THERE'S NOWT SO QUEER AS FOLK...

Okay, that's it!  The gloves are off.  No more pussy-footing around. I've put up with it long enough.  Seems a certain person can't leave well enough alone.  If it's not constant sly digs on his posts and the comments section of his own blog whenever he or anybody else mentions the state of the U.K. comics industry, it's devious insinuations about the source of any criticisms or disagreement he receives on said blog.  How do I know this?  I'm forever receiving emails and comments from various folks advising me of his transgressions and asking if I'm going to respond to him.  (I've had six so far today.)  No doubt the motivations of those who alert me to his preposterous statements are mixed: some merely want me to know what is being said and others want to see a good rammy.

From having various comments on his blog attributed to myself (in order to suggest that my opinion is a minority one), to being called a "bitter, frustrated former comics contributor" (in an attempt to dismiss my opinion as being motivated by envy or hatred and therefore invalid), hardly a week goes by without him taking some thinly-veiled pot-shot at me or anyone else who happens to hold a similar viewpoint.  He insists on speaking as if he has some special insight into the workings of my mind.  One thing's for sure - he has none when it comes to understanding the delusional obsessions of his own.

It was in response to his recent sniping that I posted a genuine email I received a day or two ago as a shot across the bows to him.  Unsurprisingly, he seems to be insinuating on his blog that I wrote it myself.  What arrogance!  I could take the same view when it comes to the current comments his post has received, but I don't labour under the delusion that I'm universally popular and that any criticism of me must spring from the same source.  As JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES once said: "Words ought to be a little wild, for they are the assault of thoughts on the unthinking."  Never were truer words spoken.  Unfortunately, "the unthinking" don't like to be made to think and often resent those who drive them to it.

Seems that the second-string individual to whom I refer falls into the same category.  Maybe he should stick to drawing his second-rate strips for an ever-dwindling audience.  For someone whose career has depended on more skilled cartoonists being too busy to draw everything, he should perhaps be a little more humble and less uptight.  Let's hope he discovers women soon - perhaps then he'll relax a bit.

The accompanying photo?  Don't worry, it's 'metaphorical'.

******

I'm reliably informed that, over on his own blog, the person concerned continues to witter on like an innocent virgin.  (I think we can safely disregard the word 'innocent', but you can draw your own conclusions as to the rest of it.)  No mention of his sly, sustained insults over the months, his constant insinuations regarding anonymous comments, his obvious contempt whenever he obliquely refers to me.  Let's see just how long it is before he takes another dig in the coming weeks, eh?  Someone will be sure to tell me.  If ever he learns that whenever he lobs a brick over my garden wall it gets lobbed right back, then perhaps things will quieten down.  Let's hope so.