Eric Burns
Encyclopedia
Eric Alfred Burns is an American
critic, writer, poet, columnist and Role Playing Game developer who lived in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire
. He is known as the creator and one of the principal writers of the popular culture and webcomic commentary website Websnark and as the writer of the webcomic
Gossamer Commons.
, Maine
. He attended college at Boston University
for two years before leaving school and moving to Ithaca, New York
, where he worked as a professional actor and as a temporary worker for Manpower Inc.
At one point, he lived on the top floor of a high rise directly on the Ithaca Commons
. Burns later set Gossamer Commons in Ithaca, loosely based on his time living on the Commons. He returned to school, attending the University of Maine at Fort Kent
, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts
in English Literature
, Cum Laude. It was Burns's education and training in literary criticism
that informed his eventual move into webcomics criticism. Burns was one of the most prolific Superguy
writers during this time, eventually contributing just shy of a million words to the creative writing project. Burns also became a published poet during these years, most notably in the Black Fly Review.
Superguy ultimately led Burns to his first short fiction publication credits, for the short lived Mythic Heroes magazine.
After graduation, Burns returned to Ithaca for a time, including a stint as an actor for the Sterling Renaissance Festival in nearby Fair Haven, New York
. After a year, he moved to Seattle, Washington
, before moving back to Maine and ultimately to New Hampshire. During this period, Burns became involved with the In Nomine Role Playing Game
published by Steve Jackson Games
, ultimately writing both for the game and for Pyramid Magazine. Burns became one of the principal writers of Sidewinder Wild West Adventures, a d20
role playing game published by Citizen Games that was nominated for an ENnie Award. Burns is listed as a contributing author on Sidewinder: Recoiled, a d20 Modern
based sequel produced by Dog House Rules which won the 2004 ENnie Gold award for Best Electronic Product. However, Burns claims little to no involvement with the second work. Burns has also worked for Decipher
.
In 1999, Burns began work on Some Days in the Life of Eric Alfred Burns, an online journal and diary that, while sharing many aspects with a more modern blog
, tended less to the incidental and more to essays and commentary. While not as popular as Burns's later work with Websnark, the journal did ultimately attract about three thousand regular daily readers, particularly during a poignant run as Burns chronicled his battle with congestive heart failure
induced by idiopathic
cardiomyopathy
, as well as a car accident in 2000.
that was less an outlet for essays and more a traditional personal diary, Burns didn't really return to significant essay writing or criticism until 2004 and his launching of Websnark. Originally meant to be the frivolous journal with a renewed "Some Days in the Life" acting as his serious essay blog, Websnark swiftly built an audience that ultimately reached the mid five figures daily. Utilizing a conversational style with a heavy emphasis on Webcomics, Burns was seen at least initially as a more approachable alternative to more traditional critics in outlets like Comixpedia and The Webcomics Examiner. Any potential acrimony between these different approaches was swiftly mitigated, however, and Burns became a regular Comixpedia columnist as well as a contributor to the Examiner.
Though referring to his critiques as snark
s, Burns typically eschews the snide and sarcastic tone that the word implies, most typically focusing on positive examples and developments in the webcomics world. Websnark is also an outlet for commentary on philosophy and popular culture, though webcomics remains what the site is known for. Of particular interest is Burns's use of literary criticism instead of art criticism as the basis of his critiques. Burns avoids directly criticizing art, in part because of his own lack of drawing ability. (A fact clearly underscored by his first webcomic, Unfettered by Talent, which Burns drew himself.) It seems more likely, however, that Burns's background and training in literary criticism informs his technique. Burns has employed New Criticism
, Myth Criticism, and Historicism
at different times, clearly enjoying literary theory
for its own sake. When pressed, Burns identifies himself as a New Critic, though he is not known for close reading
the works he is critiquing.
Burns also has archivist tendencies. Once a proponent of using Wikipedia itself as a tool for centralizing information about webcomics, Burns ultimately suggested the creation of Comixpedia's Webcomics Wiki, though others have done most of the work on the Webcomics Wiki since then.
