The Perils of Fame

Originally, yesterday's entry was going to be about the cancellation of the new OMAC series, and how I blamed Dan Didio.  I had a really clever schtick worked out where I was going to attribute low sales figures to Didio's general loathsomeness and that, were he smart or good at his job, he would have penned OMAC using a pseudonym.

A pseudonym like "Schman Schmidio."

Maybe the schtick wasn't that clever.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the snarkatorium.

As I sat down to write yesterday, I thought about the praise and encouraging comments I've gotten from people about TWEDP thus far.  16 days ago, that people would, you know, actually read and enjoy this stuff was the furthest thing from my mind.  Remember, I'm an academic.  I'm used to slaving on something for years and no one reading the end product.

(Seems like a great time to plug my book!  200 scintillating pages on education finance and local school boards politics!  Relive the Great Rutland Donut Controversy of 2003 again and again!)

But some of you are apparently reading.  And you've said nice things.  And...like, humbled, shocked, embarrassed, and really happy.  Thank you.  A million times thank you.

All of this goes through my head yesterday, and I ask myself, do my adoring masses really want to read about how the editor of DC Comics sucks for not being able to sell a book that he wrote?

I actually asked myself if my readers would care about a topic.  Seriously.  My readers.

This is the part where you laugh at me.

Keep in mind that all of this neurotic self-consciousness is being generated by an average of 50 page visits a day.  I cannot even imagine what artists who have followings that support a career go through.  The next time that you're mad that your favorite band made a terrible record, remember that you're probably partially responsible for its terribleness.  Whether they want to or not, that band is thinking about your expectations of what you want to hear from them.  The weight of those expectations has to be staggering.

The best bands often react to fame with the most ambitious, uncompromising effort of their career.  I haven't finished my coffee, so ambition is not happening, but I can do uncompromising.

HE IS OMAC!!!