0.  What are we doing here?

Bottom line: I’m trying to get you to make art. Art within a very broad definition of what constitutes art. Messy human art. Art that might not make you any money (although it might! It doesn’t really matter either way!), but will make you feel better just for having made it.

I don’t want to center myself here, but if I’m going to say all of this, I feel like there’s some use very briefly establishing my background. So: I’m a multidisciplinary artist (and we’ll get to what’s “art” pretty quickly), and have been for over 30 years. My fields are writing, comics, drawing, and music. I’ve never made my sole living on art, but I have been paid for it and a couple of my comics projects have been covered by Twin Cities media outlets. I also have an M.A. in art history from the University of St. Thomas, with a thesis project about self-published comics. So: it’s certainly possible that what I say in this manifesto is wrong, but it at least all comes from direct experience and years of thought.