In memory of those we lost at the Pulse nightclub, June 12, 2016

Hate exists. We can’t deny that it does. It is everywhere—and the reason is because hate demands nothing of you. It’s easy to hate, instinctive even, to shun or feel aggressive towards anything we find strange or “other.”

Hate took the lives of forty-nine people at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, June 12, 2016. Hate, and I must assume, a touch of animal madness.

However, out of that hate, that tragedy, came love.

Outpourings of support, of coming together as a community, of condolences and well-wishes and aid in all forms; humans being their best selves. It was an uprising, not in terms of rebellion per se, but of people rising above fear and hatred and the other darker instincts we all possess, to show caring affection for those left behind.

Love is Love is a graphic novel project created to support the victims and their families, and it represents the best of us; our heroes, illustrated by their own illustration of love and service to us all.

It inspired me to have my own superhero, Thunder, appear in a two-page comic in the spirit of Love is Love to show my support for not only the movement, but the very concept of demonstrating love rather than hate.

Love is heroes; caring about us, saving us (even from ourselves), and shielding us from those lost to hate. Love is the bright, four-colour world of comics, creating magic on the page to be read and shared by all.

Love is Love.