🎨 Artcow Iconoclast / Jonathan Mack Sweet - The Chris-Chan of Arkansas

[atomik fyre]

Also, never tell me I can't have something, or I'm not good enough to have something what I want. I will get it anyway it just to spite you.

Prove it. Make your life better just to spite me. I dare you.

First, it's obvious you've never dated a rich girl in the South. They are absolutely terrified of scandal. There's a lot of sneaking around, secrecy, and fake names involved.

This has nothing to do w/ being rich or the South and everything to do w/ a girl being ashamed of who she is dating. Then again, you never dated her, just talked on the phone constantly. Again, you don't know what you're talking about, stop acting like an authority.

Or, here's another thought: failing eyesight. I need new glasses desperately, and my depth perception is slightly out of whack. This might explain to some degree my eccentric panel structure (and why I crash into doorjambs so much). That page Fyre posts uses negative space to create an effect ...fine, sure, it's good, but not my style.

Sorry I'm trying to educate you w/ picture and examples of what to do. Here's another thought, you don't need to create any dark backgrounds EVER if your characters are black lines, that way you never run into this problem. You are God when creating and drawing your universe and can make the call however you see fit so that these problems don't arise. Something that you should find when working on your 3 storyboards of the page.

I usu. emulate what I see in the commercial comics, so if you want to pin it on someone, blame them.

Check that link again to those comic pages and really look at them. The design flow, the aesthetics, the readability, it is all there! I don't know what you think you're emulating, but you're not picking up on what is all over these pages that make them work.

it's the decor of the mall that worked against me--dark floor tile, candy pink walls and neon green trim. Talk about bizarre aesthetics.

The decor of anything can work against you... except when you are in charge of how it is being depicted, and as the artist YOU DO! Look, here's a panel from Evan Dorkin where he depicting an over stuffed, messy as hell modern comic shop.

See, Evan makes the call to depict the store in as pleasing way as possible, staying true to the source as well and keeping it looking good for the reader.

I have a far better work ethic that he has ever shown. I'm going into season ten of my series, and he can barely cough out ten issues before he whined about the trolls and silly Internet cartoons killing his inspiration and shuts the hell down.

Yes, you do a monthly series, of 24 pages or more, and you do it all, the writing, the pencils, the inks and the colors. You know who cares? NO ONE! Not a goddamn person. After all this time the art still isn't any better than when you started. I've looked at your cover gallery, it really hasn't. If you're doing it all on your own, to get a quality product it is going to take time. You cannot expect to improve on your art (and you won't) if you are never taking the time to make it better. There isn't a soul in the world who will care if "Belch Demension Comics" goes bi-monthly or even quarterly. And hey, if the art improves that'll give people a real reason to check out your work.

Two years ago I was saving money towards my dream (still a long way from my goal, admittedly, but a fairly respectable nestegg--I could have probably afforded the wig, anyway) when (as I have mentioned) my idiot brother stole my checks and drained my bank account.

Ha! back on page 5 I called it that your brother was the one that drained your account! I guess I could've easily looked that up myself, but I've had trust in you to be straight with us. I don't want to have to go and dig up this info, I take everything you say on this board at face value. My trust in you is starting to feel abused. I don't feel good that this is indeed what happened to you, but I do feel good that I was right. I'll say this again, like I said back then when I only thought this was the case:

Is he the one behind the identity theft that wiped clean your accounts? If so, holy shit he is powerful and evil and you need to get out of there! If not, leave anyway, you're not doing yourself any favors by staying. If you don't leave, change for the better. No one has power over you that you don't give to them.

I can't have a checkbook or credit cards anymore. My mom now controls my pursestrings, which makes doing business and doing purchases a lot harder, and it's all His Stupidness' fault. If I went out and got a job tomorrow, my wages would be (according to my rough calculations) garnished for the next twenty years.

So your mom is in control. Now I don't believe your "She lives with me" distinction of the living situation. That is obviously another lie that you've told us. Mom is in charge, your brother is a fuck-up but is still second in command. You live with your mom, get over it and stop denying it, a lot of people do lately. Just be lucky that living with a parent in 2014 doesn't have the social stigma it did back in 1997, so chalk one up for change!

