For those who don’t know, on February I starting writing reviews for GateCrashers, an awesome page with a slogan that sums up their purpose:
We're here to help YOU find a universe that you'll fall in love with!
If you pay attention, you know that aligns perfectly with what I try to transmit in my Substack and on my Twitter. If this is new information, you should follow them and me on Twitter.
The point is, after an immense amount of twelve reviews under my belt, some of those read by the creators and publishers, I have had time to reflect on what makes a good review and what is (or at least should be) the role of reviewers in the comic book industry. Please note that this article refers to people, such as myself, that have not studied nor have the certifications to be considered professional critics.
What is a Review?
Let’s start with the basics.
Q: What is a review?
A: A revision of the main components in a comic book: story and art. It could be an issue, an arc, or a whole series.
The reviewer should talk about the aspects we can find in a comic book, and here is where we start to differentiate between reviews. There are a lot of elements, and every person will touch upon some of them based on their perspective, preference, and experience. To name a few, the criteria you could consider in a review are writing, plot, characterization, representation, art, colors, panel placement, letters, the emotion it conveys, place in their respective universe (continuity), and much more.
The fundamental aspect of reviews is that each reviewer will choose their preferred criteria and talk based on them, giving weight to each. Some will prioritize the story, others the art. Some prefer entertaining books with fun action, epic quests, and classic art. Others will search for more profound aspects, such as representation, deep characterization, and abstract art. Probably lots of dialogue. We also see this in movie reviews, a tale of Blockbusters vs. Oscar-winning films. Given the rise of Indie titles in comic books, we are navigating towards a discussion of Blockbuster comics vs. Eisner-winning comics, if we are not already there. Just see how many Marvel comics are nominated to the Eisners compared to Indies. But I digress. What I’m saying is that, given the variety of criteria, no two reviews should be the same. Not even close.
Therefore, there is no good or bad review. And I’m not planning on reviewing reviews, but to show you that they are subjective because there is no manual or guide on how to write the correct one. In the same way, and for the same reasons, there is no good or bad comic. So if there is no good or bad review or comic, then what is the purpose of a review?
Spreading the Love
I review books to spread the love for comic books I enjoy. One that I connected with on some level. Given the criteria I mentioned earlier, I state what I found in the book that I liked, that resonated with me and that I would like more people to experience. Even though the review is a personal experience, I try to state the positives in general terms so people can identify with what I write. It would be hard to find a Peruvian economist who reads comics such as myself reading my reviews, but it is easy to find a fan of vampires, a fellow latine, or someone who likes horror films. The reviewer's role is to showcase their positive experience with a book in understandable terms; so more people can jump on the train.
In addition, as a reviewer, I try to hype the book. Take the positive and amplify it - so more readers want to try it. Especially for Indies, I know the struggle to get people interested in your work, so as a reviewer, we can do our part and help the creators shine. With it, we also contribute to the growth of the community.
But what happens if we don’t like the book?
Do not Spread Hate
In the fucked up world where we live, there is no need to spread more hate. Not everyone will like every book. Even when submitting pitches, publishers need you to specify your audience because no book can be for Everyone. Therefore, when reading possible books for review, some will be great, while others may be meh. But please, when writing something, not only in this context but in life in general, think: does this contribute? Am I building something? Or am I destroying? Hint: there is a reason positive criticism is called Constructive Criticism.
First of all, as I mentioned earlier, many reviewers, including me, are not professionals in the industry. And I don’t mean to say that if you don’t have the proper credentials, you can’t criticize something because that is not true. But in a sense that we don’t have any relationship with the creators. We don’t know the reason behind their decisions or what is happening in their lives. Therefore, creators don’t have to take our advice because they don’t know who we are. Important life lesson: do not take a critique from someone you wouldn’t take advice from.
When creating stories, the creators are doing their job. Would you take a critique of your work from a stranger? You wouldn’t even read them. Unfortunately, because of social media, sometimes not reading hateful comments isn’t an option for creators. We exist in a toxic environment, and people use social media to shout direct hate at creators, so there is no need to amplify it with a hateful critic. There is no reason for a malicious message regarding someone’s work to be out there.
