Qualifications for "The Best" or "Most Influential"

[Mac Man]

MacMan, it seems you won't get much out of this.

 

I think influence is the most measurable of the qualities you suggest, but even that is very difficult to pin down. If two creative products have similarities, they may be influenced by the same earlier work. Even if one creative person claims to have been influenced by a particular other creative person, that is sometimes just an attempt to find legitimacy.

 

Another question is whether influence and/or greatness is always reflected in sales. That definition of great doesn't fit with the creative works we call great on a daily basis. Was "Avatar" the greatest or most influential movie ever made?

 

First, thanks for responding. It's a tricky question, and while I have a few ideas of my own, I thought I'd give the boards a try too.

 

Now, I only pointed to sales as AN indicator--certainly not THE indicator of success. Heck, Titanic was the top for a long time, and I think it's a wretched example of sentimentalism. But, I do think we can look at sustained popularity as one of a few indicators. Unfortunately, it also happens to be one of the few facets that is easily quantifiable.

 

@ dupont and gyro: But let's be honest: How satisfying is it to conclude that everything is relative? I'm not sure I completely subscribe to that theory. Mind you, I'm not saying there fixed standards for everything either. There is certainly room for subjectivity; however, I do believe there are guidelines we can apply to evaluating subjects where a majority of people can come to similar conclusions.

 

Even here on the boards we've run numerous polls where popular vote was the deciding factor in terms of which issues were the top of each comic age, or the top covers, artists, or writers of a given period.

 

I guess this stems from a writing project I'm working on, and I want to try and avoid the overly subjective superlatives as much as I can. I do it with grading my papers through using rubrics, and I have to believe there are traits that can be determined for comics to assess "greatness," "significance,' etc.

[lizards2]

I use what I call the "Roadhouse Scale." If it is better than Roadhouse, it is frickin' awesome. If it is worse than Roadhouse, then I kick it down to the Red Dawn scale. If it is worse than Red Dawn, then it blows.

 

You have Roadhouse above Red Dawn?

 

Absolutely. Red Dawn has no nudity and no soundtrack. Roadhouse has nudity and a rockin soundtrack. Red Dawn also has no kung fu and lacks anyone getting their throat ripped out. It has good violence, but not hand to hand. Red Dawn is not the complete package. Roadhouse is.

 

What never made any sense to me about Red Dawn is that not even one of those nascent brat pack dudes seemed at all interested in getting it on with Lea Thompson or Jennifer Grey. It was like the high school wrestling team gone horribly wrong. Maybe they should have mounted up on unicorns and charged the Reds...

They had a job to do first

 

My son will be wrestling for a prominent NYC University next year - maybe he can come down to Brawltimore and explain it to you on break........,

 

riding a unicorn, of course Oh...., wait a sec......,

 

F'ing Commie unicorns.........., last of the New Jersey Whites.....,