I pray that everyone affected by the tragedy in Aurora, Colorado, finds peace or at least solace. While lives have been lost, those of us who remain behind must persevere to improve the our collective humanity. The tragedy in Aurora, Colorado struck me such that I made the decision to terminate a comic book adaptation project currently in development for Kindle publication.
As an artist, I respect every other artist's right to put his or her art into the world in the manner and medium he or she best sees fit. Each artist must make the decision and accept the responsibility, where it's due, for the work put out. Like the latest Batman trilogy, the my original work, B. E. A. N. Police, (which was to be adapted) is quite dark in content and atmosphere.
Of course, millions of people consume fictional violent media and do not emulate their violent acts in real life. However, a lot about humanity in the United States has changed in the last twenty years and not for a net improvement. I feel like we lost our innocence, or what was left of it, after 2001.
I made the decision that the artistic value to be gained by the adaptation would not significantly improve the humanity of its surrounding society, regardless of whether that readership be 50,000, 5,000 or five.
We improve humanity (I believe) by first improving ourselves, in part, through words and deed. This in turn impacts how we treat our fellow human beings. Our mistake is we think we can or should always do it alone.
