I think the dynamic between the two main characters in “Dang Gum” owes a lot to Vera Brosgol’s “Return to Sender,” which I discovered during my Junior year of high school. (The fact that Brosgol made that comic in high school continues to blow my mind.)

Last Wednesday I drove up to the Source to participate in Indy Comic Book Week. It was a lot of fun. So much fun that I wrote an article about it for the Daily Cross Hatch. Go on and read it, then. (Speaking of the Cross Hatch, my Cross Hatch “boss,” Brian Heater, is cool. His writing has appeared in all sorts of cool publications like Spin and The Onion, and he’s a senior editor at PC Magazine. He’s also totally dateable.)

One of the artists I spoke with at the Indy Comics event was Ryan Dow, whom I know through the Cartoonist Conspiracy (speaking of the Conspiracy, there’s a Minneapolis Jam tomorrow evening and I WILL BE THERE!). Talking comics with Ryan inspired me to go home and catch up on his. He does some really fantastic stuff; for anyone who dismisses autobiographical comics as self-indulgent navel-gazing, I suggest you read Ryan’s. He is one of the least egotistical people I’ve met—and a Buddhist!

Amongst the many great one-page strips on Dow’s site, there is one very long story (I’d tell you the title, but I’m not sure he’s given it one). The story starts here and you should start reading it immediately. It’s incredible. The message is all about freeing oneself from destructive friendships and recognizing the value of being able to go through life alone—that being alone is infinitely better than being in an abusive friendship. Though I’ve never been in a friendship quite like the one Ryan writes about, I still identified intensely with his situation—that slow, uncomfortable realization that a person (close friend) who has been offering you advice may not have your best interests at heart. That in fact, the people in life who seem most confident and eager to dispense advice are perhaps the last people who should be offering it. It’s interesting that Dow seems to get told by various people in his life that he is too shy and needs to be more assertive, because, as a cartoonist, he is extremely articulate, and comfortable with his feelings and opinions.

Hooray for webcomics! The world is full of interesting people—and I am so glad that some of them are willing to share their interestingness for free on the internet.