The following was posted in my tagboard this morning, while I was at work.   Imagine my surprise when I came home after a 10-hour shift, and found what was waiting for me.

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Deity Hater: Who came up with the plot for this thing, a twelve year old crack addict with ADHD? The skid marks in my underwear look better than the "art" on this page. Deity Permit sucks!!! [Note: His email listed was deity@hater.com >_>]

Deris: Ah, the as*holes have arrived. There's always one. Perhaps when 'he' grows up he'll learn to be more polite.
Deris: It appears to me Rika is trying to overcome her fear of water or the ocean. I don't think she can swim either. It's a common enough fear, fear of the ocean.

Yaeden X: I would have to agree with Deris about the crudity of 'Mr.' Hater's comments. That level of nastiness is never called for.
Yaeden X: However, aside from the scatological nature of the comment I would have to agree wholeheartedly with the sentiment. This comic really isn't very good. [Note: Honestly, Yaeden's comment made more of an impact than Deity Hater's did.  How ironic. ;_;]

Josh Stalin: I doubt you could find someone who can draw better then Soap and produce a more fascinating storyline then the one depicted in this comic.

Orion: Ah well, to each his/her own I suppose, at least Yaeden had more civility than most.

Nomikawa: I think the art in this comic is fine. It is certainly better than most, but I don't agree that the story line is "fascinating". At this point, it's just confusing.

wp: As far as I've seen, this is one of the most mysterious and interesting stories I've seen in a web comic. It has a few hiccups in delivery, but it still makes sense.
wp: Because the story is just beginning, it is confusing; like any mystery. Once the plot gets rolling, you will start to understand. I think the prologue leads the reader by the hand too much. [Note: Yes! Yes it does! But people complained it moved too fast, so I accidently over-compensated. Go me.]

TMcCaine: Not everyone is a Mcfarlaine, Davinci, or even an annrice... Think of it, how good are you?
TMcCaine: Honestly people just want attention and trash a comic and create havoc pretending they are some l33t h4xx0r or other immature dilusion. [Note: And, they've succeeded in getting my attention. I mean, a whole topic, just for them!]
TMcCaine: I wanted to give my humble thumbs up of this comic. In college and workin hard its a nice break. I enjoy its artwork and storyline.
TMcCaine: Soap never allow someones stupidity to factor your decisions, just work on progress and completion. I have faith in you and will continue to come back.
TMcCaine: and yes I am going off about diety hater. and want to counter with my educated and informed opinion.

Soap Committee: Ha ha ha! Deity Hater: Thanks for taking the time to make a deity-hater email! I thought that was pretty funny.
Soap Committee: Nomikawa and Yaeden X - yeah, it is confusing. I have no excuse, other than it's my first formal comic. Things definitely started out with poor delivery, but it will make sense [someday]. *shrug*

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I genuinely laughed the first time I read it.  I thought it was genuinely funny that someone would post such a thing.  I'm not saying my comic is above critisism by ANY means, of course - but I've never had someone outright say, "Your comic isn't very good."  Wow.  Deity_Hater's comment still makes me laugh, but the second time I went through and saw "Yaeden's" post, the laughter wasn't there.  I read it again, and thought for a moment - dang. 

Later on, Orion (a poster up there) insisted to me that's it's all a matter of taste, and that such a thing shouldn't work me up so.  The reason that the one comment got me spazzed was that it didn't come from a troll, it came from a not-so-rude-sounding person.  Though the least "Yaeden" could've done was tell me why it's not very good.  Then again, I think I already know.

When I drew the first five pages, I was told it was funny.  When I drew the first ten pages, I was told it was confusing.  I decided to use the next several pages to cover my tracks, and make it less "WTF?" and more "Okay, I get it."  In doing that, I opened a bunch of other mysteries in a less-than-eloquent way, and (I think) made a huge mess of chapter one.  So, yet again, after going through the archives and sticking little pages in to help the jerky flow, I went and drew an entire prolouge to maybe help things a little. 

DANGIT, MY COMIC IS STILL CONFUSING.  Like one "Skylark_king" in a critique said, "Your pacing would be wonderful in a monthly comic medium where we get 26 pages per month to play with. You do have to deal with the curse of the webcomic artist."  A curse, indeed. 

It was Yaeden's one little comment that made me throw up my hands and say, "Gee, golly, GOSH, I used up my summer to do this!  Thanks."  I came very close to posting another "I QUIT" spazz-out message, but I refrained.  Amazing - yesterday I was thinking, "Man.  I love doing my comic.  It'd sure take something crappy to make me not want to do it." 

OKAY  - ENOUGH ANGSTING! 

If you've read ALL of that, I commend you.  This kind of crap doesn't need to be crowding up y'alls friends' lists.  And you know what?  Don't even take all that seriously.  Whatever.  I'm tired.  Bad day...Mmph.  *dies*

Note:  I understand I ought to just grow some thicker skin and get over it; but when the person bashing my comic shares my sentiments on the plot, there's something wrong.  I'm tired of trying to have my comic make sense. I'd rather get my comic's plot moving along, rather than have to constantly rationalize my bumbling in first pages of storytelling.