Filler: More Buckley

So shortly after the last article, someone sent me something which might be considered "classic Buckley". I mentioned he disliked fanworks before, but apparently I was right to say that changed.

Sort of. I'll let the story here speak for itself, with a summary being thus: a CAD fan, probably a high school kid, makes a little animation for a class project with the strip's characters. He posts it at the CAD boards to show the other fans. Buckley goes apeshit and threatens to sue him, also calling it "some piece of shit floating around the internet" in the process. (Thanks to Victor Salgado for sending me that link. Now if only someone could find the fan animation, I'm curious to compare it to the shite Buckley later began selling. Hey, anonymous young fan! Toss that thing my way, I'll keep your name/art under wraps. I just want to review/compare it.)

This is a fan of his, folks, not even someone making fun of him. But, as promised, I'll post the lost Webcomics Appreciation rant that turned self-serving. I also found the original inspiration for it, something mentioned in a single line of an old Applegeeks blog post. (The final line, in fact.) Buckley misinterpreted it as an actual 'holiday', it seems, and went off in his own news the next day. In italics, the original post. In bold, my comments.

Webcomics Appreciation Day

Is a crock of shit guys. Seriously. At least in my opinion. Mine too. BECAUSE IT DOES NOT EXIST.

Every morning my inbox is full of emails from people letting me know they enjoy my webcomic. There is not a day that goes by that I don't feel appreciated, and ridiculously fortunate to do what I do. I don't need a day set aside for people to prostrate themselves in my mailbox, as much as I appreciate the time you all take to write me letters. So recall when I said this post supported the narcissism diagnosis? Yeah, I think this paragraph here fits at least two criteria. Really, though, we can get at least 5 in here. Let's keep count. We've got 1 and 4 already. Maybe 5 if we stretch some.

Occasionally we get letters from mean people. Nasty people who just want to put us down, or complain about one thing or another. You know what? That's just part of the job description. You cannot put your work in front of millions of people and expect every single one of them to like it. The internet is made up of too many people, from too many different walks of life, interests, hobbies and backgrounds for everyone to have the same opinions. And some of them are going to voice their opinions to you, wether they are asked for or not. You just deal with it. There are shades of #8 (envious of others/thinks others are envious of them), and a stretch might make this #3 as well. "Those people who say bad things? They're beneath me, hah. YOU READERS understand me... right?"

And even if my webcomic wasn't successful, even if I had ten readers, three of which were me and my parents, I still wouldn't ask for a webcomic appreciation day. Because my comic is online because one day I thought to myself "Hey, I've got all these jokes and stories I want to act out in comic strip form. And maybe other people would like to read them as well". Nobody made me put my webcomic online, and I didn't do it to be famous, to be rich, or to be loved by all. So right here? This is where we get the fun turn into "ME ME ME ME ME". Because even if there was a WAD (man, that's a fun abbreviation), it'd be the little artists who WOULD need the support, or would benefit the most. Let's call this #9. We've got 5 and then some by now, but I'll continue, because my word, this is a fun game. Now I see why people like JDR like playing e-psychiatrist.

I absolutely love to hear that people enjoy the work that I do here. It's nice to be able to entertain people, to bring a smile to their face. But we don't need a Webcomic Appreciation Day. Because all that turns into is a "Feel guilty because you haven't thanked all the webcomics you read" day. I'm classifying this as "lacks empathy". Here's why: if you WERE to support this hypothetical WAD, then you'd mail them all anyway. If you weren't, you wouldn't give a fuck about mailing the creators. It's just stupid to think you'd go halfway. What, you're only going to mail Buckley and fuck the others? The hell? Who works like that? Asking around as I write this, the consensus is that just STARTING the process would make you feel bad if you left out the others... which is why most of us wouldn't start it, and why this never caught on. (Especially those of us reading 100+ strips.)

Just the same as how Christmas has become less the celebration of a religious icon, and more a "oh crap, I feel guilty I don't spend enough time with my family, and I'd better bring gifts because they're giving me gifts" day. Now, here's something hilarious. A day or two after posting this paragraph, he wrote the following: "The 2006 Winter-een-mas shirts are now up for pre-order."

Maybe this is why he started that "church of gaming", he wanted to get the holy back in the holidays. Frankly, I'm not putting that sort of mangled logic past him at this point. Although it does raise another weird "I'm trying to mimic people and failing" comparison to mind: it's relatively well known that Gabe of Penny Arcade is a Christian. He'll randomly put in his own mentions of this in newsposts/etc. Maybe Buckley was making a one-off trying to get some of that action? I don't think I ever heard any complaints about Christmas from him ever again.

Hell, maybe that's why this post was deleted. He couldn't discuss holy things without his server bursting into flames.

We shouldn't need schedules set aside to promote the behavior that should prevale in our day to day lives. We should spend more times with our families throughout the year, for no other reason than to be close to the people we love, and we should thank people who help us out because it's a kindness, and not because one person couldn't handle some negative views and decided you all needed to bow down and be grateful. One person who can't handle some negative views.

Hmm.

This is sounding mighty familiar.

If you enjoy the comic I do, by all means, read it. That's a wonderful thank you in and of itself. And if, at some point, you get the urge to email me to tell me that you enjoy it, I promise you I'll read that email and smile, as I appreciate every single email I get. But don't feel that you have to email me just because it's "that time of year again" and you felt guilty. You have nothing to feel guilty about, I promise. Unless you pay for his merchandise. From what I hear, the shirts are a bit shoddy, and the crappiness of the animation has been discussed at length by others.

Oh, and that ugly robot plush. Seriously, a plush robot, man? Really?

Besides, in the end, even though I do this comic for me and out of love for it, it is your love and support that has elevated it to this level of success. It is completely a team effort, you and me, that got Ctrl+Alt+Del where it is. "You sucking me off for the attention I crave, and my hitting Ctrl-V furiously at the last minute every few days. We make a great team."

If you feel the need to thank me for the work I do here, then right back at ya'. Because you guys are wonderful, wonderful fans to have. "Until you make tributes or anything."

Hmm. Now I have this urge to mash up tribute.avi with his animations. It can't get much worse, I suppose.

So there you have it. More insanity from the mind of Tim Buckley. It seems I'm out of stuff for now, but there's a little more I need to dig into, so we may get one last haul out of this at a later date. I'm putting that off, though, because it'll require a look into his strip's archive, and I really abhor the thought of it when I have simpler people to mine for entertainment.