Thread by @GailSimone

When I was a kid, we were poor, and we also didn't really have one of those 'but the house was rich with laughter and love' type scenarios, either.

Lots of people had it far worse, I'm not complaining. But it DID teach me a skill, to be grateful for what I did have. 1/

I have always been very grateful for comics and what they have brought to my life well before I became a pro. When I was in college, if I had a choice of buying lunch or Cerebus, Cerebus would win.

I would reread X-Men and Swamp Thing and Teen Titans a hundred times. 2/

I was diagnosed with a chronic disease (I don't talk about this much) and again, poverty was just a routine thing. But you could buy a comic, with art by someone like George Perez or someone equally wonderful, and just be transported in a way that felt unlike any other medium. 3/

I was never a 'collector,' but I was definitely an obsessive buyer, to the best of my meager ability. And I loved when you would meet someone else who had the same bug, because we seemed so rare in the wild at that time. You just had this instant connection. 4/

I loved that community, I still do. As I've said, I make okay money at cons, but I make way more staying home. But going to cons all over the world, you feel that sense of joyful community all over again. Everyone coming through the line has a favorite book. 5/

Every artist near you is drawing something amazing, every writer is joyfully describing their next project.

And every reader has something they want to tell you, something in their life they share with you.

That's a great feeling. 6/

Part of why it makes me so happy still is I remember well when my entire comics community that I interacted with was me and a guy behind a counter in the comics shop.

If you see me at a con, odds are I am smiling. I may be tired or at deadlines or whatever, but I'm happy. 7/

I feel bad for people who lose that, and I'm not even talking about hateful people, I mean just the people who have grown a little bit jaded.

Comics helped me get through so many dark times. From Peanuts to Sandman, I can't imagine never having had them. 8/

At cons, I endlessly hear from people who felt that comics had saved them at their lowest time, or had helped them stand up for themselves a bit. It's lovely to see, you never get tired of it.
I saw a kid tell Geoff Johns that he believed in himself because of Green Lantern. 9/

It was a huge, packed room and EVERYONE in the audience AND on the panel knew exactly what that kid was talking about.

We all turned and looked at each other with a look of, "Oh, hey, that kid is ME."

10/

If I were to try to explain what I love about comics, and making comics, the list would take an hour just to type. That's not hyperbole, it's a stone fact. It's the medium I love most, I wake up thinking about it and go to sleep and dream about it.

11/

And I know there's still a lot of us out there.

I don't have any long, deep point. Just that I love this medium, it's the one that Kirby and Kubert and Barks and Tezuka and thousands of others chose above all others.

Every direction you look, there's something wonderful. 12/

It's a weird thing that the first priority for entertainment during this quarantine was, "Oh, man, I get to catch up on my favorite comics."

Can't help it.

13/

Anyway, I hope everyone can put aside some of the noise and just grab some comics they love and remember how moving they can be, how much joy they can bring.

I love novels, I love movies, games, whatever.

But Sgt. Rock, Jonah Hex, Spider-Man, Uzumaki... 14/

I could go on all day.

Swamp Thing, Distant Soil, Iron Fist, X-Men, Reid Fleming, Flaming Carrot, Deadpool, Conan, JLA...

It's just endless.

15

No deep meaning. When things get a bit wonky, I tend to think of the stuff I'm grateful for. And today, it's definitely comics.

Readers, artists, writers, staffers, publishers, distributors, retailers, convention companies, editors, on and on.

A BLESSING ON YOUR HOUSES. 16/

That's it. Have a great day, whoever you are.

And hopefully take some of your favorite comics, your favorite beverage, and give yourself a nice break to read something great.

Love to you all!

End/

Oh, hey, actually...do me a favor, name me your go-to joy comics, the comics you have read and re-read the most often, okay?

Any book that you keep going back to, and why it makes you keep rereading it.

GO! :)

For a long time, it was Cerebus for me, I read the first few phonebooks many, many times. And Elfquest was the same.

I reread Alan Moore's Swamp Thing a lot.

@KurtBusiek's JLA/Avengers is amazing.

Flaming Carrot!