Friday, September 05, 2003

Another Award While I was in Edinburgh, “American Splendor” picked up another award. That makes four it’s gotten at festivals this year, including ones at Sundance, Cannes and Montreal. It’s so hard to believe I’m getting this kind of official recognition. My comic book writing has gotten some really good ink, but practically no one reads alternative comics, so I get very little feedback on them. All the stuff in the papers has been really nice though, although I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. I see stuff in positive reviews of “American Splendor” about how much I complain, how whiney I am, and how compulsive. Well, of course, I do have those faults and others. I attempt, although some people have missed this point, to highlight my faults in my writing so that people will recognize some of it in themselves and identify with me. There’s never seemed much of a point in writing self-aggrandizing autobiography, to clean up one’s faults so that they don’t seem to exist. So everyone out there: be aware that I don’t think I’m perfect. I try to highlight my shortcomings, unlike a lot of autobiographical writers. Very few of us have no faults, but we still have to try to get along with each other and even learn and draw inspiration from our imperfect selves. 8:04:11 AM