i have to admit to a new compulsion that i’m trying to get under control. not as much of OCD, and it’s not recognized by the medical health organization but here goes…. i scroll through articles and videos to get to the comment section. sometimes i do it first! it’s a sickness. it’s not something i want to do, who would? it’s not the kind of thing that will make you happy, but sometimes, in a moment of pure optimism, i hope to see a positive comment. maybe 2 in a row. or at least just not a shitty one, where someone seems like they have accepted the challenge ‘how much anger can i pour into a paragraph?’

i’m actually quite cynical…… i mean, for a guy who writes and draws a comic for strangers with no expectations. but in the heart of every cynic is a guy who’s just lowered his expectations cause he wants to be surprised. i’ll let you know when i get there. even so, i was pretty pleased to find that someone had posted streams of cartoons on youtube. probably not legally, but whatever. free cartoons! it’s nice to have on in the background, while you work, and it’s just brings me a smile per minute rate of 1:2. but the videos open up with the comment section, live and streaming along side it, a river of bile coursing upwards. because while it seems that 99% of everyone is happy to sit back, and enjoy some rerun animation, the remaining people are fully investing in trying to ruin your time.

it’s been a long few days for my american friends. you guys have had a rough go of it lately, and no matter where you feel like you fit in on the spectrum, the defining moments have been coming fast and furious. i imagine a lot of people have been making some profound personal discoveries lately, and i hope they’re for the better. as a canadian, and absorbing it all from over a border, i feel tired. i can only imagine how you all feel. at some point, polite discourse died, and dropping n-bombs on youtube was born.

when i first started Black and Blue, i got some good advice from a few veterans. ‘don’t talk politics’. and that is some good advice, and i intend to stick with it. but this isn’t politics, this is about basic courtesy. all i’ll say, is i’m gonna try to watch more cartoons with the comments section off, and that goes doubly for the news.