All Too Often, When Creative People Pick

Science Fiction Isn’t Just Thinking About The World Out There. It’s Also Thinking About How That World Might Be—a Particularly Important Exercise For Those Who Are Oppressed, Because If They’re Going To Change The World We Live In, They—and All Of Us—have To Be Able To Think About A World That Works Differently.

In A Very Real Way, One Writes A Story To Find Out What Happens In It. Before It Is Written It Sits In The Mind Like A Piece Of Overheard Gossip Or A Bit Of Intriguing Tattle. The Story Process Is Like Taking Up Such A Piece Of Gossip, Hunting Down The People Actually Involved, Questioning Them, Finding Out What Really Occurred, And Visiting Pertinent Locations. As With Gossip, You Can't Be Too Surprised If Important Things Turn Up That Were Left Out Of The First-heard Version Entirely; Or If Points Initially Made Much Of Turn Out To Have Been Distorted, Or Simply Not To Have Happened At All.

I Think A 23-page Ordinary Comic Is An Investment For The Artist, But If You're Doing Something 60 To 104 Pages, That's A Really Big Investment For An Artist. So Unless You've Got Someone Who Wants To Pay You While You're Doing It Or Up Front, It's Kind Hard To Get Someone To Do That With You, Unless You're The Artist Yourself.

Dictators During The Entire History Of This Planet Have Used Similar Techniques. By Not Letting The People Of Their Country Know What Conditions Existed Outside Their Boundaries, They Could Get The People To Fight To Stay In Those Conditions. It Was The Old Adage: Convince A Slave That He's Free , And He Will Fight To Maintain His Slavery .

It's Only ... When We're Stripped Of Purpose That We Know Who We Are.