Finally saw that ‘post your comics heroes without the names, the cool kids will know.’ Meme and if you’ll excuse me I need to leave this planet now.

Look, putting aside the fact that we still lionise THIRTY PLUS YEAR OLD BOOKS at the frequent cultural expense of modern creators there’s two things about this that exhaust and frankly annoy the shit out of me.

The first is yet another example of the feral collector instinct which is the thief of joy in every single element of geekdom I have ever encountered. You must have read this to get in, you must own this to be accepted, you must have this opinion to be heard.

And let’s not forget that is one minuscule step from You must be this white and this male to be heard, or seen, or represented. Just because everyone’s money cashes the same doesn’t mean everyone is the same.

And after the last three weeks don’t even get me FUCKING started on how incredibly, apocalyptically idiotic it is to put anyone on a pedestal let alone defend them when they fuck up, as basically everyone will.

But most of all what really exhausts me is ‘the cool kids will know’.

No. Just no.

Actually no. Fuck you.

Here’s why.

I’m 6’2 and built like a door. I’m also whip smart, eloquent and frequently funny as hell and about three people in ten don’t see that, they just see the meat suit.

One of my earliest comic experiences is an issue of X-Factor where the team are being psychologically profiled. Strong Guy, their strong...guy...explains that his mutation triggered so violently he never fully got it under control and is in constant agony.

The same issue, Quicksilver, their speedster, explains how the annoyance you feel standing behind someone who is slow in a queue is what he feels every single secoond of his life.

I have spent a lot of my time bouncing between those two extremes. The Strong Guy stuff especially was the first time I felt seen, represented, in a comic book.

That is unique to me. The vast majority of folks reading this will, odds are have never read the comic or been aware of those characters.

That’s fine. That’s the POINT. That doesn’t make me a cool kid. It makes me a kid who got big early and felt better about it eventually.

We all bring something different to art. All art. We bring something different every time we encounter it in fact. What we bring is just as valid as anyone else and no more. To use the quote from the individual who no longer deserves to be quoted let alone named? We come in alone

But we all come in alone. None of us better than any of the others.

What you feel for a piece of art is valid. What you see in a piece of art is a tool not a cudgel to beat others with. Not a badge of honour, or of rank. Something you build with.

Nothing gets built when you work from a ‘cool kids/uncool kids’ false binary. Except walls. And I would have hoped the creator who started said meme would see that, but then again they never let the truth get in the way of good publicity. Or any publicity.

Like what you like. Respond how you respond. Don’t build a Mount Rushmore of comics build a compass of work you like and navigate with it knowing it will change.

That’s it.