.  Sluggy goes into filler strips at least once a week, and 8-Bit is known to skip a few days every now and then.  These are the sorts of things that just wouldn't fly in many businesses.  

Scott is a paradigm among the community, whether that community's members want to admit it or not.  The problem is, I wish that he were a better role model for them in words, as well as in professional determination.  It's a little like wishing that professional basketball players had respectable private lives.  It's not fair to expect that of them any more than any other person, but we do it any way.

How much more effective would Scott's tough words be if he could be kind, even-headed, and helpful at the same time?  I just don't think this particular battle was one that should have elicited the response from him that it did.
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