IDW Comics - Meta Discussion

Y’know, it never ceases to amaze me how so many people in this fandom justify harassment with “hurr durr can’t accept criticism”.

@Jarkes
 
Because they’ll pretty much always ignore the valid stuff to cherry pick the harassment and go “See? This is the bullshit I put up with! PITY ME!”. That’s while keeping their ace in the hole: the famed “Well, I’m working for Hasbro and you aren’t” card.
 
Why even bother trying to help them improve when they just don’t give a damn in the end? They fully know they’ll get all the validation they want from the fandom the moment they ask for it, there’s just no reason for them to improve.
 
Was there even anyone other than Larson which ended up admitting that their work could’ve been better? Even then, it was while he was no longer working on the show. I get that it’s basically career suicide to shoot down your own work while you’re still working, but all too often it comes at the cost of their own credibility when they end up picking select harassment cases while stonewalling any actual criticism, no matter how neutral, unbiased and respectful it is. That’s when it doesn’t devolve into “Any criticism is HATE!” territory… and it usually does at one point or another.
 
TL:DR: Transparency plz.

@Poison Trail
 
And that’s a fair point. My problem is when some people act like harassment isn’t happening at all, or in some cases even act like harassment is perfectly acceptable behavior.

Anyway, can anyone answer my question on non-MLP stuff that Ted Anderson and Thom Zahler have worked on? I’m particularly curious about those two, yet I can never seem to find any info.

@Jarkes  
Ted Anderson appears to have done nothing else (in fact being a comic writer is apparently not his day job) but Zahler is a freelance cartoonist that has worked on his own stuff as well as a few other books for IDW.

@Itsthinking
 
I see.

@Jarkes  
“Fair point” More like an exaggeration but okay.

Um so I’m reading the first Legends of Magic issue. It appears that Celestia and Luna have their cutie marks before being fully grown. This contradicts the story in the book Journal of the Two Sisters. Right?

@Background Pony #428B  
Apparently.

@Background Pony #428B  
Does it?

@Background Pony #428B  
It’s funny actually how Hasbro jumps through hoops to make sure Tranformers has a clear understanding of it’s multiple canons, even having stories directly explaining how each incarnation falls into it’s multiverse, that’s followed through to the letter. But doesn’t give two fucks about MLP’s continuity or supplementary material.

@fobone  
While your post is very true, the Journal doesn’t necessarily contradict the comic in this particular instance.

I think Brenda Hickey may be the best artist the comic has. No issues with anatomy, the characters properly look like themselves while still being her own style, and her backgrounds are pretty good too.
 
What do you guys think?

@Jarkes  
Mostly depends whether or not Price is really focused/pushing himself I think. If he is he’s the best, if not, he’s probably second to Hickey. Price really excels at backgrounds/shading/detail so it’s slightly sad to me whenever you stuff simplified with him. But hey, schedules can be a pain.

@Itsthinking
 
Yeah, I’ve heard that IDW is notorious for really tight deadlines across all of their books.

Looks like IDW has a panel at SDCC about their kids comics. Though really the highlight there is the guy who put a self insert OC into the new PPG.

@Jarkes  
Price is my fave, BY FAR.

@fobone  
Probably because MLP didn’t become profitable until 7 years ago. But even then you think they would’ve done more by now.
 
Then again how long did it take for us to get a Celestia toy that wasn’t pink? Or a Chrysalis one?

@Takashi.0
 
More likely it’s the targeted age-groups. Transformers is aimed at older kids than MLP, iirc.

@Takashi.0  
or the GOH toys. (Forget the “action figure” angle that alot of them have, like 50% of them are perfectly “normal” feeling non-fighting toys that would look perfectly in line with the brushables line, its just that they’re actually high quality– specifically the RD and AJ GOH toys feel at home in a SoL line, no “action” focus needed)
 
 
I really hope the GOH line succeeds, because it really deserves too.

@Itsthinking
 
That has nothing to do with IDW, though. Why would he be there?

@Jarkes  
He writes for both the show and the show’s IDW comic adaptation.

June’s comic sales numbers are out.
 
MLP FiM #55 (Dragons vs Yaks, part one) sold 10,284 copies.  
The movie prequel (1st issue) sold 9,202 copies.  
Legends of Magic #3 (Mistmane’s story) sold 8,733 copies.
 
So that’s it for now.

Again, the comics continue combined as being IDW’s top selling product, selling 28,219 copies in June. A month that had two mainline TMNT comics, too! Only MLP: FiM is in IDW’s top five, however.
 
Were it all one book, MLP would be in the mid-80s of the top 100. What amazes me however is how poorly Transformers comics/Hasbro properties in general do. Some of them are just barely above the claimed break-even point for IDW, including the ones a part of that “Hasbro cinematic universe.”
 
Because we all know the best way to reboot franchises no one has seen in three decades is a poorly-advertised comic made by someone who isn’t a Big Two.

@Itsthinking
 
And as we all know, if something has poor sales, that automatically means it’s terrible.