May Editorial Letter 2012

To be honest, I had no idea what I was going to write about for this month’s Xion editorial. It was nearing the end of April, and I still hadn’t come up with a topic to discuss that had not already been mentioned. I read over the previous commentaries from Sha-Nee Williams and Mike Colston countless times, trying desperately to spark that something that made them recount with such fire and passion all the things that Xion meant to them, and the ways in which they’ve become better artists for it.  Reading their thoughts made one thing intensely clear for me.

Shawn was going to kick my ass if I didn’t turn in SOMETHING.

And then it hit me, like a proverbial ton of bricks. I started thinking back to the first time I attended a Xion meeting, what that experience was like, and how it affected me. I don’t know if it was the aesthetic nostalgia, or the fact that Shawn might have my face on the back of a milk carton by next week if I didn’t get to writing, but the memories of that day came flooding back.

I walked into the Xion meeting at Liberty Place in Philadelphia, my little sketchbook in hand, not really knowing what I was going to get out of the experience. There were tons of artists and writers there, good ones, and to be frank it was a little intimidating. But this is the part that let me know that Xion had the potential to be something bigger than all of us and at the same time successful because of all of us.

Artistic egos were thrown out of the window. People were humble, friendly, and eager to create. Everyone greeted me with open arms, came over to me to introduce themselves and take a look at my work. Some were impressed, and some pointed out where I needed improvement, but every nuance of my work that was given a compliment or critique came from a place of genuinely wanting me to be a better artist. I got the sense that Xion was about this all encompassing need for artistic growth fulfilled by the common desire to see your fellow artist excel at his craft. Simply put, it was about being better - and helping each other to do so.

Xion could be called a comic book group, an artist’s network, or a gathering of geeks who just never quite grew out of comics  (and who would ever want to). But these are just parts of a whole. What Xion really is, is you. It’s all of us. It’s that amalgamation of creative people whose common goal is to constantly get better at what they love to do. It’s something unspoken that we all have, and that you only experience when artists and writers come together in a network such as this one.

Catch us at a meeting in Philly or New York some time and get familiar. We would love to have you.

Now, on to more important things.

Who’s ready for Avengers?

-Kia Dunlop
Asst Manager Xion NYC Branch