For the type of books you review, this wouldn’t be the way to go.

For the people putting out their first comic? I’ve been thanked for the advice.

A lot of my books are by new creators and they typically need the help. While outright bashing might be fun (if you don’t have to look the creator in the eye again) it isn’t very helpful.

I found writing positive reviews to be so much harder than negative reviews. In fact, tearing apart a crappy book was too much fun. When writing a positive review, I felt, as others have mentioned, that I was just being a cheerleader.

But it is important to have negative reviews so that readers know to stay away from some books, and that some creators know they need to do better.

I wouldn’t even attempt to critique a book until I had some training in how to critique.

So when I do publish a pan of a book, it is usually something where I’ve sat the book down and had an explosion of thoughts about the book’s flaws, etc., and why it didn’t work. And as Jay said above, that’s usually when you avoid nasty notes from publishers and creators- a thoughtful critique written without malice allows for respectful dialogue. It also makes a positive review from a writer mean more.

[...] looking at the value of negative reviews, Johanna inspires a tangential thought for me when she says that negative reviews are harder to [...]

All I know about negative reviews is that one (when I panned Michel Gagne’s Spore in the back of Detective) led to a new friendship (with Gagne).

And that this recent one by Graeme
(http://savagecritic.com/2008/03/god-gave-rocknroll-to-you-graeme-gets.html) convinced me that other than FF, I can miss out on Millar.

Supporters of the burgeoning Crossgen tore the review to shreds, suggesting, among other things, that I likened the comic to child porn and that I must want to see young girls as sexual beings.

I was writing for the Fandom.com incarnation of Comics Newsarama at the time.

I find both helpful. I’m completely in the camp with Tala, however. Knowing a reviewer’s likes and dislikes allows me to benchmark my own tastes against the reviewer. Without negative reviews, I can’t get a good sense of if we agree on dislikes.

I also agree with both Scott and Nat. I agree with Nat that it’s rare to dissuade someone from something they’ve already decided to purchase; but I’m with Scott, too, that sometimes, I’m looking for help paring down my want list.

Tara, great stories! Love the experience comparison. I have readers like that, who buy what I hate.

David, always a good idea to remember that distinction, that there’s a difference between like/dislike and good/bad.

Don, no, you’ve stumped me. Which is a pleasant surprise. What was it?

I’ve also had some negative reviews that generated some small measure of controversy, and it drove some readers to go get the book to see what the fuss was about.

Johanna, remember the Meridian #1 review debacle in 2000? :)

That’s what I look for in a comic review, an actual review as opposed to a personal rant (unfortunately the majority I see are the latter). Both positive and negative reviews can be good so long as the personal bias of the reviewer is put on hold, or at least acknowledged or already understood beforehand (like Tara Tallan just pointed out).

That is to say, I think it is easier for a bad product to be (more) universally recognized whereas a good product is more of an eye-of-the-beholder sort of thing.

Of course, it could be that I’ve prematurely reached the state of jaded, curmudgeonly pessimist… though I would be skeptical of that. :)