In 2005, Burns took on Wednesday White as a partner at Websnark, and also began merchandising the site in minor ways. He also traded on the notoriety Websnark afforded him by putting out an open call for an artist to collaborate on a new webcomic (having decided against trying to draw it himself). Greg Holkan, the artist of Nemesis, came on board and the pair launched Gossamer Commons on March 21, 2005. It ended, unfinished, in April 2006. Also in 2005, Burns launched an unchanging artwork gag-a-day photo comic, The Adventures of Brigadier General John Stark, about the hero of the Battle of Bennington
. In December, Burns became an editor
for the webcomics collective Modern Tales
, working with their free website. He stepped down from that position in August, citing general overwork. In 2007, Burns created a website for his fiction work called Banter-Latte http://banter-latte.annotations.com/, which is currently updated several days a week.
Eric had gastric bypass surgery
in March 2004, and has credited this with saving his life. Burns has suggested that he approached 500 pounds at his heaviest. As of August 2005, he had lost close to two hundred pounds.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
critic, writer, poet, columnist and Role Playing Game developer who lived in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire
Wolfeboro, New Hampshire
Wolfeboro is a town in Carroll County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 6,269 at the 2010 census. A venerable resort area situated beside Lake Winnipesaukee, Wolfeboro includes the village of Wolfeboro Falls...
. He is known as the creator and one of the principal writers of the popular culture and webcomic commentary website Websnark and as the writer of the webcomic
Webcomic
Webcomics, online comics, or Internet comics are comics published on a website. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers or often in self-published books....
Gossamer Commons.
Education
Burns was born and raised in Fort KentFort Kent, Maine
Fort Kent is a town in Aroostook County, Maine, United States. The population was 4,097 in the 2010 census. Fort Kent is home to an Olympic biathlete training center, an annual CAN-AM dogsled race, and the Fort Kent Blockhouse, built in reaction to the Aroostook War and in modern times designated...
, Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
. He attended college at Boston University
Boston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
for two years before leaving school and moving to Ithaca, New York
Ithaca, New York
The city of Ithaca, is a city in upstate New York and the county seat of Tompkins County, as well as the largest community in the Ithaca-Tompkins County metropolitan area...
, where he worked as a professional actor and as a temporary worker for Manpower Inc.
Manpower Inc.
ManpowerGroup is a workforce solutions and services provider company headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. It was established by Elmer Winter and Aaron Scheinfeld in 1948. It was acquired by Blue Arrow of Britain in 1987, but became independent again in 1991.The directors include...
At one point, he lived on the top floor of a high rise directly on the Ithaca Commons
Ithaca Commons
The Ithaca Commons is a two-block pedestrian mall in downtown Ithaca, New York, built in 1974. Its boundaries are Green Street to the south, Cayuga Street to the west, Seneca Street to the north, and Aurora Street to the east. It sits at the intersection of Tioga and State Streets...
. Burns later set Gossamer Commons in Ithaca, loosely based on his time living on the Commons. He returned to school, attending the University of Maine at Fort Kent
University of Maine at Fort Kent
The University of Maine at Fort Kent is a public liberal arts university in the U.S. state of Maine.Located in Fort Kent in the St. John Valley region of northern Maine, the university is part of the seven-member University of Maine System. It currently has an enrollment of 1,072 students. The...
, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
in English Literature
English literature
English literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....
, Cum Laude. It was Burns's education and training in literary criticism
Literary criticism
Literary criticism is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often informed by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of its methods and goals...
that informed his eventual move into webcomics criticism. Burns was one of the most prolific Superguy
Superguy
Superguy was originally a creative fiction writing group on the now-defunct UMNEWS mailing list service. After UMNEWS collapsed, the mailing list became internet-based....
writers during this time, eventually contributing just shy of a million words to the creative writing project. Burns also became a published poet during these years, most notably in the Black Fly Review.
Superguy ultimately led Burns to his first short fiction publication credits, for the short lived Mythic Heroes magazine.
