Erratica Reduex

In his recent "Ruin Everybody's Day" post, Warren Ellis posted the numbers of the (at one time) major science fiction magazines, And boy, the numbers don't look good; you can barely call the mags mass media at his point.  To many many people's minds, this is a crisis. that's related to the general decline in the popularity of SF/Fantasy.  In response, Jason Stoddard has five small and five big things that can be done to improve SF's image.  

As for me, I have a hard time being worried, at least about the possible failure of Analog.  No, the truth is I don't care if it fails or not.  That's because in the last era that I read that mag with its reactionary engineering technofetishism bent, it had:  a story that justified slavery as a tool to increase intelligence, another that had a courageous harpist struggling against a evil rock producer, another with ridiculously poorly thought-out genetic engineering, and lastly, the musician Slash arriving at the moon to destroy the moon-base with his moral turpitude.  

This is back when Analog writers were riffing on each other's notion that Rock and Roll was going to usher in the decline of western civilization, and that the rock musicians, being modern Visigoths, were actively promoting this by encouraging disrespect of authority, drugs, and um, music with drums. In other words, this was some time around 1988 or so.  It was all very silly. I actually had the suspicion that the writer had never even heard of Guns and Roses, but had picked the name Slash as an appropriately menacing "metal" name.  The story with the harpist was actually worse, because IIRC it had the evil rocker type dominating the poor harpist because with her talent he could , dominate the world's radio stations or something and degrade the world even more. Or something. It was really silly. 

So, I don't miss reading Analog at all, and honestly, I'm not surprised at those subscription numbers.   If it goes away entirely, I won't cry.

1. The is the big one. DON'T use an anime/manga style as an excuse to not learn how to draw. It won't work. This isn't a slam on the anime/manga style: I read a number of strips where the artist has integrated those stylistic elements into their own style. But, they learned how to draw FIRST.

2: The above also goes for American Comic Book styles.

3: Don't try a really sketchy/scratchy style to conceal your lack of drawing skill. Jules Fieffer you are not.

4. I repeat: unless you're going for sprites, photos or abstract art, learn to draw FIRST. Put the damn "How to Draw" books away, and attend some art classes.

5. If you can't draw hands, see #2. Hiding the hands behind backs or off panel won't work.

6. Don't think computer coloring will save you. MS Paint won't compensate for bad art.

7. If the only way you can tell the characters apart is their hairstyles, rethink your character concepts. or see #2.

8. Likewise, if putting the characters into different outfits renders them unrecognizable, see #2.

9. As far as using 3-D wireframe or CGI programs? Just don't. Read up on the Uncanny Valley, and just leave it alone.

10. Don't restart the strip every time you learn to draw better. OK, once may work, if it's not too far along. But not more than once.