I watched a video last night about comics, nothing mean or awful, but the speaker said that everyone in comics was miserable.

I don't get that. I am happy every day. I feel BLESSED to get to write comics, and have brilliant collaborators, and wonderful readers.

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Every part of it (except outlines, I suck at those), I absolutely love. I love trying to make characters I created come alive, I love trying to shine up other characters who are a bit rusty.

I love working in these wonderful universes that seem fueled by genius and moxie.

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I love when you are working with an artist, and they take your written words and make them take flight. I love that partnership when you work with a @NicolaScottArt, @daleeaglesham, @aaronlopresti, @waltergeovani_, someone who understands what you want and makes it better.

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After 600+ comics, I still thrill every day to see pages come in the email, from colorists and letterers, adding their art to make everything over the top.

'Til it's finally that THING I loved as a kid, a real comic.

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After a few bad experiences starting out, I was very skeptical of editors until I wised up, now I love working with a great editor, you want to cherish them like the best crop of peaches. When they leave or move on, it's like mourning.

I have been VERY lucky.

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And then retailers, all over the world, no one gets into that to get rich, they do it because they are THE hardcore comics lovers. I have made friends all over the US and dozens of countries because those people are absolute gems.

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At cons, you can tell the angry people from the people who still love comics. I will get up at 5:30, have meetings about comics, sign all day, do interviews and panels, go to a dinner meeting, and then come back and visit friends and what do we do?

Talk about comics.

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And finally and best of all, you have readers. They bring their kids to meet you. They bring the books that meant the most to them. They bring their first published zines and comics. It never gets old, it never gets tiresome. The best part of any event is meeting them.
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I mean, seriously, that's just a tiny piece of it. There's so much joyful stuff involved in making and reading comics.

Yes, we have problems and Covid didn't help at all. We have stuff we need to look at.

But don't forget the joy.

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A great Superman story, a great indie creator, a beautiful piece of comic art that is purely about the love of the medium...that stuff still makes me happier than almost anything else. No other medium makes me smile so hard.

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It's still the industry that brought us Kirby, Wrightson, three guys named Lee, Aragones, Moore, O'Neil, Gerber, Wein, Wolfman, Perez, Davis, Adams, and thousands of others.

It's full of ridiculous legacy, it's almost too much wonder.

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I am sure there are pros out there who ARE miserable (even pre Covid), I've met a few. But I don't think they're the majority at all.

Most of us are like, "Holy shit, did you read THIS," or "Did you see THIS?"

And also, "WE GET TO MAKE COMICS, YOU GUYS!"

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I guess if you go by social media, it might seem that way, people are grouchy sometimes and it's easy to get prickly. And there certainly are some terrible people out there.

But miserable?

I'm ****ing DELIGHTED.

:)

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