If you have a choice, never live publicly.

[Woody]

Being "the guy that does GU" isn't always what it's cracked up to be. Private matters of my friends, family, and loved ones occassionally come under scrutiny, even though they have nothing to do with me or the comic. And even the fact that I've been divorced comes back to haunt me through the bitter typing of people who never bothered to get my side of the story. Not that I would have told them anything anyway, but still making an effort is making an effort.

People like to try to garner attention for themselves by clinging tightly to the back of someone who has made more of a splash in the world. What gets me is that I haven't made much of a splash. GU is barely more than a sub-ripple of something much larger. Yet here I am being reminded near daily that I exist in the public eye and will probably never be able to get out of it. I mean, I'd say that if I stopped producing GU maybe I'd get my privacy back; but, I doubt it. Bitter people are always bitter and they seem incapable of letting go.

The only other option would be to offer up my coat tails and invite the hangers on to continue hanging on. Why shouldn't they get a little excitement out of life by slinging mud from my shadows? Well, kharma for one... if you believe in it. One day I hope to achieve some semblance of normalcy. Where the things I am not uniquely responsible for do not get tossed back at me. Or, at the very least, those things that do not pertain to GU are not ignorantly associated with GU. Ultimately though, I understand that's asking too much.

My advice to you few who are reading this though is avoid living any part of your life publicly. Protect your privacy. And I guess never get divorced and/or let any one around you get in any kind of trouble. It's just not worth the annoyance or pettiness. And for those of you who try to capitalize on your knowledge of someone else I hope someday your own private issues aren't tossed back into your face publicly. Because, I wouldn't wish that on you.

[Radial]

Comes with the territory I guess. Though I think that gamers(as a clique) have the potential to be the most vicious and heartless when it comes to heckling.

[Woody]

Heckling is easy to deal with. I shrug and move on. It's the people who know personal information about you and share it with the world because of some bitterness, entitlement, or desperation for attention (no matter what it costs someone else) that annoys me. The things that spurred me to write this entry are direct examples of that.

[Radial]

I guess when I wrote "heckling" I was thinking of the whole Joe Rogan Vs Carlos Mencia event. In that example Rogan used as much information as he could find to denounce Mencia.

What I'm trying to say is that my own view on heckling must differ from yours.

But yeah, I agree it's distastefull to dig up dirt on some one specifically to make them feel like crap. Especially personal life things.

[Woody]

Oh yeah. I see where you're coming from. For me heckling is like a 3rd party, disassociated, piece of verbal (or written) vomit. Kind of what you might hear in a comedy club or at a sports event. There's no personal knowledge or the individual beyond the immediate situation.

I do see what you mean though.

[Breandan]

Been there, know the feeling. I have my own collection of stalkerazzi that delight in personal attacks and slander, usually in an attempt to undermine my credibility for their own agendas. Some people are truly scumbags, others are parasites who live vicariously through others, but are destructive in doing so.

[Evil_Gondi]

I'm not much of a celebrity (or even a local one at that), but I've had my fair share, though probably not nearly as much as anyone else's. It may be my lack of wisdom in life matters, but whenever I am attacked in such a manner, I do one of two things: smile and ask if they are done or find out the skeletons in their closet and air them out.

I have rarely used the latter, I try not to for I enjoy it too much. It was only when someone had tried to ruin my life that I had to ruin their's. It's scary how humanity acts sometime, but we've gotta hope that maybe we can grow up and get over it all. Hope is all we have, after all.

[dweller07]

At least you are only catering to gamers, (neurotic as we can be =))I mean to say it could be much worse. Now say did draw more about your RL relationships, family, etc., that would invite that much more scrutiny. Or take blogger/author Violet Blue, being a sex educator and erotic lit author/editor, she gets it from all sides.

[Zutan]

i dont envy anyone for being in the spotlight for what they do. i think id quit if i was tossed into a celebrity image. what i do envy people for is being able to do things id really like to do. like you for being able to draw. id love to be able to draw, but i can barely draw a stick man and make it look better than a 6 year olds lol.

i guess it takes a certain type of person to want so despretly to be in some way famous that they will almost ruin another persons life to make themselvs look famous some how.
me im happy being a gunsmith in a small shop and not having anyone on the net know where i work so i cant be bothered lol.

[Radial]

At least you are only catering to gamers, (neurotic as we can be =))I mean to say it could be much worse. Now say did draw more about your RL relationships, family, etc., that would invite that much more scrutiny. Or take blogger/author Violet Blue, being a sex educator and erotic lit author/editor, she gets it from all sides.

Gamers are notoriously fickle at best. Quick to critisize, embrace all of your weaknesses, and ignore your strengths. Hold vicious long time grudges for menial things, and forget all of the huge contributions that you've made.

