When these articles were first published some years back, I got mail from people who expressed concern that I was working too hard. One wrote me an extremely silly and impassioned letter that if I didn’t take more time with my personal life, I would be lonely and sad in the end, with nothing but a stack of comics for comfort. Since my articles had absolutely nothing to say about my personal life, I can’t imagine how anyone could have drawn any conclusions about how I conduct it, but one thing’s for sure, I got the distinct impression my concerned correspondent was hoping to provide some personal comfort. What a treat.

And just for the record, I don’t have very many comics in my house, so maybe I will have to settle for my Lord of the Rings collection. That Boromir figure from Sideshow WETA is looking pretty good to me right now…

From foreign climes, I received a slew of posts about how Americans are obsessed with being #1 (because my one article is evidence of the behaviors of 300 million people, and if they are teaching reasoning and rhetoric in the schools from whence these posters come, I saw no evidence of same), and nobody but NOBODY works (or should work) as hard as what I describe in these posts.

Considering the short work weeks in some places, people who actually want to work hard probably do seem aberrant to those who consider a 35 hour work week too much to bear. If I were required to only work 35 hours a week, I would be gnawing at my own leg in frustration.

So, for those who think that no one but NO ONE would REALLY want to work this hard…um…well, yes they do, and if you had any imagination at all, you might actually be able to dig down deep into that creative well of yours and imagine people who are different than you are.

People you’ve never heard of whose work goes nowhere don’t, which is why they are on message boards complaining about how hard other people work. Other people working makes them feel bad.

Obsessed is just a word the lazy use to describe the dedicated. I have no idea who said that first, but I am pinching it here.

The interesting thing is, creators who love their work don’t always feel like they are working. They feel compelled to create. It makes them feel GOOD.

When I can’t work, or am not in The Zone, I feel awful. I rarely (if ever) feel genuine depression, but when I am not able to work, my energy level plummets (or vice versa). I don’t find a 40 hour work week enables me to get what I want out of my time. I like a 55-60 hour week, and find that comfortable.

I gotta have my Gotta.

If you don’t got The Gotta, as Stephen King calls it, then maybe you ought to be considering another profession. Those who’ve got The Gotta don’t doubt for one minute that creating is wonderful, and they wouldn’t want to be doing anything else.

If you don’t got The Gotta, there are a lot of other people out there who have it in abundance, and they are going to be out there plugging away 100 times harder than you. They are getting the gallery exhibits, and the contracts, and the book deals, and the assignments.

And the ones left behind are complaining that other people work too hard.

Boo hoo.

That doesn’t mean there is anything wrong with dabbling, or doing art on the side, or enjoying a weekend painting session. But if you are taking a step forward to be a pro, be aware that the habits of the dabbler won’t do. Period.

If you want to be a part time creator, you will likely get part time results. Being a full time creator who actually makes a living at it requires the investment of effort and focus, and the realization that you will be compelled to create and produce EVEN WHEN THERE IS NO GUARANTEE OF MATERIAL REWARD.

Decide what you want for yourself.

Sitting around and complaining that people who work harder than you get more than you do in return makes you look like an idiot who can’t do simple math.

No investment = no return.

(more…)

Many warm and fuzzy “Thank you’s!” to all the blogs and news sites which have spread the word about the A Distant Soil webcomic:

Publishers Weekly’s THE BEAT.

Robot 6 at Comic Book Resources

Newsarama

HQ Maniacs

FLEEN

Captain Comics

Quasar Dragon

State of the Art Brain Surgeon

Did we miss anyone? Let us know.

c

About $2000 in donations were misappropriated by Beverly Erickson, the former Treasurer of UNSCREWED in the fall of 2007, and the organization has been struggling to recover ever since.

President Tom Stillwell explains, “when UNSCREWED was begun, it was a spontaneous, ad hoc organization, with everybody scrambling to get things rolling quickly so as to aid artists in need as soon as possible. Because of the urgency, we didn’t institute proper precautions immediately. Bev set up a checking account in her own name because we didn’t have a business name or incorporation papers until some time later and couldn’t open an account in the company name. We trusted her because she had been a longtime member of Comic Book Resources under the name ‘PaperGirl’, had served as a Moderator on the site, and was well-known and highly regarded by all involved.”

In October of 2007, UNSCREWED was informed by an artist that a Paypal transfer sent to him had been canceled. Other payments were found to have also been canceled. Upon further investigation, it was discovered that the organization’s checking account had been closed around the same time that Erickson had relocated from Florida to Alabama. Attempts to contact her went unanswered for over a month.

When Erickson was finally contacted, she explained that she had made “an honest mistake” and had accidentally used the wrong checkbook to pay some bills; by the time she discovered the error, she was in dire financial condition and could not pay the money back. She promised to send a small amount out of each paycheck until the debt was paid. No payments were ever received, and she has subsequently changed her phone number; attempts to contact her by letter, email and through family members have been unsuccessful.

“Legally, there was nothing we could do; the donations were sent to her Paypal account and deposited into a checking account in her name, with our consent,” Stillwell stated. With no other recourse, Stillwell began paying back the missing funds out of his own pocket., as well as replacing the canceled transactions, again at his own expense.

The organization’s leadership decided that it would be best for the group to absorb the loss and move on rather than spend a lot more time and money trying to recover the lost funds and harm UNSCREWED’s reputation in the process. Work has proceeded on the comic anthology the organization is publishing, and some artists have been assisted with filing claims against non-paying publishers. Despite the financial blow to the organization, no request for assistance has been denied. The situation has not affected UNSCREWED’s work.

But recently, when a disgruntled former acquaintance of Ms. Erickson with knowledge of the situation had begun threatening to expose the story, it was decided to go public.

“All we can do is honestly say what happened and accept responsibility for the errors we made in the past,” Stillwell said, “we’ve addressed those errors so they can’t happen again; the bank and Paypal accounts are in the organization’s name, the new Treasurer, Brian Crowley, lives nearby, and notifications of all account transactions are sent from the bank to multiple board members on a daily basis. Beyond that, all we can do is continue to replace the stolen funds and try to keep the organization going; it’s too important to just let it collapse.”