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This is a re-post from the Webcomics.com archive. If you’ve ever been curious about the kind of information, tutorials and advice that you’ll get as part of your subscription to Webcomics.com, this is a good example.

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A while ago, I read an angry letter to the editor about a syndicated comic strip that drew the ire of a reader (who made the ubiquitous subscription-cancelation threat). The comic was seen to be “insulting and degrading.”

And, like it does every time I see a work of humor attacked for its cruelty, I had to laugh… nervously.

Let me put it in a way that best fits this site: Cruelty is the yellow impurity in the Green Lantern ring of Humor.

[Translation: The Green Lantern (Silver Age, to be precise) has a ring that could create anything — but it was powerless against anything that was colored yellow. This “yellow impurity” could be removed, but then the ring would cease to work.]

All humor — aaalllllll humor*, from the most innocuous, family-friendly, G-rated yuks to the most cutting-edge, vicious, satirical barbs — has an element of cruelty to it. More often than not, it comes down to “I’m smarter than you” or “you’re not part of the group.” Don’t deny it. It’s there. And if it’s not, the funny is usually not very funny.

And as much as we may rage with furious indignity when we’re at the pointy end of that stick — we sure do enjoy pointing the stick at someone else.

And I’m going to argue that this isn’t hypocritical so much as its… human. Furthermore, people who are much smarter than I am will probably tell you that it’s psychologically healthy way to work out the frustrations of the complicated world we live in. Laughter is the best medicine… as long as you realize that the doctor is chuckling about you behind your back.

“Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die.“

— Mel Brooks

The goal of a humorist is to be the best Green Lantern he or she can be — using our rings with the knowledge that there is an impurity there. See, a Green Lantern knows that if he uses his ring carelessly, he could end up hurting people accidentally.

But, we as readers, have to meet our Green Lanterns half way, don’t we? I mean, if I wanted to, I could find a tinge of yellow in almost anything. Or I could argue that there was a little yellow in the color orange. But if I do that, my Green Lantern can’t do anything particularly noteworthy.

So, to my fellow members of the Green Lantern Corps: Use your rings wisely. Remember what happened to Sinestro? He got so good with his ring that he became a villain.

And to everyone else: Stop being so yellow.

*OK, OK…. not aaallllllll humor. A helpful Webcomics.com member has pointed out that humor based on wordplay alone seldom has elements of cruelty.

If you’d like to join the site, you can get a 12-month subscription for $30 — or you can get a one-month Trial for $5 … with no obligation after your 30 days expire.  For less than three bucks a month, you can get a steady flow of information, tutorials and advice targeted towards your webcomic business — plus a private forum to discuss issues with other professionally minded cartoonists.