Baujahr!

There’s something to be said for stirring the pot.  Or standing up for what you believe in.  Or even, with the most recent comic-news-by-way-of-tabloids, just getting fed up with your situation and cutting your losses.  And I’m pretty much fine with all of that.

What I don’t get is the laying down all sorts of hellfire to burn your bridges on the way out mentality that I’ve been seeing.  Other than, maybe, it’s just a sign of what things like Facebook and Twitter have done to us as as society.  This always-on forum that allows you to have a thought and post it before you even fully form it…  It’s dangerous.

And I mean, I don’t personally have much of a filter between my brain and my mouth.  I’ve actually done a lot to delete it over the last ten or so years of my life.  Maybe because I think it lets me be funnier than I would be otherwise (which is so arguable, it might as well be a Political Meme).  Or maybe I just let too much get past me in my life without me speaking up, one way or another.

What I try to do, though, is to not be mean.  Yeah, some of my remarks are… well, I’m a jerk.  I know it.  But I’m not a mean-spirited jerk.  I actually feel awful when I hurt someone’s feelings.  A lot of what I say is just on this side of ridiculous, there’s nary a chance of it being malicious.  Sometimes, though, I do misfire.  Someone gets upset.  I apologize, and mean it.  We move on.  I even learn from it a little bit.

But the stupid stuff I say is usually just me in a room with one-to-a-few other people.  It’s normally shielded from the eyes of ears of the rest of the world.  Which is better.  I don’t have to explain myself of my context or intent to anyone that wasn’t there.  And if there’s issues, it gets settled by those who were involved.  No one else.

Twitter, Facebook, Google+, even LiveJournal and MySpace back in their day, are pretty incredible tools.  You can do a lot with them.  You can get a lot from them.  But they are, essentially, the loudest bullhorns ever conceived.  Able to be seen and heard by anybody, any where.  And even if you decide, after, you put something up you didn’t mean to, or think better of it, the stuff never goes away.  Odds are, someone screen-capped it, or saved it, reposted or forwarded it.  And what was said can then be misconstrued or altered just enough to put more words in your mouth than you ever thought could fit in there.  That’s scary.  Or, maybe you meant all the things you posted.  That’s even scarier.

I’ve said dumb things online.  I’ve regretted some.  I’ve probably just lost track of others.  I’m not pointing fingers here (or naming names), because I’m not above anyone else on that.  It happens.  It’ll happen again.

I just feel like, especially with comics, something I love so much, and being in the state the industry is these days, maybe name-calling and insulting and insinuating isn’t the best thing for anyone who wants to be part of it.  Just just because you’re slamming the door on your way out of an old job, nailing it up behind you.  But because there’s enough room in comics to have people want different things, and to expect different things from those they work with.  And maybe it’s better to put your energy into building the artform up, instead of tearing it down.

That goes for creators.  And retailers.  And fans.  It really seems like, overall, we all have one want in common: for Comics to be a strong, viable industry.  To get great stories, from great creators.  To be able to still enjoy this hobby, or carear.