Here's the deal with self-published and indie comics, color, black and white, or otherwise....

"geek culture" used to NEVER BE geek culture. I HATE SELF LABELING! And I hate that comics have sort of become that. This uncool self-labeling thing that attracts social miscreants, FREAKS, and WEIRDOS. Part of the problem has been the recent popularity and mainstream "Hollywood" appeal of Cartoon Network, Batman, and comic book and anime conventions.

All that fame, success, power, and money lurking in back behind the curtain has attracted some genuinely mean-spirited, know-it-all, gossipy, and/or weird/freakish people, both male or female, who are essentially there for the power, money, fame, and nothing else. It's driving the very poeple that made it cool in the first place away. I'm surprised I've stayed with comics this long, considering how downhill a lot of it's gone. 

Twitter and YouTube only kind of helped things. But in a way it was a pandora's box. 

It's not the same industry we people in our late twenties and early 30s grew up on.

We've all seen the horrific online trashtalk, people. Fans, professional, Fan-fessionals. Whatever you are.

Be nice people. This isn't a Conan movie. It's not the Crusades of the Dark Ages. It's show business. Well, to me it is anyway.

Being rude and mean to others is a contagious disease. A parasitic virus people, who might otherwise hire and employ you, with their millions of Hollywood, Silicon Valley, and Tokyo dollars, don't like. It's important not to be disheartened or discouraged by the negative and insult-based elements of the internet. Too many people buy into it. Too many people assume that's what's going on in person. It's not! People still have the potential to  be Good People and do Good things. Not Bad.

The world can be a dangerous place. But it's not always, and it doesn't "have to" be. Don't let adulthood make you cynical. Wise and experienced maybe, but not mean and cynical.