———————-Today’s page————————-
Hmm…some threads are starting to tie in here from other places. 
———————-Barblog———————————-
Well, let me just say first off a huge thank you to all of you who commented on my post on Monday. I’ve said this many, many times, but it always bears repeating- Xyliatales readers are THE best readers in webcomics. I can say that without a doubt- and this is fact, not opinion. Every post regarding the recent critique was well thought out and eloquent, no one resorted to bashing or flaming of El Santo which is the last thing I wanted. You all just showed what a brilliant and classy group of people you are. I am proud and HUMBLED to have readers like you.
Everyone is entitled to an opinion, and the web makes this possible, without the constraints of censorship. While this is sometimes hard to swallow, it is what it is, and having had a few days to look at things, I have come to a place of ‘what can I learn from this’ rather than “OUCH”. For me, I’m my own worst critic – and any negative comments I get simply give an external voice to the chorus of negative chatter in my mind.
The key of course is to take what I can, learn and be better. I actually welcome criticism, but being a sensitive type (I spent my life trying to change and finally had to accept that it’s just the way I am) if criticism is dealt to me in a tsunami fashion, it’s much harder to catch my breath than if handed over in a glass of water, or even a shove in a pool. I suppose any artist would feel the same way. But it is what it is, and anyone can deliver their opinions of my work in any way they see fit. I can only control my reactions to it.
The awesome side of course is the support I have received from my amazing and loyal readers- the Xyliacs- who assure me that I am not the lone lover of mushy romance. I am old fashioned- and this story is a reflection of that. But more, it is very personal and allegorical- and therein lies the problem from an emotional standpoint for me. Xylia is basically me laying my innermost heartfelt feelings bare- out there on the world wide web where they can be stepped on, spit upon or cast aside. OR they can be taken in by a group of people- small as we may be- who are kindred spirits. These idealistic souls seeking out others of our kind and hoping and praying that maybe the cynical, nasty, dark, seedy, oversexed, and violent world that is embraced and revered by most creative realms isn’t all there is. That chivalry and deep eternal loyalty and love can actually exist and be a good thing and not a foolish, immature or trite viewpoint.
A person I loved with all my heart betrayed me, then for years doused me in negative, cruel comments about how foolish it is to be loving- in effect kind of saying all of those things that reviewer said about Xylia. This is why I reacted with so much pain. It was an echo- a slap from back to something very, very real.
But after that slap, I found myself surrounded by what Xylia has really brought into my life- wonderful, kind people who understand me and whom I understand. Never underestimate what you all mean to me, Xyliacs. I truly love every one of you, and I am blessed that you are in my life. Thank you for reading my story, and for understanding what it really means. For understanding me.
<3
—————————TWC————————–
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————————Odds and Ends————————-
Xyliatales On Air will be broadcasting on Sundays, along with the occasional last minute broadcast! (Just had a fun one last Thursday night!). I’m going to try for a regular time- like 7PM CST. I know some of you will find that an inconvenient time in other parts of the world- hopefully it will work for some of you! XYLIATALES ON AIR TALK SHOW SITE
Remember, you can follow my announcements on Twitter
Or consider friending me on Facebook- just make sure to let me know that you are a Xyliac when you send the request.
——————–XYLIA GOODY BAG——————
Please consider donating for the Xylia cause! I plan on adding new things in the coming weeks- first I will be creating a series of hi resolution downloadable character cards, with profile images and bio information! In the meantime, browse our existing wallpapers and other things. As always if you don’t receive your download, please email me directly at bji2001(at)mchsi.com.
Hugs,
~B
March 17th, 2010 at 11:05 am
Awww!! I love the little old lady.
She’s so cute. I hope they go back to see the “manfaerie” tomorrow. Is that like “manboobs” ? LOL.. sorry I had to ask. ;P
It says ” Photobucket bandwith exceeded” Bummer.
I’m so glad you had a great time in Austin.. except I can’t see the photos.
And sorry to hear you came back to a extremely negative review. I didn’t read it for fear of wanting to bash the reviewer’s head in. Personally? I can’t stand reviewers of any type: book, movie, food. So very often they’re merely self-important idiots who look down their noses at anything they feel is “not up to their standards”. However, I have seen reviewers who are able to distance themselves from their own preferences to give fair and even reviews to works. For example Scott Christian Sava had a review done of Dreamland (I can’t remember who it was by) but it was awesome. The reviewer was totally honest and fair in his review. He pointed out both the good and the bad without sounding like a pompous jerk. It’s unfortunate that reviewers like that seems to be so few and far between.