The tone I am affecting is sort of a cross between Rush Limbaugh's "new castrati" voice and the "wimpy guy" Andrew Dice Clay does in his act. Back in the day I often performed impromptu stand-up in the cafeteria during mealtime. They loved me. Another reason I miss college....

I remember guys like you, no one loved you, everyone tolerated you. How do I know? I used to be like that. I was ripping off Bill Hicks and Sam Kinison back then rather and Dice or Rush, but same idea. Once I realized that no one cared and that I was nothing more than an afterthought that was just seeking attention I stopped that shit. I grew up and eventually left the city I grew up in. It wasn't easy, it never is, but it is doable if you have the drive to do it. "Outlines" don't mean shit if you're not willing to follow through on them.

 

[RetardBus]

It's for an audience who loves America as much as I do and doesn't want to see it turned into something ugly and alien by a progressive socialist ideology. It's about getting the wrong people out of power, dialing back decades of poison change, and restoring this country to its foundations. It's about teaching people the rules so they don't have to make the same mistakes I made and have to watch their liberties, freedoms, and joy die in their hand. That is who I make this comic for. And you can thank my experiences in college for helping me to realize that.

So you're letting us know that your godawful comic is merely political propaganda. That tells me that you really are just using it as your personal "Sonichu", in other words nothing more than an outlet to rant about politics and whatever crazy paranoid bullshit is bothering you at the moment, whether that be the switch from analog to digital, DA LIBERALS, or what current imaginary monster you feel is destroying your life and the country you live in.

You should consider taking a look at this page on the Bad Webcomics Wiki. It's a good idea to avoid putting political messages in your comic at all costs, let alone centering the entire comic around them, as that alienates your potential audience and really just shows that you've made this comic to entertain yourself and nobody else. Nobody wants to get into a comic, or any work of fiction, just to have the creator's preachy political messages shoved in their face.

To be honest, I'm even getting an idea as to why you have no friends in real life, and maybe even why you got booted from college. It sounds to me like you're obsessed with politics, and rant about it at any given opportunity. I sure as hell wouldn't want to be friends with the raving lunatic who goes on and on about politics and screams "EVIL LIBERAL!" at everyone whenever they say something he happens to disagree with, and I'm sure nobody else would either.

I'm also positive that no woman wants to be in a relationship with a man who's just going to ramble on about the evil liberals and paranoid political nonsense all day. Really, if you want people to start liking your comics, let alone start liking you, you should stop trying to bring politics into everything all of the fucking time, as nobody wants someone's views shoved down their throat, nor do they want to listen to a middle aged man's loony political rants.

 

[Shadow Fox]

Do not ever compare me to Chris. I have a far better work ethic that he has ever shown. I'm going into season ten of my series, and he can barely cough out ten issues before he whined about the trolls and silly Internet cartoons killing his inspiration and shuts the hell down. If anything the critics inspire me more. Also, never tell me I can't have something, or I'm not good enough to have something what I want. I will get it anyway it just to spite you.

But you're exactly like Chris. You don't listen when people critique your work, you refuse to entertain any point of view other than your own, you blame crazy conspiracy theories for your own failures, you dwell on the past instead of trying to build a happy future for yourself, and you would rather wallow in self-pity than take action to improve yourself. You're so much like Chris it's scary.

And for all your tough-guy posturing, you haven't gotten a single thing you think you're entitled to. Because again, like Chris, you would rather rant and rave and charge at windmills instead of trying to find other means of attaining what you want.

I never had any formal training in ass-THE-tics and compuh-SI-shun. Blah-blah-blah-yibbeddy-yibbeddy-blah. I usu. emulate what I see in the commercial comics, so if you want to pin it on someone, blame them.

There's loads of people who've never had any formal art training who manage to draw decently. I don't have any formal art training, I taught myself how to draw by studying other people's art and looking at how they put their pictures together. And I know my stuff still isn't that great, but when people point out things I'm doing wrong, I actually listen. Nobody is going to blame "commercial comics" for your comic's flaws because it's your comic. There you go again, refusing to take responsibility for your shortcomings, just like Chris.

First of all, you're looking at two pages out of 2,400+, so it's hardly a representative sample. Secondly, it's the decor of the mall that worked against me--dark floor tile, candy pink walls and neon green trim. Talk about bizarre aesthetics. It's like an overbright shrine to consumer capitalism. Lightening the body lines made them look like they were dipped in powdered sugar, so I tried lightening the floor about them, as much as I dared. Too light and it wouldn't have looked right next to the photoreal background of the mall interior I used.

