Sometimes comics just die like that, i could name a few i loved that are no longer updating... some are not even online anymore.
Generally it's 'cause the author is caught by work and other life issues and doesn't have time or maybe 'cause he/she simply grew bored of it.
As for AMD... well, it was nastier than that:
You know, like when someone makes the wrong post on the wrong forum and everything goes aflame? That's pretty much what happened, but on a way larger scale, as it involved more than one forum and went on for over a month.
Long story short, the author of AMD lost that flame-war and quit for the sake of peaceful living.
My suggestion is to forget about it and seek something else to read.
He's currently working on another project, so there won't be any other updates anywhere else for a few months. No idea wether AMD will actually come back though.
Sometimes comics just die like that, i could name a few i loved that are no longer updating... some are not even online anymore.
Generally it's 'cause the author is caught by work and other life issues and doesn't have time or maybe 'cause he/she simply grew bored of it.
As for AMD... well, it was nastier than that:
You know, like when someone makes the wrong post on the wrong forum and everything goes aflame? That's pretty much what happened, but on a way larger scale, as it involved more than one forum and went on for over a month.
Long story short, the author of AMD lost that flame-war and quit for the sake of peaceful living.
My suggestion is to forget about it and seek something else to read.
I think some of the PA forum goers used his copyrighted sprites as avatars and he asked one of the moderators, or maybe one of the PA Boys himself to put a stop to this. That moderator, or PA Boy or whoever took the forumer's side and the flame war began.
And I think some people may have tried making their own substandard comics using Squidi's again, copyrighted sprites.
The whole PA incident is so far in the past and irrelevant that it really just needs to die. According to Squidi he still intends to finish AMD, if for nothing else to complete the series that he dedicated 3 years of his life to. He also claims that he wants less of a net presence than he had in the previous runs because of the enormous amount of people who spent their time telling him how to do his comic.
So hopefully it will happen sometime, but it isn't gonna happen for awhile.
Not only a modest destiny, but also the 2-3 other comics on his site are all left off without a conclusion :(
Oh well, I guess I'll wait til he stops being such a bish and accepts that writing comics is the only reason he is alive...
The whole PA incident is so far in the past and irrelevant that it really just needs to die.
Soooo... he actually updated again after that fact.
I remember Squidi wrote some sort of resignation letter stating that he'd quit the comic and dedicate himself to other stuff 'cause he couldn't take the flame war any longer.
So i assumed that's when he stopped uptating. Didn't know he actually changed his mind and went back to work on AMD.
Didn't he complain about his life once, saying he wished he'd been molested as a kid so that he'd have inspiration to write or something?
This is like, fuzzy memory back-of-my-head may-have-been-another-webcomic-artist. I do know that Squidi is nuts because of the crazy letters he sent the PA dudes regarding some avatars on a forum that fans were using.
Look, I am the one who actually brought up memories of the Squidi-PA incident, but only 'cause i thought that was the reason for the lack of updates in AMD. Apparently i was wrong on that account, so, like Waf said before, let's keep this whole issue dead. I don't want everything to go ablaze again.
This means that i'd really appreciate if Koji, as much as anyone else, would avoid to provoke with posts like the one above. Thanks.
I think some of the PA forum goers used his copyrighted sprites as avatars and he asked one of the moderators, or maybe one of the PA Boys himself to put a stop to this. That moderator, or PA Boy or whoever took the forumer's side and the flame war began.
And I think some people may have tried making their own substandard comics using Squidi's again, copyrighted sprites.
QFT. The problem was that Squidi got angry and then Tycho got angry, and then the whole thing blew up far larger than it should have. My understanding is that the fellow who was using the artwork to make avatars had not realized they were Squidi's, he had got them off of another site entirely. I believe he has since apologized.
-Edit.
As for not talking about it much, it's because the issue has sprouted multiple flame wars all over the place, most major webcomic authors were picking sides and there was general nastiness all around. Thus, nobody really likes to talk about it and most people try to forget it happened.
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Where Light Prevails, Shadows Exist.
