02/15/2005
Living Trouble Indeed
When I was in the initial stages of producing SKOOKUM!, I was hooked on
one particular web-manga. And that web-manga is called “Living Trouble”,
and you can read it
here. I was a huge fan of her work for
the fact that it is indeed a great manga and the story is engaging.
However, she is sadly not recognised on the Internet. She has not
updated her story for almost four months now, and not only is she losing
all support, she is being send angry messages like:
Well, if you're dead, then I'm sorry. But if you're not, the least you
could do is pop a little note in here that either a) you've dumped this
comic or b) some other malady has befallen you and you'll be up and
running soon.
Which is it ?
And,
Four Months! That’s how long its been since the last page update. Three
months. That’s how long my forlorn daily vote has been based strictly on
hope. Well, hope for a new page has died. I do hope YOU haven't, but the
lack of activity (only one reader comment in the last two months, and no
message from the author in four) has taken its toll. Another voter bites
the dust...
There are two ways to look at this, one way is that Lingling should be
flattered, that she has such devoted fans who get all upset for the fact
that she has not been uploading “Living Trouble”. Truth, be told, I am
pretty upset as well, but I feel that in the end Lingling should have
the artistic freedom to choose if she wants to continue drawing or not.
Two, people tend to forget that we (web-comic artists) are not paid for
whatever we do. Whatever you see on the web is an extension for our
passion and our love for using the Internet as we medium for our manga/comic.
When we put in the necessary effort, we don’t get a lot of support, and
when we are late in our upload we get angry messages.
The more I think about it, the more I feel that the Internet is such a
harsh terrain for artists, given the very nature of the Internet. People
are fickle, they hold loyalty and allegiance to none except for the Top
4… yet everyday, someone new enters the circle, hoping for a chance to
express himself and get the attention of kind readers.
We can’t all be like MacHall, VG Cats, Apple Geeks and Megatokyo – the
top 4 web-comic/manga in the world. But we deserve the chance to
express, don’t judge us too hard on our choices.
Wataru
Link of the month:
