Man, the more I read your posts, the more I want to respond to you, you know? Like, I want to have a conversation with you. But I don't know if we can really do that – you seem to have a pretty low opinion of me, and I can't imagine what I could say to you at this point that would change your mind.
I'm sorry if you feel like I'm trying to say something false about your background, as that was never my intent. I write about the East Side of Vancouver, BC, where I've lived for years. An area of a small coastal city with a huge heroin and police brutality problem. I live in East Van, and I deal with the people of it every day. It's not the hood, it's not a traditional ghetto, it's not anything. It's just the city I live in, and wanted to write about. If you lived in Vancouver you might even recognize some of the landmarks we wrote/drew into the series.
There isn't meant to be any kind of sexual content to my book. To me, I'm writing about abused children who are kind of fucked in the head. It's not about making their tits look hot. I don't know where you get the idea that Spaz is supposed to be sexy – he's a 15 year-old dork. He was more my nod to Marvel's Speedball than anything else.
I read and loved Static, but didn't get around to Blood Syndicate. In an ideal world, the YO are a “rip-off” of The New Warriors and V for Vendetta, but, whatever. That's all just in my head anyway. You'll see what you want to see. I really try not to make my comic about “race”, because I don't have anything intelligent to say about race in the context of this story. I just didn't want to work on a comic that was a bunch of white kids. I liked the idea of a small team of different looking individuals. So there's a couple of black kids, some white kids, and a native girl. Now, I know that's probably more black people than currently live in Vancouver, but... Where I used to live in East Van was the black neighbourhood back in the 50's, until all their homes were bulldozed down and they were driven out of town. I got nothing to say about that – that's Vancouver's history. There used to be a black community in Vancouver, but it was literally destroyed decades ago.
And yeah, I know I rip off Tarantino. I just love the guy is all. But you're right – I've not been to A Hood. I've not been to America, to be honest with you. I'm a Canadian boy, and my book is largely inspired by Canadian hip-hop (artists you probably wouldn't have heard of 'cause Canadian music doesn't make it south of the boarder very much) and the social issues of my Canadian neighbourhoods.
Anyway man, if you really still hate me because of the stuff I said back in the c2f days, I can't blame you. I can't say much if you don't like my writing. It's your opinion and you're welcome to it. I hate 90% of the comics I read in a day, so I'm never surprised when people dislike mine.
I guess I just see all the passion you have for disliking what I've written, and I feel like I want to respond to some of the things that frustrate you. I want to have some open communication with you. But maybe that's dumb of me; maybe you just don't like me, and that's cool. I don't know shit about you, so I can't cast any judgement. I don't know if you're really a black guy from the hood, or a gay Asian from London. At the end of the day you're just somebody who thinks I'm full of shit – and you're probably at least half right! I know I'm full of shit. I'm not trying to say I've got the hardcore shit from the streets. I'm just some geek who likes to write action-adventure sci-fi comics.
Though I don't really know about my having problems with women. My editor was a woman, and she oversaw all the construction of the characters and their dialogue. Then again, Dave Sim had a female editor, and he sure seemed to hate women, so maybe you see something in my book that I, and all the women I've had read the series, haven't seen.
Anyway, I guess you and I have had some problems in the past, and there's probably nothing I'm going to say now that'll change any of that. I'm surprised that I've frustrated/offended you enough to bring you back to complain several times – really, the main reason I'm writing you back is because I'm kind of impressed that you spent as much time being mad at my writing as you have. Clearly, some of this shit got under your skin and left you a little pissed off.
At the end here, I guess I should thank you for taking the time to express yourself intelligently about your problems with me. You didn't just type “fuck you fag” in big capital letters, you really said what was on your mind and why it pisses you off, and I can't fault you for that. Hell, that's all The YO are to me – me saying what's on my mind, and why it pisses me off.
Oh, and I didn't ask Chad to review the comic for me. I haven't been connected to c2f since it became mania; I just started posting there again a few weeks ago because I ran into a couple of the guys on-line. Chad, independent of me, read the comic and sent me an email asking if he could post a review, and I said I'd be thrilled. That was as much of it as I was in on. He publicized the book because he liked it – not because I asked him to. And he has just as much a right to his opinion as you do yours, right?
Take it easy man, and thanks I guess, for giving me some shit to think about,
- Hank
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Hey dude.
Man, the more I read your posts, the more I want to respond to you, you know? Like, I want to have a conversation with you. But I don't know if we can really do that – you seem to have a pretty low opinion of me, and I can't imagine what I could say to you at this point that would change your mind.
I'm sorry if you feel like I'm trying to say something false about your background, as that was never my intent. I write about the East Side of Vancouver, BC, where I've lived for years. An area of a small coastal city with a huge heroin and police brutality problem. I live in East Van, and I deal with the people of it every day. It's not the hood, it's not a traditional ghetto, it's not anything. It's just the city I live in, and wanted to write about. If you lived in Vancouver you might even recognize some of the landmarks we wrote/drew into the series.
There isn't meant to be any kind of sexual content to my book. To me, I'm writing about abused children who are kind of fucked in the head. It's not about making their tits look hot. I don't know where you get the idea that Spaz is supposed to be sexy – he's a 15 year-old dork. He was more my nod to Marvel's Speedball than anything else.
I read and loved Static, but didn't get around to Blood Syndicate. In an ideal world, the YO are a “rip-off” of The New Warriors and V for Vendetta, but, whatever. That's all just in my head anyway. You'll see what you want to see. I really try not to make my comic about “race”, because I don't have anything intelligent to say about race in the context of this story. I just didn't want to work on a comic that was a bunch of white kids. I liked the idea of a small team of different looking individuals. So there's a couple of black kids, some white kids, and a native girl. Now, I know that's probably more black people than currently live in Vancouver, but... Where I used to live in East Van was the black neighbourhood back in the 50's, until all their homes were bulldozed down and they were driven out of town. I got nothing to say about that – that's Vancouver's history. There used to be a black community in Vancouver, but it was literally destroyed decades ago.
And yeah, I know I rip off Tarantino. I just love the guy is all. But you're right – I've not been to A Hood. I've not been to America, to be honest with you. I'm a Canadian boy, and my book is largely inspired by Canadian hip-hop (artists you probably wouldn't have heard of 'cause Canadian music doesn't make it south of the boarder very much) and the social issues of my Canadian neighbourhoods.
Anyway man, if you really still hate me because of the stuff I said back in the c2f days, I can't blame you. I can't say much if you don't like my writing. It's your opinion and you're welcome to it. I hate 90% of the comics I read in a day, so I'm never surprised when people dislike mine.
I guess I just see all the passion you have for disliking what I've written, and I feel like I want to respond to some of the things that frustrate you. I want to have some open communication with you. But maybe that's dumb of me; maybe you just don't like me, and that's cool. I don't know shit about you, so I can't cast any judgement. I don't know if you're really a black guy from the hood, or a gay Asian from London. At the end of the day you're just somebody who thinks I'm full of shit – and you're probably at least half right! I know I'm full of shit. I'm not trying to say I've got the hardcore shit from the streets. I'm just some geek who likes to write action-adventure sci-fi comics.
Though I don't really know about my having problems with women. My editor was a woman, and she oversaw all the construction of the characters and their dialogue. Then again, Dave Sim had a female editor, and he sure seemed to hate women, so maybe you see something in my book that I, and all the women I've had read the series, haven't seen.
Anyway, I guess you and I have had some problems in the past, and there's probably nothing I'm going to say now that'll change any of that. I'm surprised that I've frustrated/offended you enough to bring you back to complain several times – really, the main reason I'm writing you back is because I'm kind of impressed that you spent as much time being mad at my writing as you have. Clearly, some of this shit got under your skin and left you a little pissed off.
At the end here, I guess I should thank you for taking the time to express yourself intelligently about your problems with me. You didn't just type “fuck you fag” in big capital letters, you really said what was on your mind and why it pisses you off, and I can't fault you for that. Hell, that's all The YO are to me – me saying what's on my mind, and why it pisses me off.
Oh, and I didn't ask Chad to review the comic for me. I haven't been connected to c2f since it became mania; I just started posting there again a few weeks ago because I ran into a couple of the guys on-line. Chad, independent of me, read the comic and sent me an email asking if he could post a review, and I said I'd be thrilled. That was as much of it as I was in on. He publicized the book because he liked it – not because I asked him to. And he has just as much a right to his opinion as you do yours, right?
Take it easy man, and thanks I guess, for giving me some shit to think about,
- Hank