What does making comics 'mean' to the creator?

The other day I bumped into a friend I hadn’t seen in years, and the first thing he says is, “So you still doing your comics?” – to which I replied, “Yeah, always.”

THEN he says, “Cause you never know, one day you could make it when Hollywood comes knocking…. Just take a look at what happened with Spiderman!”.

Now, I have nothing against one’s right to sell their product to Hollywood. (We should all be so lucky to have that choice). After all, it’s your work and you have the right to do what you want with it. But what ‘rubs’ me is people judging creativity (and more importantly legitimising it) - ‘solely’ by the amount of money that people, who largely AREN’T creative, will pay for it.

This, in terms of manners, is even MORE insulting when you’re talking to the artist themselves.

I may as well tell a girl, “Keep it up doll, because one day someone might marry you”.

Look… I know where the impulse of ‘economic value’ in creativity stems from. It’s a way of un-creative people vicariously being part of creativity by owning it. (ie. Rich people owning a Van Gogh painting and ‘feeling’ artistic.). For this reason, I believe that ‘creativity’ (true creativity - not just consuming it) - will increase it’s worth in the future. Good news for those of us who are following our passions. Just think, in 5-10 years, how many people will actually be able to write or draw as well as the current (falling) standards given that the years required to get to such a level will most likely not ‘pay-off’ financially….. or EVER.

Just think about how much standards have dropped in the last 30 years? How many Einsteins, Hemingways or Picassos have we produced in the last few decades?

Anyone?...

How many people will ‘roll the dice’ in favor of ‘who they are’, rather than 'what they can own' - in our current climate?

This re-definition of valuing (or rather, DE-valuing) almost everything into modern/financial terms, misses the ‘core’ of why it 'became' in the first place. It misses the point that the ‘reason’ for most creativity is 'for' and 'of' itself.

Money is simply the consequence of a job well done.