just wanted to add: http://www.somethingpositive.net – I read a couple webcomics regularly – most often http://www.penny-arcade.com, http://www.pvponline.com, and http://www.aikida.net – mostly game humor crap, but Something Positive is really, really compelling. If you have a free couple hours, start at the beginning, and read all the way through. I don’t know shit about RK Milholland – maybe he’s a hundred – but he writes characters like a wise man, watching the world through a telescope from Mars, who can see right into your brain. I don’t know how he does it, but I’ve almost never seen anyone with such a natural talent for writing dialogue that sounds a.) like the characters he’s created would say it, and b.) like the characters are illuminated by it.

When I was first turned on to it, I was more or less unemployed. I read through the entire run, start to finish. Took me a couple hours, but they were hours well spent. This guy has got talent. Serious, serious talent.

It’s heartbreaking, sometimes – I’ve been watching Firefly, and reading Something Positive. Reminds me of when I read Frank Miller’s books, or Carl Sagan’s. Or when I played Ico, or Prince of Persia. Heartbreaking in some sense, because I see genius. I know enough to see it, to understand it, to know that I will not *be* it. I drew for years, and developed skills, but never had talent. I played instruments for years, and developed skills, but never had *talent*. I have a great love of videogames, and have skills, both analytical, and otherwise, but I fear, in many ways, that I will be able to recognize talent enough to not see it in myself.