The best way to see the performance of a book is its Sales, at least from a company's point of view. Therefore, if a target audience dislikes a book, constructive criticism should come from the company to the creators. Because, unlike popular belief, the creators do not work for the fans. They can be grateful, but they work for the publisher. And the fans buy from the publisher, not the creators. So the criticism should go from the publisher to the creator. And the fans give the thumbs up or down via buying or not buying the book. There are particular cases where fans notice some mistake in a page or something odd, but most of the time the publisher will catch any imperfection. After all, they are the experts.
Of course, this doesn’t apply to books that are hateful towards marginalized groups or books with improper representation. In that case, it is up to the public to notify the publisher, and the creators, that what they did was offensive and wrong. And hold them accountable. An example of this situation is what happened with the latest What If? Miles Morales issue. You can read about it in this excellent case review:
But this is completely different than to critic something because the writer didn’t understood the character or the art isn’t realistic enough. Or just saying the creators are bad at their jobs.
So what can we do with books that we don’t like? Easy, don’t talk about them. If you didn’t connect with the book and have anything positive to say, don’t talk about it publicly. And because of what I mentioned earlier, if enough people don’t like the book, no one will talk about it, and it won’t get a boost in sales. Therefore, the publisher will need to identify the mistakes and discuss them with the creators.
Shouldn’t we help them identify them?
The Hard Part
If you want to write a review with something negative on it, you can frame it in a way that shows why and for whom this aspect may be negative. For example, if you like hero comics and review a coming-of-age story, you can say something like: the book doesn’t have action, and it is intense in dialogue, instead of saying it was boring and didn’t get my attention. Because people that think like you will understand this is an aspect you don’t like, but people that think differently will be intrigued by it. And this is the whole point: with a review, you don’t want to brainwash the readers into thinking like you, but understand your experience and relate, or don’t, with it, so they learn more about the book.
Unfortunately, this only applies to other fans reading your review. In terms of criticizing a professional creator, I don’t know of any case where a professional has seen a review and changed their way of doing things. If anything, they read this kind of review, are disappointed watching the spread of misinformation and toxicity, and give up on reviews; which is detrimental to all of us that want to spread positivity and good books because it stops us from being legitimate sources of information.
Do creators being friends with reviewers help the reviews? I think so because of what I mentioned earlier. If creators see us, know us and respect us, it is more likely that they could take our constructive criticism. It is the best scenario, but to achieve it, we need to earn this legitimacy by being careful with our words.
All of this comes from the perspective of viewing creators as people. I like the idea that we should respect creators for the people they are and not for the products they create. Because in the latter, it is understandable why people hate books because they think they hate the creation, not the creator, but we can’t separate this. The debate of creator and creation is vast; I won’t address it here but keep in mind that when you trash something, the creator may read it, and that won’t make them feel well because no one likes when someone, who is not even our employer, trashes on our work.
Conclusion
Holy smoke! That was a lot to unpack. Here are some key takeaways:
Reviews reflect the views of each reviewer, so there can’t be two equal reviews of the same book. Also, because of this, there is no good or bad review.
When writing a review, do not tell the reader what to like, nor was it good or bad. Tell them what you enjoyed, or didn´t, in a civilized way, and they will choose how they relate to your review.
Think before trashing another person because, like you, they are doing their job, dealing with their problems, and trying their best.
Creators work for the companies, not the fans.
Creators are not obligated, nor do they want to read your criticism, but they probably will because of social media.
I hope that this article made you think and reflect. I’m not trying to impose my views, but put some topics on the table that I believe need to be seen and discussed, given the current times and the toxicity of social media. I don’t want creators to leave all social media, but unfortunately, that is where we are heading if we don’t stop being assholes to them. There is no other medium where creators are so easy to reach and relate to, so let’s keep this amazing possibility alive by being good people. It is not that hard.
Hey guys! That was a tough one. It had a lot of text and heart in my words. I hope you liked it, and please, share it in the community. I want reviewers, readers, creators, people working in the scene, and everyone to read and interact with it. Reviews, and hateful reviews, are an important topic that we, as part of the industry, need to discuss and address.
Next time? A preview of my comic book writing debut and more information on the big project I’ve been working on for the past two months. All will be revealed during San Diego Comic-Con. Until then, stay awesome and go read something!