I’ve recently been listening to old Web Comic Weekly podcasts and on a couple of them, there was discussion about what an artist should or shouldn’t write about on their blog. For the most part, I agree with what Dave, Brad Kris and Scott have said… that no one really wants to spend extra time reading about the misery, pain or suffering that a particular artist is going through as we all have problems in our daily lives and the last thing we want to do is read about someone else’s problems.

But one of the things that intrigues me about blogs - particularly artist blogs - is that fact artist blogs offer a glimpse into the mind of that particular artist… you can get a feel for what they are thinking or how they were going about creating a certain strip or page. Granted, it’s a fine line between introspective thought and just flat out complaining.

Still though, I remember picking up Matt Wagner’s original Mage and being fascinated by the very personal messages he would write on the inside covers of each issue. It actually got to the point of where I was actually looking forward to reading the thoughts he included on those inside covers and I was actually a bit sad that he didn’t include them in his follow-up years later. Those passages on the inside of the original Mage issues were heartfelt and complimentary to people who helped Mage be what it was. And Matt used that space to also explain what Mage meant to him, why Kevin Matchstick was growing bald, why he was afraid of heights and things like that.

Yes, I agree with Dave Kellett that a blog needs to be entertaining but that doesn;t mean it can’t be informative as well. For me, Matt’s messages in Mage WERE informative and fascinating and I looked forward to reading them every other month. To me, IÂ think that’s a prime example of what an artist’s blog should really be.

-Chris

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008 at 6:12 pm and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.