Recently the traffic to the ol’ webcomic has been a little moribund.   However, it was to be expected, with Summer coming to an end and the pending Labor Day holiday here in the United States.  It’s also easy to take the drop-off in stride thanks to the great dialogue I enjoy with my regular readers. Heck, even I was logging on less than usual, since I had been out of town a lot recently with a vacation to Chicago and a weekend trip to Knoxville for the University of Tennessee football home opener. (GO VOLS!)

Imagine my surprise when I logged on this morning and discovered that site visits had spiked astronomically overnight.  I literally said, “What the fuck?” and checked to see where all the traffic was coming from.  My surprise turned to shock (I mean, someone-grab-the-defibrillator-’cause-I-think-my-heart-just-stopped shock) when I realized the readers were coming from Avatar Press’ site, Bleeding Cool.  Legendary comic book writer, Warren Ellis, had actually given WORLD OF HURT a shout-out in his regular column, Do Anything! I was in awe of Ellis and Bryan Hitch’s The Authority back in the day, and I lived for his ”pop comics” manifesto, Nextwave with Stuart Immonen, so this was..Wow!

I’m fairly certain Mr. Ellis is not one for treacly sentiment, but I would like to say that I am greatly humbled that he would take the time to read my webcomic, much less comment upon it in such a positive way.

In the time WORLD OF HURT has been active, other fantastic artists and creators, from Mr. Dwayne McDuffie to the inimitable Mr. Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, have also been gracious enough to send comments or good thoughts my way, and each time I really don’t know what to say, because I’ve admired their work for years.  I can never say enough to thank them for their time and inspiration.   However, it does make me endeavor to work that much harder and try to improve as an artist.

Thanks so much to them, and to you, for stopping by and letting me share my webcomic with you.

- JEP