Many webcomic creators have some area on their site where they post some sort of text to go along with their comics. Maybe it's just news about the comic, or a personal blog to try to connect on a more personal level with the audience. Perhaps it's just a place to rant from time to time.
Sometimes creators use the space to express their viewpoint on a controversial topic. As an example, when Scott Kurtz* recently expressed some of his personal views and experiences regarding religion, he may have run the risk, at least to some degree, of being "Dixie Chicked" (a term that has come to describe when someone, especially in the public eye, is persecuted on some level for expressing his or her personal beliefs - visual example of being Dixie-Chicked).
Whether religion, politics, or some other "hot button" topic is what is getting expressed, should creators be using their webcomics sites to express their personal viewpoints, especially if their webcomic has little if anything to do with those subjects? Does an artist's personal views affect (negatively or positively) your enjoyment of their art? Is being "Dixie-Chicked" even necessarily a bad thing?
*Disclaimer: I picked Scott's post strictly because it was the most recent example that came to mind. I have nothing but respect for him professionally, and am in no way meaning to aim any of these questions squarely at him. Feel free (in fact, I encourage you for purpose of advancing discussion) to use your own examples when expressing your views on this topic.
Also, this other recent post might provide some additional food for thought on the subject of injecting your personality into your webcomic site and its community.
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Comments
Yes, creators should use
Yes, creators should use whatever voice they have to speak the truth to power.  I can understand that you might want to voice you opinions in a forum other than your comic, because you might not want to chase off fans--But, if you lose fans, you might gain others who agree.Â
http://www.komikwerks.com/comic_title.php?ti=117
Use the soapbox you've got.
You know, if a comic creator has...well, let's say 'Indefensible Positions' ;) ...of any kind, they're going to spill out somewhere. Either in the pages of his comic, on his website, in his personal blog or just from overheard conversation at a con. The fans will find out. Unless the creator is a recluse who never talks about his positions to anyone, those positions will become known eventually.
If they're going to be public eventually, why not skip the middle man and just post them with the comic? If you feel that strongly, and you want to be heard, use the soapbox you've got. If someone is going to boycott you for your views they'll do it whether you're loudly advocating those views or whether they just heard that you hold them quietly to yourself.
You can change a story to suit a target market, but you really can't change yourself.
 ...
Answering your rhetorical question
I don't put (much) political commentary into my strip because it's not what the strip is meant to be for.
My intentions for the strip are separate things from how I'd like to change the world. Not all activities have the same ends.
Plus, political jokes get dated too fast. How funny is a Kenneth Starr joke right now? Feh.
Political humor is vital to
As I said in the news post
As I said in the news post of one of my few sort-of topical comics:
"If I really wanted to be topical I'd enter a semi-liquid state and squeeze into a tube that said "for external use only".
That said, you can have a political message without being topical. There are some things that never change.Â
Hot button issues
I have lost a handful of fans after sparring with them on email about something political I posted in a strip commentary or news item.
The issues I remember losing readers over were: feminism, Iraq, political correctness, and human cloning.
Those are the only 4 I remember in 4 1/2 years of doing the comic. Nevertheless, yeah I have been Dixie Chicked, and it sucks.
Dixie Chicking is
The very fact that I'm an openly gay man, for example, is a "hot button" topic for some, and has, I'm sure, caused some to refuse to work with me. There's nothing I can do about that (after being out of the closet for more than two decades, I'm not about to go back in to satisfy public relations needs).
One time I asked Scott McCloud how he deals with the fact that he is constantly being demonized -- and his positions misrepresented -- by people with ideological axes to grind. He gave me the best advice I've ever been given (too bad I haven't always followed it): when you're criticized, ignore everything except the actual content of the criticism -- don't try to figure out the person's motivations for criticizing you. If the criticism is valid, it doesn't matter what the motivation is. If the criticism is not valid, you can evaluate that based on the content of the criticism itself, and then you can easily kick it back in their faces -- again, regardless of the motivation.
In Scott's case, it isn't his actual religion (I don't know if he even has one), but his business model evangelism (which amounts to religion for some in the webcomics world) that leads to the Dixie Chicking.
If your work is good, and people hate it because of your personal religion, or your lifestyle, or your politics, or your business model -- well, it doesn't matter: you know that your work is good. Just keep that in mind.
Even if the criticism is valid, it is useful and important to be able to listen to it without getting emotionally tied up in it -- because criticism, even if it's not meant constructively, can help you, yourself, improve, as long as you read it and act upon it correctly, and unemotionally.
But, like I said, I haven't always lived by these words of wisdom. I wish I had! I try to.
Joey
www.webcomicsnation.com
...
That said, I believe people, not just webcomic creators, should have the right to express their opinions.
Then again, maybe it's too much trouble for people to think for themselves. We should all just adopt a uniform view and abolish freedom of speech so we can be one big, happy family.[/sarcasm]
One-liners - Beware the killer dildos. New Comic Posted 07/07/06
One-liners - New strips on Fridays.
This reminds me of the
This reminds me of the storyline "The War in Eyeraq" that Paul Southworth of Ugly Hill did a while back. I'm pretty sure he got a lot of greif from that.
http://www.uglyhill.com/d/20060410.html
Comedy should be a bit
Comedy should be a bit dangerous, or it's dull.
If you edit out your opinions about things because they might offend, you're going to end up with lowest common denominator comedy. And it's going to suck.
Not to say that it won't anyway. But editing out your opinions is a sure way to suckiness.