If the decor doesn't work with your characters, one of them has to change. Stop leaning on photographs to do your work for you. Learn to draw buildings so you don't have to rely on photos and let them dictate your stylistic choices. Quit blaming inanimate objects for your unwillingness to change.

It's for an audience who loves America as much as I do and doesn't want to see it turned into something ugly and alien by a progressive socialist ideology. It's about getting the wrong people out of power, dialing back decades of poison change, and restoring this country to its foundations. It's about teaching people the rules so they don't have to make the same mistakes I made and have to watch their liberties, freedoms, and joy die in their hand. That is who I make this comic for. And you can thank my experiences in college for helping me to realize that.

A buddy of mine draws a webcomic; she also does a few one-shot comics addressing issues she feels strongly about. For close to ten years, I've watched her work her ass off improving her craft, hammering out flaws, tackling her weak areas to transform from a good artist to a really fucking good artist. She does all this work because she is passionate about both her art and the messages she is trying to impart to her audience. If you actually care about your ideals as much as you claim to and want to convey them to other people, you'll listen when people critique you and work on improving your art instead of whining about how mainstream comics misled you and the color of the floor in the mall was working against you and the sun was in your eyes and the dog ate your homework as part of some dang dirty liberal conspiracy.

In short: grow up.

 

[DrChristianTroy]

So you're letting us know that your godawful comic is merely political propaganda. That tells me that you really are just using it as your personal "Sonichu", in other words nothing more than an outlet to rant about politics and whatever crazy paranoid bullshit is bothering you at the moment, whether that be the switch from analog to digital, DA LIBERALS, or what current imaginary monster you feel is destroying your life and the country you live in.

You should consider taking a look at this page on the Bad Webcomics Wiki. It's a good idea to avoid putting political messages in your comic at all costs, let alone centering the entire comic around them, as that alienates your potential audience and really just shows that you've made this comic to entertain yourself and nobody else. Nobody wants to get into a comic, or any work of fiction, just to have the creator's preachy political messages shoved in their face.

To be honest, I'm even getting an idea as to why you have no friends in real life, and maybe even why you got booted from college. It sounds to me like you're obsessed with politics, and rant about it at any given opportunity. I sure as hell wouldn't want to be friends with the raving lunatic who goes on and on about politics and screams "EVIL LIBERAL!" at everyone whenever they say something he happens to disagree with, and I'm sure nobody else would either.

I'm also positive that no woman wants to be in a relationship with a man who's just going to ramble on about the evil liberals and paranoid political nonsense all day. Really, if you want people to start liking your comics, let alone start liking you, you should stop trying to bring politics into everything all of the fucking time, as nobody wants someone's views shoved down their throat, nor do they want to listen to a middle aged man's loony political rants.

But you're exactly like Chris. You don't listen when people critique your work, you refuse to entertain any point of view other than your own, you blame crazy conspiracy theories for your own failures, you dwell on the past instead of trying to build a happy future for yourself, and you would rather wallow in self-pity than take action to improve yourself. You're so much like Chris it's scary.

And for all your tough-guy posturing, you haven't gotten a single thing you think you're entitled to. Because again, like Chris, you would rather rant and rave and charge at windmills instead of trying to find other means of attaining what you want.



There's loads of people who've never had any formal art training who manage to draw decently. I don't have any formal art training, I taught myself how to draw by studying other people's art and looking at how they put their pictures together. And I know my stuff still isn't that great, but when people point out things I'm doing wrong, I actually listen. Nobody is going to blame "commercial comics" for your comic's flaws because it's your comic. There you go again, refusing to take responsibility for your shortcomings, just like Chris.



If the decor doesn't work with your characters, one of them has to change. Stop leaning on photographs to do your work for you. Learn to draw buildings so you don't have to rely on photos and let them dictate your stylistic choices. Quit blaming inanimate objects for your unwillingness to change.



