Since I made a halfway-similar comment, re: draw points, let me remind that I *only* was referring to fixed draw points. This I accept as its one of the few "wrong moves" that could be justified in-comics: by all the weird postures and positions a super archer might have to shoot from, including upside down in midair. Not necessarily able to draw to a preferred fix point.
OTOH, thats still no excuse for having the arrow on wrong, etc. And if the archer is going for a shoot involving accuracy high even for them, then there should definitely be a fixed draw point too.
I have to say that "nitpicking" never entered my mind when reading this site. If I thought the purpose of your writing was to belittle or cast aspersions on the writing or artistic abilities of comics professionals, I would've stopped reading a long time ago - not because of any moral outrage, but because that's just downright boring. I come back here (via an RSS feed) for every post because even in topics I'm not particularly interested in, I always learn something from your posts. And that's what I take from this - the chance to learn from comics, even where those comics don't present completely accurate information in and of themselves.
So keep it up - and I hope the artists and writers take you up on your offers. Ignorance is only an excuse until you know you're ignorant. then it's just sloppy.
"Factual errors in fiction distract readers who spot them"
How very true that is. I love the show Heroes, but watching the horrible misrepresentation of the New Orleans character and area really distracted me from being able to enjoy this week's episode.
I enjoy the site because I actually learn something from it. It's a shame a lot of writers and artists don't take the time to do a little research.. especially in this day and age with google and wikipedia.
When it comes to nitpicking, the first question I always ask is, "Would it have been just as easy to get it right?"
The second is, "Did they beg the question?"
If you do a comic about an archer, the archery should be right. If you do a Kung Fu comic, don't show your hero throwing nothing but roundhouse rights. If you make your hero a doctor, make sure he knows the difference between a virus and a germ.
And if you're going to make the character a Southerner, make sure he knows how to use the word Y'all, y'all.
"Factual errors in fiction distract readers who spot them"
Interestingly, this is a big problem with NON-fiction, too. The state of writing on Major Metropolitan Newspapers has fallen a long way. If there's a news story about a subject you know intimately, odds are it's riddled with errors about that subject. (Ever see a mainstream media news story about comic books that *didn't* have some glaring error?)
Or correspondents who apparently can't tell the difference between the Army and Marine Corps, or between a Major and a Sergeant Major, and think any military vehicle is a "tank," then say something like "In my expert military opinion, the war is lost?"
Remember Jayson Blair of the New York Times, who fabricated entire interviews with real people? When investigating later, the real people were asked why they didn't complain about the stories. The most common reaction was something like "What're you gonna do?" Assuming the Times just didn't *care* about getting the facts right, and that complaining about it would be a waste of time.
Actually, comics come off pretty well compared to the mainstream media sometimes....
I am on the "Hitch" side of things. I don't consider this blog "Nitpicky," at all, and love to read it for information.
I agree that factual errors distract the reader, though I maintain that there is some level of balancing that occurs. Legal fiction that bizarrely switches back and forth from civil to criminal is abhorrent. On the other hand, minute errors tend not to trouble me (but do intrigue).
Keep blogging!
Suspension of disbelief seems to be largely irrelevant to many people nowadays. Many of us just believe what is told to us, and many make no distinction between fiction and supposed non-fiction. Our "news" media is so interested in altering facts or misreporting them to twist what they mean or make them more sensational, that much news coverage is closer to fictional movies than to reality.
The over exposure we have to sensational type reporting in my opinion desensitizes many of us to the fact that a lot of what is presented to us as fact is actually opinion, or worse still, deliberate lies and manipulative content. See my blog to see more about suspension of disbelief. (only my own ridiculous theories of course and not to be believed any more than one would believe CNN or FOX).
Commenting by HaloScan
