Spotlight: Jazz

Jack Cade · Post by **Jack Cade** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 2:01 pm

Is this going to be any good? Josh and Shawn are nice enough guys, but I've never been very struck with their own Mosaics, if I'm honest. A good editor could probably get a worthwhile story out of them but otherwise, I'd be surprised if this doesn't turn out to be a bit twee. There are better writers who've contributed Mosaics, and it seems this is more a reward for effort and initiative (and maybe a teensy bit of sucking up) than a recognition of burning new talent, which gives a depressing picture of how one breaks into the industry.

Still, maybe I'll be proved wrong.

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 9:39 pm

Jack Cade wrote:Is this going to be any good? Josh and Shawn are nice enough guys, but I've never been very struck with their own Mosaics, if I'm honest. A good editor could probably get a worthwhile story out of them but otherwise, I'd be surprised if this doesn't turn out to be a bit twee. There are better writers who've contributed Mosaics, and it seems this is more a reward for effort and initiative (and maybe a teensy bit of sucking up) than a recognition of burning new talent, which gives a depressing picture of how one breaks into the industry.

Still, maybe I'll be proved wrong.

My concern too, to be honest, but I'll withold judgement til I read it.

Haven't really read their Mosaics, but in any case, I hope there was some handholding by the editorial team to help walk them through what works and what doesn't.

Jack Cade · Post by **Jack Cade** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 10:07 pm

I hope there was some handholding by the editorial team to help walk them through what works and what doesn't.

Pah. As if the editorial team can tell what works and what doesn't!

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 3:09 am

Dude, check out the colored cover to this sucker.

http://forum.idwpublishing.com/viewtopi ... c&start=90

I don't say this often. But I could get me a poster of that!

Post by **Best First** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 8:52 am

Jack Cade wrote:
I hope there was some handholding by the editorial team to help walk them through what works and what doesn't.
Pah. As if the editorial team can tell what works and what doesn't!

We will use the first six issues to alientate our current fans, and then the last six to prove to them they were wrong to criticise us! It can't fail!

On topic - not too sure about this - fair play to them i guess - but if i had known you could get a gig for plastering pretty avarege fwank over a companies message board and keeping criticism to a minimimum... actually, no, no way i could pull that last one off.

Pk - that's probably unfair but like you say - there have been far better Mosiacs. It all seems a bit odd.

Post by **snarl** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 11:46 am

I'll be be kind and say I find his stuff "sub par".

When's my story going to gt green lit?

Jack Cade · Post by **Jack Cade** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 4:55 pm

Best First wrote:On topic - not too sure about this - fair play to them i guess - but if i had known you could get a gig for plastering pretty avarege fwank over a companies message board and keeping criticism to a minimimum... actually, no, no way i could pull that last one off.

The meek shall inherit the earth.

I had a more respect for Richter and Beachcomber when I thought that their Stanford Prison-style board-policing antics and slightly dozy optimism was sincere. I thought, "Nice blokes - trying to be diplomatic. Just a bit jobsworthy sometimes."

It may be that's nevertheless the case, but it's hard now not to see them as simply knowing which side their bread is buttered. I too would be eager to encourage 100% uncynical enthusiasm for the company that was making positive noises about publishing my writing. What I wouldn't do, I'd like to think, is keep up a pretence of impartiality and affinity with other board members while doing so. Nick Roche and Simon Furman have entirely the right approach to this conflict of interest - you generally keep shtum and make light of everything. You don't try to influence people one way or the other.

Granted, it's not quite the same thing, but with them being moderators all this time - and BC a particularly active and not always competent one - it all smacks of rewarding your guard dogs. It sours not only my view of them, but of the whole cosy creator-to-creator culture whereby everyone's banging on about how so-and-so is such a nice guy, and 'I'm so excited about this! You guys are in for a treat!' I'm not a total cynic and I used to think that at least some of this stuff was sweet and sincere. All I can think of now is Private Eyes' 'Luvvies' column.

I think - just to veer completely off-topic - what annoys me about these sorts of silly situations is how every man-jack in the creative industry will cite rebels, antiheroes and pigheaded types as influences. From Grimlock to Alan Moore, everyone loves the irascible rogue who goes his own way and stubbornly sticks to his own ideals - until they have to actually deal with them in real life, and then suddenly it's the Prowl/Skywarp types who're the pillars of a good community.