A buddy of mine draws a webcomic; she also does a few one-shot comics addressing issues she feels strongly about. For close to ten years, I've watched her work her ass off improving her craft, hammering out flaws, tackling her weak areas to transform from a good artist to a really fucking good artist. She does all this work because she is passionate about both her art and the messages she is trying to impart to her audience. If you actually care about your ideals as much as you claim to and want to convey them to other people, you'll listen when people critique you and work on improving your art instead of whining about how mainstream comics misled you and the color of the floor in the mall was working against you and the sun was in your eyes and the dog ate your homework as part of some dang dirty liberal conspiracy.

In short: grow up.

 

[Konstantinos]

Sorry to say it Iconoclast but you're hopeless if you're going to keep embracing this unhealthy mindset. I don't know how else to say it; you need to change your ways if you want to be happy.

I'd spit out another paragraph but then I'd just be repeating myself.

 

[Chelonian]

Alright, Icon-Smasher.

Riddle me this.

If liberalism is evil, therefore all causes associated with liberalism are likewise.

Would this not include secularism, religious freedoms, civil rights , welfare (Which you live off) , the free market and artistic freedoms?

 

[RetardBus]

Iconoclast, I have one question to ask you. What are you going to do at this point? This thread has reached 20 pages, now going on 21, and so far all you've done is rant about liberals and mock your critics by paraphrasing them in this near incomprehensible manner of speaking meant to make them sound retarded, which in turn only makes you seem even more childish.

Are you just going to drag this out for another 40 pages or so, and then have it get to the point where you get your own subforum?

You're beginning to remind me a lot of a certain Moleman9000, with how everyone tells you why your behavior is illogical and is only creating even more problems in the long run, yet you keep coming back here over and over again expecting something different to happen, when you know that's not the case.

 

[DrChristianTroy]

Alright, Icon-Smasher.

Riddle me this.

If liberalism is evil, therefore all causes associated with liberalism are likewise.

Would this not include secularism, religious freedoms, civil rights , welfare (Which you live off) , the free market and artistic freedoms?

He'll give an answer but it totally won't relate to your individual points and answer nothing. That seems to be his MO.

 

[Chelonian]

He'll give an answer but it totally won't relate to your individual points and answer nothing. That seems to be his MO.

It will most likely be longer than my post as well.

 

[Golly]

Back in the day I often performed impromptu stand-up in the cafeteria during mealtime. They loved me. Another reason I miss college....

I don't mean to sound uppity or snotty, but I feel that the following questions/clarifiers need to be addressed. Did you have friends back in the day? As in people who you would talk with regularly and hang out with outside of class? Peers who would invite you out?

When I was in high school and up until recently, college, "impromptu performances" would be generally cringed at. If there was laughter, it was a nervous, awkward laughter. You would subsequently be labeled as one of "those people". It's possible that I grew up in a more cruel environment than you (New England), but I think certain social norms are universal.
Kudos to you for having that kind of confidence, though. It's great that you are/were able to put yourself out there like that, however, as they say, "With great power, comes great responsibility." In your case, you might interpret that expression to mean "With great confidence comes a great need for discretion."

 

[RetardBus]

I wonder what his response to all of this is going to be. At this rate the Iconoclast is going to live the rest of his life like Christian Weston Chandler, wasting his life away making terrible propaganda comics nobody gives a rat's ass about, while fighting an imaginary war against an enemy that doesn't even exist.

 

[DrChristianTroy]

I wonder what his response to all of this is going to be. At this rate the Iconoclast is going to live the rest of his life like Christian Weston Chandler, wasting his life away making terrible propaganda comics nobody gives a rat's ass about, while fighting an imaginary war against an enemy that doesn't even exist.

Going to? He pretty much is Chris at this point.

 

[RetardBus]

I can't believe I forgot longing for chicks he knew ages ago who not only don't think about him nor care about him anymore, but also weren't even his girlfriends to begin with. This guy is like what would happen if CWC was a pseudo-intellectual who was obsessed with politics and hated liberals.

 

[A-Stump]

'Impromptu performances' sounds like you were the guy everyone hates in a lunch room or indeed any setting; The sperg who doesn't know he's not wanted. Everyone in school has had one of these people around, in my day it was someone who would spout inane pop culture references with no attachment to a situation.

 

[Francis E. Dec Esc.]

I can't believe I forgot longing for chicks he knew ages ago who not only don't think about him nor care about him anymore, but also weren't even his girlfriends to begin with. This guy is like what would happen if CWC was a pseudo-intellectual who was obsessed with politics and hated liberals.

