Many of you who regularly post here know I like to post a lot (and I mean a lot) in Peter David’s blog. And recently there’s been an infestation of Internet trolls. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term, Internet trolls are individuals who intentionally try to cause disruption within online discussion forums.

Trolls are good at goading otherwise intelligent people — and, for that matter, people like me — into arguing with them in an attempt to put them in their place. The problem is that Internet trolls love the attention, and thus responding to them keeps them coming back.

I gave in to the little devil inside me recently and began skewering a couple of trolls with mock news stories reminiscent of the satire that can be found at The Onion. If anyone is curious, you can see a couple of examples of my performance art here and here.

(Before anyone reading this labels me an Internet troll, scroll around those threads and look at some of the posts from the guys I was mocking. They came in guns blazing, taking disagreement personally and insulting anyone with the temerity to have a contrary point-of-view.)

I provoked one of the Internet trolls, a character who posts under the name of “Ben Bradley,” into responding to me with this little gem.

I have to admit, it stung. He was criticizing my artwork, and pointing out (rightly) that in the comic-book field I am a nobody. Given my lack of productivity lately, it hit home.

But the beauty of emotion is that we can choose how we will react to it.

I decided to take those negative feelings and channel them into some productivity at the drawing board. It worked like a charm! In fact, I managed to solve a very difficult drawing problem this morning… all thanks to the motivation inadvertently provided to me by a very nasty and mean-spirited person.

The little troll gave me occasion to do a gut-check, and I realized, “You know, I’m strong enough to take this kind of abuse and not be scared away from pursuing my life’s dream.”

It’s a good feeling.

Thanks, Ben Bradley. Your attempt to cut me down built me up instead.