Brendocon · Post by **Brendocon** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 5:04 pm

Everybody wants to be Logan. Everybody wants Cyclops to work for them.

Er... if these two are mods, what the hell's going to happen in the discussion thread for this issue?

Post by **Best First** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 5:13 pm

Eric Holmes will be appointed mod for the week.

BB Shockwave · Post by **BB Shockwave** » Sat Dec 27, 2008 10:44 am

Brendocon wrote:Everybody wants to be Logan. Everybody wants Cyclops to work for them.

Er... if these two are mods, what the hell's going to happen in the discussion thread for this issue?

Funny, for me it was always Prowl and Cyclops who were the 'ideals' when I was a kid, and I really, really disliked Grimlock and Wolverine.

Maybe because I know what's it like to live/work with people like them...

But I agree, rewarding your mods to write a Spotlight seems a bit biased...

Darn, I should really write/draw that Carnivac Mosaic I have had in my head for a while. Or BW Ravage's...

inflatable dalek · Post by **inflatable dalek** » Sat Dec 27, 2008 12:39 pm

Well, at least they're being tried out with just one issue first rather than, say, IDW giving a major 12 issue arc to the hobo living in the trash cans behind the building and then being all surprised when it's ****.

Predabot · Post by **Predabot** » Sat Dec 27, 2008 1:30 pm

The cover looks swish.

So is this OUR Josh then, that you are bad-mouthing? The same loveable and hard-working Josh that have posted both art and words on this board in the past? The same professional lad that coloured Stormbringer and Beast Wars volume 1 with great fortitude?

Or is it the other Josh that works for IDW? The one I know nothing about...

And Don Perlin is doing the alternate cover??

And a girlie is doing the interior colours as well, eh?

snarl wrote:When's my story going to get green lit?

The day you wake up to find that you have grown completely bald, Buddha-like and adopted an unbelievably thick Scottish accent?

Post by **Best First** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 10:10 pm

...and then i Jazz in my pants...

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 11:58 pm

Best First wrote:...and then i Jazz in my pants...

Jack Cade · Post by **Jack Cade** » Tue Dec 30, 2008 7:28 pm

Predabot wrote:The same loveable and hard-working Josh that have posted both art and words on this board in the past? The same professional lad that coloured Stormbringer and Beast Wars volume 1 with great fortitude?

Or is it the other Josh that works for IDW?

Surely the Josh that coloured Stormbringer and Beast Wars *is* the one that works for IDW?

In any case, I'm talking about Josh Van Reyk. Not coloured anything for IDW and doesn't work for them (unless you count moderating). He's a pleasant guy, and he's done a good job running TF: Mosaic. He's also generally avoided throwing his 'moderator' weight around on the IDW board, something the other two seem to enjoy rather too much at times. But based purely on the Mosaics of his I've read (and I've not read every single one), I don't think he's ready to be doing professional full length comics.

Jack Cade · Post by **Jack Cade** » Sun Jan 04, 2009 10:41 pm

-edit-

Ah, forget it.

sprunkner · Post by **sprunkner** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 3:57 am

You talking about the way Richter has lovingly spotlighted this thread on IDW?

Gimme a W! Gimme a T! Gimme an F!

Sunyavadin · Post by **Sunyavadin** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 4:47 am

inflatable dalek wrote:Well, at least they're being tried out with just one issue first rather than, say, IDW giving a major 12 issue arc to the hobo living in the trash cans behind the building and then being all surprised when it's ****.

Yeah, this is a surprising twist of common sense after All Fail Megatron.

Mr_Tigg · Post by **Mr_Tigg** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 6:03 pm

Sprunker Wrote:
You talking about the way Richter has lovingly spotlighted this thread on IDW?

Gimme a W! Gimme a T! Gimme an F!

I admit I was at first a bit like that as well, but in their defence they have been pretty reasonable and descent about it, particularly Beachcomber.

As Cade said, they are both nice guys, probably just a little shocked over the negative (in this case) scutiny and extra attention they will no doubt be receiving here on in.

Whilst I raised an eyebrow over the circumstances in which they have received the commission (mods/mosaic managers), I certainly don't have the same sense of foreboding dread that I got when I saw the AHM preview art many months a go.

I also think, as they are both very much a part of the community in the forum, that they will have a greater appreciation of what some readers expect from them.

Post by **snarl** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 7:22 pm

Just saw that IDW thread.

What a cock.

The bloke needs to get over himself.