Why would you want to keep the issue dead for any reason other than kowtowing to a man who isn't even reading this?
Simple, because i don't like drama, because i found annoying to see fans of both comics, even those people that were supposed to be grown adults, act like retarded kids, because i believe it's idiotic to bring up an other flame war over things that happened years ago... are these reasons good enough?
Since i'm the one who first spoke about it in this thread (even if i tried to keep it vague), i feel i'm somehow responsible on trying to keep the tones down.
Now, Squidi may not read this, but i bet some of his fans do, and from a post like yours things could easily degenerate. So, even if i'm not a mod, i think i can't get blamed for asking you to refrain from doing that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Koji
I admit I never read the whole comic, and didn't like what I DID read...
You don't like AMD? Fine, i'm not a fan either, but this doesn't mean i feel the need to badmouth Squidi. I just read something else.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Koji
...but I'm still curious, as this is a fairly large event in webcomic history.
Koji, normally one who has a genuine interest in learning about an event in the "history of webcomics", generally tries collect data about FACTS, not call someone nuts and throw in rumors that probably aren't true with a provoking tone.
Maybe i just misinterpreted your intentions, but as i did, others can aswell. So, please, keep the tones down.
I used to enjoy AMD. It wasn't quite in my upper eschelon of webcomics, but I enjoyed it nonetheless and actually read through the archives a few times. I even stuck with it through the PA fiasco despite backing PA. I stopped during the child rape sequence, as that was a rather definitive shark jump. The storyline had devolved into the usual awkward drama that plagues most webcomics, and that was quite a low.
But if he came back and made comics like in the old days, when drama was barely noticeable and comedy was king, I'd welcome it back into my daily rotation.
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Do not meddle in the affairs of adventurers, for you are expendable and full of EXP.
Overblown fantasy action/adventure/comedy/drama/spoof. Updates M/W/F
This is what he wrote about the whole issue. I found this in one of Rich Burlews threads that told people to stop using his images. Its in the spoiler:
Spoiler
It is a long story and most people don't know much more than what they've heard from people who heard from people who heard from people. It's like a giant game of telephone where I become more obsessive and evil with each iteration.
But the short of it was, somebody modified my work, took complete credit for it, and was distributing it to others as his own. That they were avatars has little to do with it. I asked him to stop - and he did, only the others he gave works to didn't. Then I told them to stop - and they got rowdy. Then I started emailing ISPs and administrators. And then things got bad and my reputation has never recovered.
The moral of the story is that it doesn't matter what the truth is, the rumors can destroy you in a heartbeat. That's why I say tread carefully. It's not what you do but what people hear that you've done, and the two aren't always connected.
Protect your work, by golly. Protect it with pens and swords if you have to. Especially when you are just starting to become somewhat famous - before people look at the work and think "Ooh, that looks like Order of the Stick" and instead think "Ooh, that guy made a great avatar, he should make me one too".
Just tread carefully. Don't ever contact the thieves directly - go straight to the ISPs and administrators before things get out of hand. Handle it as quietly and quickly as possible (which is not always that quiet or quick). Avoid certain words like "copyrights" because people will instantly think you are going to sue them.
Why would you want to keep the issue dead for any reason other than kowtowing to a man who isn't even reading this?
The reason it needs to die is because if I read 50 topics about Squidi's comic I will end up reading 50 incorrect stories about Squidi and the PA incident. I was about when the whole shabang happened. I couldn't write an accurate account of it. So when people who heard it from a friend who heard it from a friend who read it off a message board (like this one) the story begins to have huge glaring flaws in it. If your reputation was on the line I'm sure you wouldn't be happy with people spreading rumors about you whether you would read them making the rumors or not. Also it happened like 3 years ago. Why does it matter anymore?
I stopped during the child rape sequence, as that was a rather definitive shark jump.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again. I found the transition from comedy to drama was played out rather nicely. The child rape sequence was a huge shock, but it recovered.
I didn't get round to reading it until after he'd stopped making comics. (Actually, I believe it was just before he took the site down.) So reading through the archives, it made sense really.
