Mike Dawson

Getting Ahead of My Haters

Added 2025-08-14 15:15:09 +0000 UTC

I'm currently writing an all-new diary comic, and I know once I post it to my Instagram I'm likely to receive comments about how there are way too many words in it. I can't help myself! But like Eminem in the final rap battle in Eight Mile, I'm thinking if I own up to it up front it'll neuter that particular criticism.

More seriously, I do put a lot of words into some of my diary comics, for sure, but to me, they work as a visual element just as much as the imagery. I feel like my lettering style is appealing and integrates into the drawings well, in a way that doesn't make the words and the pictures feel like separate things. I feel like as long as I am being thoughtful and deliberate about controlling the reader's eye as it looks at a panel, even if there is a wall of text, it's still actually totally absorbable as comics. I get the "bro I ain't reading all that" comment a lot, but it's usually on comics that have gone somewhat viral and have broken free of containment to just people who already follow me.

This particular cartoon won't make it into the August Minicomic, but should be appearing in the September "Back to School" issue.