Editorial: Slott VS Crawlspace

If you’re a new visitor to the site or an old one I’d like to clear up some things about this website and our relationship with Dan Slott. Bottom line I don’t hate him or envy him.

History: When I started this website back in 1998 I was just hoping to share my love of Spider-Man to whoever would listen. In those 12 years I never guessed how many people share that same love of a certain webslinger. I was lucky to know one fan in my town that liked Spider-Man. After the movies hit it seemed everyone loved Spidey.

In 12 years we’ve grown from about a hundred people visiting the site a month to about 200,000 unique a month. If every visitor bought one issue of Amazing Spider-Man it would be the highest grossing comic for that particular month. According to the latest sales figures Amazing sold 52,586 in the direct market for November.

The comic industry is a small place. Writers can easily log onto websites the day their books are released and communicate with the fans within minutes. Should they do that? I think it’s a great idea. The internet has brought us closer together. Now with that relationship, I feel comes responsibility from both parties.

Slott Comment to Fan: Dan Slott recently told off a snarky fan on the Comic Book Resources Spider-Man Forum. The fan said Slott was only doing it for a paycheck. Dan replied back saying.

As a guy who turned down a side job this year for a paycheck that would’ve been over a third of his yearly income– BECAUSE it would’ve meant cutting back on his not-so-lucrative comic book writing career– and get in the way of working on his Spider-Man dream job…

…and the guy who slept less than 12 hours over the course of 4 days this week working on a script while he was sick… a guy who finally had to be ORDERED off it by his editor to go see a doctor… and is still in a good deal of pain today…

…this is the first time I think I’ve ever said this to somebody over a comic book message board:

Go fuck yourself.

Seriously.

Go. Fuck. Yourself.

I saw that post and was shocked that Slott went off on him in that manner. Not that the guy didn’t have it coming, however I expected a professional comic book writer to act, well  professional.  Slott’s boss Editor Steve Wacker has a different opinion about his employee. He states that Slott does not represent Marvel and that he’s a freelance writer. So it’s just one of the many perks of said title.

Dan doesn’t live by the same rules because the freelancer/company relationship is very different. Not theoretically different… but specifically and legally different. You not wanting to believe in that doesn’t make it untrue or unimportant.

Is It News?: Slott and Wacker have both questioned why this was newsworthy. It was newsworthy because

A) This site covers events related to Spider-Man.

B) When the head writer tells a potential or current customer to go fuck themselves, it’s news.

C) It  appeared that CBR tried to cover it up.
They took the post down. Did they do it to not show Slott in a bad light? Did they take it down because it was offensive? Slott says it was a dead issue because the snarky fan apologized. However I have never heard if Slott apologized too.

D) It happened in a public place. CBR is seen by thousands. If the guy said this to Slott in an e-mail or at a bar, it wouldn’t have been such a big deal. People who make the news are generally shocked that they are newsworthy. They then question the reporters judgment about their job.

E) I wanted to open up debate if it’s appropriate for a professional comic book writer to go off on a fan. We had more than 600 comments in that post. It seems fans were split down the middle.

Editorial : What is my two cents? I think Dan Slott can’t take criticism very well. He’s got his dream job. However, he got it after one of the biggest controversial storylines happened to our beloved character. Slott and this current team had nothing to do with the editorial mandate to break up the marriage. They were left to deal with the ticked off fans and start building up the audience. As Slott pointed out on his Formspring account, it’s been four years and nothing has changed.

Spider-Man fans are very passionate about this character. It has to do with the everyman characteristic. We all feel Peter Parker is like a brother to us and we all want the best for him.  When something doesn’t feel right, they complain. Online there are certain place where you can vent.

You can’t go to the Marvel.com board. All discussion about One More Day has been banned. The other major Spider-Man websites don’t have a forum. Spider-Fan doesn’t had a board. Samruby.com doesn’t have a board. You can go to CBR, but it’s not a site just devoted to Spider-Man.
The Crawlspace does have a board but there are rules to follow. There are no personal attacks. If the exchange between Slott and the fan at CBR had happened here, both would have gotten a warning.