After graduation, Burns returned to Ithaca for a time, including a stint as an actor for the Sterling Renaissance Festival in nearby Fair Haven, New York
Fair Haven, New York
Fair Haven is a village in Cayuga County, New York, United States. The population was 884 at the 2000 census.The Village of Fair Haven is within the Town of Sterling and is northwest of Syracuse, New York...
. After a year, he moved to Seattle, Washington
Seattle, Washington
Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...
, before moving back to Maine and ultimately to New Hampshire. During this period, Burns became involved with the In Nomine Role Playing Game
In Nomine (role-playing game)
In Nomine is a role-playing game designed by Derek Pearcy and published in 1997 by Steve Jackson Games, based on the French game In Nomine Satanis/Magna Veritas. Players typically assume the role of angels and demons in a setting that draws heavily on the traditional Christian mythos...
published by Steve Jackson Games
Steve Jackson Games
Steve Jackson Games is a game company, founded in 1980 by Steve Jackson, that creates and publishes role-playing, board, and card games, and the gaming magazine Pyramid.-History:...
, ultimately writing both for the game and for Pyramid Magazine. Burns became one of the principal writers of Sidewinder Wild West Adventures, a d20
D20 System
The d20 System is a role-playing game system published in 2000 by Wizards of the Coast originally developed for the third edition of Dungeons & Dragons...
role playing game published by Citizen Games that was nominated for an ENnie Award. Burns is listed as a contributing author on Sidewinder: Recoiled, a d20 Modern
D20 Modern
d20 Modern is a roleplaying game designed by Bill Slavicsek, Jeff Grubb, Rich Redman, and Charles Ryan. It was published by Wizards of the Coast in November 2002, and uses the d20 System...
based sequel produced by Dog House Rules which won the 2004 ENnie Gold award for Best Electronic Product. However, Burns claims little to no involvement with the second work. Burns has also worked for Decipher
Decipher, Inc.
Decipher, Inc. is an American gaming company based in Norfolk, Virginia, USA. They began with three puzzles called "Decipher" then moved on to party games and Pente sets, but since 1994 produced collectible card and role-playing games. Their longest-running offering is the How to Host a Murder...
.
In 1999, Burns began work on Some Days in the Life of Eric Alfred Burns, an online journal and diary that, while sharing many aspects with a more modern blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
, tended less to the incidental and more to essays and commentary. While not as popular as Burns's later work with Websnark, the journal did ultimately attract about three thousand regular daily readers, particularly during a poignant run as Burns chronicled his battle with congestive heart failure
Congestive heart failure
Heart failure often called congestive heart failure is generally defined as the inability of the heart to supply sufficient blood flow to meet the needs of the body. Heart failure can cause a number of symptoms including shortness of breath, leg swelling, and exercise intolerance. The condition...
induced by idiopathic
Idiopathic
Idiopathic is an adjective used primarily in medicine meaning arising spontaneously or from an obscure or unknown cause. From Greek ἴδιος, idios + πάθος, pathos , it means approximately "a disease of its own kind". It is technically a term from nosology, the classification of disease...
cardiomyopathy
Cardiomyopathy
Cardiomyopathy, which literally means "heart muscle disease," is the deterioration of the function of the myocardium for any reason. People with cardiomyopathy are often at risk of arrhythmia or sudden cardiac death or both. Cardiomyopathy can often go undetected, making it especially dangerous to...
, as well as a car accident in 2000.
Websnark
Though continuing to do role playing game development over the next several years, and flirting with a LiveJournalLiveJournal
LiveJournal is a virtual community where Internet users can keep a blog, journal or diary. LiveJournal is also the name of the free and open source server software that was designed to run the LiveJournal virtual community....
that was less an outlet for essays and more a traditional personal diary, Burns didn't really return to significant essay writing or criticism until 2004 and his launching of Websnark. Originally meant to be the frivolous journal with a renewed "Some Days in the Life" acting as his serious essay blog, Websnark swiftly built an audience that ultimately reached the mid five figures daily. Utilizing a conversational style with a heavy emphasis on Webcomics, Burns was seen at least initially as a more approachable alternative to more traditional critics in outlets like Comixpedia and The Webcomics Examiner. Any potential acrimony between these different approaches was swiftly mitigated, however, and Burns became a regular Comixpedia columnist as well as a contributor to the Examiner.
