I sincerely hope that my earlier posts have not given the intention that I plan to fill this slot with nothing more than negatives. In fact, quite the opposite is true.
But I guess you can say I've felt the need to purge everything I've had to deal with for the past few years in my long difficult road on my career and get it out of my system before I continue. Truth is, I've actually felt torn in writing my earler entries discussing various difficulties I've had.
That's because I had always been one to say, "Focus on the positive, don't dwell on the negative." So, in that spirit and tradition, I really shouldn't be saying anything at all. But the truth of the matter is that I've felt very, very hurt by the severe backlack I received simply for existing and hoping to make people happy with my cartoons. I guess I do have the right to publicly share my side of the story.
But looking back on the whole situation, it feels like this: in the 80s, I got to experience a taste of what it was like to have a large and genuinely wonderful audience. I never actually had any reactions that were negative -- until the 90s. Then I got my first taste of nothing but a thoroughly negative reaction.
My personal theory? I think it was a sign of the times.
The decades I grew up in were so cheery for the most part, so filled with positivity, and around 1992 suddenly nihilistic negativity has been the trend for the longest time now. I was an easy target, I guess.
I keep hoping the pendulum will swing back to times when things were more upbeat and when people felt more happy and trusting with one another. Who knows, maybe what I plan to release with the help with my publisher can help spread that.
You just never know.
