It is not lost on me that in returning to the world of web comics after a disappointingly long hiatus, I have yet to write a significantly or substantively deep post to the front page. Much of this is a function of time. It takes me a long time to write, especially in long format. I'm a hopeless tinkerer and a big fan of "getting it right when I write," so constant revisions often push something that would take only a few moments to actually type into a vast time sink.

More than that is the problem of actually having something to say. I'm by no means a professional writer, but I think I have a bit of skill with composing, so I try actually say something significant if I'm going to bother. To this end, I have no desire to "force" words out of my brain in order to simply fill some kind of self-imposed quota.

Today, however, I find myself inspired. Or perhaps it's better to say I feel obligated. Obligated to get off of my butt and write something, anything, about my genuine reasons for continuing to write and draw Earth or Bust.

As there are perhaps only a dozen or more regular readers of Earth or Bust at the moment, it's clear that what I'm writing now may be more about condensing and codifying my thoughts for my own satisfaction and use than anyone else's. But with luck and hard work, perhaps in a year there might be a few hundred people who read these words, and a year after that, perhaps as many as a thousand. To those hopeful future followers I say welcome and thank you! What follows is a short write-up of the WHY of Earth or Bust. A manifesto, if you will.

I am, in my personal and professional life, a little reserved. It has served me for both ill and well over the years, but it is a part of my personality I don't deny. I like the gathering of information, opinion, and so on almost as much as its eventual application. This often leads me to be a little quiet when things are being discussed.

Reserved, however, should not be confused with apathy., I am, in fact, a terribly passionate person when it comes to politics, work, love, and life. I just don't shout about it all that often. And indeed, until very recently in the entire history of the world, a person like myself who feels strongly but doesn't necessarily take every opportunity to express himself strongly, was somewhat limited in how they could affect the world around them. There was (for someone living in a free society, at least) two main options: (1)the vote, and (b) the carefully worded letter to the editorial page of the local paper.

That's a simplification, of course, but not a hyperbolic one. For most of humanity's history, being heard is often a function of how outgoing you're willing to be. The squeaky wheels get all of the grease, so to (ahem) speak.

But here in the 21st century there is an emergent technology - social media - which has been quite a game changer for people like myself. For the purposes of this essay I'm lumping the internet as a whole as social media. Indeed, the internet is quite simply the medium through which social media flows. One cannot talk of a tidal wave without implicitly talking about water.

The impact of social media is already enormous, and its potential is not lost on, well, just about anyone, really. More people are capable of more connections with more people than ever before in the history of man. Information is flowing with such speed and openness in this brave new world that research into its effects are outpaced by the transformations in the media itself. I'm not saying anything new here, but it bears repeating that we, all of us here and now, are riding the crest of something significant.

In the context of that scope, of an emergent technology as big as or bigger than the other game-changers (fire, the wheel, the printing press, the internal combustion engine, air conditioning, Krispy Kremes, etc.), a little web comic seems about as important as a bunny rabbit quietly chewing a leaf in a vast field.

But part of what is so exciting about social media is that it is so dependent on Earth or Bust. That is to say, on things like Earth or Bust.

On bloggers. On tweets and status updates and all the other millions and millions of small voices joining the fray, and beginning to realize that even a small presence is still a presence. That writing or creating even one small piece of content that catches the right current at the right moment has the potential to do something amazing.

Its only just beginning and its already changing the world. The future is as unknown as it is exciting and frightening. The potential is as fraught with danger as with rapture, but there is no turning back, as the cliché goes. We have to get in front of the wave and ride it out lest we be churned underneath of it.

But Earth or Bust is not about fear of being left behind. It is about reveling  in the idea of voice. Of conversation. Of debate and controversy and incredulity and all of the things that make having an opinion on something so exciting. I've got a lot of opinions, and rather that start a blog, or tweet about them, my voice will be this web comic.

However, I declare here and now that the jokes always come first. There is nothing more tedious that a humor outlet that has forgotten the first rule of comedy: be funny. Messages are important to me, but of more importance is the opportunity to make people guffaw a little. I've been creating gag-based comics for a while now, and although none of them have ever really taken off, and although I can count on one hand the number of times someone has come up to me and said "hey, your comic today really made me laugh," I count the times that it has happened as some of the most gratifying of my creative life.

Rick James opined "Cocaine is a hell of a drug." I have no doubt that's true despite not having any direct experience with it. But human connection is a  pretty potent hit in its own right, as powerful as any chemically enhanced emotion I've ever felt. Making a person laugh is, in my opinion, the greatest of human connections that does not involve family.

And connection is what makes social media so exciting. It is the latest human invention that has made connecting with others easier. If you think about it, almost all the "game changers" I mentioned before are like that.  

A fire brought people closer, offering protection and heat, of course, but also providing a need for conversation that did not involve hunting or threatening or plain surviving. It encouraged social interaction: talking, singing, laughing.

The printing press spread literacy to the masses, showing them that one human's ability to understand and absorb lofty thought is not limited to their station in life. Literacy meant more free thought, more communication in the form of letters and newspapers. It introduced the idea that we are capable of digesting the thoughts and ideas of others for our damn selves, without the need for anyone to interpret it for us.  

Internal combustion brought us within range of others, closing the gap, getting us out of our familiar communities and putting the average person in contact with more people of more varied philosophies than ever before. Radio did the same, as did TV and now, the internet.
And those of us joining this new technology all make a choice, conscious or unconscious, of how we're going to use it. Passively, actively, through polls, through blogs, through message boards, and yes, some of us are trying humor.

That's me. I'm going to try and make some people giggle a little. And while I'm doing it, I'm going to be commenting on what I see going on around me. Yes, I'm going to be political - there's no two ways about it - but I hope to be humorously political, We'll see how I do.

Ironically, for a manifest which purports to make you believe that I want to try and be funny, this was a remarkably un-funny essay. Go figure.

-CJ