About Me -
My name is Delos and I’m a regular guy with a beautiful family. I have a little bit of college under my belt, held a number of different jobs and I am constantly challenging myself to improve in some way or another. You can email me here or find me on Twitter.
About the Site –
This site was originally created to force me to be creative in some way every week. I have uploaded sketches and drawings, paintings and more. I took on a business pursuit which has crimped into the time I would use on actually making comics. This inconvenience is necessary for the time being but should abate soon. Finally, it looks like I may be able to resume comic making. As of 6/3/10, I adjusted the layout to be more blog like and removed the advertising. Note that I will be placing some of my own merch products in the sidebar and featuring other cool merch in Grab Bag posts. More news as events warrant.
About the Reviews -
I love comics and I’m always looking at how I can improve my own work by examining other creators’ works. Every comic has strong points we can learn from. The good results can only come by actually making comics – it takes dedication, immeasurable effort and never ending practice. What I hope we can avoid is having to learn everything by pure trial and error. Not everyone has the same skills, let alone the skill levels necessary to create great work.
That’s why I have a little compassion when writing reviews and I overlook minor flaws in order to focus on the positive things that stand out to me. That doesn’t mean you’ll never see a criticism – sometimes a flaw is worth mentioning and instructive. Broken links or other minor things don’t get mentioned publicly because they only serve to distract the reader from the comic itself. Other reviews might (rightly) feel the need to discuss all the pros and cons of a comic but I am centered on discovering what makes good comics tick. The way I see it, the reviews I write can’t rightly be called reviews, critiques or even commentary. I’ve been looking for a better word for awhile now.
What review policies do I have?
♦ I tried to schedule requested reviews as soon as possible but that didn’t work out so well for a variety of reasons. I don’t like to review comics from the same basic category from week to week- or perhaps there was a comic promotion to act on within a time frame or I might have had to recover from the last comic’s lengthy archive. Sometimes, too, a comic doesn’t resonate with me and I let it hang for a while and come back to it. My adjusted policy is that I need to write about what I am enthused about then and not try to force it. You’ll get a fairer, more thoughtful review that way.
♦ Sometimes comics are suggested to me that I just can’t get into. They might still be finding their way or the themes do not grab my imagination. That doesn’t mean they are not good, just that I don’t have much to say. I will set those comics up in the Grab Bag section so that readers get a chance to look at them. If you took the time to contact me, the least I can do is give readers a chance to see your comic.
♦ I may review any comic which fits my Looney Tunes rule. Those Bugs Bunny cartoons often had some adult topics but they were handled in a way that was not vulgar. Therefore, any comics I feature on ArtPatient will be kid friendly in that same way but do not have to be targeted at the kid demographic. Most comics fall into this category, so it’s usually not an issue. I usually will suggest some other reviewers that may be able to help.
♦ In this way, I will sometimes feature completed comics, some new upstarts and even some things that don’t fit the definition of ‘comic’ for comic purists.
♦ I generally do not require a certain archive minimum. If you only have some small number, (say) six comics, you might want to build up a little archive to give me and your readers something to look at. Instead, I may decide to feature your comic in a mini review mid week or add one of your comic images to the Strip News feature with links back to your site.
♦ I do not like horror. At all. If your comic has a lot of zombies, vampires, slashers, demons, werewolves…then I will probably decline. I like to joke that I have enough horror in my life just paying taxes. I’m only half joking, though.
About Quick Strips
These are mini promos/reviews for comics that for some reason or another I have trouble writing a review of. I’ve sometimes hung onto review requests for too long and the comic goes on hiatus or end before I can review it. I’d prefer to hit it with a Quick Strip promo review rather than let the request languish too long.
About Strip Grab Bag
This is a new feature whose purpose is to share geek joys, scuplture, Twitter follow suggestions, comic related endeavors and occasional articles that deserve more space than a bullet point can offer in the strip news feature. Also, I can share a handful of fun things each week that I didn’t have space to offer in the Strip News posts.
About Strip News
Like everyone else, I want to know all the fun things that everyone else is doing in the field. I try to share what I’ve come across or been clued into whether it’s comic business or pure awesome. There are lots of other comic news sites worth reading, so I do my best not to repeat the big stories that are already well covered.
Disclaimers, Privacy Policy and Other Notices
♦ I don’t do paid reviews – I may bookmark comics that advertise on ArtPatient for later review but that’s about as close to compensation as it gets.
♦ Since I usually cover online comics, there is no need for creators to send print product. If they do, I’ll mention it in the review.
♦ I don’t collect or do anything with your personal information – which is mainly what you decide to enter in the comments boxes. There are also particular bits that Google Analytics and the host pick up as part of normal internet information exchange but I’ll never spam you or divulge what little information you may have left here.
♦ Comments are approved on your first comment and then auto-approved thereafter. You are free to agree with me, disagree or suggest alternate points of view. You can even tell me I’m wrong, if that’s what you think. Any comments that border on rudeness, crudeness, profanity, spammishness or outright name calling may not be approved OR may be edited/deleted at my whim. I will then either email you about it or comment about it on the site; whichever I think is going to solve the problem.
♦ All links here are set to do-follow, including those in your comments. I don’t care what the current SEO advice might be – if you comment here I want it to help your page and efforts too.
♦ You are free to repost the RSS feed that this site produces, as long as no content is altered AND the return link back here is kept. Though I don’t see any need right now, I reserve the right to ask particular sites or persons to stop reposting the RSS feed. Also, in some posts there are images which should be displayed in the reposted feed if possible.
♦ Images of reviewed works or featured products are always included with a link to their site of origin and their use is not a dispute of ownership. They are entirely promotional in nature and will be removed upon request (and replaced by something else.)
♦ Naturally, I usually self-edit my own posts . For the strip news, especially, it’s often on Thursday nights and I can be tired and miss something that needs correcting. If I leave a sentence hanging or mistpye something, I would like to know about it so I can fix it. I hate mistakes like that and I’d prefer that joke in the last sentence to be the only misspelling on the entire site. For pointing out my mistakes, I will try to find a way to send readers to your site or help promote your projects.
♦ I’ll update this with anything else that seems important.
As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments. And thanks for reading.
-Delos