Though referring to his critiques as snark
Snark
-Fictional creatures:* Snark , a fictional animal species in Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark * Snark , fictional small, bug-like species of alien used as a weapon...
s, Burns typically eschews the snide and sarcastic tone that the word implies, most typically focusing on positive examples and developments in the webcomics world. Websnark is also an outlet for commentary on philosophy and popular culture, though webcomics remains what the site is known for. Of particular interest is Burns's use of literary criticism instead of art criticism as the basis of his critiques. Burns avoids directly criticizing art, in part because of his own lack of drawing ability. (A fact clearly underscored by his first webcomic, Unfettered by Talent, which Burns drew himself.) It seems more likely, however, that Burns's background and training in literary criticism informs his technique. Burns has employed New Criticism
New Criticism
New Criticism was a movement in literary theory that dominated American literary criticism in the middle decades of the 20th century. It emphasized close reading, particularly of poetry, to discover how a work of literature functioned as a self-contained, self-referential aesthetic...
, Myth Criticism, and Historicism
Historicism
Historicism is a mode of thinking that assigns a central and basic significance to a specific context, such as historical period, geographical place and local culture. As such it is in contrast to individualist theories of knowledges such as empiricism and rationalism, which neglect the role of...
at different times, clearly enjoying literary theory
Literary theory
Literary theory in a strict sense is the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for analyzing literature. However, literary scholarship since the 19th century often includes—in addition to, or even instead of literary theory in the strict sense—considerations of...
for its own sake. When pressed, Burns identifies himself as a New Critic, though he is not known for close reading
Close reading
Close reading describes, in literary criticism, the careful, sustained interpretation of a brief passage of text. Such a reading places great emphasis on the particular over the general, paying close attention to individual words, syntax, and the order in which sentences and ideas unfold as they...
the works he is critiquing.
Burns also has archivist tendencies. Once a proponent of using Wikipedia itself as a tool for centralizing information about webcomics, Burns ultimately suggested the creation of Comixpedia's Webcomics Wiki, though others have done most of the work on the Webcomics Wiki since then.
In 2005, Burns took on Wednesday White as a partner at Websnark, and also began merchandising the site in minor ways. He also traded on the notoriety Websnark afforded him by putting out an open call for an artist to collaborate on a new webcomic (having decided against trying to draw it himself). Greg Holkan, the artist of Nemesis, came on board and the pair launched Gossamer Commons on March 21, 2005. It ended, unfinished, in April 2006. Also in 2005, Burns launched an unchanging artwork gag-a-day photo comic, The Adventures of Brigadier General John Stark, about the hero of the Battle of Bennington
Battle of Bennington
The Battle of Bennington was a battle of the American Revolutionary War that took place on August 16, 1777, in Walloomsac, New York, about from its namesake Bennington, Vermont...
. In December, Burns became an editor
Editing
Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...
for the webcomics collective Modern Tales
Modern Tales
Modern Tales is a webcomics site launched on March 2, 2002 by Joey Manley, the Modern Tales publisher, and approximately 30 professional cartoonists, such as Dorothy Gambrell, author of the popular webcomic Cat and Girl and James Kochalka, the award-winning creator of Fancy Froglin...
, working with their free website. He stepped down from that position in August, citing general overwork. In 2007, Burns created a website for his fiction work called Banter-Latte http://banter-latte.annotations.com/, which is currently updated several days a week.
Eric had gastric bypass surgery
Gastric bypass surgery
Gastric bypass procedures are any of a group of similar operations that first divides the stomach into a small upper pouch and a much larger lower "remnant" pouch and then re-arranges the small intestine to allow both pouches to stay connected to it. Surgeons have developed several different ways...
in March 2004, and has credited this with saving his life. Burns has suggested that he approached 500 pounds at his heaviest. As of August 2005, he had lost close to two hundred pounds.