SR 1 PAGE ONE-HUNDRED AND NINETEEN

I got into a little trouble for this page. Can you guess why?

Nope, it wasn’t the caricature of the rapper in the upper right corner. That is arguably racist, though, isn’t it? It’s meant to be your typical white suburban mom’s fevered mental image of a gangsta rapper, which necessarily involves trafficking in some stereotypes, but frankly it might’ve been better not to draw anything at all there. Whenever you illustrate a stereotyped member of a group you’re not a part of, people will understandably raise an eyebrow regardless of your intentions. “Is this creep reveling in this?” No, I promise! The page is just super text-heavy and needed a drawing up there! No MAGA! NO MAGAAAA!

No, the thing that got me into trouble was the “cinema of Jason Voorhees” bit three panels earlier.

Now, you might be imagining an army of incensed Friday the 13th fans calling for my head over that. Or calling for an arrow to be shoved up through my neck while I’m laying in bed. Or perhaps calling for me to be shoved into a sleeping bag and repeatedly slammed against a tree. Or remember the one where Jason flash-freezes that lady’s head then smashes it against a countertop? That was pretty good!

Well STOP IMAGINING ALL THAT because this has nothing to do with Jason Voorhees. The line in question used to read “Johnny the Homicidal Maniac.”

My publisher, SLG, was also quite famously the publisher of JTHM, and they were not too stoked that I’d thrown their crown jewel into V’s list of hateable things. Now, Jhonen and I had already known each other for years by this time, so to me it was just funny to top off the list with my friend’s infamous comic. It’s supposed to be a list of controversial things, not necessarily things I personally hate. (In fact, some of the things conflict with each other. “Communism/capitalism,” etc.) That’s not super-clear, though, particularly coming after the “stupid people, pretentious people, drunk people” wind-up, so I can see why SLG pushed back. I’m glad I changed it.

I do hate it when people throw away the cookie part of the Oreo, though. When I was little I watched a kid lick the innards from a dozen Oreos and that plate of discarded cookies haunts me to this day.

Then again, according to Vicious we’re supposed to get past all our petty little hatreds, right? FORGET THE COOKIES, AARON.

SR 1 PAGE ONE-HUNDRED AND TWENTY

Talking yourself out of doing stuff is so, so easy. I am very practiced at this!

It’s just fear of failure, right? Fear of failure and fear of looking stupid. Better to never be seen than to be seen looking STUPID. Of course this is how you miss out on every single worthwhile thing in life. We all understand this intellectually.

BUT… As Vicious points out here, it’s hard to overcome a fear of failure without a little bit of success. If you truly feel like you’re whiffing every task put in front of you, continuing to try seems utterly demented. Something’s got to click somewhere. Who would choose a lifetime of guaranteed, repeated failure when Netflix and the couch can be yours forever at little cost?

Tragically, there are only two ways of finding that little taste of success. You can either get out there and try a million different things, potentially humiliating yourself 999,999 times until you find that one perfect fit (whiffleball, possibly), or you can pick one thing that has deep meaning for you and do it badly 999,999 times until someone finally says, “Hey, that doesn’t suck!”

Lucky for me, I got to the “Hey, that doesn’t suck!” point with drawing while I was still a kid. So I’ve had juuuuuuust enough success to not spend my life totally paralyzed. But here’s the shitty part: IT FADES. Without regular positive feedback the confidence weakens and the couch starts calling again.

What I’m saying is: Please buy my book and leave a review!

BACK TO THE PRESENT!

HAPPY UNITED STATESIAN THANKSGIVING YESTERDAY!

What do you say we celebrate Turkey Day with the most celebrated turkey of all: GIR.

YES: GIR WAS THE TURKEY ALL ALONG. And now you can own both of these legendary chunks of animation history by bidding on this genuine Invader ZIM production art (drawn by me) right here. 100% of the proceeds go to the good people at Trans Lifeline, an organization that provides support services for the transgender community. Good turkey, good cause, good YOU.

Thanks in advance for bidding! If this goes well we’ll do a few more next year. I’ve still got a bunch of ZIM art lying around!

NEXT WEEK: BITS AND PIECES LEFT.