Justify My Love

I have moved and I am returned more glorious than ever. I now live by the river. Okay, I live in the basement of a house by the river, but close enough. So, as I spent the past few days packing and arranging stuff, I haven't been in a comics sort of mood.

Well, that is until Vaneta Rogers' interview with Sean McKeever over at Newsarama. And what has me so interested? Why, her first question:

"The beginning for any good interview of a comic book writer is -- when did you start loving comics?"

Fuck off. That is a shit beginning for an interview. That is a sad, pathetic, loathsome way to begin an interview. I am sick of this shit. I really am. It's partly what drove me away from message boards and it's got to stop.

No more explaining/justifying/mentioning why anyone likes comics. That goes for everyone. Oh, I suppose, from time to time, it makes sense to mention it, but as the first question--with the claim that it's the proper way to begin an interview?

Comics are not something that need explanation. Comics do not need love. Comics do not need to be justified. And all of you who keep doing it? You're the reason why they may or may not be as accepted as they should be. To constantly--CONSTANTLY--see this sort of behaviour gives the impression that comics do need to be explained, justified and loved.

And when I say love, I don't mean the good kind of love. I mean the sort of love that leads to restraining orders. Weird, scary love.

I'll admit that people in other mediums get asked how they first got into movies/books/TV shows/porn, but not nearly at the same frequency or same universality. Tarantino gets asked how he first discovered and grew to love movies, because he's a filmmaker so obviously in love with the medium that it makes sense to ask (and, let's be honest, Tarantino may have a bit of the scary love for movies). However, that question is the exception, not the rule.

Is loving comics good? Yes. Is constantly feeling the need to proclaim said love so as to provide support and justification for all of us geeks who are losers because we like comics and maybe if other people love comics as much as we do, we won't feel like such losers good? No.

So, stop it. You want people to stop treating comics like a loser medium? Then stop acting like it is.

(And the sad thing is, most people DON'T treat it that way anymore, which makes this behaviour even more pathetic. You're now the guy who keeps asking his girlfriend why she goes out with him. Over and over and over again. And no one wants to date that guy.)