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Thanks, ManicMatt. 

I can't tell you if there's anything to get about the Gnawite comic, really! It comes down to disparity between what I consider worth drawing and telling and what you consider worth reading: just aimless fun and cuteness would be enough for me once in a while in a comic, especially if you see what comics bookend that one.

Thanks for the comments, everyone

Andail, I hope I am improving, as these are old and it's three years later now! The worst thing is that I am not employed making comics anymore so I make a LOT less of them. At least I'll be doing a 24hr comic this year, in about a month.

Here be a blog full of Helmy comics!

I may not be active in this forum anymore, but since I was led out of my cave on the promise of MANLINESS I might as well horrifically pimp my latest endeavor in your collective faces! If interested, do take care to read the blog from the beginning up because a lot of information might initially escape you (about how for example these comics are 3 years old!)

I will be around for a while, so if you want to give me feedback, I'm all mustaches. You can also leave comments in the blog if you miss my brief stay on this forum!

I am summoned back to this forum for the express purpose of participating in this thread. I usually go clean-shaven but it is true I always longed for a terrible mustache.

I have at times attempted a more rural look just as an excuse to dirty my 'stache in wonderful soup and then lick the ends of it for the stale flavour. It is true the beard is always the excuse for the stache, don't let anyone tell you otherwise.





And this is for the record



For the 10 minutes I had this going, I felt like a manlier man.



This variation specifically made me feel like less of a man.



The merit of this is debatable.



I am back to being just me.



Or is this me now? I might never know.

Reading this has reminded me of this thread which makes me miss Helm all the ever more.

Helm should come back, even if it's only for Christmas!

Hahaha... That guy sounds like a real stellar dude.

Hello, this thread was shown to me in a post-AGS irc channel where good people hang out. This in itself should probably tell you most of what you need to know on why the forums are degrading in quality, but here's some more words.

That thread was I think in response to something or another, not just out of the blue, and AGA is my friend, I don't want to keel him. I think I was making a point, ironically about the quality of threads on this forum and such. If I am to remembered for anyone contribution of mine to the forums I'd rather it not be the one (or any other 'whacky, lol!' thing I might have contributed to), as I've talked with many here about things that matter much more, and I hope I was not a negative influence for anyone. We've talked politics, philosophy, game design theory, and to this day I know of no other international forum that had so many bright, polite and willing users from all parts of the opinion spectrum participating in relatively civil manner. The adventure game nerds are good people generally.

Here's a breakdown of the situation that might be useful for you guys wondering what's happening to your forums: The reason I don't post here anymore is combinatorial. I was treated very unfairly by a number of users on the last thread I participated on and many of them were old guys (which I don't say as to denote awesomity to their tenure but to say that they have known who I was and how I ment what I said as they have had lived with me under the same e-roof for many years). This made it clear that there was an underlying resentment against me harboured by some people, probably because of my posting style and attitude, which is understandable I guess, I don't expect everyone to like me. But what happens when almost nobody interesting likes you anymore or considers you an asset to the forum? Don't forget, I, like many oldbies have been here many years and I talk to most interesting people I met and befriended from here on other places, IRC channels, msn and the like. Most of the people that post here now, I don't know. So when I talk to them and they're uninteresting, indifferent or hostile because they don't like how I write, then I begin thinking 'what am I taking from this place anymore?'. The answer was 'not much and nearing nothing' so I departed. I left here because of lack of appreciation. Community allegience will only take you so far, I have made other places of my internet my home in the last 7 years.

Most other people whose disappearance you're now lamenting because they were 'such characters' and 'sure made you laugh' were also people with simple social aspirations that wanted to be treated fairly and with respect, and they get that respect and friendship by the good people they've networked in private from here and elsewhere while they've been around. The general forum is a meet-and-greet point of people and once they move on to their blogs and msns and ircs it just doesn't get a lot of quality material pumped straight to it, it becomes more and more dependent on drivel nobody really cares about. Forums that have no purpose are dying. Pixelation (which I run) will constantly thrive because it's about a thing: pixel art and the betterment of it. The AGS parts of this forum will also thrive, and newbie tech questions will never dry up. But the gen gen is an outmodded concept, if your idea of it rests on that it will have interesting discussions about whichever thing with all these 'colorful characters' that will constantly entertain you with their 'antics'. If you look at gen gen and find it uninteresting, it is because you look at it like a tv channel that provides ever-new material for you to entertain yourselves. But it's not. It's a community of complex people that seek to fulfill their social needs and communicate on a pleasant level. These people, if they find it increasingly difficult to do this here (and the reasons are: grumpy old curmudgeons, oversaturation of the same discussions, influx of uninteresting people, downright ungratefulness and disrespect for people as people, not internet nicknames) they will go away, they will take what is good from here and put it on their msn and that's just fine.

