I am amazed at some of the crap that happens on the internet these days. I really am. For those of you who are unaware of what is happening, head on over to Squidi.net and read Sean Howard's update...in fact, screw it, I'll just post it for you to read right here:

Before we continue, I want to apologize to Sean for stealing his update, but it is necessary for the sake of this editorial. Now for a little bit of history about Squidi.net. Squidi.net is a successful pixel-based webcomic, which is written and "drawn" (I'm not sure what the process is in making these comics, so drawn will have to do) by Sean Howard. Sean loves video games, pixel art, and long stories. His first saga, "A Modest Destiny," was a simple and humorous comic, but it did tell a good story about a warrior named Maxim who is out to save the world. Like I said: Simple story, simple art, and simple humor. But the whole thing worked. The comic was also relatively unknown, until a situation with Penny Arcade gave Squidi.net some publicity. It was not the kind of publicity most people like though. To make a long story short, Sean felt that there were some people on the Penny Arcade forums who were stealing his pixel characters, modifying them, and passing them off as their own work. Sean wrote a letter to Gabe to help him in bringing the thieves to justice, and Gabe, more or less, laughed it off. While there are defiantly two sides to this story, and both sides have their supporters, this incident did put Sean in the spotlight. A few days after I interviewed him, Sean took down his comic because he was tired of thieves stealing his pixel art. Whether you agreed with Sean or not, most people agreed that Sean was acting like a spoiled brat.

Now he's at it again. The reasons as to why can be read in all those links I posted above, but the short version of the story is Sean believes some 12 year old kids sprite webcomic is ripping off his art, and until he stops doing this Sean will not post any new comics on his website. Well who the heck cares Sean? My opinion of Sean is a very mixed one. At times Sean can be a nice guy, but there are more then several occasions where Sean is a complete asshole. Yes, I said asshole. Sorry, but he is. I like reading his comics. While his comics are no "Penny Arcade" or "PVP," they are funny, the characters are fun, and the stories (especially the current one) are usually interesting, and at times even compelling. Of course, I don't read the comic as much as I would like to, and it's mainly because he has a blog on the front page right under the current comic, that I usually find offensive and mean-spirited at times. I'm sorry, but I don't want to read a good comic if I'm going to be offended two seconds later with an "in-my-face" blog, explaining why I'm a bigot since I don't support gay marriages, or why Sean doesn't trust Michael Moore except when he's tearing Bush apart (doesn't work Sean, you either trust Michael Moore or you don't, there's no two ways about it). Trust me folks, I've got better things to read then this.

At one point Sean hid the blog somewhere on his site because he was getting too many complaints about it, felt that if you had to find the blog, you would appreciate it more. This was a good idea, but a couple weeks later the blog was up, because apparently his idea's and thoughts are just too revolutionary to hide from everyone. Sure, and Jennifer Lopez was stiffed an Oscar nomination for "Gigli." So while I do like Sean's comic and storytelling abilities, I guess I have a problem with the guy and his ego. This situation makes me wonder why I (or anyone else for that matter) bothers with the guy. In Sean's world, he has an ego big enough to sink the Titanic. Also in Sean's world is the idea that his pixel art is original and can be copyrighted. While I do not claim that pixel art cannot be original, it is very well known that lots of pixel art tends to look the same, just because of the way the whole pixel art thing works in general. Sean will disagree with me (he had a public disagreement with Scott Kurtz on the matter), but the truth is pixel art is, by and large, pretty unoriginal. Especially if it's 8-bit Nintendo style pixel art. Trust me, this art is NOT complicated, it's simply easy to make. If it weren't for the fact that game companies only want to make 3D games, kids could make their own console games with pixel art.

But you know what, it doesn't matter, because the art isn't even the main reason people like your comic. No, they like your comic because of the writing, the characters, the fact that you actually can make people care about these static pixel characters. THAT is the reason people read your comic! In fact, now that you recently begun hand drawing the backgrounds for your comic, the style has become something never seen with pixel art in a LONG time, and Squidi.net finally looks like an original in a sea of overcrowded pixel comics! I think the current (and supposingly final) story arc of "A Modest Destiny" is truly something to behold, as it is the first pixel comic to tackle a complex story, with three dimensional characters, and a look that is unlike anything I've seen in a pixel based comic before...heck, not just pixel art comics; comic in general! Now that I have pointlessly praised and torn down Sean and his comic, here's my question: What does taking down the comic actually ACCOMPLISH?! Are you going to read this editorial? Maybe. Will you like what I have to say? Not likely. Will you care about what I have to say? Most likely not. Why? Because you don't care what my opinions of your opinions are, you don't care about what bad things I may have to say about "A Modest Destiny," you write the comic because you ENJOY it!

You've said it yourself; you've said that you love webcomics because you are always being challenged creatively, and you just love that feeling. I doubt my opinion of you and your webcomic could ever make you stop doing what you're doing, and there's nothing I can do about that. Now here's where you're situation comes into play: Do you honestly think this kid you've attacked cares about what you're saying or doing? Do you honestly think he's hurting now that you've linked to his website and taken your comic down? Your comic is down, his is up, and to top it all off, you've linked to his site and given him a whole bunch of visitors who he never had originally. Yeah, you're slaying this guy REAL hard!!! Honestly Sean, by doing this you're only hurting yourself, your fans, and your credibility. I won't say your blogs have hurt your credibility (because I know some people agree with you on some of those), but this thing, what you're doing now, really looks quite pathetic. In fact, I'm sure had you just ignored this kid, then you wouldn't even be in this situation in the first place. This kid would have done the comic for a few months, would have seen that no one cares about his crappy little comic, and he would have faded without much notice from other people. Now that you've put him in the spotlight though, he now has a reason to keep making the comic (mainly because he now has you for free publicity).

Again Sean, I have mixed feelings about you in general. It's cool that you agreed to let me interview you when I was still just jump-starting my website, and it's cool that you answered all the questions with no problems, but these actions are just stupid. Why should I even bother to be a fan? All you are doing is crapping on the fans because there is a thief on the internet. In fact, thieves on the internet are far from uncommon, and if it was this easy to take them down, then I'm sure the MPAA and the RCAA would have taken them down a LONG time ago! Bottom line: Grow up and continue updating your stupid comic. For your fans...the fans who are patient enough to put up with your crap that is.

- -Kevin T. Rodriguez- -