Somewhere a dozen or so pages back (or maybe a hundred, it's been a haul) someone theorized that Dobson just has never been able to get over the fact that although he broke with an early lead in the artistic talent department, everyone else caught up, if not, passed him, and here he is in that life race, 300 laps later, STILL either in massive denial or just massive butthurt about that fact and he rails about the indignity of it all as the field laps him again.
He needs to either pick up the pace, or park the car.
I can kind of understand it. I was a somewhat artistically gifted person in the 2nd and 3rd grades, I just found drawing came naturally to me. My art teacher said so, my other teachers said so, my classmates said so, it was nice to be GOOD at something. But then, about High School, I hit a roadblock in my style and, at the same time, other people who had spent the last 10 years working their craft were suddenly better than me, a LOT better. Even my brother, who'd I always easily outdrew, was better. Not only better, but a PUBLISHED animator, people were PAYING for his stuff, enough that he could live on his own and independently before I could.
That was a real downer, realizing that my special talent wasn't so special or so talented anymore. I can understand the frustration and the disenchantment when everyone blows by you while you're stalled out. But I didn't curl up and die. I kept working at it and you know what? I got better. Not great, but better. Enough that you can put my stuff from 8 years ago next to this and be convinced I didn't do the earlier piece. And all that work has paid off, I get people who honestly like my stuff, but I know my limits, I don't think that means I'm going to be putting anyone out of business if I just hang out a shingle and start accepting commissions.
Yeah, I'm just a hobby artist, I'll never be a paid professional, I don't have the raw skill, or the ability to work good enough FAST enough to meet a production schedule, but that's okay for me, I'm happy with where I am now and that I can improve. And most importantly, I learned to stop being a perfectionist and just have some fun. Art is supposed to be FUN, when it stops being fun, it's time to stop tormenting yourself.
Dobson is still just angry at the art world for getting better while he got complacent. And nothing I've seen from him seems to indicate he's even aware that's the problem.
Especially not that "I only want to work on stuff that inspires" , if it ain't epic, it ain't worth it.
That's either delusional thinking, or an excuse for why he can't be bothered with requests for that which is "beneath" him. He just cannot admit that he's NOT the head of the pack like he was in school where he could shake drawings out of his sleeve that everyone would be impressed with, and rightly so, coming from someone who was, 12, but you aren't 12 anymore buddy.
It's this toxic superiority that I think causes most of the problems. If he were a more amicable person, I doubt we'd pick apart his work for it's flaws like we do. But because he's so high on himself and low on others, we're GOING to point out his glaring anatomy flaws and lazy sausage fingers. If he was more chill and possibly a better joke writer, we'd probably never have cared if he'd just done stick figures a 'la XKCD.
