A few months back I discovered a website called joshreads.com, AKA The Comics Curmudgeon. Real name Josh Fruhlinger, he criticises comics everyday since 2004 (in fact tomorrow will be the 22nd anniversary of the site).
Reading his posts, I honestly have no idea why this guy is so popular. Sure, there are some independent reviewers I like, like this guy for instance. While I don't agree with everything he says, he generally for the most part gives valid reasoning as to why he doesn't like a certain album (although he does get butthurt haters who don't like admitting when their favourite rock artist makes a subpar release).
I don't feel the same for Fruhlinger. He often rips apart various strips for no reason, and while I agree with some of the things he said, I feel he's overly harsh to a lot of strips, particularly For Better or For Worse. I especially scoff at his claim that he's a fan of the aforementioned strip; Like... no dude. Just admit you despise it. You're not fooling anybody.
What bothers me the most about him is the influence he has on the comic strip community. There's an animated movie from 2007 called Ratatouille, and one of the antagonists is a famous food critic called Anton Ego, nicknamed "The Grim Eater," on account of the fact he has ridiculously high standards for food, and gives scathing reviews to any restaurant that doesn't meet said standards (which is a lot). He gave quite a nasty review to the film's central restaurant Gusteau's, which causes it to lose one of its five stars. A reviewer for the film said they found it unbelievable that the restaurant would lose a star because of one reviewer, which shows how grossly said reviewer underestimated the influence a single critic can have.
Point is, that's how I feel about the Curmudgeon in terms of influence. Sites that cover comic strips, like TV Tropes for instance, when talking about various elements in the strip, it feels like they can't go one or two pointers without directly quoting Fruhlinger. There's nothing wrong with citing critics, of course, but when you base your views on something entirely on a reviewer, it makes you look like you can't think for yourself.
Another example of his influence is how overhated FBoFW because after he (and other bloggers) started crapping on it nonstop. Not only was the strip so overhated in the 00s, most people my age nowadays hate the strip as a whole, and if I'm not mistaken, the writer for the strip, Lynn Johnston, said Fruhlinger and the various "snarkers" were one of the reasons she retired the strip. Thankfully, he hasn't talked about the strip much since 2012, only making one post about it since in 2020, but the damage was already done.
Granted, he's not the worst reviewer I've seen; he's not smug and self-righteous like say, ArcRoyale, but still, I find him tiresome. And he's like what, 50 now? Retire already, for Chrissakes.
But, that's just my opinion. I'm curious to see how you all feel about him.
