There seems to be a lot of controversy floating around the web comics universe lately and I’m wondering where it’s all coming from.

This morning I was greeted with a message in my in box from Mambo the Breakdancing Clown. If you don’t know him, he’s the guy who draws Super Stick Figure Crime Fighters. Apparently he got his knickers in a twist for being banned from Top Web Comics for violating the terms of use.

The body of the e-mail was basically a call to arms and to rebel against TWC and its fascist ways. While I agree with Mambo that we can do without TWC, he was going at it entirely the wrong way. TWC has a right to disassociate itself with content it finds offensive.

The whole episode got me thinking about the TWC in general and I found it indicative of the problem I have with vote sites in general. If you’ve been visiting the site at all in the last 3 weeks, you would know that I had links up for TWC and was fishing for votes. I later took them down after coming to the realization that these votes don’t mean a damn thing.

Web comics like all art are entirely subjective. What I may find funny, others may not. To try and put a label on it saying “this is good, this isn’t” seems silly and a waste of time. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: If Theater Hopper fails to catch on, it’s my fault for not putting out material of quality or doing the marketing legwork to spread the word. Putting that burden on the audience by whoring for votes just seems really low class to me. I can only hope Mambo comes to the same conclusion. For the record, he later retracted his e-mail saying it was something he put together in the heat of the moment.

In other ridiculous feuds, Zach over at No Pants Tuesday picked a fight with a certain Euro-centric gaming comic. I don’t know how much of my personal feeling I should inject into this commentary. Zach is a friend of the site, so it’s kind of hard not to side with him.

What’s lame, I think is the defense Little Gamers puts up. Basically, they’re saying, “You can’t take a joke” which is fine when you put it in context to the subjectivity I was talking about earlier.

But they latched onto the bit that Zach was complaining about their bashing Americans. That’s not what I took from it. It looked to me like he was complaining more in the overall disappointment the strip had become for him – stale jokes, and what not – and that’s his prerogative. But LG took the criticism, flipped it on its head and politicized it. In my opinion, they got defensive over the wrong thing.

I guess it makes me think twice when they say Americans deserve to be made fun of because we’re violent, gun-toting freaks and then they turn around like a rabid dog lunging at a Slim Jim at the slightest provocation. That’s like me saying it’s okay to make fun of the Sweeds because they’re not worth anything more than cheese, clocks, chocolate and neutrality. It paints them with a pretty wide brush.

I’m probably only adding fuel to the fire, but for chrissakes, people! They’re only comics – you know? Funny pictures with words and all? Lighten up!

Looks like we’ve got another war of words brewing in the magical land of the Web Comic Kingdom.

Mitch over at Nothing Nice to Say took a swipe at Movie Comics concerning a dispute over votes at Top Web Comics.

Do you see what I’m talking about with this voting crap, people?! It breeds nothing but dissent among the ranks! It’s not like anyone gets free cookies when they’re voted number one. Loosen up!

I can’t say he was justified, but if I were to pick sides, I’d step in line with Mitch. He’s a friend of the site and give me good linkage.

In the interest of diplomacy within strips of similar genre, I’ll keep my personal feelings regarding Movie Comics to myself. But isn’t it suspicious that there are no banners on their links page for either this site or Movie Punks? Just thinking out loud…

Considering all the controversy of last weeks’ Fahrenheit 9/11 strips, I thought I would share the information that Michael Moore’s movie broke box office records for a documentary’s opening weekend.

Fahrenheit 9/11 took in $21.9 million this weekend making it the number one movie in the country.

Now for my two cents:

Cami and I saw the movie this weekend in Ames, which is about an hour away from Des Moines. It’s also home to Iowa State University, so you know there was a lot of liberal college students in attendance.

We would have seen the movie in town, but the only theater that was showing the movie was the same one we had all the trouble with when we went to see Lost In Translation. Sorry, but it’s one of many establishments I won’t grace with my business anymore. CompUSA, I’m looking your way, too!

Anyhow, from a pure movie-making perspective, I think Moore told a very engrossing tale about the Bush administration. Funny, shocking, sad… ultimately you left the theater with plenty of food for thought. This is never a bad thing.

A lot of the facts that Moore severed up I already knew. But he packages them in a way that serves the most impact. Watching the movie defiantly leaves and impression.

There were parts of the movie that were a little overwrought and you can tell where Moore’s ego gets in the way. Blind-siding Senators and asking them to sign up their kids for service in the armed forces is a little shady. So was his parading of a mother who’s son died in the conflict.

Don’t get me wrong. I am sorry for her loss and thank her family for their sacrifice, but it felt emotionally cloying and a little more than manipulated.

Is everything Moore says in the movie 100% truth? No. He’s defiantly pushing his own agenda. But if anything, it’s prompted me to ask more questions and do more of my own research – which is also a good thing.

I think if anyone is walking into this movie expecting the unfiltered truth to be spoon-fed to them, then they’re walking into the theater with the wrong idea. Because it’s no better than to accept what Moore says at face value any more than what the current administration tries to get you to believe.

Bottom line: Regardless of your politics, everyone should see this movie. It’s too important and too timely to ignore.

I don’t know if you guys are aware of the minor controversy that sprang up between Penny Arcade and buzzComix regarding PA’s charity effort Child’s Play, but basically Gabe took some members of the community to task for some rather disparaging remarks they made. Some had the audacity to suggest that Gabe and Tycho developed Child’s Play as a way of raising their own profile and that their motives weren’t completely altruistic.

What’s important about this story is that Gabe actually linked to the thread in the buzzComix forum where these comments were being made. (the link has since been taken down from the PA main page)

Kind of as a half goof/half publicity stunt, I decided to hop into the middle of the fray to promote Theater Hopper and placed a link for people to click. PA’s fan base is legendary. I knew they would swoop into action immediately after Gabe pointed out people bad mouthing them. So, I decided to capitalize on it a little. If nothing else, I thought I could insert a little ironic levity into what would assuredly become a lot of self-important bickering.

I’m mentioning this because astonishing, my plan seems to have worked! I’ve gotten a few e-mails from people saying they read my post and decided to give Theater Hopper a try.

I just want to say to those of you who came from Penny Arcade by-proxy and found yourself here, WELCOME! I hope you enjoy the comic. We have over 325 comics in our archive, so I’m sure you’ll find something you’ll like. If you’re looking for an introduction to the cast, you can find it here. And if you like online communities give our THorum a try! We have lots of really cool people in there and we’ve managed to stay relatively drama-free for the last year or so.

Y’know, the Internet is a pretty crazy place to live and do business, but I wouldn’t have it any other way!

I’m probably going to make this worse, but here it goes.

I got into a pretty intense argument with someone in my LiveJournal feed regarding Friday’s comic and the entire issue of whether or not Tropic Thunder and Robert Downey Jr. in make up is racist.

I guess I can say it’s given me a lot to think about. As a white guy from the Midwest, I’ll fully own up to the fact that I am not the most well-versed person there is in regards to the subtleties and politics of racism. I just try to treat others as I’d want to be treated and go about my daily life.

Looking over Friday’s comic and the blog post, I realize that I may not have made the best case for myself. I already explained that, obviously, White Chicks doesn’t make up for minstrel shows, institutionalized racism and 400 years of oppression. But I was making an exaggeration for comedic effect and sometimes that doesn’t always work out the way you planned it.

So, if anyone was offended, all I can say is that I’m sorry.

It’s probably best if I leave it at that.