You are, by far and away, an awesome artist and storyteller!! We will gladly beat anyone senseless who says otherwise. Just point us in the right direction.
March 17th, 2010 at 11:37 am
Louise! I wonder what the relationship is? Great grandmother or Great great aunt? IRC, Louise was going to be looking after Xylia while Claude was busy . . . reincarnating? Is that the right word? The plot thickens.
March 17th, 2010 at 11:54 am
@tinkerwrks – oh! i hadn’t noticed the old lady’s name in the article – awesome! really sweet page – i love a good night in a barn in a fantasy tale and it’s good to finally see how these two might tie back in to the main storyline.
barb, two points for you. everyone’s sensitive, whether they admit it or not. even simon cowell – hehehe. i love seeing ryan get him worked up. smart cookies take criticism where they can find it – not doing so only proves one’s insecurity beyond the shadow of a doubt. in real life, how often are any of us offered really good criticism from family or friends? they hold back to avoid hurting us. i don’t count that a favor! you’ve shown yourself to be a big person – and for what it’s worth, i’m proud of you.
March 17th, 2010 at 12:11 pm
This will be interesting…I wonder if April will sneak out to see the manfaerie? lol. I would.
Barb- I’m a writer and I take criticism badly as well, so I can relate. But there are always people who will support you, especially when you’ve done something amazing like this webcomic. Whatever his name is who wrote the review is certainly entitled to his opinion, but I’d like to see him do better…because I know he’d fail epically. lol. And for the record, he said you drew beautiful hands. lol. I agree.
March 17th, 2010 at 12:48 pm
Oh, I was kinda say is hugs hoping they will wake the manfaerie or something… poor guy…
That woman looks familiar too. I winder….
Barb- all I can do is send you hugs, kisses and to say that I read a lot of stuff (bookworm!) and plenty of web comics- and Xylia is one of the best, from every point of view. stay strong and talented!
March 17th, 2010 at 1:06 pm
EEEEEEEEEEEE, SEMI-CROSSOVERS!!!!!!!
^– (shortest comment of mine ever)
March 17th, 2010 at 1:36 pm
Aaaaaaa it’s Louise I love Louise.
And hugs and kiss to you Barb. Be strong, we’re always here for you!
March 17th, 2010 at 5:15 pm
“Whatever his name is who wrote the review is certainly entitled to his opinion, but I’d like to see him do better…because I know he’d fail epically.”
Not only is that rude, be careful. If you simplify the world down to “only those that can do as well or better have valid criticisms,” you end up losing a very large portion of teachers in the world.
Yao Bin, the coach for the recent gold AND silver medalists in the Olympic pairs figure skating, would be considered a hack whose opinion doesn’t matter. He finished last in every international competition he competed in. Just something to think about.
March 17th, 2010 at 11:48 pm
Ah, the abusive ex. Yeah – been there, done that. Despite her swearing that she will always love me (as I was walking out for the last time), there was a nasty phone call and three e-mails that she would have screamed about if I had sent them to her.
Sounds like you’ve bounced back nicely. Consider yourself hugged. >:D<
March 18th, 2010 at 5:00 pm
I will never ever understand why those of us who like mushy romance are old fashioned and therefore terminally uncool and stupid. I didn’t read the review because I don’t bother to spend my time reading stupid twaddle, which is what that sounded like from the comments on your last blog, but I’m assuming that was the individual’s major complaint. If it was therefore then implied that this was unsuccessful and stupid, said reviewer should probably take a quick peek at one of the top-grossing movie of all time, Titanic, which was arguably a mushy romance. He should probably then proceed to a wide range of ever-popular romantic comedy movies, mushy romance novels, mushy romance television series, and a certain recent not-so-mushy “romance” book and movie series which shall remain nameless. I will, however, add that Xylia has more plot in one frame than and entire 4 book series of badly written vampire novels. Clearly mushy romance is both ridiculously popular and enormously successful.
Anyway, my two pence. I quite like Xylia! I had lost it for some time and then found it by accident again, and was ridiculously excited. So now it chills on my Google homepage with the RSS feeds from the other comics I love, so I can always know when it’s been updated!
