Venting Session... sorry

Okay, I've been sitting on this one for a couple days, but it's starting to get to me and I want to vent it out.

I won't go into specifics, but I recently found myself on the Twitter account of a webcomic reviewer. Apparently, they reviewed Rain. It got an F. But whatever. As I've said many times in the past, I accept that not everyone is going to like my work. You can't please everyone. And hey, you know you're doing something right with your work when you start getting vocal haters. Besides, I'll be the first to say the reviewer is absolutely entitled to their opinion.

Now, I'd have gone my merry way if it was just a bad review. But on their account, I further saw the reviewer and another person were engaging in a bit of a back and forth hate-a-thon about Rain being a terrible, transphobic comic and "harmful shit" that no one should ever read. Ouch. They even went on to say things about how I myself am poison to the trans community. All this in the midst of making fun of my readers for commenting on the review (or readers of other comics that they gave poor reviews to) for trying to discuss the ratings given.

It makes me so so SO upset. And keep in mind that all of this is totally public because I just happened upon it.

Again, they're entitled to their opinion, and free speech is their right. But the part that's actually frustrating me the most is that the other person the reviewer was talking to, was another trans webcomic artist. One whose comic I like. And maybe it's just me but I find that kind of appalling. I would never ever bash another webcomic artist like that. Even if I didn't like their comic, I might just leave it at "it's not my thing, but I'm sure others will like it." But they were saying my comic is, "harmful transphobic shit that no one should ever read." And their account in recent posts is just a stream of Rain (and me) hate between everything else. It's incredibly distressing, and I even reported a few tweets for being a particularly much (and I'm actually pretty hard to offend).

Even now, I won't name the comic or the author because I don't want to sink to their level. But I just needed to vent about how disgusting their behavior is. I liked their comic a lot, but I don't feel like I can read it anymore now that I've seen what a bully the author is. It's one thing to dislike something and express that opinion, but it's another altogether to attack someone else's work, the author themselves, and especially the readers. It's stressing me out so much that I've been having trouble focusing the last few days.

So I'm talking it out. I don't know if it'll help, but keeping in mind that I don't want to start a war between our two comics, I'm not sure what else to do. Even quietly confronting them feels pointless, because in a "Kellen-esque" fashion, it seems they're pretty set in their opinion. Nothing I say will probably do anything more than make it worse. So here I am, losing valuable work hours and sleep over this. I can't seem to stop thinking about it no matter how much I try to put it out of my mind. For someone who so lightly calls something "harmful shit", they sure are saying some of the most harmful things I've heard in a long time... and I can't shake the feeling that as fellow trans comic artists, we SHOULD be on the same side!

I'm actually fucking crying after writing this. The only thing more upsetting than reading all of that hate is that I'm actually letting it get to me. I hope this post is intelligible because I don't think I can even read over this again right now.

...

Honest question, Rain Beaus: what would you do in my shoes?



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Small update
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The comic artist has sent me a rather heartfelt apology.  She seems legitimately remorseful and has in fact deleted all of her tweets on the matter, so I am willing to accept her apology.  So for those of you who poked around and seeked her out to say something to her or who were planning on boycotting her comic (despite that all being what I was trying to avoid), it's okay.  I know you mean well, but there's no reason to go after her.  We're cool.  Everything's cool.

The reviewer I'm a little less sympathetic for, on account of her continued attitude through all of this.  And if you want to seek out the review and read it, that's fine.  I won't stop you.  HOWEVER, that said, I would still ask you to leave her alone.  There's really no point in saying anything to her.  I know you might want to defend my honor and I thank you for wanting to be there for me, but I honestly think the best way to help is to let this all be forgotten.  If she comes around, she comes around.  If not, oh well.  I'd really rather see this whole situation get put in the past, never to be mentioned or heard about again, over being drawn out.  I don't like grudges.  Let's just let it go, all right?

Thank you, everyone.