I suggest you go to a different forum, meet new people, put them on your msn and fulfill your desires for meaningful communication that way. This will give you a fresh point of view of your good old trusty internet home here.

Perhaps I lack imagination but I truly have trouble seeing how anyone can take such feedback onboard and alter their music in a positive way from those two sentences.

I don't know what to attribute it to, you know better. But yes, perhaps you lack something or another.

As such, I am unable to define that as "constructive criticism." So I suppose the question is: what kind of criticism is it? And to what purpose was it posted?

Are you asking me this? Or are you engaging in dialogue with yourself?

Perhaps the statement that they could "make it big" as an unlikable coporate rock act was actually intended as a sincere and heartfelt compliment and not as a backhanded insult? Who knows, perhaps it was.

I have no love for corporate anything, and I do not think 'making it' should be a priority for artists, but the music Cameron is making, supposing further benefit from wise-old-producers, can be marketed and liked and people can make money off of it. Anyone can make of this what they want. Cameron could be tomorrows' generic guitar pop superstar. I brought to his attention that his claims for originality were unfounded in my opinion, and that was that. The dark sinister motives I leave to you to map out, as you seem so eager.

Cause there really is little reason to tell to someone that he is not original

How about when they write in their myspace page "Sounds Like: Us, sounding like other people is shit. You should sound like who you are." Did you notice that?

By all means I'm not the guy who will go "well done" and nothing else

But this is exactly what you did. This doesn't help Cameron.

You say that my way of critique was inappropriate. Cameron himself said he agrees with me now (after telling me to go fuck myself), so I can only assume that after the initial drama, I have helped. So why are you, or anyone else playing dad here?

If he wanted critique, don't you think he would've posted in the critic's lounge?

Actually I think that unless there's a big ol' "FEEDBACK: ENCOURAGING ONLY" (which I find counterproductive, but I can live with) in a post, everybody is free to speak their mind, be it here or anywhere else.

It's so much easier to come up to someone on a web forum and put them down by saying you don't like their music, try doing that at a gig. You'll get jumped!

What are you talking about? I've been to so many concerts, and I've heard so many shouted 'YOU GUYS SUUUUCK' and there's never fights. And it's not like I'm hollering some bullshit at the top of my lungs, I'm trying to help.

Artists that can't take critique never go far.

It's hard to imagine Helm writing that original comment without knowing exactly how it would be taken.

You are incorrect and I resent that. I did not engineer a conflict for my own amusement. I do not aim for bad things. If you were around you'd have known that besides once (towards Yodaman, who deserves to be ridiculed for being a liar) every time I post about other people's music on this forum, I take it very seriously, because I like when I post about my own music, to be taken very seriously. I see no point in pointless ass-pattery. If people want to become better (professionals like Nikolas, and people with bands that want to make it like Cameron) they should hear it straight. Your imagination is scewed and has no room for people being blunt and honest without there being a bad intention behind this.

You know, on any other forum Helm would have been warned repeatedly for attempting to start a flame war...

Is that so? On any other forum? I'd be warned repeatedly for originally saying I didn't find something original, and later for being told to fuck myself more than once?

No worries.

No it's not. You're being awfully touchy. If you insist on showing your art in public, you need to get over this.

By a very humble definition or original, where you make your own riffs and lyrics, yes you are original. You're not a cover-band. But when people stress their artistic originality they usually don't speak about this. They mean their band doesn't sound like other bands, doesn't come across like other bands which is a claim that mainly genre originators (King Crimson, Black Sabbath, The Beatles for example) could make, and not for their whole career but for that precise turning point where they take the sum of their parts and create something arguably new with it. The Beatles started out playing rock n' roll covers. It would be ridiculous to suggest they were original at that stage.

The reason your band isn't original is that while the riffs and lyrics are new, they're stylistically aped from a number of bands you list yourself, and which come to mind acutely when I listen to your new song. It's that simple: you're not original because you sound like other bands. By that definition, 99.9% of bands are not original, and that's a pretty realistic estimate I think.

