Thread by @GailSimone

Okay, a quick few thoughts about what it means to be in comics and why trolls and the like don't bother me much. This is just an early morning rant and likely will be lacking in coherence, so there. :)

Working in comics means almost every day, we get to see incredible art. Not just from our collaborators, but it's in every aspect of the career. Your immersed in gorgeous, awe-inspiring imagery every day. It's your environment. Your job is surrounded by wonder.

It can mean you get to work in the largest and longest-running communal fiction tapestries in history, characters who you loved your entire life, worlds & concepts that helped shape you as a person, and you get to pass that on to share with the person reading for the first time.

It means working with people who CHOSE this career, most could work anywhere, but they have the same burning desire to create comics that you do, and they devoted everything to get here. And when you spend all week making comics, you get together at cons and TALK ABOUT COMICS.

It means being part of a team that gets excited to top what you did before, that is motivated by staying up late to make the book just a little bit better. And when you're done, it's this gorgeous little package that feels like giving birth to joy. NEVER get tired of it.

It means going to conventions and having people come up and say your book meant something to them. It made them happy, or sad, or got them through a crappy day or a terrible time. And the best thing is, sometimes it inspires THEM to do the same for others.

It means going to conventions and watching people meet their favorite creators and actors, watching cosplayers you swear stepped off the comics page, being surrounded by people who love this stuff just as much as you do.

It means telling stories of the characters that meant the world to you and still do, AND telling stories from your own soul, baking them from scratch. It means getting to watch so many people go from fan to fan-favorite creator and you KNEW they would, somehow.

And it means having a tiny part in a huge ridiculous highway of joy that was paved by people like Kirby, Lee (both), Ditko, Finger, Morrison, Moore, Sienkiewicz, Barks, Adams, Gerber, Claremont, and a thousand others, too many to begin to list.

It means getting the same little spark of thrill when someone nervously hands you the first comic they made, as you do when a master produces their dream book.

It can mean discovering the comics culture of other countries, finding out that creators are just as passionate in Singapore and Brazil and France as they are in America and Japan, and you are speaking the same language, and the accents just make it better.

I am sure this all sounds pretty corny and I am certain there are people at deadlines who are stressed and not exactly FEELING THE WONDER at the moment... :)

But it's there, it's around us all the time, and it's why I wouldn't trade this job for a million dollars.

Oh, and that feeling of absolute delight when a kid brings a comic you wrote and says it's their favorite?

NEVER GOES AWAY NOT EVEN A LITTLE BIT.

That's my rant for the day. I love comics, I love being a geek who loves stories about ideas and possibilities and heroes and creepity bad guys.

And knowing there's so many of you out there who feel the same makes me happy every day.

Also? I don't have an end to this thread.

Sorry.

I should have thought that part through. :)

But thanks for being huge nerds with me, it's PRETTY GREAT, says I!

PS. Cyclops is weird.