If some people think a guy writes pony rubbish, what are they expected to do, jump for ******* joy when the self same person they dont rate gets a writing gig on a book they buy? Nobody even got that emotional about it, sarcastic, yeah, but my impression was nobody really gave that much of a [composite word including 'f*ck'].

***edited to remove a suggestion that is not true Snarl just thinks Skwege is a rassclatt***

Jack Cade · Post by **Jack Cade** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 10:48 pm

Have to say I agree with Mr. Tigg. For two guys surrounded (in an online sense) by people purring about how great they are, they're surprisingly gracious about the skepticism, I think. Neither one of them has said, "You're all just jealous," which is usually the first accusation that comes flying in the face of anyone who casts aspersions on someone else's success.

What irks me is the usual stuff posted by other people on that thread about how treating a book with skepticism amounts to critiquing it before it exists. This nonsense argument has been going on as long as people have said they're less than thrilled about future IDW releases - apparently it's OK to feign multiple orgasms if you suspect a book is going to be good, but it's absurd to voice the suspicion that it might be bad.

Post by **Best First** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 11:27 pm

yep, but its a nonsense arguement that's endorsed by the brass and the mods so its unlikely to go away

sprunkner · Post by **sprunkner** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 11:33 pm

snarl wrote: ***edited to remove a suggestion that is not true Snarl just thinks Skwege is a complete frenulum***

You're critiquing it before it even comes out.

Mr_Tigg · Post by **Mr_Tigg** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 11:37 pm

I always find it amusing how certain people suck up to the Mods/Management over at IDW so much.

It would be funny were it not so pathetic on occasions. It really is a case of flies around ****.

Richter · Post by **Richter** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 11:47 pm

Just to clear things up a little;

I spotted this thread last week some time (I think), and was offended by Jack Cade's comments, which I think is pretty fair.

Then I saw the comments on Ryall's blog, and assumed it was him, hence why I linked to this thread.

Jack Cade has cleared it up and we've both appologized to one another.

Like both myself and Shaun have said in the IDW forums, we can understand people's concerns about us writing a full comic, heck, I was skeptical if we could pull it off, too. It was more the comments about it being a 'reward' that I took offence to.

Regardless of what happened to JC on the IDW boards, I had always had high respect for him, it was always good to work with him both on Mosaic on TF War Journal.

sprunkner · Post by **sprunkner** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 6:28 am

[edit]

Richter · Post by **Richter** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 7:15 am

sprunkner wrote:***edited to remove a suggestion that is not true Sprunker just thinks Skwege is a rassclatt***

That's pretty low, isn't it?

Post by **snarl** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 7:35 am

Bit of harmless fun.

Congrats on the writing gig, but frankly I can see nowt here to really get your knickers in a twist over.

There are some quite cutting remarks, all I'll say is don't take them too seriously it is just the way we roll over here - the vast majority of them are backed up with reasoning.

Nobody has openly said you're a **** and your writing is ****, have they?

This banter about you geting the gig for sucking up - it is just that, banter. I think it ties into what seems to be general board opinion that there have been better mosaics written by different writers.

Personally, I haven't found your stuff that interesting - It's been a bit clunky to read at times.

We're entitled to say that, you're entitled to get your knickers in a twist, we're entitled to call you a girly boy and to say "Man up and prove us wrong".

Now, this idea I've read about that we're criticisng the thing before it has even been written - where's that then? Who has done that?

Oh, and finally - Skwege has...

sprunkner · Post by **sprunkner** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 7:37 am

quoting Snarl.

Okay, so Skwege just called my house and sent a threatening email to my wife. Apparently he lives an hour away from my house. Waiting for a police officer to call back now so I can file a report.

KJ · Post by KJ » Tue Jan 06, 2009 8:28 am

Richter wrote:
sprunkner wrote:***edited to remove a suggestion that is not true Sprunker just thinks Skwege is an utter contraption***
That's pretty low, isn't it?

Dude has to have something pretty major on someone there.

How else can you explain the fact that he's allowed to post there, even though the majority of his posts consist of personal attacks and insults. Yet he's allowed to post there, but a guy who did provide examples and legitimate critiques got banned.

It's gotten to the stage of being so ridiculous it's funny. He's got a teflon coating for some unknown reason, and he damn well knows that.

Also odd that 95% of the time, his posts are followed within 5 minutes by posts from Dogbite12 agreeing with him.

It's a staggering coincidence.

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Spotlight: Jazz

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