So he's even more like Ignatius J. Reilly than Chris is. Wow.

 

[Ti-99/4A]

If your talk radio idols are to be believed, a TRUE CONSERVATIVE(TM) in your situation would be working 3 full time jobs and going to school somewhere at the same time as collecting cans to get back on his feet. Getting there on foot if necessary. Then save for a car to sleep in and take showers at the truck stop.

You on the other hand just cry about liberals, feminists, DTV, television ratings, newfangled light bulbs, your college, crook brother stealing your money and ASHLEIGHHHHH!

I can sympathize though. My life didn't go the way I had planned at all. But I haven't been complaining and yearning for the way things used to be for 17 YEARS!

So your businesses didn't pan out. Newsflash: Most small businesses go under within 2-5 years, usually not through any major fault of their own.

You got kicked out of college: There are more schools out there.

Your writing isn't making enough money: Roughly only one and a million artists, actors, writers, athletes and musicians make it big in their lifetime.

What do those people do? Fall back on something else that they enjoy or can tolerate while they improve their craft.

Fuck it, I'm done! My life's still a mess, but I'm going to sign out and WORK ON IT!

 

[Pine Tar]

ITT: Guy complains about all the people who wrong him. Others say to deal with it and get better. Guy complains that improving his life is HARD WORK! Others stop trying to help and start mocking.

 

[Major Josef Ecker]

I'd like to think that he's seriously considering everything that's been said here.
...
...
I'd like to think that. But I know he's just trying to convert our words into his weird not-quite-English thing he does all the time.

 

[RetardBus]

Guess who appears to have a Youtube acount? It seems relatively inactive and mostly just has a bunch of playlists, but I did find a few things on it. He has only two videos uploaded, one of which is some old commercial for what appears to be canned salmon where a guy beats up a bear, and the next video, which is more bizarre, and provides a little more insight into Iconoclast's past.

Okay, so from what I could understand, it's some crappy animation from 2005 made in MS Paint and Windows Movie Maker, where some guy (an old "friend" from his journalism days, according to the description. Probably a troll or just someone who didn't want to listen to his crazy political rants.) gets beat up, struck by lightning, turns into a black guy, and then gets crushed by a safe and dies.

According to the Iconoclast himself in the comments, the part where he turns into a black man is supposed to be a "blackface gag" reminiscent of a vintage cartoon, but even then it still doesn't make any sense and in my opinion he's copying the worst aspect of classic cartoons. Anyways, on his Youtube channel I also found a link to that weird forum he kept claiming loved his crappy comic.

Already just judging from the URL, I think this is either a strange political propaganda forum where everyone whines about the DANG DIRTY LIBERALS, or it's some forum created by the Iconoclast where he makes a bunch of sock accounts praising his own comic and agreeing with his own long-winded political horseshit. I haven't really browsed through the forum to see what's up with it yet, so make of it what you will. I'm going to try searching "HaggisMcCrablice" or any of his other known screen names into Google and other sites to see what else I can find.

EDIT: I searched "Belch Dimension Comics" into Google and found a few interesting results. It appears the Iconoclast has had a history with Something Awful, as this article from 2006 shows.

He smugly claimed he enjoyed any publicity on a few different forums. One is a forum for comics that clearly did not give a shit, one was a broken link to this forum known as "ThreeStooges.net" which I couldn't see the results of because I just got redirected to the index of another forum.

One of the more interesting results I found was a thread from that weird AJM studios forum where he seems to be doing the same thing he did on the other forum, except on AJM studios he just got a bunch of asskissers who blindly agreed with him and praised his comics without a question.

The only guess I can make is that again, it's a weird political propaganda forum that serves as a hugbox for the Iconoclast, or it's just a bunch of sockpuppet accounts he's using to praise himself.

EDIT again: It appears the Iconoclast was once active in the Daria fandom in the late 90's, and he apparently caused some drama and wrote a terrible fanfic that was extremely racist. I keep unearthing more crazy shit the more I enter one of this guy's pseudonym's/known handles into search engines.

 

[DrChristianTroy]

So Iconoclast thinks the old timey act of blackface is hilarious and is still relevant and okay in a modern setting.

I wish I were surprised by this.