Goodbye to Comics

Yes I am late in reading this. I just read the whole thing today. I finished it about two hours ago and I can't stop thinking about it. It seems that late last year, blogger Occasional Superheroine spilled her guts and I just figured it out.

First of all, I cried a little. Which says a lot for her writing. It is very visceral and easy to read. Okay not quite easy emotionally. Difficult emotionally. That girl has been through some serious shit that I never even imagined. But I feel some kind of bond, some understanding, just for the fact of being female. It's that silly "sisterhood" thing. I guess that's empathy.

Just to backtrack, Occasional Superheroine was one of the first comic blogs I really got into reading regularly. I'm really new to this whole blog thing (seems I'm always late to the party). So I started reading that blog probably two months ago. I thought, "man, this girl has got her stuff together. She's smart, witty, knows stuff, doesn't take shit from anyone. This is what I want my blog to aspire to."

I saw the mentions of "Goodbye to Comics" and kept thinking, "I need to read that," but never made the time. Until now.

I am just floored with the candor of the posts. It seems like the kind of thing I would do on a whim (spill my guts) but then delete it before I posted it. But she just kept spilling and posting. I admire that.

It made me think of the women I have prejudged (come on, I know I'm not the only one), and why I believed what other people said about them. It made me grateful that my childhood was a mostly suburban dream. It made me ache for women that suffer at the hands of misguided men and dubious women.

All this brings me back to my original view of Occasional Superheroine. She is stronger than I thought, having overcome such crazy things - one after the other - it's almost ridiculous.

I hope she affects change in the comics industry - I hope she publishes her books. We need strong women to show other women out there (and men!) what real women can do.

Thank you for writing.