Nova’s Blog Discoveries – Finnish Comics Dissected

Author: NovaJinx

I don’t read blogs all that much. In fact, the only blog I check on a regular basis is my own. But sometimes I just get bored enough to go on a stroll around the blogosphere and every now and then something interesting comes up. Finnish Comics Dissected is a unique blog in the Finnish scene – it is a small blog written in English about Finnish comics. And I thought it deserves a post due to its unique nature and the drama it has managed to stir up, so here we are.

What makes Finnish Comics Dissected an interesting case is its recent focus on Finnmanga – pseudo-manga by Finnish authors. But why should anyone care about Finnish manga? Because some of it is so damn horrible that I find it hard to believe it is actually being commercially published. I’d like to make fun of it myself but that’d mean I’d have to actually buy the shit for a review and since I can get a week’s supply of beer with that much money… Instead, FCD is here to do the dirty work for me.

FCD is very amusing to read and quite informative as well – the author clearly has good understanding in the field of comic art and scripting. He also makes excellent use of self-drawn comics and drawn notes on sample scans to illustrate his points in a more dynamic fashion than just a plain wall o’ text. The author’s English is understandably somewhat shaky (although far better than the Finnish average) but I only find it admirable that despite this he’s willing to post instead of just going with Finnish. Keep it up man!

lol huh?

Not everyone likes FCD of course. I’ve witnessed IRC-ranting about how it’s being unfair and that the author “couldn’t do it better himself“. Very much similar to the rage thrown at the blogger who dared to criticize webcomics. First of all, unfair? Maybe if we were talking about free webcomics, but FCD is reviewing commercial products (with the exception of Shadow World which is free, and amusingly turned out better than its commercial equivalents). Commercial comics are published to make money and there should be no moral obstacles in criticizing them. If someone commercially publishes a comic book that would be sub-par even for a free webcomic, who is being unfair? The one who criticized the product for not giving the customer his money’s worth? As for the latter argument, I run into this shit all the time. “You can’t say that, it’s not like you could do it better yourself!“. The universal pseudo-argument people throw at you when they have nothing smart to say. You don’t need to be an art major to know something’s shit. I don’t need to be an animation major to make fun of shitty shows. Sure FCD goes over-the-top at times but so what? Criticism is the prime motivator for improvement and if the artists hear nothing but undeserved praise, there is no way they will ever bother doing something about their many flaws. Speaking of which, it’s amusing how arrogant attitude these said artists can possess.

TL;DR: Finnish Comics Dissected is fun and informative to read, especially thanks to the comics. In my opinion the author should work on some layout issues and image resizing but it’s the content that counts. Definitely looking forward to his future reviews.

Tags: beer, blogging, finland, QUALITY, rants