This idea, that distresses you, is one you should come to terms with without calling people rude, insulting their intelligence or telling them they should fuck off. If you want to be a frontman in a band, that is. Save the drama for when you stand to gain something from it.

Sorry I lashed out Helm, but it was a personal attack. Would you feel at ease if I said I thought your art was unoriginal and I really don't like it.

Pretending I had made a claim to originality, I wouldn't feel at ease, I would try to inspect if there's any validity to such a complaint. I don't consider my music original, personally, so I don't have that problem. But since you make a big deal out of it in your myspace, first listing a huge list of artists you sound like and the saying 'we sound like ourselves' where in my opinion you clearly don't, you have a problem in your hands.

Originality in music is very difficult. Very difficult. Playing like the Doors and the Beatles is not very original. In your position I would change that concept to being a good but unoriginal band, rather than pretending we don't sound like anyone else. You're close to being good for the style, I'd drop the 'original' pretention altogether.

There's going to be so many people that won't like your music. If you promote it, be prepared.

But what I said is constructive: your music is not original in my opinion. And another constructive bit: learn to take criticism without lashing out, because you'll get a lot of it if you have any sort of public artistic venture like a band or whatever. You won't be able to go very far by telling everybody to fuck themselves when you don't like what they're saying.

I do not operate under the concept of 'if you have nothing good to say, say nothing at all'. Neither does this forum, as far as I know. I am not happy to have upset you, but I am really struggling with the idea of apologizing to you for giving it to you straight, and being told to fuck myself on top of that.

This happens a lot with originators in artwork. The followers perfect the techniques that are applied rudimentary let's say, by the originators, arriving at easier-to-like artwork. It's not very often somebody is both ancient and his work still extremely potent and easy to understand/enjoy by modern audiences.

However a lot of people still read Tintin with great ease and consider his work to be much more enjoyable than all the other names mentioned in this thread. I just don't happen to be one of them, neither are you. That's fine.

My favourite comic artists are Andrea Pazienza, Alberto Breccia, Barry Widsor Smith, Yukito Kishiro, Chris Ware, Robert Crumb, Alan Davis, Craig Russell and Will Eisner.

But it's possible that the overall impact of his graphic visualization, and thus his ability to convey story through pictures in an interesting manner, is lessened by it's apparent rigid conformity to his pre-defined storytelling style.

Again, this is all just opinion.

I understand where you're coming from and I see the rigidity, and Herge is not my favourite, but his influence on how comics are made cannot be understated. Try not to confuse the two. I really don't like the Beatles either, but to say they didn't influence popular music would be insane.

When you rate people, do you mean according to your preference on who is a better storyteller, or acording to historical significance to the medium? Because I don't find Herge or Tintin my cup of tea either, but that doesn't stop me from giving him due credit for his influence on the lexicon of the medium.

He's at least equally important as Will Eisner, and he'd probably tell you the same were he alive and magically posting on the AGS forum.

Jesus gets on stage and performs his miracle.   "Excuse me," someone from offstage calls out.  "My name is James Randi.  I'm prepared to give you a million dollars and all you have to do...."

I'm sure Jesus would enjoy that (and the test) and he'd roll with Randi hardcore, spending the money on whores.

Hehe yes, for western audiences, when positive progress is being made in the story, there should be left-to-right implied motion. Tin-tin moves from left-to-right when he approaches the outlaw shack, but runs from the right to the left when they find him out and shoot at him! Adversity! (Also for you Manga readers out there, if you were trying to place why you sometimes feel odd when you read unflipped manga... here's why, along with page flow which has to do with from what panel the eye moves to the next panel. Westerners and Japanese have flipped systems there too.)

I guess you could start with 'Understanding Comics' by Scott McCloud. It gets more complicated than that, but it is a famously good place to start, and it's a comic!

I am a mediocre comic artist, I am no guru. Herge recieves mad respect by any comic artist (myself included) because he invented half of the visual lexicon we use when we make comics. I'm not kidding here. Like cinematography in cinema, comics have their own visual language, half of which is the result of Herge's work. We all love him and owe him much.

The famous 'clean line' school still idolizes and tries to draw like him and his crew, with variable results. Whereas I personally haven't picked up any technique from him consciously, a page by Herge is something to study, yes.

He's not flashy like Moebius, but he's equally important.