I’ll keep this one short because I’ve got Hellblazer pages to finish before the NYCC and because maybe these journals have been a little over serious lately.

I caught some heat on my last journal, and I’m fine with that. I’ve read a lot of reviews over the last couple years on my stuff and although they’re usually good, once in a while I got ribbed and ripped up a little. In fact, check this one out because it had me laughing it was so cruel. Don’t mess with the Trekkies:

[link]

Now let me call myself out on my own bullshit regarding some of my more touchy journals.

Wouldn’t it be nice to be in a perfect world where you, the artist, didn’t have to worry about money or paying the bills or meeting deadlines? You could just create to your heart’s content and follow all your high ideals into the sky with no end.

But life isn’t like that, of course. As much as I like to think that art should be about growth, change and about how we should all feel the calling to DO something valuable in this post 9/11 world with our abilities…it’s rarely ever like that. It would be nice, yeah, but most artists, especially comic artists, draw commercially and rarely have any thought to their legacy as artists other than “hmmm…where does the vanishing point go?”

All these things that I’ve wrote are, I feel, correct (at least they correct to me) but they’re not for everyone and I don’t want to piss people off. But at the very least I’d like to challenge people and maybe have them walk away with something that wasn’t there before. Even if they disagree at least there’s SOME movement.

My ideals probably sound high because I’m writing from a place where I don’t have to worry so much about the things that a lot of guys have to while still working their way through the trenches of the art world. I’m 27 and am fortunate enough to have an exclusive DC contract and plenty of high paying work on the side to sit around my apartment and draw all day. Yes, I’ve worked hard to get here and I have road-hard stories of the trials leading up to this (like many people do), but in the end I’m just a guy who doesn’t even have to get out of him pajamas to get to work.

If you’ve ever over heard a pro at a convention, he/she is usually very opinionated about a lot of different things. And, no matter what his opinion is, he usually insists that he’s right. Of course he will. He, like me, doesn’t go to an office or get challenged by people as much as most people because his tiny world is a small studio where he can dream up whatever he wants ALL DAY and lord over his conclusions without end. Honestly, it’s a sad existence (which is why I don’t like a lot of professional comic guys).

So, to give this journal some closure, most of what I write is high ideal while also being tongue-in-cheek. I might be a little pissed off at what I write TOO if I was still working my way up while taking a side job and paying student loans.
People should read these and think “HA! Good one Sean. You so crazy! Yeah, wish I could draw in my pajamas all day, too. Oh well…back to the real world! Exclusive artist, huh? Way to rub it in, jerk.”