Note: the debate on the inclusion of the RHG on Wikipedia has closed in the RHG's favour. I keep this post for its 'historical' value!
... I ask because last year an entry for my 20-years-and-counting strip
The Really Heavy Greatcoat (drawn by
Nick Miller) was added to
Wikipedia which one editor deemed "non-noteworthy" and, not knowing the procedure for appealing these decisions, the page was deleted, much to my chagrin - and that of artist Nick Miller.
Kindly restored by one of Wikipedia's editors, that deletion is currently a matter for
renewed debate on the internet encyclopedia, so I'm appealing to any
Greatcoat fans out there, as the strip reaches its 20th anniversary, to support my appeal to keep the entry.
I'm still unsure quite why some are arguing the strip is non-noteworthy. Purely in terms of longevity as an independently published comic - albeit online these days, but also in
Comics International -- I would have thought this counted in the strip's favour, as would its selection by acclaimed US cartoonist
Michael Jantze for inclusion in one of his Norm books a couple of years back. It's clear Wikipedia doesn't consider the creators non-noteworthy, as I have a
limited entry on the site, (I await additions as a result of mentioning this with morbid interest...).
Maybe I just don't understand Wikipedia's rules and have broken some arcane aspect of them, but it seems odd to me that strips with a shorter publication history have even larger entries on Wikipedia (James Turner's superb and award-winning
Beaver and Steve, for one, a brilliant strip and kudos to him for achieving the notability required with pure online publication since 2004, and a collection I've previously urged everyone ot go out and buy) .
Anyway -- so far, several people have voiced their support for the strip's inclusion and if anyone reading this can think of arguments in favour of the elusive "notablity" factor required by those who have argued the
Really Heavy Greatcoat apparently doesn't have, I'd be grateful if you voiced it in the debate - thanks.
My appeal has already been backed by blogmaster
Joe Gordon over at Forbidden Planet International, and others.
Angry aliens, terrified police and bemused party goers. Yes, it's the 20th Anniversary Really Heavy Greatcoat - three pages of mothball-inspired mayhem!
I'm guessing now that some critical praise (from, say, Alan Moore, or Dave Gibbons, who I would hope the Wikipedia editors might just have heard of!) might help swing this the Greatcoat's way, which would be a nice present as it celebrates 20 years of cartoon weirdness!
As part of this strip, I added the contents of a note using an image map in the version on the main part of the downthetubes site, but here it is in an easier to find display (plus I have no idea how to do an image map in Blogger!)
