Who Would Have A Can Of Worms, Anyway?

When I posted "Questions Questions!" last night I was thoroughly pissed off.  I had a headache which has decided to linger and my eyes have not fully recovered.

I'm still annoyed today.

You see, since the early 1980s I havery very strongly supported the UK Small Press and comics, particularly Independent comics.  I have pushed and promoted creators often at my own expense. I have promoted and pushed comic and Small Press events.  I have helped people with books (uncredited) and other research.

In fact I have lost a lot of money doing so, let alone time I could have spent promoting myself.

Someone worked out that I have probably helped hundreds of people within comics (and that excludes the ones who suffer from depression I spend time talking to).  I was asked just how many of these people had ever said "thank you" or given me credit (I exclude people who've been depressed as that is not a chore)?

I sat down and went over all the emails, letters, comments....four people. Over 30 years and four people have actually said "thank you".  Most, once they have what they want, ignore me.  At least two I have on record as stating they have never heard of me but their problem here is that (1) I interviewed both in publications as part of promoting them and, (2) I have correspondence from them thanking me for all my work in getting them into comics.

Oh, and "I read your blog posts EVERY DAY and wonder if you could...."  Yeah.  You read it every day which is why you never saw the posting of the day before.  You try that one you get marked as Spam.

And why will I not help the Grand Comic Book Database or whatever it calls itself?  A few years back I had a query and noted the comic in question (a 1940s US book) was on their data base.  But rather than send a query I thought I'd help them out.  I had books not listed on their data base.  So I sent them the query plus the info and also scanned covers of my books with contents info.  Three birds -one stone as they say.

I got the snootiest reply possible.  Firstly, I ought to "do some research for the answer" to my question. That's one "Feck Off".  A very -very- derogatory remark about "amateur small press books" -"Two Feck Offs".  Then the info I sent them on items they did not have was dismissed because I was not a "recognised contributor or member".  That is the Third and Final "Feck Off".

People have used information from me to add to the data base but as far as I am concerned I will not assist it.  I will not discuss past dealings with these people. Ever.

"I treat nice people nicely and bastards like bastards".

Now, as no one seems to have bothered reading this before, here it is for those "daily" visitors.

Here's your chance to finally leave a comment and simplysay "thanks" if you are a creator or someone else I've helped in the last 30+ years.  I'm not betting because I guess I may -at the extreme- get two "thanks"!

Hipster? Want To Write A Book Or University Paper On Comics...My Response

Ahhh. Early morning and Terry has already been a bastard.  "What? How? Why??" you all scream.  Let me tell you.

Every year, several times, I get emails from university students who are putting together papers on comics.

Now, it works this way: in university papers you are supposed to acknowledge and thank your sources -if you were a professor or lecturer at a university and did not do so you used to be considered lower than the low.  This was reiterated to me by people from Swansea university in Wales re. wildlife and so I helped and supplied knowledge, reference works and so on.  Thirty plus years of knowledge given them. They then seem to have decided not to bother.  A lot of my reference books and papers on loan have never been returned.

For me that really was the final straw as I had put complete faith in their word and professional standing.

The same thing has happened (except that I NEVER loan out anything any more) with students and comics theses/papers.  It all goes online so checking I see all the info there as "original research" and no credit to me.

The last one who contacted me I suggested a trawl of the internet and looking for reference books might be a good idea as I had no interest in being an uncredited source and longer.  Never got back to me.  Odd.

I have been looking for information on UK Platinum/Golden & Silver Ages artists/writers since the 1970s.  William A. Ward had one short paragraph about his work that anyone and everyone used to prove they "knew" about old comics.  I managed to gather quite a lot of information on Ward and his work so when, must be three years ago now, I was contacted by two authors who were publishing a book on comics through a named publisher.  They had "tried and tried but only hit dead ends" regarding Ward. Well, as other "comic historians" (pfah) had only the usual response of "We know nothing!" they were advised to contact me.

At the time I was not thinking about a credit in a book. I was thinking that this was an opportunity to get Ward and his work more recognition.  So I sent off what I had.  I got a big "thank you" as "this is basically 99% more than we already had!"

Six months. Nothing.  A year -nothing.  I wanted to get a publication date so contacted one of the named authors -no reply.  The second one did respond a while later and told me in a "Oh, you know, we tried this but lost interest" attitude that they had not yet found a publisher.  But I was told they had a publisher!

That drew the line, crossed it and then erased it  (that makes sense if you think about it).

So, some hipster emails me and explains that "comic geeks  are big business at the moment" and that he and his girlfriend ("We were inspired by that Avengers movie" -I or II?) were, like, heavily into comics and were working on a major book on comics.  Could I send them all I had on the UK Golden Age of the 1960s and creators with some art?  The stress of forcing myself not to reply "FRO"...wow.  The UK Golden Age has nothing to do with the 1960s....there are so many things...anger suppressed.

"I would suggest you check the internet for a definition of the various "Ages" of UK comics and information on them -also buy a few book"

Bitch slapped.

I do not do this any more.

Decades of research -whether wildlife, "mystery" or comics- is not given away. And, yes, I have suggested my own books as references.

If you are going to write a paper or book about comics because it is trendy then get in line.  But for goodness sakes do research of your own.  I know the internet has become the go-to source for students and authors these days -hey, the number of times I've seen UK 'comic experts' quote items from my blogs (original info that I came across) as their own work...shameful.

Just making it all clear.  Flattering does NOT work with me.  Pay for the work or do your own.

Now, off to waste time waiting for the boiler engineer.