As per the style lately - there were comics over the weekend, so click back a few if you missed them. Also, for those keeping score - this is the 20th update in a row for the 7day/week insane schedule I'm on right now. Anyway...

I think the best think about the Graphite Marathon last week was the chance it gave me to talk to a lot of the people who read this comic. I've learned a couple things and confirmed a couple others.

For one, the majority of the people who seem to read the comic are, fancy this, artists themselves. A big percentage of that seems to be independent filmmakers - or at least the most vocal of the bunch. One topic in particular keep coming up, however - the issue of parental support.

"There's no money in art" - I heard this ad nauseam when growing up and it wasn't until the last couple years (when I've had my biggest successes in film and theatre) that I feel like I have finally proven to my family that I don't need a desk job.

The fear is that all artists strive to be starving artists - that state of zombie-like creativity where we scorn people who don't understand our work and die at 30 because we couldn't afford food or health care. This is the fear and the only way to overcome it is to keep pushing yourself further. No one said it was going to be easy and we're all in the same boat.

So this is probably the first comic I have produced that was the direct result of the readers of the comic. With that, this one goes out to you!

UPDATE: Oh and hey! Look at that! My guest comic for Theater Hopper went up! Congratulations on the baby, Tom! And thanks for the kind words as well

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