Joshua Hale Fialkov

Purveyor of sheer awesomeness.

Joshua Hale Fialkov is the Harvey, Eisner, and Emmy Award nominated writer of graphic novels, animation, video games, film, and television, including:

THE LIFE AFTER, THE BUNKER, PUNKS, ELK'S RUN, TUMOR, ECHOES, KING, PACIFIC RIM, THE ULTIMATES, I, VAMPIRE, and JEFF STEINBERG CHAMPION OF EARTH. He's also written television including MAX’s YOUNG JUSTICE, NBC's CHICAGO MED and NETFLIX’s AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER.

An apology.

November 12, 2016  /  Joshua Fialkov

To my little girl, on this week of turmoil, and heartbreak, and fear.

I never thought I'd be this scared. It feels remarkably un-dad-like to me. I've laid in bed for nearly a week, sleepless, anxious, betrayed. And it is very root is my love of you. My hope for your future. Not just as an engineer or a doctor or an artist or whatever you damn well want to be, but, in a world that would accept you for what you can do, and who you are, not for what you look like.

I thought while we lived in a world with dark, sad things, that for the most part, the good guys find a way to win. And now, I have to constantly remind myself that must still somehow be true. 

When I look at you and I see the beauty of your soul beaming out of those gorgeous brown eyes, my heart breaks. I force back the tears, for what's going to come over the next few years. The irreparable damage that this country has done to itself, and i pray it's not a mortal wound, while being pretty damn sure it is. 

I look at you and every time I ask you the same question. "What's the most important thing in the world?" And you think, and you smile and you say, "Being kind." Then you smile broader and you say, "And you and mommy." 

The truth is that a lot of people don't think that way. The truth is that people pushed aside cruelty in their candidate to instead look out for themselves and their interests. For fear for of losing their pot, they pissed in everyone else's. For the sake of a few pieces of silver, they betrayed the very foundations of society. Respect, love, and compassion.

I'm sorry that I didn't do more. I'm sorry that I feel powerless to change this. I'm sorry for the mistakes I've made, and the mistakes that the people around me have made.  I'm sorry for the fragility of humanity itself. That so easily can villainy push out heroism. I'm sorry for the stories I've told that didn't face this dead on. I'm sorry that I couldn't convince more people that there is a better way. 

I'm sorry for the world that you'll inherit. 

I'm not sorry for making you the kindest person I've ever met. It'll be hard to understand the world that you're going into, but, I have the utmost faith in your ability to make it a better place.

I wish I could say the same for everyone else. 

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