Jhony Cash (Trader)
Active member
You're probably right... however, to his credit, he did try for a short time to establish connections with us and find a common ground for discussion. He also wanted to raise awareness about piracy. Not that he denied its existence, but that we simply needed to find a "modus vivendi," a reasonable timeframe for making our creations public on this forum...
... and some of us mocked him, loudly proclaiming that we were the real pirates and that no rules applied to us, not even a "gentleman's agreement." Without saying anything, I read this exchange without approving of it.
Personally, I regret that FR distanced himself from our little group, and I hope that perhaps, in time, he would have taken some of our suggestions into account. Now, the connection is broken, and I think that's the worst thing that could have happened.
More personnaly....I haven't renewed my subscription for several weeks now, even though I'd been a subscriber for years. I confess, I discovered PK through pirated publications. But I felt it was important to subscribe to support work I hoped would be sustainable... unfortunately (though I'm not a perfect example), I'm losing the motivation to pay for a subscription that only gives me three or four issues of a few series I like every six months. I miss the days when you could buy individual issues (they were $15, if I remember correctly), but I think that could have been a very good economic indicator of their workāwhat was successful and what wasn't.
Maybe I'm wrong, but switching to a monthly subscription wasn't necessarily a bad idea if it was, as I believed, to increase the number of bestsellers published. Certainly not to create puzzles, chatbots, or other such nonsense. And even less so to create ever more grotesque new series dealing with the exact same themes, without developing the existing ones... the characters, the plots.
I have a passion for villains, zoo and power dynamics or hard domination.
Why do I like LF ? Because I think Cynthia is a great character? Because bestiality and brutality are a game without "damage" in a comic book and that it (finally) gives it energy ? Yes, of course, but especially because today something interesting is being built around old Johnson as an evil and highly perverse character...
Remember, what's interesting about a James Bond film? 007? No, who cares, the actor changes every 10 years and it still works.
What's interesting about James Bond films are the villains. (Their psychologies, their complexities, their traumas and their sadisms, in short, everything that led them to concoct grotesque but fascinating plans to dominate the world)
Johnson is what Bill is with Beatrice Kiddo... we only see him a little, but his evil shadow is ever-present, especially in the later issues... which, of course, are my favorites.
Your analysis of PKās business model also makes total sense. Financial support from readers usually comes from the desire to see the work grow with quality and consistency. When the format shifts to a subscription that delivers little relevant content and focuses on secondary distractions (like chatbots or puzzles) instead of developing the plots and characters that the audience already loves, it is natural for motivation to disappear. This is exactly what you described regarding his insistence on producing throwaway, ineffective, and bland little stories: the audience feels treated like fools when they realize the focus has shifted from the quality of the comic to this type of visual and narrative distraction. Selling individual issues was, indeed, an excellent and fairer barometer for the market.
And as for your take on LF and the construction of villains, you touched on the central point of what makes a narrative engaging. The parallel with James Bond and, especially, with the dynamic between Bill and Beatrix Kiddo is perfect. Characters like old man Johnson work precisely because of this: the psychological threat and the shadow of sadism and perversity they cast over the story often have much more impact and generate far more tension than the explicit action itself. It is what gives weight and energy to the plot. While a good erotic work needs realism, grit, and an immersive slice-of-life approach to convince and hook the readerāas you well pointed outāFrank Romanoās narrative fails on both extremes: it doesnāt deliver the explicit eroticism it promises (sticking only to implications) and it is incapable of building psychological tension or giving continuity to the characters' daily lives.
It is a shame that the platform seems to be losing its editorial direction, but your critical view on the balance between commerce and the art of comics is extremely precise
