So... Clients Suck

Yeah, it's another semi-work-related post (but there's more geeky stuff down below).  But, the reason I haven't posted for the past couple of days is because I've spent the past week working on a radio buy for one of my clients and after I finished it last Friday and sent it to them for approval, I was informed that they had also asked another agency to put a buy together (which is a breach of ethics as well as a breach of contract, by the way) and they want me to execute the buy that the other agency put together because it was "cheaper", but they won't actually tell me what the costs are that the other agency negotiated.  So, I'm having to negotiate in a vacuum and I've received written confirmation from my sales reps that the rates I negotiated were actually lower than what they gave the other agency.  The whole thing is a mess and it's sucked up most of my time this week for what's going to amount to less than 3% of my annual salary.  When you consider that, time-wise, I've already spent nearly 5% of my amortize annual hours working on this buy, you can see why I might be a little ticked off. 

So, onto some geeky stuff.  I've been thinking about this for awhile but I couldn't figure out enough of what to say to make it a complete post.

I have to say that I really hate change in general, but especially when it comes to comic books.  Why do comic companies see the need to "hit the reset button" every few years and mess things all up?  I drift in and out of comics, but comics are one of those things where... Batman has been around since 1939.  When I go to the comic store to pick up a Batman comic, I want Batman to be BATMAN. Bruce Wayne. Not Dick Grayson. Not some chick dressing up like Batman. I want Bruce F*cking Wayne. And now he has a kid who is Robin or something? And Barry Allen, the Flash, died in Crisis. Like dead-died. He was gone for decades. I got used to it. I was fine with Wally being the Flash. I kind of liked him, actually. But then Bart was the Flash, and now Barry is back again? And Hal was the Green Lantern and then he went crazy and became Parallax, but now they're saying that wasn't really him, and then he died and then he became the Specter but now he's back and we're supposed to pretend like none of that ever happened?  Um... What the Hell?

And don't get me started on the stupid ridiculous logo change that DC just made.  And then just late last year they completely re-booted the entire 80+ year history of DC Comics Character and just said, "POOF!  Gone!  We're starting over!"  And then the took the longest running comic book in history, Action Comics, and RE-NUMBERED IT starting at #1!?!!?!?! Why in the world would you do that?

I hear arguments from people saying, "The kids won't get into comics because there's too much baggage. If they pick up a comic that's numbered in the hundreds, they're going to think that they won't know what's going on, so they don't pick them up.  That's why kids don't read comics."

To which I say... Bullshit.  Kids not reading comics has nothing to do with the numbers on the cover of the book.  I started reading X-Men around issue #175 or so, and it didn't bother me.  Sure, there were things that I didn't get and characters that I didn't know, but if you read the damn thing for like four or five issues, you pretty much pick up anything that you need to know.  And, you know what?  These days we have Wikipedia. You can look up what came before if you're really that confused. 

So, why all of the "New 52" reboot stuff, except for marketing efforts?  I bet in a few years they'll go back on at least some of the main titles and re-number them back in the old style.  Like this is just a gimick or something.

So, what's my point to all this?  Well, I'm going to prove just how hypocritical people can be. I hate it when they change comics.  I absolutely hate it. I hate it when I go back to a stripmall or shopping center I haven't visited for a few months or years and find that a store I used to go to is now a Starbucks. I hate it when they change the TV schedule so my show airs on a different day and time (even though it really doesn't matter because I"m recording it on my TiVo to watch later anyway). I hate it when a band I like decides to "update their sound" to be more current. 

And yet... I was never really bothered with TSR and WotC updating D&D.  Well, that is, until 4th Edition. And then I was really annoyed.  I was annoyed before I even saw it because I'd heard rumblings that it was much different from 3rd Edition, and as I've said, I hate change. 

But, the change from 2nd Edition to 3rd?  I didn't mind that at all! I thought that was awesome! And this is a guy who had grown up with D&D from the Moldvay Basic Set back in 1981 or so.  So, yeah, I get that that's hypocritical and not consistent.  But, that's how I felt.

What about you all? How do you feel about all of these changes in comics and in the different versions of D&D and all that? 

PS: I know this was a rant and so there's some kind of OSR rule that I'm supposed to provide some kind of content or something. But, you know what? I don't subscribe to that rule.  :)

Comments

  1. no worries. I don't subscribe to the joesky rule either ;)

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