Our third TALES OF THE DRIVE story, “That Time the Veetans Defeated the Tesskans…FOREVER” has been moved in the archives, so now you can read it straight through. The story now begins HERE.
I want to say a huge public thank you to Ryan North and Tony Cliff — two artists I have infinite respect for — for producing such a delightful story in the DRIVE universe. They’d never worked together before, but the story and images they produced melded perfectly, and were a delight to read.
Any time I open up a DRIVE story to guest artists, I do it with one unusual caveat: NO EDITING FROM ME. I bring in artists I trust, and then let them run free to write and draw what they like. A.) Because it’s a sign of respect to their time and talent, and B.) Setting them loose in such a way often produces their best work. And boy was that the case, here. I loved this story. Loved, loved, loved it.
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If you loved it, too, PLEASE TAKE A SECOND TO TELL THE ARTISTS ON TWITTER. It always means a lot to artists to hear a kind word!
Seattle! It’s time for our ANNUAL FRIENDSHIP HUG OF FRIENDSHIP. Because I’m at Emerald City Comicon, Thurs-Sunday! With rad exclusives you can only get at the show!* I’m at booth 1116, on the main Skybridge entrance! You can’t miss me!
*(Sheldon Patreon supporters will also get a chance to snag ’em, next week…to thank them for supporting the strip! So sign up for Patreon at twenty-five cents, if you haven’t yet!)
Seattle! It’s time for our ANNUAL FRIENDSHIP HUG OF FRIENDSHIP. Because I’m at Emerald City Comicon, Thurs-Sunday! With rad exclusives you can only get at the show!* I’m at booth 1116, on the main Skybridge entrance! You can’t miss me!
*(Drive Patreon supporters will also get a chance to snag ’em, next week…to thank them for supporting the strip! So sign up for Patreon at twenty-five cents, if you haven’t yet!)
I’m done with all updates/changes in the DRIVE archives! It looks great! Read through the archives again, and you’ll see.
In fact: For those of you who like proofreading/fact-checking, I NEED YOUR HELP. For the big DRIVE omnibus book of Act One, I want to make sure I didn’t introduce new typos or mistakes.
So! I’ve put together this public, shareable spreadsheet where you can note any corrections you think should be made.
Thought I’d share this with you, as it’s been consuming my weeks. (But in a good way!)
I really want the DRIVE hardcover book to look amazing, so I’m taking the time to go over each comic file with care. The story’s been told over 7 years, using *three* separate ways to draw the strip (ink, ink/digital hybrid, pure digital), and in the process transitioning between three different computers. So files are NEEDIN’ ORGANIZATION!
Most notably, when you read through it all at once, you see 7 years of variation in font and color choices…which I’ve always intended to unify for the book (and for the site). I’m very pleased with how it’s turning out.
I’m also taking the time to George Lucas a few key panels that I’ve always hated
to look at. Panels that were drawn either when I was super sick with the flu or under some time crunch — which resulted in, well, panels I hated.
This election cycle, I’ve found myself having genuine anxiety dreams, and falling into depressive spells. I’ll be up until 2 or 3 AM, and just….sad. Sad about the language being used to describe people, groups, religions, nations. Sad about how some “Other” is being propped up as a thing to be feared. Sad about how we’re treating each other.
I was sad enough that I couldn’t even bring myself to cartoon, this week. So, as a way of processing that sadness, I wanted to write about it.
Don’t worry: This is not a post to tell you who to vote for, or who not to vote for. Mostly because that never works. Trying to convince others who to vote for is like trying to tell your friend in High School not to date Jimmy diMatteo. No matter what you tell them about Jimmy diMatteo, they’re still gonna date Jimmy diMatteo. Except now they’re gonna be mad at you while they date Jimmy diMatteo, because you told them not to date Jimmy diMatteo.
So this isn’t a political post. We’re not going to be talking about parties, or policies, or politicians. I just want to tell you about the Americans I know and love on my street. Because — purely by coincidence — my street is a wonderful microcosm of the America our children should grow up in.
These are the families in the four immediate houses around mine:
– A Catholic Filipino family, who escaped the dictator Marcos in the 1980’s
– A Persian Shia family, who escaped the Iranian revolution in the 1970’s
– A Lutheran minister of German descent, whose family came in the 1870’s during the great European migration
– An atheist family from Scotland, who came in the 1980’s
And then my family, who escaped the deaths of the Irish potato famine, and the deaths of Castro’s Cuba, to come to America. My family, who started here as day laborers, so that their children could go to college, so that their grandchildren could be leaders of their fields.
These are the five HUGELY DIFFERENT families I want to focus in on. Because we all get along, and watch out for one another, and help raise one another’s kids. My Shia neighbors gave my children Christmas gifts, and we’ll be giving theirs Nowruz chocolates on the 20th. We talk, we laugh, we have neighborly bickerings. All normal. All respectful. All backed up by decency, and by kindness.