I can think of only 2 other groups of people that are any less-sane. And neither of them include the generally free-spirit type that read erotic lit.

[Wolfduck]

I've never understood, why people have to bring out others peoples business where it doesn't really belong. I can understand if you hold a high security clearance, and it affects national security, However everyone else in the public eye really deserve their own privacy, especially if you don't bring your own personal life out into the public. VIVA LA PRIVACY!!!

[Woody]

Well, every privacy issue I'd had so far have been the result of people with personal bias against me for personal reasons. They never bother to get both sides of the story and then tap into an unending stream of bitterness. It's petty and it makes me sad. Not because of how it affects me; but, because holding on to that kind of negativity is not healthy for anyone.

[Wine]

Hey, you are the one who makes your life public knowledge. It'd be quite easy for you to conceal your personal life on the interwebs and still be a bit of a celebrity. But you choose to reveal quite a bit of yourself and as you'll hear from many many many people who live in the public eye, that it just comes with the territory, it's human nature. We want to see the gods with their pants down.

Personally though, it sounds like you are the bitter one. You could just ignore this person and whatever they have said(I know you you are, I know who you wife is and your kid is, I am just a casual reader but I know quite a bit about you because of what you choose to share, but I had no idea of this slander and/or libel you are talking about in this comic until you brought it up) and for the most part it would have just blown over. Vicious comments only have as much power as people give them. You just gave this one a whole lot of credibility.

[Woody]

Wine, your response demonstrates a distinct lack of knowledge of the situation specifically because I have not revealed certain aspects of my personal life. I've revealed no more about myself than my peers or what others sites have elected to reveal about me without my permission such as my girlfriends name, the state I live in, etc.

Nothing I have said about these people could even be construed as bitter, so you're way off base there. Those few items I have revealed to the public are things that directly impact the comic or are the result of having to respond to something revealed about me without my permission. The issue that inspired this thread resulted from personal information not given to the readers. The details of what I'm talking about aren't listed here; they're not even mentioned. So how that manages to lend them credibility eludes me. Please also note I've not said anything about slander or libel, there's no comic about the issue, and you still don't know what it is I'm talking about. So, most of your comments here are pretty much invalid.

This thread is not all about what I say on my own site. It's about those things I do not talk about that get brought up by people who knew me or someone I was, or still am, associated with, whether their intentions are to try to wound me or not.

[Breandan]

Withing the bounds of the Easy Ways, it is difficult to post this, but I shall do my best to get my point across without violating the rules.

Simply put- what has happened here is very similar to something that happened to me, in that someone with confidential information and a personal vendetta decided to mouth off to someone else and cause problems for me and my family. Said information was not damning (in my case it was the sexual preference of my then-wife and her involvement with someone whilst married to me), but in the case of being a business owner and, in Woody's case, a famous person, it is information that could compromise family safety, privacy, etc. as well as professional reputation.


Just because someone shares A,B, and C does not give someone the right to then dig up and/or blab about D,E, and F. There are limits, and they were crossed, and the person doing so did it to try and hurt the person they were blabbing about for their own personal, petty reasons. For those who would say that Woody has no right to be upset about it because his life is public, it isn't. He is not property of the readership, and no one has any right to dig into his life. Walk a mile in his shoes before flippantly dismissing how harmful this sort of thing can be, especially to a family. Trust me, I've been there, and I dare ANYONE who so flippantly dismisses it to try it on for size and see if they are still so cavalier about the matter.

[Wine]

My point is, that probably more than 90% of your readers have no clue what this blog post is about. But be sure that it will have piqued more than one person's interest enough to go find out. Whereas if you had just entirely ignored the issue, or just handled it privately and probably personally, it would be a non-issue. It was your choice to, in effect, let the world know what probably only a handful knew.

Edit: I mean even the caption for this blog is to "learn personal and inside information about Woody Hearn". It's your choice to make your private life public. It's not like people who read your comic demand to know who you are, or what your life is like.

[Woody]

Wine... the thread is not about one particular issue. This thread is about not living publicly if you can avoid it. Period.

If I could wind the clock back 7 years, I'd be operating inder a pen name and would have never used my own name or characters. But the truth is, I never thought the comic would take off. And I could have said this blog was about "all thing spider monkey". Doesn't mean anything unless I provide the information, which I have not. The point of this blog was to provide information about the inner workings of GU. Personal items that have nothing to do with the comic will never be posted here no matter how much you might like to believe that description supports your viewpoint.

[Radial]

You can allways count on people to "cross that line." Doesn't matter what the line is, where where it was drawn, or who drew it. Some one, some where, will cross it just in spite.

Especially true when you add internet into the equation.

And I hate to derail a serious personal issue, but you piqued my curiosity... What would you select for a pen name to write under?

