Conventional Wisdom

(Historical Notes:  First off, obligatory link to the original Otakon 2010 comic.  With that out of the way, just how many snobby people WOULD I have to talk nice to in order to convince people that my webcomic is an important piece of local culture?  Because let’s be honest, it IS as much a case of having the right connections with the right people and being able to talk the right buzzwords as it is a matter of actually making good art that resonates with people.  I refuse to believe that giant whale skeleton made out of banjos is hanging in the Convention Center because the average people of North Carolina all love looking at it so much.  But alas, I clearly don’t know how to make friends that well.  Heck, even the town I live in loves throwing money at local artists to make downtown look more cosmopolitan, and I can’t even get in on THAT racket.  Sure, it’s totally defensible to say that nobody wants to see my terrible nerdy doodles painted on the side of a building… until you see the kind of crap that DOES get picked to represent the local community.  And thus concludes the thoughts of literally every struggling artist ever.)