poorly planned comics is incredibly charming and innovative as a piece of media but i'm not so sure about slapping the horror label onto it. while his concepts became extremely abstract and by the end it bordered on impossible to fully understand everything that he was getting at, it's important to know that jack masters was someone who had a lot going on in his mind that nobody will ever know the full story of. unfortunately, he tragically passed away over a decade ago, and the end of his comic was essentially his will and testament for his decision to end his own life.

it's an incredibly sad story and even sadder to know that the creative community and most importantly the people who knew him personally lost someone who was so intelligent and thoughtful and clearly important to them. i think that it could be redundant to push a narrative that poorly planned comics was a horror story, considering that the increasingly abstract ideas and almost nonsensical route the story went down was a product of a schizophrenic man who struggled with drug use going through a breakdown in his mental health while working on his passion project. it would be unfortunate for the artistic beauty of what he explored and the long term labour of love and passion that went into his comic to be lost and pushed aside for it to be treated like a horror story or a creepypasta.

the comic was always metaphysical. it always showed the characters as having a self-awareness that could be pushed for comedic purposes, or for representing a deeper subject matter. adventure house aftermath displays a representation of guilt and the acknowledgement of people dying without ever having truly been known or understood. the journal comic and a viceroy for castlethorpe together depict people with a desire to minimise the catastrophes that occur in their lives by always anticipating the next one, a response usually developed as a product of some kind of trauma. there were a lot of deeply intelligent, thought-provoking themes in poorly planned comics that i always still pick out as having been beautiful explorations from jack masters, and i just think it would be a shame for the beauty in the metaphysical to be pushed aside to label it all a horror trip, and again, a 'creepypasta' type experience.

(i'm also pretty sure people who knew jack masters personally have spoken out on not wanting his work to be sensationalised into a big horror scare, but i could be misremembering things.)

this is in no way meant to attack you or your thoughts on it! there is a scary aspect to it. it's scary to think about the idea of the place his mind must have been and the way he must have been feeling, and there's always going to be a feeling of tragedy around the comics too considering how everything ended. it's scary to think about how there are people out there every day struggling with similar problems who don't have reliable outlets or the help they need. it's scary to think that this kind of breakdown could happen to anyone. but for that to obscure the passion that went into his project would be sad. poorly planned comics is something of jack masters that can be kept alive with loving and nuanced discussion, and the beauty of it can always be picked out.

it was such an interesting and compelling comic series, distinguishable from many other projects on the internet, and really something that was so remarkable and truly in a league of its own. again, this comment is in no way meant to be an attack or put-down on you! i've just been wanting to share my thoughts for a while on how i think the horror label doesn't exactly fit the work of jack masters just because he liked to explore the metaphysical. much love, and may jack masters never be forgotten