An inevitable consequence of that is that you're going to tick people off sometimes.
Off-topic - the whole Dixie Chicks blackballing is evidence that something's seriously fucking wrong with our media. Popular music used to make political statements - usually anti-establishment (gasp!), and it didn't hurt the artist. The fact that 2 companies own the vast majority of American radio stations has made radio de facto a controlled medium - almost state-controlled.
Right on Bup!Actually I
Right on Bup!
Actually I don't think the yelping about the Dixie Chicks hurt their sales much (both recent albums did very well despite less radio play). (I think their tour is suffering this summer a bit but almost the whole tour business is way down b/c of gas/economy issues.)
____
Xaviar Xerexes
Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Gnaw.
Wait.Joey is GAY?!
Wait.
Joey is GAY?!
My first comic was an overt
My first comic was an overt religious satire. I have a few regular readers of my new comic who've said that they were kind of offended by my first one.
So hopefully anyone who would have dixie-chicked me for irreverence is already not reading.
Your Right, Your Responsibility
An artist shouldn't have to be limited to just comicking just because some asshat says, "He/She should just make comics, and keep his/her mouth shut." It's too bad if people don't agree with what the comicker has to say; they have the right to express their personal thoughts and beliefs, especially if it's their own website.
Readers need to keep in mind that the same brain that creates the comics they so enjoy also has other thoughts, and politics just happens to be one of those other avenues of thought. If they don't want to read the newsposts, then they DO NOT HAVE TO. They can just enjoy the comic. Everyone should be encouraged to express their beliefs, especially when it comes to politics, the direction of our country, etc... So what if it's on a webcomic site? It may be the only good public venue that individual has to express their own thoughts. If you don't like what they say, don't read it. Wanna bitch about the artists expressing themselves? Tough shit; get over yourself.
Don't hesitate to procrastinate. See my stuff at http://www.cuteninjagirls.com
I guess anyone who considers
I guess anyone who considers themselves a creator of any kind is going to feel strongly in favour of the right to free speech. So, sure, if you think you've got something you really have to say, then say it. Put it in your webcomic, put it in the page comments, put it anywhere you want to.
But just bear in mind, if you do, then anyone reading it has just as valid a right to call you on it. It's no good complaining about the backlash.
You say something to your friends, they'll answer back. You say the same thing standing on a soap box in a town square, you're going to get heckled (and, depending on what you've said, some of those hecklers might even turn quite nasty!) You post the same thing on as public a platform as the web, you can pretty much guarantee there's going to be a fair number of people who disagree.
Think of the backlash celebrities in all fields have to face when they speak publicly about their political and/or religious beliefs (Cruise, Travolta, Clooney, Baldwin and yes, the Dixie Chicks and even Halle Berry!) Right or wrong, the reality is that what you say will affect the way people look at you and your work.Â
So, sure, you have a right to say what you want to, where you want to. But it's not an obligation. So before you speak (or post), consider the consequences. If you're happy to face those consequences, go right ahead. If you're not, well, you also have the right to not say it.Â
Broken Voice Comics
Because comics are not just for kids
Well, even if it wasn't
Well, even if it wasn't politics, I probably lost the whole lot of my French readership in one fell stroke when I celebrated Italy's victory at the World Cup on my site ;)
Seriously though, even if I have a blog, a forum and a tagboard, I use them for comic related matters or innocuous stuff because I don't want to engage in serious debates with my readers. The reason is that I think that in any debate an important condition is that everyone's opinions are accorded the same weight and respect.
On your site, where you are The Author, with your red name next to your posts and the bunch of people who'd agree with you even if you farted tunes instead of expressing thoughts - is it really fair to engage in heated discussion? You have an unfair advantage anyway on reader #127435, even if you are full of shit and he's actually right. There will be a few people who'll agree with you and flame him just because you are The Author. I'd rather debate on a site where I'm just one of the crowd and my opinions are going to be considered for their own merit, or lack of, rather than because they come from me. I want to DISCUSS, I don't want to PREACH. I have nothing to preach about.
Another thing is that I feel that I have a responsibility to be polite to my readers even where I wouldn't be so polite if it wasn't an author-reader exchange. Sometimes I get emails that make me want to bash my head on the keyboard because they are SO STUPID, but I always try to answer kindly. The reason is that I'd be gutted if I mailed a favorite comic author and he answered with a flame. I feel tempted to answer like Maddox to his readers, to these emails:
Don't you retards think before you click "Send" that maybe someone on the other end is actually going to read your stupid, malformed emails some day? It's almost like there's a record full of incomprehensible bullshit playing in your mind 24/7, and you put the needle down randomly and whatever it picks up, you just type it up in an email and shoot it off to me, usually mid-sentence.
(from Maddox' the best page in the universe)
When I have to read emails like "you could make a comic strip dedicated to like abunch of role player running around going "zomfg im liek totlyguna dei!!!11", I think that I'm excused if I'd rather NOT open the floodgates of my mailbox to many more emails like this, but about politics/religion/etc., and angry too - by posting controversial stuff. I don't have anything against the guy who wrote the email, but I have good reason to believe that I am 3 times older than him, should I be discussing serious issues with him?
Anyway, a while ago a dumbass complained that he was offended that none of my major characters were racial minorities, and that this was racist of me. Instead of answering him with a post, I did it in the comic. After all, since we're comic authors, aren't our strips the best place to make a point?
In my "featured link" the