YDN_zlm.ZeroLikeMe

The warmth from burning bridges feels so beautiful.

Zero Like Me #110:
Zero Like Me
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-First Comic-
Easter Eggs:"Yale" and this dood in Panel 2, plus some presumably Sick Little Suicide action on "page" 2. Guest star's hairstyle based on a sketch of the Battle of the Bands girl in the killer jacket, plus a ref to Scene in panel 1.

Fun Facts: This is another example of taking an old script and plugging in a contemporary reference to make it "timely," utilizing this incredibly heartwarming shout-out by those right proper lads over at Scene. Although I've got to say, if I've ever embodied anything, I hope it's only ever been just your fears (at least that's been the goal), cuz if what I write about represents your hopes, you're in some bad shape, man! I gave my first sort of "interview" after my first major controversy, and my stance was/is I want to represent the people who aren't covered by the smile-laden admissions propaganda. There are people miserable here, and I want them to know they aren't alone. Ok, technically they are alone (zing!), but you know what I mean. I was so flattered to see one of the greats cover ZLM, but I couldn't help notice she made Zero smile. I think he's smiled maybe twice in 110 comics. This series isn't for kids who smile, it's for kids whose own imaginary friends won't even hang out with them.

Oh, hey, actually, you want to have some fun? Read the following sentence out loud:

This comic is called "Zero Like Me."
All right, for this to work you have to actually read it out loud, jerk, so go back and read it out loud (if you're in public, just start kissing the person closest to you so that your reading aloud will seem far less weird by comparison). Great, assuming you've read it aloud, now think about what you just said. I find that this is a bit of a Rorschach test: when I read it, it's Zero Like Me. But when I hear optimistic people pronounce it, I noticed they say Zero Like Me. Although how you pronounce it is up to you, I stress the second word because it's about being alone, not about being special. But to each his own, I guess, you smiling little hyena, you.

Baa: Ok, so the Scene shout-out's no Scroll and Key tap, but it really hit me and made me feel like less of a loser for wasting my Yale/life on comics, so I really do think the world of those Sceney-Bopper heartthrobs. I have difficulty expressing gratitude, but I do want to thank the Scenesters for their absolutely warm reception, and while we're at it, I also want to thank any fan who's ever come up to me: you people make this worth it.

I know I really suck at being approachable, but please know I didn't/don't mean to be rude or weird if I ever came off that way, I'm just awful at being off the cuff and I get nervous easily, especially in front of strangers and/or attractive people (and I am proud to say, from what I've seen, I've actually got some incredibly pleasant enthusiasts!). But I have this fear that if I allow myself friendship, it will weaken my ability to be creative or perhaps worse, it might permit an echo of something that happened a while ago that I would rather not re-experience.

Now that my college career is basically all over, I'm starting to wonder how badly I screwed myself in the long term...you know? To be honest, I wanted to accrue fans first so that I could develop friendships later, but perhaps I should have prioritized otherwise? The plan was Fans -> Friends -> Love. Seemed reasonable.

After he figured out I live a peculiar lifestyle due to my comics, one of my prefrosh asked me point blank why I "torture" myself. Surprisingly this guy--literally a kid, who's not even a college student yet--made me feel just as feeble and out of place as Freshman Year did. As I began to tell him before ninja-ing out of the subject, it's because I simply don't know how to do this, how to exist, otherwise; I am too scared to change my process. But this--everything--is getting harder to deal with, so it's like my own perfected system is now rebelling against me.

I've been trying to figure out how to handle the finale, which angle to take...I think I had a breakthrough Sunday night after fleeing a birthday.

So, yeah...the big finale is this Thursday. Where will you be...when it happens?

...

Answer: taking a dump.

Reuxben