March 18th, 2010 at 6:59 pm
Firstly, this page is beautiful! I love the lighting and the details like the cow in the background. I am intrigued by December here, I can’t wait to see where this is headed. Secondly, I don’t read reviews. I would like to think I am old enough now to make my own opinion on things that matter to me. And Xylia does matter to me. It is well written, beautifully and thoughtfully detailed, and every page is pure art. And on a completely selfish note, I like the way it makes me feel.
Thank you for sharing Xylia with all of us.
Oh and thirdly, it sounds like your warm heart was wasted on your ex. He sounds like a complete tool to me.
March 19th, 2010 at 12:13 am
Heather- I disagree. It reads to me as Karstrel was saying that they thought El Santo couldn’t outdo Barb (in particular) in writing and/or drawing a story about love (the main target of El Santo’s criticism). That in no way infers that El Santo would not be, or is not capable of doing amazing things with other skill sets. “Only those that can do as well or better” can be inferred if you take Karstrel’s statements out of context of the conversation, otherwise, I just don’t see that point being made. The wording is questionable in tact, true, but otherwise I agree with Karstrel.
Barb- I’m glad to hear you’re okay. You write a beautiful story, and draw it beautifully too. That’d be sorely missed if we lost you. We need more fairy tales.
March 19th, 2010 at 7:23 am
Hey everyone! Thank you for reading, and as always thank you to everyone for taking time to comment.
Christine: manboobs, and manpurse and all other manattributes and manproducts, indeed. I admit that I do read some movie reviews- but usually from reviewers that I know have similar tastes to my own. These of course are professionals. But even then, they can have a bad day- and not like ANYTHING they see- and if I went by their opinion, I might have missed some really great movies. By the same token, I have read soft reviews that offer nothing in the way of critique and seem to be hired by the artist to puff them up. That’s no good either. But to review something you know right away that you can’t stand- an example being: if I was to review a death core metal rock band- I’m not going to find anything positive about it, because I can’t abide the genre. That’s the problem here. Reviews that El Santo has done of a romantic episodic webcomics have been, from what I’ve seen and heard from webcomic pals, always negative. He doesn’t care for romance. Why he continues to do reviews of something he just doesn’t like seems odd to me, but to each his own. My biggest gripe is that if his reviews are going to descend into snarky, nasty commentary – particularly the personal attacks of my and Peg’s bios- what they say and how they are written. That’s just bad form, flat rude, and unprofessional. But it’s important to remember, the guy is just a guy with a blog. So therefore in that context, as a review of my work, it needs to be given the importance and weight that it deserves. Not much. And that’s ME being blunt, because this is MY blog area.
Tinkerwrks- hee hee…you may be on to something, my dear.
Spas- I don’t agree that EVERYONE is sensitive. I know that many folks who are aren’t willing to admit it as I have. Regarding critiques and gaining from them- criticism received from someone who has more knowledge in an area someone is working in, either through experience, or by reading and enjoying or learning about a genre is fine. But rude attacks of myself and friends, and a running commentary of how poor my work is; not even finding a bit of merit until someone later points it out, is not really a critique is it? It’s more an insult. There is an important difference. I’ve been to college, I’ve had art teachers rip my work to shreds for years, I know the drill, I take it and use it- even Chuck Jones spent an hour personally critiquing my work (yeah, the Bugs Bunny guy) THAT I learned from, because of the source of the knowledge, but also the tone in which is was given. Not as an attack, but an opportunity. Again, I come back to my tsunami/glass of water allegory. One of these is beneficial, the other is not. One wounds, the other makes something better. Anyone can write a nasty snarky diatribe about any work on earth. I could take Mona Lisa and write a mean ‘review’ of it, diving into personal snipes about its creator, but would I in any way made a difference? Some people don’t really care to make a difference, though- El Santo admitted that isn’t his point in reviewing webcomics. Personally, I think that’s ridiculous that he doesnt’ expect creators to take anything away from what he writes. Why bother?
Karstel- Well, that manfaeirie is two hours away- we’ll have to see if little Rilly is daring enough to walk that far in the dark! As far as criticism, again, I don’t take criticism poorly if it’s not delivered poorly. Whether or not the writer writes better or not, we can’t really say, and I wouldn’t pretend to know.
Hagar- Sorry! Sorry to leave that statue so soon, is it a red herring? Hmm… Thank you for the nice comments.
Brent- hee hee hee! OH YEAH! Nice job on the comment brevity. ^_^
Sarah- Yay! Louise. Thank you for the support, Sarah.
