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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Originally Posted by 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.

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.