Xavier Xerexes (what an amazing name!) just reviewed "Old Man Winter & Other Sordid Tales" on the
Comix Talk blog (click on the link to read it).
He really liked the title story, but panned most of the others. Comics are subjective, so everyone's opinion is valid. I know that not everyone is going to like all of my comics (hell, even I don't!), but I do appreciate honest reactions. Criticism helps me improve my work.
His main beef seemed to be that the comics dealing with animal-welfare issues were not complex enough...not enough of a narrative or character development. This is actually something that I worry about greatly. All of those stories had to fit certain parameters assigned by the comic publisher (Young American Comics, not the publisher of the Old Man Winter collection) including length and other aspects (for instance, "All is Forgiven" had to include six comic icons: a bunny, an insect, a zombie, a monkey, an alien and a robot!). Those early stories could definitely have been better, and since the Old Man Winter story is my most recent, I figure I'm on the right path.
I've gotten quite a few very positive reactions on the "Roadtrip" story and supposedly "Circus" made at least one person cry, so I don't feel like they were a total failure.
In any case, I do appreciate Xavier's criticism and will strive to make the next animal-welfare comic better.
