Thinking about my early days with comics, I realized they were the gateway to my interest in publishing, my first real awareness of people and a process behind the scenes that connected me to the stories and characters I enjoyed so much.
Besides my own attempts at zines and chapbooks, it was my first real introduction to the world of publishing, and it left a permanent mark that partly explains my cynical passion and/or pragmatic idealism for the publishing industry.
"Only those who know nothing of the history of technology believe that a technology is entirely neutral... Each technology has an agenda of its own. It is, as I have suggested, a metaphor waiting to unfold." Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death There's a lot of handwringing and finger-pointing happening in publishing these days, both by those struggling to find solutions to the challenges the industry faces, and by various Joker-pundits who apparently "just want to see the world burn." Demagogues and idealogues love the spotlight, and attention-seeking media outlets happily provide them a stage to stoke faux controversies over…