JB wrote:
"The other day, someone posted here that I should be 'grateful' that there are 'thousands' who want to come here and interact with me. Not to put too fine a point on it, this is exactly the opposite of the reality -- it is the fans who should be grateful that forums such as this (for any professional, in any field) exist."
Methinks that poster has a problem distinguishing between being grateful for having a huge number of fans of one's work and having a thousand fans demanding one's attention. While I've more than once disagreed with you on various topics, JB, I'd like to state that I for one am grateful that you are taking the time to be part of the dialogue in here at all. As you say... it's not in your job description and you sure as hell don't get paid for it (especially since it's not a pay-site, for which I am also grateful).
Bruce Buchanan wrote:
"However, I do believe that it works both ways. Yes, fans should be grateful for chances to interact with comic book creators. But comic book creators should also feel grateful for the chance to interact with the fans who pay their salaries. Without the readers, there are no comic book professionals."
Um, actually I'd have to take some opposition to that, Bruce. While I enjoy a chance to meet an author or artist I enjoy as much as the next guy, there's nothing to say that I need to appreciate them as people to appreciate their work. Heck they could be immensely shy and therefore spending their time drawing or writing, never wishing to speak to people more than absolutely necessary.
Heck, if you hire a plumber you don't get annoyed because he don't wanna have a cup of coffe and talk to you about the weather for a while. Artists should appreciate that they have fans making their creative work possible in many ways, but they don't owe them any chat time or otherwise. That's just bonus to the fans.
Emery Calame – thanks for that little fan to god story. Silver-lining of the day. :)
John Webb wrote:
"Do you use the plumber to fix your sink who is obnoxious or the one who always asks after your mother? Social behaviour works to the advantage of all parties in my experience"
Funny, I picked plumber as example before I read your post, John. ;)
Anyhow, I do think there is a great leap between being obnoxious and asking after one's mother. Inbetween that you have the guy who does the job excellently without bothering you either way, and might very well be your guy. And the guy asking after one's mother might be the guy overcharging you and doing a substandard job, so...
Talk is cheap, it's in the plumbing you measure the plumber.
Bruce Buchanan also wrote:
"Likewise, the artist has no entitlement to expect fans to support his or her work, particularly if they treat the paying customer in a shabby manner."
Now that I do agree with. Civility and good manners is a good starting ground for anything, if it's just visiting your local store. And that bit does go both ways... unfortunately as JB points out the world is full of people who in fact lacks such civility and good manners, and to whom the world is seemingly swirling around them. My girlfriend works in a bookstore and some of the stories she shares about the behaviour of certain customers are just horrifying.
More Bruce:
"I agree that simple application of the Golden Rule - from all parties - would solve 99% of these problems. Heck, it probably would solve 99% of society's problems."
With the slight caveat that everybody might not want to be treated the way you want. To each his own, but general politeness and common courtesy goes along way to open up any meeting of any kind.
Vinny Valenti wrote:
"I have a coworker that thanks the cleaning ladies every time they come by and empty our trash bins at night. I have to admit I hadn't thought of doing that before."
As someone who's worked as a cleaner for a while, it's always nice when people do treat one as a fellow human being. Although I preferred jobs where I would clean when the offices were empty (handier if nothing else), when that's not possible it's always nice when people don't treat you as non-existent or as a disturbance.
Dave Powell wrote:
"What happened seemed rude to me, but I know that I am applying my standards to someone else. I tend to thank cashiers, and smile at them on my way through a line at stores. I know this is because of my midwestern US upbringing."
O I don't think anyone in here would argue against that being a rude treatment, Dave. And I think that some degrees of decency is to be included in any definition of the term itself. I'm born, raised and living in Sweden, and for the record I try to be polite and friendly with cashiers as well (unless they treat me really badly, but then I have a legitimate complaint on the other hand...)
Robert Last wrote:
"This is honestly not an attack on anyone (I thought I'd better add that given the heated nature of some threads today!) but why get more than one copy of an autograph at a con or whatever? I can kinda understand getting another book signed at another con, so you have something as a memory from each, but multiples? Anyone wanna clue me in?"
Well, having brought more than one book with me on at least one occasion (meeting Neil Gaiman), I can at least say how at least I was thinking. Given that I REALLY have enjoyed his work for years but hadn't had any chance to meet him what with me being in Sweden, I did want to get the most out of it. That said, I did carefully limit my selection to three books, tried to pick some that aren't the ones he's most likely to sign often, and asked if it was ok when I was there. If it'd have been any problem time-wise or queue-wise I'd have never taken all three up in the end... Civility and situation can go a long way...
I am very much with you on the memory factor on an important level though. I've never understood people paying a lot of money for a signed copy of this or that... the signature should be a little personal in my book, that's what makes it fun.
Roger A Ott II wrote:
"I'll never buy a signed comic. To me, part of the draw for having the signature is to be able to take my comic personally and have it signed, to be able to say to the person, 'This book is my personal favorite, and having you sign it makes it invaluable to me.'"
I'll buy any signed item if it doesn't cost me anything extra as compared to an unsigned copy (case in point: I got a signed copy of David Bowie's Heathen at a local store for the same price as an unsigned, he'd signed some extra copies when he was in the store (and I'd not had the chance to go) and then it was a nice little addition), but generally, I am of your opinion Roger. The main point is being there.
And since people have shared some nice and unnice stories, I'd like to share a nice one (more fun). My first author meeting ever was a the Gothenburg Book Fair in the very early 90s (me being in my later teens in other words). The author in question was Robert Ludlum who of course was a bestselling author in multiple languages and to top it off an author I greatly admired. Now, the first thing I noticed while standing in line was that Mr Ludlum was very open to interacting with his audience although he was a bit too polite to impose himself in English on his Swedish speaking audience... he did for instance grasp that the lady before me was buying her copy as a X-Mas present which asked her for confirmation about and the happily wrote Merry Christmas in the book. When I came up, I stood there (having given my name to the lady responsible for getting him the names) and felt quite nervous. After all, here was a person whom I admired and whom I would most likely never meet again, so I worked up my courage and said in admittedly broken English, "You writes great, Sir." Now, Mr Ludlum as already stated was a world renowned bestselling author and was a young Swedish fan with no claim to greatness, so for all I knew I could have been given an "I know" and that could have been it. What DID happen was this: Mr Ludlum spent a short instance seemingly very seriously taking in my youthful praise and then replying, "Thank you very much, young man." It is perhaps needless to say that I went off on small clouds and kept repeating the wonderful little story to my friend who'd been standing beside me for the rest of the day.
O and before ending this (I know) very looooong post... I just have to throw in a huge thank you to Bill Willingham, seeing that he is now among us. I truly love the Fables collections so far. Keep them coming and I'll keep buying 'em.
O... and just because it needs to be asked (given where we're at) is there any chance of seeing a JB illustrated Fables story at any time in the future?
P.S. Ari what's that new avatar of yours?
Topic Closed)
