This is something I've been wondering about since the first pros starting showing up on Usenet. I'm not really sure that interacting with fans online is a good thing for pro creators. Or at least, it seems like a very double-edged sword.
It's easy to point to guys like Mark Waid who often come off poorly whenever they interact with a fan who criticizes their work or disagrees with them on some point, turning such interactions into angry, vitriolic arguments. But I've even seen well-known nice guys like Kurt Busiek get testy and come off poorly in discussions where they feel a fan has crossed some line or simply refuses to come around to the pro's point of view. Then you have someone like Peter David, who, IMHO, often comes across as poorly as Waid does, but he isn't taken to task for it to anywhere near the same extent Waid is (and it seems to me that this has largely been because David is simply more popular with the body politic in question).
It's well-documented that online interaction lists to anger and insults more often and far quicker than face-to-face interaction for a variety of reasons (and lord knows we've seen it here, too). My gut reaction is to say that if I were a pro I'd hit as many cons and comic shop signings as I could manage, but I would generally avoid online forums because they're more grief than they're worth (plus, I know that I don't have the self-discipline to ignore someone who ticked me off for whatever reason, and I too would come off as an ass in the ensuing digital catfight).
But would that be a mistake? Do you think that pros win over new fans through interacting with fans online? Do they make existing fans more loyal, more apt to try any new book the creator works on? More than they lose by coming off jerky in the inevitable online arguments?
Posted by Chris M. at April 12, 2007 1:08 PM