Heather- I don’t think that Karstel meant “only those that can do as well or better have valid criticisms”. Rude, maybe, but El Santo’s review was highly impertinent, so it naturally draws such criticism in kind. That said, this ‘review’ was not really meant as a teachable piece by the writer’s own admission. And I might say to compare him to Yao Bin is a stretch indeed. I would hazard a guess that not only is Yao’s knowledge of figure skating far, far beyond El Santo’s knowledge of the fantasy/romance graphic novel genre, but his approach to ‘teaching’ and critiquing his students done with the purpose of actually teaching them, not to pound them with inflammatory comments with no regard to whether or not they take something from it (again from the author of the review’s admission- not his goal). To me, this is an irrelevant analogy.
CaliDave-Thank you very much.
Cait- I love romance too. I don’t know that Xylia qualifies as a work to compare to Titanic, but I love those types of stories. My inspiration for this is the old Disney movies and fairy tales. Some folks like them, some folks don’t. Thank you for the nice comments, and I’m glad you found your way back.
Aquila- Thank you very much for sharing that. For me, Xyliatales is a very personal endeavor, and what I am going for in the art is more like what the impressionists did- through color and movement to give a feeling or impression of something. I don’t succeed all the time, but apparently I do sometimes! Thank you!
Holaved- Thank you very much. Not going anywhere. ^_^
Thank you everyone for taking the time to comment! See you Monday!
~B
March 19th, 2010 at 12:32 pm
Out of curiosity I did take a minute to read that review, and even some of the comments that came after. I’m quite fond of a well constructed criticism. This was not one of those. I have to say that I always find it disturbing when people find it so easy to be thoroughly flippant about someone elses art. I cannot agree that there is only a place for artists in this world who are so hard hearted that they brush off such casual cruelty. Art is one field of human endeavour which promotes, if not necessitates, that one put forward something personal to themself. In short, asking an artist not to be sensitive about their art is counter-productive, and in more ways than one.
I know too many talented artists who shy away from public scrutiny because of the fear of such biased and thoughtlessly derisive criticism. It is my opinion that artists, whatever their chosen medium, are those who most truly represent hamanity, whether it be our higher ambitions and finer feelings, or exploration of the darker corners of our nature. I say this without intent of hyperbole. To actively repress artistry in such a manner I actually find quite disgusting, whatever the source.
I also applaud you for the bravery it takes to put forward your art despite the insecurities that go with that action.
As for me, I find Xyliatales to be a gem. I’ve been reading since it was only a few pages old. The only time I’ve ever had cause to complain is while clicking through my favourite comics and sighing to note that it wasn’t a Xylia update day yet (though the loveliness of the art does make me a little green at times). I don’t often read artists blogs, so I’ve not commented here before, but I felt the urge to add my voice the throng on this one. Art for it’s own sake is always worth it, but art that gives such pleasure to so many, as Xyliatales does, should always receive the encouragement it needs to thrive.
As ever, looking forward to the next update
March 21st, 2010 at 7:45 am
well, we agree to disagree. i find that even people who appear insensitive are just pretending…even to themselves. they may be horribly insensitive to others, but their feelings are more easily hurt than anyone’s. i also disagree with who’s qualified to critique, but i agree with your assessment of what makes a good critique, and that’s what i told el santo, as you must know. i do appreciate a bit of snarkiness (this is often an expression of what many people think, but are afraid to say – and done in a humorous way, so many people appreciate it, though it is at the expense of others – some of my best friends mock my political activism publicly all the time – and i admit, it is pretty funny), but in this case, that’s all there was, no meat, no bones to go with it, to make it sound intelligent – i think el santo COULD do better, as far as literary analysis goes, which is why i bothered to respond to him. i think your story is fairly original, and i know we, your readers, do sincerely care about the characters. i also think the target readers for the print version are younger than either el santo or me, and may enjoy some of the aspects that el santo identifies as weaknesses. thus, if a publisher agreed that the target readers are teens, then you’d need to ask a kid for a good critique! speaking of which, what do your kids think of xylia? do they read it?
March 21st, 2010 at 9:57 pm
Spas had a good logical point. This guy evidently is not the “target audience” (in HIS opinion), so why does that make him capable of being objective?
Reminds me of someone who told the creator of Barney The Dinosaur that Barney was really annoying and sickeningly sweet. The creator smiled and said, “I didn’t make the show for YOU.” And the person saw that he had been wrong – he wasn’t the target audience, so he couldn’t see it as it’s supposed to be seen.
Just my two cents.