I also wish Squidi would do something more with his Zombies of the Living Dead. My natural love of Z-Day demands more info, dammit!
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Nothing but a Nobody
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cogwheel
Also, are you even human any more, or did you just transcend into some sort of in-joke singularity?
I also wish Squidi would do something more with his Zombies of the Living Dead. My natural love of Z-Day demands more info, dammit!
I am glad he at least came back and finalized the first "season" of that, at least. Originally he had only posted about three strips before he ran off.
Personally, I used to do the pixel art for game projects on my Commodore-64 and I believe it is a lot harder than simply drawing something. I do scalable vector graphics now and relatively speaking SVG's a piece of cake. Pixel art is like a tile mosaic.
Koji, normally one who has a genuine interest in learning about an event in the "history of webcomics", generally tries collect data about FACTS, not call someone nuts and throw in rumors that probably aren't true with a provoking tone.
Maybe i just misinterpreted your intentions, but as i did, others can aswell. So, please, keep the tones down.
This is called overreacting. I wasn't trying to provoke anyone, you just flew off the handle for no reason.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Waf
The reason it needs to die is because if I read 50 topics about Squidi's comic I will end up reading 50 incorrect stories about Squidi and the PA incident. I was about when the whole shabang happened. I couldn't write an accurate account of it. So when people who heard it from a friend who heard it from a friend who read it off a message board (like this one) the story begins to have huge glaring flaws in it. If your reputation was on the line I'm sure you wouldn't be happy with people spreading rumors about you whether you would read them making the rumors or not. Also it happened like 3 years ago. Why does it matter anymore?
If the truth isn't as bad as the rumor, then telling everyone to keep quiet is a lot worse than explaining what really happened. Art thieves can be a bitch, and so can large forums. Yes, the deck was stacked against him when he started his campaign to shut the thief down, but trying to stop people from discussing or even ASKING about it only makes it look way worse than it was.
People are acting like Squidi needs to be protected or something. I understand if you're a fan that it's going to be irksome to read rumors over and over, but it's probably better to state the truth of the matter rather than telling everyone to shut up. That is both how and why the rumors get so out of control.
It's just so damn weird, the way people act about Squidi, anywhere he is discussed. It's almost like people are somehow deeply personally embarrassed about it, even though they weren't involved.
Less than Squidi being protect, I'm just tired that over the last 3 years every topic about his comic gets railroaded to that ridiculous incident. I really can't fathom how internet drama can be so interesting.
I really can't fathom how internet drama can be so interesting.
Saying, "A flame war too terrible to mention ended a webcomic and tensions are still so high that three years later people still should not discuss it" tends to pique people's curiosity. Everyone who's heard about it already may not want to talk about it anymore, but there are others who've never heard about it that will be interested. Maybe not enough to go in depth, but enough to want a paragraph outlining the bare bones.
It might be worth making a collection of links here that goes over the whole thing. A few neutral sources that grant an overview, perhaps one or two biased links per side that explain their end, etc. The whole thing is well-documented, though it's a bit of a tangled mess.
__________________
Do not meddle in the affairs of adventurers, for you are expendable and full of EXP.
Overblown fantasy action/adventure/comedy/drama/spoof. Updates M/W/F
The problem is that it's not possible to determine what really happen. Too many rumors, often not true, are mixed with the facts.
The only ones who really know what happened exactly are Squidi himself and the other people who go involved directly from the very beginning. Of course their story could be biased.
In this thread you already have a summary of the story. It's pointless to ask for more details 'cause none can actually tell, even those who claim to know... half of what they'd say is probably false rumors.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Koji
This is called overreacting. I wasn't trying to provoke anyone, you just flew off the handle for no reason.
Man, that was exactly the sort of post that starts flame wars.
It just takes an other guy to come and, feeling encouraged by what you wrote, to post something even more provoking. Then a Squidi fan reads it and yells at you, you yell back at him and other people join in throwing buckets of gasoline on the fire.
Better kill it before it even start!
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