“I’ve Made A Huge Mistake”

I'm putting this up a day in advance, so I apologize if there are new developments and urge you if you're super-interested to poke around a bit, but I couldn't help noticing that there have been not one but two self-recriminatory essays from cartoonists this week: this one by Goats' Jon Rosenberg, from whom I've taken the line that serves as this post's title, and the opening salvo to this interview with Driven By Lemons' Josh Cotter. They're both a bit heartbreaking and worth reading on their own and for the sake of their own merits as potential turning points in the lives of each creator. However, it did hit me just how much the tone of each piece hit a thread common to a lot of conversations I've had with folks since the beginning of the year, and it may be the reason why we may see a higher than usual rate of such pieces. I think a lot of folks are doing some reevaluation after a period of relative economic difficulty that hasn't slammed comics as in years past, but has certainly helped make clear the parameters of that last hopeful surge in mainstream publishing interest, the promise of Internet publication and honest-to-god solid bookstore sales. That's overly facile, I know, but I'd be surprised if most people haven't done at least some self-examination recently, dealing with issues that have intensified with the general state of the economy and been put to the side while working through the worst of it.
 
posted 7:00 am PST | Permalink
 

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