This is also true for writers. And software developers. ;-) Th' wife is a writer and she was complaining recently about a novel - how, in order to reach the climax of the book, several characters went completely against how they'd been developed, and that their actions were totally "unrealistic" (given the circumstances in the book). Sadly, this ruined the book for her and turned a really enjoyable read into a "bad" novel for her. I write software. I can't tell you the number of times I've wanted to rip someone's hair out over the lousy, inconsistent user interface (not mine - the other developers. Of course, they may feel that way about me, too!) It's not easy writing a good comic, a good novel, or good software - but knowing what goes on "behind the curtain" certainly changes your perspective! Steve G. P.S. I love "Count your Sheep"!

I agree with marvelous patric. Knowing "how it is done" may help, in certain cases, appreciate the art. Of course, it is in a more intellectual way; you no longer get that innocent, wonderful belief that makes the comic/painting/film/book work its magic. And it also may help you feel more lenient to something that you did not like in a work of art. François Truffaut, one of the most renowned french film directors of all time, started out as a critic, and a truly scathing one at that; later in his life, after having actually directed films, he admitted that if he had known how difficult it was, he would not have been so harsh on some of the works he had reviewed. And to add personal experience, I'm an amateur translator and I have found that this truly is an artistic work, in that you may never convey the whole thing you want to. Beautiful as a sunset may be, the painter's palette will not be as vibrant, nor the photograph's picture as alive, nor the poet's hymn as colorful. And the greatest sonnets of Shakespeare cannot be truly translated into another language: for verse is a balance between meaning, rhyme and meter, that cannot be equaled when translated. (Or then, chances are the translator just wrote a poem of his own, inspired by the original, but how is that translation?) Mmmh, I'm rambling again. Back on the topic: I remember vividly a friend of mine decrying the french translation of a sentence in "The Hitch-Hiker's Gide to the Galaxy", describing a ship that "flied exactly as bricks don't" (quoted from memory, with apologies). "As bricks don't" is a turn of phrase that simply does not exist in French, so Jean Bonnefoy (kneel), the translator, turned the issue around by writing the ship "flied exactly like a brick, which, by the way, doesn't" (re-translated from memory to make the point for non-French speakers; I understand those are a majority nowadays). This, my friend expounded, was betrayal of the original text. My own opinion was less clear-cut, but I had to admit it wasn't perfect. Several years later, I translated L5R stories for non-English speaking friends and found myself often at odds with the text. One fine day, something reminded me of those bricks that don't, and I admitted Mr. Bonnefoy had done the best job I could imagine on this sentence. (One of these days, I'll broach the topic of comics translation: book translators have it comparatively easy since you have to fit the translated text into a balloon that was intended for a much more concise language ...)