Howdy folks. So this one came to me when I was driving down the road somewhere and saw a billboard PSA about bullying, trying to get awareness out there in an effort to stop bullying because you know…we are all so fucked up from growing up with it that we can totally make decisions for future generations. Now don’t take that as me approving little kids getting excessively picked on, I don’t exactly like people to be singled out. However I do find it a little hypocritical…years ago we needed to understand the reasoning behind “bully” characters, to work on ways to weed out the source. But we apparently gave up on that and decided to just merge all directions into a collective “just don’t do it” path. I think a bit of confrontation in our developmental years is good, the defense it creates is needed in real life. When you get out into the real world there is no protection from the bullies of the work force or of society’s hierarchy (rich, poor etc.), people do what ever they can to get ahead…even if that includes bad mouthing you to make them look better for the promotion. Sure this is a generalization of people but it’s not exactly a baseless one, this kind of exploitation happens all the time. Learning to stand up for yourself is important, and something you will have to rely on throughout your entire life. Now when it gets out of hand, yes it needs to be stopped, but perhaps that should be the purpose behind anti-bullying school groups…to back up the victims, fighting fire with fire, and not just preaching (effectively offering themselves to be picked on). But I’ve digressed enough, the wording of the billboard is what got me. See I’m kind of a phrasing Nazi, in the effect that I love pointing out how wording can drastically alter your original intension. The billboard text was in the same sentence structure as in my comic: “Bullying: take a stand”. I’ve also viewed others just as off, like “do something” or “how would you feel”. The problem with this wasn’t really the wording, although it is assuming the reader doesn’t approve (what if the reader was a bully and it worked out really well for him), my issue was that we have been so ridden with the “peace and Love” and “everybody’s a winner” attitudes that I couldn’t figure out how you would approach the situation. Words have never stopped violence, the only thing that stops violence is threats of greater violence….I know you don’t really agree at the moment, and I admit it’s a rather black and white statement but it needed to be to make this next point: What stops people from committing crime? threat of loss, whether it be monetary or time. The latter is easy, sure no one wants to be without luxuries but the real fear of prison is the fear of violence….if it wasn’t dangerous it wouldn’t be so terrifying (free food and bedding w/o having to work). The threat of the former is similarly hidden, but I’ll try to bend it to my will: If I told you “I don’t like what you did, now you have to pay me $10000” and that was going to keep your family from eating, that is almost like a torture isn’t it…it’s the fear of the mental/physical effects(and the judgments of you from others) of loss that stop you…not the simple loss of money, I mean you spend money on ridiculous shit you don’t need (or many times even turn out to like) all the time. It just baffles me, people thinking there is a way to not hurt anyone’s feelings ever and in that way everyone will be happy with every outcome. Unfortunately there cannot be a success without a failure…someone must lose in order for another to gain. This is what I tried to show, just how backwards things can get if you don’t draw a “this is absurd” line and look at just how invasively crazy it’s become. Oh and don’t take this whole rant to heart, really I just see something and run with it…doesn’t mean I’m a heartless bastard dug into his place, I just like to see how far a thought can go ^_^. Now if you excuse me I have some little kids to push around for pushing around some little kids.
Black Sheep Codex 
I agree with your sentiments and I wasn’t expecting that twist in the cartoon ^_^
Thank you ^_^
I would have liked to have done more to this… for instance i didnt do shading like i normally would and i wanted to fix some stuff…but for some reason this took me forever to do, and I was anxious to just get it up lol. Glad you didn’t find my little speech to be the ravings of a lunatic tho 🙂
Now I have a new illustration software to learn…I hope it doesn’t set me back too far, as I wouldn’t want to leave you waiting for long 😉