To Thine Own Change Seeing The World

Warren Ellis has a weekly newsletter, which seems to be a weekly summary of sorts of things he posts on his blog. Susan raved about the newsletter frequently enough that I subscribed.

I don't usually understand most of what he writes about. I'm not a huge Ellis fan, having only just "discovered" him recently through Susan, who is a fan. I did read a book he recommended in his newsletter, which I enjoyed reading, but didn't describe nearly as well has he did.

Anyway, this past week, he did write something that struck hard.

Where was I?  Oh yes I WILL DIE. Filling a notebook with notions about what a twenty-page container could and should and should not and can't hold is obviously stupid and insane. It is, however, a big part of the job of doing serial comics.  Which I still occasionally do, and of which I apparently suffer a permanent infection.

Sooner or later it'll turn into something.  Something nobody will want to draw or read. I don't much care about that at this stage. You have to spread the shit before you grow the food.

This thing we do is not in the nature of a service industry. As a creator, please yourself first. An audience will show up or they won't. That's their call. It's on you to produce the kind of work you want to see in the world.

And there we go for a reminder to the ages. To thine own self, be the change, and all that.

Yeah.

I've kept that particular newsletter in my inbox for a week now. Time to release it.