He had a long post about how he was "faking depression for profit"
Including lines like "it was hard to alienate all my friends and family, lock myself away from the world for months at a time, all to keep up this charade and get more page views to my internet comic"
He was trying to make fun of all the people accusing him of faking depression for profit but I guess wasn't great at satire
MaddocI'm Bobbin Threadbare, are you my mother?Registered Userregular
There was also an apparently satirical list of artists who allegedly faked depression for profit at some other point so satire maybe not Campbell's strong suit.
He had a long post about how he was "faking depression for profit"
Including lines like "it was hard to alienate all my friends and family, lock myself away from the world for months at a time, all to keep up this charade and get more page views to my internet comic"
He was trying to make fun of all the people accusing him of faking depression for profit but I guess wasn't great at satire
I remember at the time it seemed obvious they were being absolutely sarcastic
the problem, as I recall, arose from listing a whole bunch of other webcomicquers as co-depression-fakers without asking prior permission to include them in the joke
unless there was a further development on that particular arc that I missed
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BeastehTHAT WOULD NOTKILL DRACULARegistered Userregular
he started some unnecessary and sad beef with kate beaton on top of it
eventually he wound up calling joel watson an n-word and signed off making webcomics forever
Campbell seemed to be genuinely suffering from depression and came out as trans. Certainly there was a breakdown of some sort there. I'm inclined to give her the benefit of the doubt.
3DS: 2234-8122-8398 | Battle.net (EU): Ladi#2485
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BroloBroseidonLord of the BroceanRegistered Userregular
"Last night I was curious about the current status of PFSC, and discovered that by 2013 the books were finally printed, and the backers had contributed over $50,000. John wanted to devise her payment tier structure to reward those who contributed the least, out of a disdain for capitalism, but this sort of structure didn’t result in a sound foundation. By February 2014, about 25% of the books had not gone out, and in response to those asking for their books she made a shocking update to her Kickstarter project. John posted a video of herself burning 127 of the books still waiting to go out along with a long, rambling rant railing against capitalism, the idea of money, and even her backers for asking about the status of their books. She said that the 127 books represented 127 emails and messages she had received asking for their books, and for every additional message she got, she would burn another book.
Although the rant’s main focus was to argue that money itself was a “joke,” she asked for someone to give her money to pay for her rent and food without receiving for anything in return. She seemed exasperated by her fans’ expectations that she continue making comics in order to receive sustenance to live. She also lambasted those who contributed at a higher level – $75 – for daring to expect to receive books in return for their money (the $25 level books had been sent out first.)
Some of the ideas expressed in the rant were solid socialist arguments, but there was a breakdown when she asked for money in exchange for nothing. Money, which is representation of value and support, had been exchanged as part of an agreement that the art the backers supported would be produced and delivered to them. Regardless of a person’s opinions about capitalism or socialism, any sort of economic system doesn’t work when trust is broken and contracts are not honored. That being said, it was obvious this was less about economic systems and more about John possibly having some sort of breakdown and lashing out after feeling pushed against a wall, even if it was she was the one who pushed her there.
To make matters worse, almost all traces of John’s brilliant webcomic have been swept from the web. There are only a few stray comics, ghosts if you will, lingering around. This, along with the destruction of already printed books, is a huge loss. These comics helped a great many people and had potential to help so many more. They helped some get through the day, and probably even saved a few lives. Many of those people were more than willing to support her and pay her rent (albeit by the capitalist system she decries) by continuing to visit her site and load her ads, and buying hers books, T-Shirts, and other products.
In May Max Temkin, a designer and backer of the project, stepped in to help send out the remaining books. There have been no more internet peeps from John, but hopefully she’ll be able to move on from this debacle, get some help, and continue communicating."
BethrynUnhappiness is MandatoryRegistered Userregular
Campbell started fights with half of webcomicdom, and put a lot of effort into burning their readers' support, both figuratively and literally.
The decision to burn the books was beyond even childish, and given the amount of bile that person spewed before and during, I'm not really going to give them the benefit of any doubt whatsoever.
...and of course, as always, Kill Hitler.
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MaddocI'm Bobbin Threadbare, are you my mother?Registered Userregular
edited January 2015
At some point when someone chooses to only communicate via performance art it is difficult to sort it all out.
It's not as though we're talking about private discussions or anything here, it was all just public lashing out and then you sort of have to go through and figure out which bits are real and which are just trying to make some sort of statement and it's all so fucking mean spirited that maybe it doesn't really matter which is which.
