Statement of Purpose

Blog hatred from Todd and Penguin

When you're running a personal website (by which I mean a site pertaining mostly to information about, concerning, or generated by yourself) I believe it is of the utmost importance to maintain a high standard of telling the truth. Why, you ask? Why not just say whatever you feel like, be it true or not? It is the internet, after all, not your real life. Well, for me, the internet IS my real life. It's not the only facet of my life, by no means. But it is a part of my life, just as it is a part of other people's lives. When I talk to people online, when I post on a message board or comment on a site, I'm not just throwing out random bits into the ether. I'm communicating with real, live human beings on the other ends of their keyboards. There's nothing about the fact that I've never seen anyone I know online in real life that makes them any less of a real person. And for that reason, I believe you should conduct yourself online in the exact same manner in which you conduct yourself in real life. Which means if you want to build trust with people, you need to BE HONEST.

Why am I telling you all this? Because I am about to be totally honest with anyone who is reading this post, my first post here at the webcomicker. And I hope to always keep myself to the same high standard that I am setting the trend for here. So let me just out and say it. I HATE BLOGS. I really do. I think David Wright shares my hatred, at least in a subconcious sort of way. Blogs are the biggest waste of time I've ever seen. No one wants to know about your latest trip to Canada and all the fun things you did there. The only people that care are you, your friends, and your relatives. And if you're too lazy to CALL THEM and communicate with them on a personal level, don't waste their time with some asinine post on a crappily pre-designed webpage.

Now, that being said I need to dig myself out of the hypocritical hole I've dug myself here. Yes, I am aware that this website is, technically, a blog. I'm aware that in the URL itself is the word "blog", and that makes me the worst kind of hypocrite of all, the one who says "everyone who does this sucks except me, because I do it better, so there!" And I fully accept your denouncements. Maybe I am a hypocrite. Maybe I have no right to be talking bad about blogs when essentially what I'm doing here is blogging my own random thoughts.

Well, I don't care. You know why? Because I'm INSPIRED. I've been inspired by a website that I'm sure anyone reading this post would be familiar with because it treads the same ground I tread, only in much larger and more ostentasious shoes: Websnark. Eric Burns is an amazing man, bringing to life Webcomics and the webcomics community in a way that I never thought would be possible. His excellent writing skills, keen intellect, and surprisingly diverse knowledge of pop-culture in general and comics in specific make Eric Burns a joy to read. He takes comics which I give a cursory glance at and analyzes them in detail, pulling out gems of insight that I never would have imagined. And he makes it seem so natural. I first found his site when he posted a "snark" (to use his clever lexicon) of Max Powers from PvP, and stuck around to read a few more posts. When it became obvious to me that this guy was not just some dude with a blog and was actually a CRITICAL COMMENTATOR, I gave the site a bit more in depth look. I read some of his reviews. I checked out his Daily Trawls. I read his in depth post about why he stopped reading Megatokyo. Before I knew it, he'd gotten me hooked on about ten more webcomics, and my downward spiral was just beginning. I became a Snark addict, checking his site multiple times a day and hoping he'd post something new. I never commented on his site (not my style. I prefer to keep away from the general sqwaking of the masses), but I've given him a lot of hits over the past few months.

Some days I would be angry when Eric posted about something going on in his job, or his health issues. Some days he'd start talking about something completely unwebcomics related, which is hit-or-miss with me. Sometimes (rarely) he wouldn't post anything at all. And I would be very disappointed. Not in him, persey, but in his inability to get something up that would interest me. And I began to realize, Eric Burns is just one person, and he can only cover so much territory. I mean, just like the rest of us, he's got a life outside of his website, and I can't fault him for that. I appreciate him for keeping up such a high rate of posting at such high quality, actually. I doubt I could do what he's doing for more than about a week.

But that's exactly what I'm here to try. Eric Burns has paved the way. He's the pioneer. He's the guy who showed us all that you can have a critical commentary site devoted to webcomics. You can write intellectually and coherently and people will READ YOU and APPRECIATE YOU. Now, I seek to humbly follow in his footsteps. Not to compete with him, by any means, but simply to fill in some of the gaps he misses. Like I said, he's only one man, and I figure that the more commentary there is about webcomics, the better. So here I sit, at my keyboard. I don't claim to be a professional writer. I don't even claim to know a lot about webcomics, really. Eric recently confessed to reading over 600 different comics, I read about 15. But I'm going to do my best to add to this community, and try to cover things just a bit more.

So this is my promise to you. I will not let The Webcomicker become a blog. I will not tell you about my dog, or how bummed I am about my job or my girlfriend. I'm not even going to tell you what music I'm listening to. I'm going to talk about Webcomics, and topics of interest to the Webcomics community. Ok, maybe I'll cover something a little bit different occasionally, but this site is for webcomic commentary, so webcomic commentary is what you're going to get.

I just had to get that off my chest. Thanks for reading. I promise I'll talk about actual webcomics next time :-)