The tl;dr up top: After an emotion filled Father’s Day weekend where I was feeling awesome, I have far too much respect for myself to promote someone, even if they are my favorite artist of all time.
I got to read John Byrne call me a “bottom feeder” today and that was enough. I had a post already to go with new Elsewhen pages. As always, it had the link up top so I could generously have some of my 14,000 followers go to his little 600 person forum but John would rather be a jerk, so no thanks.
I was talking to my niece yesterday about some singer she loves. If my niece promoted them, shared all their songs and the artist did nothing but attack her, would I say smile and remember why you like them? Would I say, just keep enjoying and listening to the music? No. I’d tell her to find someone new to love. My niece has enough self respect she wouldn’t need to be told that. I wish I learned that lesson sooner.
For nearly 10 years now I’ve had many wonderful people follow me. Thanks to these sites, I had an outlet to talk about my father when he was going through cancer treatments. My friends in real life are always there for me of course but sometimes it’s easier to talk to someone online because then I don’t become a blubbering mess of tears every time I talk about him and how scared I am he’ll not be around much longer. Note, saw dad yesterday he’s still the strongest guy I will ever know and I wish everyone could know him and be more like him.
Talking with fans of John’s art has been really special. Your comments about loving the pages, how they remind you of buying the book it was in, how you feel like a kid again, those were the best things and the reason I’d take time to upload images every day whether I felt like it or not.
I want to thank @gailsimone who was the first person who really got the word about my page out there when she reblogged some pages.
I want to thank @themarvelageofcomics, Tom you have reblogged pretty much 99% of every Marvel page I’ve ever posted. Without you I doubt this Tumblr would have lasted beyond a year or two.
On Twitter there are so many people to thank. I think they know who they are but Erik, Rob, Stephen, Tony, Bill, Brian, Sarah, Andy, Jim, Beth, Chris, Roger and so many more I’ve neglected to mention, I appreciate the wonderful conversations and getting to talk. It has been my pleasure. There are still places to view John’s art. If you don’t mind going to Facebook, there are a few different sites but I’d suggest going here:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/ByrneVictims/ For some reason, even though that site also posts all of John’s work, they don’t get John’s vitriol. I wonder why? Posts here at Tumblr without an image don’t get as much views I’ve noticed. So I’ve added a few. Swell guy that John Byrne. For 39 years now I’ve read and loved John Byrne comics. After today, I will still love them, still read them. That’s the power of a great comic book but even comics can’t turn a miserable person into someone I need to respect or think about. Since John refuses to have a gallery of art on his forum, even with others paying for it and maintaining it, I hope I’ve tagged pages here well enough you’ll always be able to find something you need. Comics are wonderful. Read one today. That’s what I am going to do now. Bye.
