On Criticism

Lately, I've been thinking about the role of criticism, specifically negative reviews of comics and how they tend to be received by the creative individuals involved.

For myself, I always consider reviews useful—even the hatchet jobs. It makes my heart sink a little when I hear other artists dismiss all reviews as irrelevant to their process. A common claim is that reviews tell us "only about the reviewer" and tell us "nothing about the work," but I disagree. Yes, reviewers have biases. Yes...