Maddoc on
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UnbrokenEvaHIGH ON THE WIREBUT I WON'T TRIP ITRegistered Userregular
Campbell started fights with half of webcomicdom, and put a lot of effort into burning their readers' support, both figuratively and literally.
The decision to burn the books was beyond even childish, and given the amount of bile that person spewed before and during, I'm not really going to give them the benefit of any doubt whatsoever.
Yeah it seems pretty obvious something was horribly wrong so we should judge her as harshly as possibleWAIT WHAT
Seriously tho nothing she did was ok but she was clearly coming from a supremely bad place.
campbell was super depressed and this led to her treating a lot of people quite badly
i have no idea if that's something you need to cast moral judgment on
she did a bad thing! but, i understand why she did it! but, does this excuse the bad thing? oh no my culture's entire system of ethics has been fatally compromised
if i knew her personally i would be forced to make a nuanced decision about how i was going to interact with her but as i don't i am comfortable saying that i hope she gets her shit together and also doesn't fuck up anyone else's life too seriously in the process
to provide my own input, campbell's "fake depression" update registered as a plainly obvious joke to me, one that i will go so far as to say that i thought was funny, and while the subsequent kickstarter implosion was a completely terrible way for things to go it seems to have worked out in the end
i have no idea what campbell's up to these days, i hope things are going better and that the experience hasn't put her off cartooning for good
i'm posting pfsc because i think it was one of the funniest comics on the internet and it's not easy to see it online anymore
hopefully that's not too much of a strain on the thread's regulars in the coming year :<
This is a new-ish webcomic I found called Harpy Gee! It's been running since January '14, and it's pretty good. It's about an elf who goes out adventuring and makes friends! I'm going to post a few pages from it for a while.
This comic is cute, I love it!
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BroloBroseidonLord of the BroceanRegistered Userregular
that art style almost looks like josh lesnick's stuff
but it doesn't feature anyone fucking and the coloring is way better
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I didn't really keep up with it after the fact
But according to John Campbell it did
Maybe later it turned out to be yet another part of a multi-tiered meltdown, but Campbell literally said "I have been faking depression for profit"
Including lines like "it was hard to alienate all my friends and family, lock myself away from the world for months at a time, all to keep up this charade and get more page views to my internet comic"
He was trying to make fun of all the people accusing him of faking depression for profit but I guess wasn't great at satire
You can read about it here: http://lynncinnamon.com/2014/07/happened-pictures-sad-children-comics/
He was for reals horrible depressed.
the problem, as I recall, arose from listing a whole bunch of other webcomicquers as co-depression-fakers without asking prior permission to include them in the joke
unless there was a further development on that particular arc that I missed
eventually he wound up calling joel watson an n-word and signed off making webcomics forever
thats how i understand it
The decision to burn the books was beyond even childish, and given the amount of bile that person spewed before and during, I'm not really going to give them the benefit of any doubt whatsoever.
It's not as though we're talking about private discussions or anything here, it was all just public lashing out and then you sort of have to go through and figure out which bits are real and which are just trying to make some sort of statement and it's all so fucking mean spirited that maybe it doesn't really matter which is which.
No, they wrote an incredibly sarcastic and bitter letter mocking the idea that creatives fake depression for profit
and everyone got their kickstarter books
Yeah it seems pretty obvious something was horribly wrong so we should judge her as harshly as possibleWAIT WHAT
Seriously tho nothing she did was ok but she was clearly coming from a supremely bad place.
i have no idea if that's something you need to cast moral judgment on
she did a bad thing! but, i understand why she did it! but, does this excuse the bad thing? oh no my culture's entire system of ethics has been fatally compromised
if i knew her personally i would be forced to make a nuanced decision about how i was going to interact with her but as i don't i am comfortable saying that i hope she gets her shit together and also doesn't fuck up anyone else's life too seriously in the process
Praise be to Archime, Archime be praised.
going through a Bad Time is about as specific as it was possible to get about what was going on, yeah
i have no idea what campbell's up to these days, i hope things are going better and that the experience hasn't put her off cartooning for good
i'm posting pfsc because i think it was one of the funniest comics on the internet and it's not easy to see it online anymore
hopefully that's not too much of a strain on the thread's regulars in the coming year :<
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http://youtu.be/oELL7hfKYfA
Reminds me of Sleepaway Camp
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God's a PC.
This comic is cute, I love it!
but it doesn't feature anyone fucking and the coloring is way better
yet
ugh, another waste of my time
Steam Switch FC: 2799-7909-4852