The best rejection letter I ever got...

Apr 30

... came from an editor who was hiring all my friends for a hip anthology in the 90s.

I had made a somewhat popular 50-page comic at this point, and thought anyone should hire me.

But this editor received my 8-page story and was super kind when he told me No, because, "it doesn't have any edge."

And I thought, What the heck does that mean?

And truth is, my story wasn't very good. It was unspecific. It was exchanging vague images for concrete ideas.

But the problem wasn't that it lacked edge. It was that it lacked rigor.

I began then to sort out my values as an artist.

I realized then I didn't care about edge. "Edge" in the 90s meant suspense, crime or seedy details.

I realized I wasn't going to chase that editor's ideals or anyone else's.

I wanted to work get to the bottom of this medium, for myself. I wanted to open my heart.

So with years of practice, of repetition, of challenging myself, of trying to go deep, of reinvention, of FAILURE over and over again, I began to trust my own instincts.

And those instincts lead me to make work that makes me more alive.

Those were the values I created SAW with. I wanted to make people more creative, alive artists.