I’m not sure my theory was quite what Gary thinks it is. I hope I never advocated perfunctory-feeling exposition or comics essays that begin “My culture is…” Being dreadfully BORING is a far greater sin than resorting to benign stereotype or generic setting. Frankly, if you make a comic no one will want to read, whatever else you do with it is moot.

If I had to guess how this argument, and maybe some of my others, got twisted around into “comics should be boring,” I’d say that when you call a certain artistic idea “important,” people hear that it’s “no fun,” because of all the “important” things they were forced to learn in high school, and because artists convinced they are doing “important” things are often SELF-important, which makes their work impotent.

That said, I really do think this kind of “ambassadorship” is important. Google “contact hypothesis” to find out why.