.... I'm a girl, but if you insist on making such a nice lovely first contact, my name is Melanie, nice to meet you. I'm sorry about my bad english, I don't live near anyone who speaks english and the few classes I've had were mediocre, but thank you for helping me improve.
Now from reading the rest of your comment... I'm gessing you know don't know much about the comic industry and you've been more one to enjoy it rather then try getting into it? I'll let you on a little secret; Templates are widely used in every sphere of this industry, from video game concept art to mate painting, comics, book cover illustration and what not. If it's legal and can save you time, then it's used. Sooo... is it good or bad? Well, it's good for the wallet, it's a bit of a let down for people who think it's all made from scratch but as long as you reach your objectives qualety-wise, concept-wise and time wise, I personnally don't see it as "wrong".
You've mentioned seeing Tim's other art and saying he has more "potential" I can't elaborate on that, I haven't seen them. Chances are, he made his decisions by taking in consideration his time limits and the fact getting more pages out per week is, money-wise, more beneficial then having more dynamic or detailed art. Once again, it may be a bit more of a subjective thing regarding wether it's bad or not... On one hand, he'd get more merite out of trying to do something that goes above the masses and always putting his best in his comics... On the other hand, people have absolutely no attention span so he'd loose a big part of his "fan base"/money/ and his time on drawing other stuff then CAD.
My 2cent, if he'd want to get somewhere, and by that I meen somewhere else then the webcomic...He should kill CAD, it's been going on for years now and he has no other comics... Which would lead a lot of publisher to think he had one single idea in his life and he just..you know, got lucky.
but all that aside and because I might have not made my point clear in my first post; like you said, tastes are subjective, and telling someone who has the courage to speak up when he's clearly a minorety that it's okay to like CAD because in our country it's legal to be "wrong" and crap...not only does it not encourage dialog, it's rude and makes you look quite self-righteous.
there, I hope I haven't got anything you said wrong :s if so, feel free to re-adjust.
Oh no, you're a girl, now every point I made is completely invalid because I'm a man and I obviously think with what I keep in my trousers.
Fist of all, to be completely honest, that whole "entitled to be wrong" thing was sarcasm and you weren't intended to take it so darn seriously. The fact that you did, however, says something about your defensiveness.
Secondly, you're using speculation to discuss hard facts with me. Your arguments are coming off as specious, especially when you acknowledge that taste is subjective. I'm not trying to be
rude, I'm trying to show you that it's pointless to argue about taste. If there's going to be a dialog on this comic strip, it needs to be
objective and
objectively it sucks. There are many other people who make a living from comics that don't rely on templates. The man puts together 3 comics a week, and he has said that they take 5 hours apiece to do.
Think about that for a second. The man has a template. If he needs a background, he has it within 3 minutes of googling it. What is he spending 5 hours doing? Does it take him that long to come up with ideas, and if so, why are his ideas so terrible, bloated, and unfunny after 5 hours of chewing it over? He used to do 4 comics a week but decided that 20 hours was just too much work.
So let me put this to you: can you objectively tell me where this comic has artistic merit? Because I have an endless supply of objective arguments that tell me that it does not. Here is the discussion you told me you were trying to encourage, please discuss
that with me and not taste.
I'm reminded of a quote:
A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.-Antoine de Saint
Think about applying that to CAD for a while.
Finally, I'm not the ignorant Ausländer you might think I am from the spelling corrections I made earlier. I even figured you were from a German-speaking country, judging from your screen name (which is German for "freedom"). I corrected your spelling from a desire to see your argument in its correct written form. The sarcasm, while perhaps a bit rude, was directed at the argument itself, not at your spelling. I do apologize if it offended you overmuch, but if I were to make a mistake while speaking Geman I wouldn't give it a second thought should I be corrected -- I'd rather be corrected than continue to be wrong. And your spelling was much better this time.