[Woody]

I've written and drawn under several pen names. But... I'm not about to blow my own cover. Nice try though.

[Radial]

"Not-Woody" or "Woddy"?

[Wine]

Wine... the thread is not about one particular issue. This thread is about not living publicly if you can avoid it. Period.

If I could wind the clock back 7 years, I'd be operating inder a pen name and would have never used my own name or characters. But the truth is, I never thought the comic would take off. And I could have said this blog was about "all thing spider monkey". Doesn't mean anything unless I provide the information, which I have not. The point of this blog was to provide information about the inner workings of GU. Personal items that have nothing to do with the comic will never be posted here no matter how much you might like to believe that description supports your viewpoint.

Yes, because what you name your newborn is so completely relevant to the comic and how you produce it.

Anyway, it sounded like this blog was spurred by a specific event, something about someone mouthing off about your divorce or some such thing. But I guess I was wrong, it happens and I apologize.

My original point still stands though. Many of the quasi-celebrity types of the internet manage quite well. I don't think Tim Buckley, Scott Kurtz or even the Penny Arcade duo, who have even sparked a convention and charity foundation, seem to have much problem separating their personal lives from their celebrity persona. If they do...I sure don't know about it.

[Draconix]

Woody,

I have had my fair share of harrassment in the past and I'm sure everyone has one point or another. As far as the person throwing your divorce back at you, well its none of their business what happened or didn't happen during that time period. I could careless about your indecretions or if your friends got into trouble because well...you're not the one who got them into trouble (were you? =P) and if you weren't the blame or reason then why should it matter if Bob decided to be an idiot and run around naked in wal-mart screaming the mushroom people are after me, they are after me!

All aside what really matters as far as GU is concerned is your a great web comic artist and don't let anyone tell you otherwise or let the ones who have no life and wish to know every little detail of your life bother you. If they want to get personal, let them and shrug it off and smile at them because...it will BOTHER them that it didn't affect you in any shape or form. If it was me, I would say bring it on and I would correct them with my own history saying this is me and if you don't like it....theres the door and don't let it hit you on the way out. In any case, keep up the good work and keep in mind these guys have no life and rather feed off of others people's past because theirs sucks.

[Woody]

Wine, this thread was not posted because of someone mouthing off over my divorce. I just cited that as one example. Unless I say something specifically, do not assume I said it at all. Makes life and discussion a lot easier.

I don't recall posting Ash's name to the blog forum. But beyond that, what's his middle name? What's his last name? (Hint: It's not Hearn.)

Scott Kurtz talks about his health, talked about his brothers health, talks about his home, his office, his war with syndication, etc. Tim Buckley posts pictures of his dog, his house, his girlfriend, his car, has gotten drunk and slammed his own forums, and destroyed his WoW guild in a fit of rage. Both guys at Penny Arcade have posted their names, their wives' names, their sons' names, pictures of their house, kids, etc. If you're going to cite examples, please pick better ones.

[Wine]

I apologized for assuming this was about a divorce, and admitted that I was wrong about it. Not exactly sure what else you would like me to say.

I still think that the fact that I know Ashur's name, but I had no clue that Tim Buckley even has a girlfriend, or what the name of Mr. Krauhlik's wife is or even that he has a son and/or daughter, or the existence of Mr. Kurtz's brother or their respective health (Until this point of course) speaks volumes.

But I guess there is a point where there is no yield given to either side and there must just be an agreement to disagree. I think we've reached that point. If it's a thing of you winning and me losing, then consider yourself the victor.

[Woody]

Meet me at a convention sometime, I'll buy you a drink (caffienated preferably). And, no it's not about one of us winning or losing. I don't think either of us did either of those. I was just trying to answer the questions/statements/examples you put in front of me. I can only assume you just didn't see those items I mentioned when they posted them to the respective comic sites' front page.

Though admittedly Buckley's guild and forum issues were found on his forums not the main page like everything else about the rest of the guys.

[FuzzyBear]

This is an issue that hits particularly close to home with me.

I've gone through a legal name change (and one for my wife as well), an undisclosed relocation with as little forwarding information as possible, and am legally paid under several pseudonyms (as is she) based on what particular art we're pursuing. Filing taxes is a cast iron somethingorother.

I've finally decided over time that it doesn't matter what I try to keep hidden from the public eye, if I trust ANYONE, I'm likely to have that trust betrayed at some point and, as such, I've simply decided to deal and try not to rack up any MORE lawyer's bills or any retraining orders.

It sucks, but in retrospect, I can't see anything I could have done differently that would have avoided the truly tenacious idlefolk who apparently have nothing better to do. Some people just need to take up other hobbies.

Like straightening nails or darning socks.