The Future of Housepets!

[Harry Johnathan]

I guess that's why it's called "Discord". Maybe I should be grateful that the soreheads spare us the bile on this forum by raising their complaints elsewhere. At any rate, I'll be interested to see where Housepets goes from here.

I think "bile" is overly harsh a term. A lot of people have genuine complaints and worries. And I know what you're gonna say, that "it's Rick's world and nobody else has a say in anything". I get that mentality but in my opinion, when you actually publish a fictional work and get it out to the masses, it's never just "your world" anymore. It becomes your fans' world, too.

[NHWestoN]

I guess that's why it's called "Discord". Maybe I should be grateful that the soreheads spare us the bile on this forum by raising their complaints elsewhere. At any rate, I'll be interested to see where Housepets goes from here.

I think "bile" is overly harsh a term. A lot of people have genuine complaints and worries. And I know what you're gonna say, that "it's Rick's world and nobody else has a say in anything". I get that mentality but in my opinion, when you actually publish a fictional work and get it out to the masses, it's never just "your world" anymore. It becomes your fans' world, too.

Ah, Harry, that's opens one of the epic cultural questions of art: "To what degree should an artist bend his (or her) creative genius to the desires/guidance/whims/emotions of the audience?" This question is particularly tricky if an artist also seeks to entertain a particular collection of public tastes - and even more so if he's seeking praise, publicity, and/or financial profits from them. How to determine what the public wants is a game of pollsters, psychics, marketeers, and storekeepers. What makes one particular set of voices more "authoritative" about an arc, a character, or a drawing style than another, especially when advice is often given in tones of command and urgency? Whatever that produces wouldn't be "Rick's World". What it would be might more approximate what an artist friend of my daughter's produces. She unapologetically follows the tastes of the moment, makes good money, and regards her work as drek - "It smells, but it sells."

Publishing a work indeed creates a space where "artist's world" and "fan's world" open for exchange and dialogue. This is healthy and inevitable. However, exchange does not covey entitlement - fans may demand but they deserve no expectation that the artist bow to their visions, interpretations, or inspirations as to how the artist's future work should proceed. Fans can express their admiration or threir irritation at the artist's work through comments, complaints, analysis, imitation (fanfics, artwork using the characters, dialogue threads, games, etc.) but they have no right to expect (let alone demand) compliance. Now, how much Rick is influenced by fan opinion - whether here or on Discord or Pintrest or Facebook or private contacts or public graffiti - I do not know. I don't know if he even reads these sites or, if he does, how much. I'm sure "not positive" reactions get through to him but how they influence his work, I have no way to determine or measure. Over the years, however, I am impressed and amused by some of the comments of fans who seem to feel they could do a better job of Housepets than Rick does. "presumption is the highest form of self-satire", eh.

It's a free country (although a lot of determined, dedicated, and committed men and women are working hard to change that!). Fans are free to offer praise, criticism, and advice as they want - but it's still gonna be "Rick's World" and he has no obligation to react to them. In a capitalist, liberal system, fans have the ultimate vote on "Rick's World" by taking their eye-balls elsewhere. Such is the risk an artist takes in following his own vision.

So, all that over-said, Harry, you are right to upbraid me for the comment about Discord. Since I don't belong to Discord nor read its entries, I'm being pretty "high-mindedly ignorant" to characterize the discourse there as "bile". I have read some dark comments about the conversations there but those are second-hand implications that I should have checked for myself before stating an opinion. My apologies for my presumption.

So, Rick, you're finally gonna fade out all the "new crew" and go back to Peanut and Grape, right ... and Daisy, too. Right?

[Amazee Dayzee]

Pretty sure that Peanut and Grape will go back to being main characters and everybody else will end up being recurring drop-in characters.

If they are lucky that is...