20 More Random One-Sentence Personal Opinions About Comics Stuff

1) Lettering is not just worth crediting, it is worth celebrating and understanding as an integral artistic element on the comics page along with the illustration work -- in short, whatever is on the comic page is artwork.

2) If you are making comics, consider the fact that you wouldn't want to write or draw generically, so why have everyone else's generic computer lettering? 

3) Comics don't have to have that clean, concise "mainstream" lettering style -- newspaper comic strips are still read by an actual mainstream audience and they have wildly divergent and often "messy" lettering which no one bats an eye at. 

4) I realize this gets me kicked out of some comic con bars, but I respect Calvin and Hobbes rather than actually like it.

5) Richard Thompson's Cul de Sac is woefully under-appreciated and a lot funnier than Calvin and Hobbes, the strip it is most often compared to because both involve children and are rare examples of "recent" well-crafted, intelligent strips.

6) Richard Thompson is also depressingly under-appreciated as a master cartoonist (RIP).

7) I'm so glad we don't have to hear "Watchmen, Dark Knight and Maus" as the default answer to anything anymore.

8) I much prefer art Spiegelman's work as an editor than a cartoonist, despite my understanding that he hates hearing that.

9) I never answer when someone asks "What comic would you give someone who's never read a comic before?"  because if I don't know anything about a person I don't know what their interests are and if I don't know what their interests are then foisting a book on them blind is pretty goddamned silly and kind of self-centered.

10) Roy Thomas is the Super-Adaptoid of  comics, and I don't mean that in a fun or respectful way.

11) We are allowed to discuss Stan Lee's accomplishments/good judgements and Jack Kirby's failures/bad judgements.

12) Lobo is, was and always will be a shitty third-generation 2000 A.D. character xerox, a faux-badass spouting faux-badass dialog.

13) My dislike/lack of respect for Rob Liefeld isn't because of him succeeding despite his shitty art, but despite his shitty behavior.

14) Cartoonists who are advocates of creator's rights as well as advocates of Rob Liefeld and Todd McFarlane need to do some thinking.

15) Peppermint Patty just absolutely sucks the life out of any Peanuts strip she appears in.

16) Some of the worst comic book scripts I've ever seen were written by outside talent with "impressive" writing credits who had no understanding of how to write for the medium -- even worse, editors tended to leave it to the artist to correct the fucked-up storytelling.

17) NYC mainstream conventions have been pretty miserable for a really long time now.

18) Explaining things isn't the same as telling a story. 

19) Anyone who tried to intrude on Steve Ditko's privacy knowing he was averse to that sort of thing should give up their Ditko comics.  

20) I still desperately want to know if that one particular anecdote about Gil Kane trying to make off with some artwork is true or not. I guess that's not an opinion, which is why I've added a second sentence. I'll add an actual opinion to make up for the oversight.

21) If people are going to pay a school to learn how to draw comics, the schools need to up their game on teaching them how to write the damned things.