The Outhouse - The Greatest Comic Book Forum

[Juan Cena]

The response from publishers that really pay attention to us has been positive. Marvel and DC don't really pay attention to us, but they haven't gotten mad either. I think they understand sarcasm, and would probably laugh. Marc Silvestri was retweeting my article calling him a socialist the other day. The industry gets it.

Well, at least some of them do.

I've seen this place going forward for so long I guess I worry about it crashing into flames for all the wrong reasons i.e. self-destruction.

[PDH]

I think it makes sense as a way to differentiate the OH from other sites that offer the same information in a much blander way. Worth developing further, IMO.

[Miracloman]

Wait!... those were supposed to actually be informative and newsworthy articles?
I thought I was the reading the inane ramblings of someone who was drunk,drugged and or insane.

[Miracloman]

Well, at least some of them do.

I've seen this place going forward for so long I guess I worry about it crashing into flames for all the wrong reasons i.e. self-destruction.

That would actually be entertaining to see.

[Juan Cena]

I think it makes sense as a way to differentiate the OH from other sites that offer the same information in a much blander way. Worth developing further, IMO.

I suggested Jude go check out places like Deadspinor EDSBS or Black Heart Gold Pants to see how they mix the news with the funny.

[Cat-Scratch]

The response from publishers that really pay attention to us has been positive. Marvel and DC don't really pay attention to us, but they haven't gotten mad either. I think they understand sarcasm, and would probably laugh. Marc Silvestri was retweeting my article calling him a socialist the other day. The industry gets it.

They get that he's a socialist!

[S.F. Jude Terror]

I got sued nine times this morning before lunch. It's no big.

[Lord Simian]

Wait!... those were supposed to actually be informative and newsworthy articles?
I thought I was the reading the inane ramblings of someone who was drunk,drugged and or insane.

Can't they be both?

[dick buff]

I barely paid attention to the articles before. Now I read all the funny ones. I think it's a winning strategy. The Outhouse will never beat the major comic news sites in "standard" news, so why not make its mark as the "funny" comic news source?

[e_galston]

Can't they be both?

clearly some can't, i had to actually go to another site today to make sure the robinson he-man story was true... then there are some articles where its nothing but making fun of stuff (the Glee/Archie one) and doesn't actually give any information about the creative team.

[BlueStreak]

My biggest concern is that someone at DC or Marvel (or the higher-ups of their corporate ubermeisters) will get their boxers in a bunch over something ThanosCopter wrote and decide to blacklist the OH from access to creators or previews of comic and stuff like that.

It also might drive potential advertisers (via PW or those who actually might want advertise here on their own) away as well.

I know I can get snarky over at SWRT, but I try not to do things like use fake quotes and stuff like that when I'm doing news stories.

A lot of the initiative's roots can be found from comments by Eric Stevenson, Tom Brevoort and Steven Wacker, all of whom have been highly critical of the overly earnest, safe and incredibly non-critical journalism found in comics. In fact, I can confirm that at least one of those three has commented on how the site has become "1000% more readable" since we actually started writing articles instead of copy and pasting crap. RSS feed subscriptions are up. Front page traffic is up. Our link traffic and google ratings are up.

As for your concern about DC and Marvel blacklisting us, that would require us to actually be in their good graces. Jude and I spent the better part of two years kissing major corporations' asses. You know what it got us? A copy of Superman: Earth 2 and unfettered access to any of the creators no one else wanted to talk to. During the New 52, multiple creators involved apologized when we requested interviews because we weren't CBR, Newsarama or a mainstream non-comic site. Marvel's a bit better, but not by much. The fact of the matter is that we will never be the first choice for Marvel and DC to go to because we're not big enough, we've run critical editorials on our front page and we allow comments to appear on our front page articles.

More creators have linked to our news articles in the last two months than the twelve months before that. Traffic is up significantly and for the first time ever, the site's ad revenue is actually making a dent in expenses. So, while I'm thankful for your concern about how it's going to damage business, we went into the news initiative cognizant of what it might do and decided that it was far better to try something else than just to putz around and just being another site that copy and pasted press releases and begged for scraps from the tables of companies that had no desire to really work with us.

We get that we're not perfect. We're unpaid amateurs. We don't get paid to be funny and we never will. Luckily, since we're not getting paid, we're not forcing you to read our articles (unless Jude is actually holding your face to the screen, then I'm sorry). If you want earnest, dry and safe news, I'd recommend CBR. They have a yacht.

If you really are that concerned about the level of snark being banded about on the front page, get on Skype and ask to be added to the Writer's Chat. The large bulk of the news articles are at least looked at by another writer before being posted. Yoni did it, and he's helped with several of the articles. He's added on some jokes, taken out a few that weren't that good. A lot of these are collaborative articles with multiple writers and we're always grateful for the help.

[Keb]

www.comicbookresources.com <-- good place to get comic news.

[Cat-Scratch]

I say keep doing it. Generate a more unique spin but most importantly a truthful one on all those news items on comics and related stuff.

People go to Jon Stewart for politics. Let folks come here for comics and stuff. We snark, luv it or leave it. We are fans of all ages here.

[Lord Ice]

[fieldy snuts]

I think you need to separate the press release from the snark with a POV section from each of the articles. It's funny to read a thanoscoper article once in a while but for fucks sake, everything bringing the same brand of humor gets old really fast.