of the Oklahoma City video retailers on the firing line. In the wake of the shameful flaccidity of the comics community's attempts to counter the repressive forces at work in Oklahoma, it was great to see the video retail community stand firm against them. You see, the video retail community has a backbone, unlike the comics retail community; and video (like cinema) is a far more visible and accepted media in America. Even in the 1990s, comics were just too insignificant and easily-maligned a medium to stand up to the important legal battles they faced via the Mike Diana and Oklahoma City cases. We lost those battles, and the shock waves are still being felt. It was tragic, and really knocked the wind out of our sails -- roughly around the same time the direct-sales market began its implosion. It was a disheartening and discouraging spectacle, and in a way the industry deserved whatever click to enlarge happened to it; no one of any consequence, or in a position to impact upon events, did anything to prevent these disastrous events. The major players -- the big publishers -- only hastened the collapse, as it promised short-term profits. It was all shrugged off, 'business as usual,' and the consequences ignored or rationalized away until it was too late. Really, I stuck with comics a little too long. By the time I left comics in '99, the American industry was a mere shadow of a once-vital business, and it was clearly time for me to move on. Now, bear in mind, that's the American INDUSTRY of comics I'm talking about. The MEDIUM of comics, and the remarkable diversity of creative visions and voices working therein, is another matter entirely. It blows my mind, what this generation and the next have to build upon: I mean, we had the work of writers and artists we loved who could only work within the confines of periodicals. This generation has grown up with TRUE graphic novels -- WATCHMEN, THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, SANDMAN, Dave McKean's CAGES, Alan and Eddie's FROM HELL, Dave Sim's CEREBUS, Chris Ware's work, and so many others -- and the clarity of analytical works like Scott McCloud's UNDERSTANDING COMICS, and what I see now even locally is younger and younger people aspiring to create their own comics. I don't know what it is -- comics is perhaps the most instinctively accessible of mediums for those who wish to tell stories visually [continues]