And because I’ve known them for years now, I’ve seen the large and small ways they’ve made their community a better place. I don’t know if all of their families have papers (Ha! Mine certainly didn’t: We snuck in on a boat from Ireland, then through Canada, like the sneaky family we are), but they are all wonderful people, and I am proud to call them neighbors.
In my childrens’ classes, I hear *first generation* accents from Russia, China, Haiti, England, Australia, Canada, Uruguay, Japan and more. How many countries in the world can boast a classroom like that? It’s the greatest chorus to hear. And it’s the best lesson I can imagine for my kids. You know that quote “people who don’t read books, are doomed to live only one life?” I think the same is true for living in sameness. If you only meet one type of face, or one faith, or one way of doing things…you’ve only lived one life. But in America, we get to sample the world. America takes it all in, celebrates it, and makes it its own.
For example: In the past five years, I’ve been to plenty of same-faith weddings. But I’ve also been, rather delightfully, to Jewish-Catholic weddings. To Coptic-Protestant weddings. To Buddhist-Evangelical weddings. And the kids from these unions are among the most beautiful you could ask for: Korean/African, Haitian/Irish, Egyptian-German/Chinese. Gorgeous children, with bright, beautiful faces to match their bright, beautiful futures. And again, how rare and wonderful in human history to even find such kids? In America, it’s not a historical anomaly. It happens all. The. Time.
That’s the America I know. That’s the America I see from my street.
And you might be saying, “Yeah, but you live in a major city, and hang out in artist circles. That’s some Stepford version of America.” No…it’s not. And if it seems that way to you, I can tell you it doesn’t have to seem that way. Speaking as someone who has travelled to *ALL* 50 states, to 5 Canadian provinces, to 3 Mexican states, and 14 countries in Europe….I can tell you there is something truly unique, and kind, and decent about this country. It holds a unique place in human history. This is a nation of good people, from all backgrounds and faiths, who genuinely want to see one another succeed in their own individuality. The foundational premise of this country is so radical that we tend to forget about it. Tend to take it for granted. But when this country is operating at its best, it truly is a shining city on a hill. This country is the greatest social experiment in the history of humanity — and though it comes from a divisive past, whose demons can be resurrected at a moments notice — this social experiment is still working. The arc of its history bends toward betterment, toward making a more perfect union.
But it’s never guaranteed to continue.
Every generation has had its faults, and every generation has had to remind themselves of the debt they owe this country, and the work they need to personally do to keep the country whole. Brave soldiers are not the only way we protect the idea of America. It’s also in kind acts of decency that we protect this country: In a civil public life. In a willingness to hear opposing viewpoints. In a willingness for the majority to protect the minority.
But to paraphrase Churchill, hate gets halfway around the world before kindness has a chance to get its pants on. So this is our time to actively, actively, actively promote decency. Its a shame to even have to say it out loud, but we need to be decent to one another. To be kind.
[Click image to read]
This is a moment of clarity. And I guess I’m begging you, as a friend would: Be kind. I know it sounds naive, I know it sounds wide-eyed, but be kind.
The Persian, Filipino, German, Scottish, and Irish/Cuban families on my street will thank you.
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I invite you all to post about the America you know, below. But I’m begging you: No politics. No mention of parties, politics, policies, or politicians. The forums of CNN, MSNBC, Breitbart, and Fox News provide enough of that. If you feel the need to do anything other than share the positives of the America you know…please, post it elsewhere. My heart needs optimism and basic kindness right now. And I suspect a great many of you need the same.
So again: Please, no politics or politicians in your comments. No negativity. No unkind words. I’m asking you all, as friends. At least in this one place online, be kind.
I started telling this story as a hugely *personal* project: I wanted to get it out into the world — mainly just for me — and if other folks wanted to read it, too, that was great. I loved the story from the start, but it has genuinely surprised me how much other folks love it, too.
I just checked the readership stats for the first time in a while (see chart, below), and the audience growth over the last two years has been…astounding. So thank you! Thank you for reading the strip, thank you for telling friends about the strip, and thank you for supporting it’s future via Patreon. All that kindness means the world to me!
When I first started DRIVE, an early reader told me to skip these weird documents, and just stick to the comic…and I wrote back to him that these are as much the comic as anything I’ve ever drawn.
One of my favorite things about DRIVE is inviting in artists to tell stories set in this universe. It’s so fun to turn your creation over to other artists…and see what kind of stories they tell!
And today we begin our third “Tales of the Drive” story…one I’m SUPER EXCITED for. It brings together two of my favorite artists, and the resulting story came out delightful as HECK.
Over the next 15 weeks, they tell the story of how the pacifist Veetans beat the entire Tesskan armada in one week. You’re going to love it. (And as those 15 weeks go by, make sure you check out their other work I linked to above: These two do amazing work.)
And! Because a few panels had some fantastic tucked-in jokes, I’ve pasted in close-ups, below.