When Slott came to the Crawlspace when he first got the gig, I was flattered. He had a great first post about how he became a Spider-Fan and looked forward to talking to fans. That deteriorated over the months. In his 150 posts he got in more and more arguments. In fact he got a warning on one occasion. He eventually asked for his account to be deactivated. He claimed this was the most negative site about Spider-Man on the internet.He continued to bash this site at CBR and any other place he felt the need. Before he left I told him to explore the other areas of the message board. If you just search the words “Dan Slott” each time you visit  you are going to get a different view of the board than taking it as a whole.

In a his recent formspring post Slott said K-Box from the Crawl Space message board told him to “go die in a fire.” After searching thoroughly it simply wasn’t true. At no point did he say that here on the Crawlspace. He could have said it on his own blog but Slott still attested that member to the Crawlspace. Is that fair? Should we have everyone pee in a cup before they enter?  Should we do background checks before they enter? Slott did it because the Crawlspace is an easy target.

He proved that today when on his twitter account he accused a member of this site that they hacked his wikipedia page. Someone changed it to include these lines.

Spider-Man Crawlspace Controversy

After having a friendly debate with a fan on the internet about Spider-Man character Ben Reilly on the internet, Dan Slott was criticized by the popular Spider-Man Crawlspace website and was told by several members to “Go F- himself.” Similar incidents have happened on the website already, but never escalated to such a point. They also stated that “His stupidity has spread over the comic book world he should die of something bad… like cancer”, and has been called out by moderators on his forumspring account. While the website of interest has been known for criticizing Slott’s work, Slott in return is guilty of nothing but doing his job. The tension between them erupted in an internet flaming war. On December 11, 2010, Slott recieved death threats from user “Kevin Cushing” (using the fake name Jared) filed suit against Crawlspace owner Brad Douglas, Administrator Kevin Cushing, and 2 unidentified users of the Crawlspace Message Board for as of yet unknown charges

Slott then commented on his twitter page.

Wow! Lurked on a certain message board for the LAST time. I added BlockSite. Going to do the same 4 my laptop as well. Unbelievable. On the SAME thread where they’re saying “No one from our site would EVER vandalize Slott’s Wiki page, we’re just NOT like that here. Yet on the SAME thread a poster has signed on w/ a fake alias and is pretending to B me! Seriously. Bad enough you guys make stuff up left and right, claim we do things we’ve never done in the book, take cheap shots at Joe and the editorial and creative team… But– You know what? I’m done even bitching about it. Whatever. And done! That felt good! That site is now -whoosh- cut off from my laptop too. Can’t even lurk. It’s a relief actually. Let ’em yammer…away over there. Gotta watch out tho, it was almost 2 easy. ‘Might go BlockSite-happy! Poof CBR! Poof ‘Rama! Calm down. Not there yet. 🙂

Again Slott jumped to conclusions that someone from this website wrote that on his wikipedia page. Anyone from the internet can write on the wikipedia page. Why would he blame this site? Again, it’s an easy target. A bunch of Spider-Fan gather here, it must be the Crawlspace. A lot of people also shop at Wal-Mart that have criminal histories. Do you blame Wal-Mart for crime? By reading the wiki post it seems they have an ax to grind with this site to begin with.

As far as the person who impersonated Slott on the front page. That’s an instant ban. The IP matched Cyberghostface and he was dealt with and banned.

Bottom Line: I think Slott should not read reviews of his work. He is potentially losing Marvel customers. If you tell a customer or potential customer to go F-Themselves then you are taking things too seriously. You need to back away and get out of the environment.
I also don’t take criticism of this website very well. I feel my staff and I put out the best Spider-Man fan site on the internet. We  have daily updates and try to give you a place to have fun and discuss our favorite webhead.
I do think fans on the internet need to take some sensitivity classes. They should follow a simple rule. Would I say this to the person’s face? If the answer is no, don’t post it. Discuss,criticize and praise the work, not the creator. Be responsible! We all love a character that is driven by responsibility. We should be responsible in our comments and behavior.