Eldritch Lineage 034

Oh my god, something finally happened. I spent pretty much this whole page listening to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQ0sY3jR9LQ which I’ve become addicted to. Other than that… been busy working on projects. However, there’s something less pleasant I’d like to discuss, so, if you’d rather not hear me whine, just quit reading here, mmkay?

 Thanks. So… what do I want to discuss? Well, while almost all of you are wonderful, sweet, amazing people, and I love you to tiny werewolfy bits… Not everyone quite understands what goes on in making this kind of thing. As you all know, I do a lot of research, a lot of scripting, and spend a lot of time sitting and drawing this freaking thing. It has taken Hundreds Of Hours Of My Life. I could spend that time watching programs everyone else likes. Or getting fit. Or doing better, more detailed work. I could spend that time hanging out with my friends. And I would be a heck of a lot richer if instead of doing this comic, I had picked up more hours of work. But no. I instead decided to do all of this work and provide a comic that, while I do hope to turn a profit from it when it’s finished, people can read it for free.

So… you can imagine my frustration when people gripe at me about it because it doesn’t suit their tastes. But that happens… and constructive criticism is something that everyone needs from time to time; I’ve learned a lot from it, though I may not have been properly appreciative of it at the time… put simply, some griping is okay, even though it might damage my ego. But sometimes, I get the best of all: People who bitch about watermarks. This week, I had someone I’d never seen before contact me on DA asking me to ‘fix’ the watermarks on my blog.

So, let me make something clear to folks… if an artist watermarks their work,It is not a flaw. There is nothing to fix. The work is being presented as the artist wishes it to be presented at that time. Yes, they’re annoying, but water marks are basically like the opening credits of a movie. You may not like them, but they help ensure that people are properly credited.

But here’s the real kicker… when I told this guy that I did it as a safety precaution for myself and my work, their response was to say that they wanted me to email the unwatermarked pages to them, to trust them (a total and complete stranger, mind you) not to redistribute or sell my unwatermarked work, and that they “just need those two pictures.” Suuuuuuuuuuuuuure. I’m totally gonna treat some random person differently from my other readers. Suuuure, I’m gonna trust a complete stranger with my work.

Guys, this is the kind of stuff your favorite artists (of any sort, writers, photographers, comicers, illustrators, sculptors, and many more alike) deal with behind the scenes. Heck, sometimes they have to deal with it out in the open too. We get a lot of folks who are inconsiderate, or self-centered, entitled jerks, or all three, who for some reason, think that we owe them something merely because they graced us with their presence, even though we provide entertainment that everyone gets to see FOR FREE. Folks don’t have to pay admission. They don’t have to buy a ticket. And in my opinion, these kinds of people, who complain and gripe about such things at these artists in spite of this, make said artists uncomfortable, are one of the reasons why we can’t have nice things.

So... yeah.  Just a PSA, I guess.