I’m currently working on gathering material together for a twenty year retrospective of Jane’s World. Yes, twenty years! The anthology will be published by Lion Forge and is due for release just in time for New York Comic Con in October. I’ll share more news as the release date gets closer. The working title is “A Love Letter to Jane.”
UN-fan mail: So I did this post yesterday about hate mail… but “hate” is such an ugly thing, that the headline started to bother my wife, and me… and well, we don’t need more of that word out in the world, especially on social media. So I edited the original post slightly. But the gist of it is the same, the celebration of UN-fan mail. It’s important to come to terms with negative comments, especially as a creative person. It’s important to be able to tell the difference between genuine constructive feedback… (Like, Terry Moore once commented that he liked it when Jane’s World focused on humor, and I listened. Because there was this moment where I got a little more serious and dark.)… and just over-the-top negativity that in all likelihood has nothing to do with a comic strip or you. I’m sure when I first got some of these messages they upset me, but now, over a decade later, looking back at them, they just sound ridiculous. They actually made me laugh out loud yesterday. So, here’s to UN-fan mail and how it can inspire all of us to speak our truth and not give up. Jane’s goal, and mine, has always been to put something good out into the world. That’s not gonna stop because of a few bits of negativity… but still, it’s worth sharing the bad with the good. It helps keep everything in perspective.
I’m convinced that regardless of the negativity we see every day on social media, that people still ultimately care about each other. And that this divisive political season will pass, eventually. I am, after all, catastrophically optimistic. And in the meantime, we still have coffee… and glazed donuts. It’s important to find joy in the simple things.
This might seem like a weird topic… you know, celebrating UN-fan mail… but I’m in a weird mood today, so here goes… (this post was originally published with a different intro and headline)…
I was reading through some fan mail to pull a couple of funny quotes for a book I’m working on and I came across some really awesome hate mail. (I save the good and the bad.) Don’t worry, I didn’t get all of these in one week or anything, they span about an eight year time frame. The thing is, truly heartfelt hate mail is almost as meaningful as fan mail… it means people care enough about what you’re doing to write to you and complain.
After doing comics for twenty years I now have a much thicker skin than I used to.
Constructive feedback is always welcome. Comics can be a solitary endeavor. It’s easy to lose yourself in your work. Late nights, too much coffee, and going down some rabbit hole of a story line… and then realizing you’ve written yourself into a corner. Jane’s World has always been that kind of creative work. I made a conscious effort not to overthink Jane’s path, and to let her world organically evolve. I think doing that makes what ends up on the page authentic and unfiltered… or, at least, that’s been my goal. Which brings me to some of my most awesome hate mail. I’ve pulled a few of my favorites to share with you. These are all emails I’ve received, without edits.
This first one might be my favorite:
“Dear Paige Braddock,
My assessment of your ‘comic’ strip is that it is not funny. I accessed it through comics.com, it being recommended to me as something a regular reader of Pearls Before Swine might also enjoy. First, I don’t like comics, such as yours with a story line that must be followed daily so as to get it. Next, the three characters that I saw in your ‘comic’ strip are women and as just about everyone knows women have no or a poor sense of humor. How could you possibly make them funny? Here’s an idea, kill them off by having their planes collide in mid-air and replace them with just about anything else.
Best wishes, Mr. Edwards”
But wait… there’s more…
“Here’s the problem with you fags. You think you can do anything. If any other comic strip had a guy grabbing a chicks tit it would be banished. But a lezzy doing its OK. Right. Fuck you!” — J.
“I used to enjoy Jane’s World but I’m no longer going to read it because, frankly, you’re a flake. You disappear for months at a time and subject your readers to repeated comics during that time. Your website is sadly out of date. I found a list of publications elsewhere on your website that you claimed run Jane’s World. All the ones I checked did not run your comic. The one I didn’t check was because it was blocked by my antivirus for being a Trojan.” — C.
“You have a lot of talent and Jane’s World has the potential to be a great lesbian comic but you need to grow up and assume some responsibility.” — G.
“The phrase “painfully slow” comes to mind.” — J.
“WOULD YOU PLEASE GET THIS DAMN STORY INTO SOME SEMBLANCE OF CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER??? I CAN’T KEEP THE STORY LINE STRAIGHT. OR IS THERE EVEN A STORY LINE???” — H.
This is why sometimes it’s a relief to simply do jokes about missing socks. Take care, friends. And be kind to one another. I’m happy to report that for every over-the-top angry email, I get a hundred positive messages. Life is good and comics make the world a better place.
In case you missed it, Jane was sucked into an alternate reality through a tear in the time space continuum. Beta flew her spaceship through a worm hole so that she and Alt-Jane cold join forces to rescue Real Jane from the clutches of (not so) evil Dorothy. Confused? Oh, wait, and Chelle was in the alternative reality too, channeling Furiosa…
Alt-Jane had no fear. She confronted her ex-girlfriend, evil Dorothy. (Who stole evil Willow’s outfit, apparently.)
Nothing is as powerful as a donut-shaped circle of Jane’s in red Chucks!
Not sure why, but Monday’s comic didn’t load properly. Here are the three most recent Jane’s World comics to catch you up.
For some reason there were technical difficulties on the GoComics site (and I’m not ruling out user error) because I started uploading the comics in a different format this week. At any rate, here’s your chance to catch up all in one post. Enjoy 🙂
The thing about cartooning is that it is a lonely endeavor. Usually you do it at home, at night, after you’re off duty from your day job. If you’re like most cartoonists you do comics around the edges of everything else in your life. That can sometimes get discouraging. Then you attend San Diego Comic Con (or some other similar event) and you’re reminded that you’re not alone and you’re also reminded of how much you LOVE comics. You come home feeling rejuvenated and inspired. At least that was my experience this year. So one day of “Jane” this week on GoComics just wasn’t enough for me. I hope you enjoy the week.
