Daily Inspiration Quote by Len Wein

"It all depends on which side of the desk you're sitting on" has the neat, panel-ready economy of a working cartoonist: one line, one image, a whole power structure. Len Wein is best known for populating worlds with superheroes and monsters, but the engine underneath those stories is often bureaucratic. Desks are where the real superpowers live: approval, denial, budget, access, the casual ability to turn someone else into a supplicant.

The intent here is less wisdom-cookie than warning label. Wein is pointing at how "truth" gets bent by position. On one side, the desk is a barricade: you can stall, deflect, request revisions, hide behind policy. On the other, it's an obstacle course: you perform deference, pitch yourself, justify your time. The line works because it refuses to moralize; it just describes the physics of institutions. Perspective isn't portrayed as personal growth, it's portrayed as leverage.

The subtext is a quiet critique of empathy theater. People love to claim they'd act differently if they had power; Wein implies power is the thing that acts differently. The same situation reads as "reasonable procedure" when you're protected by the desk and as "arbitrary humiliation" when you're not. It's also a creator's gripe, delivered with a shrug: artists negotiate constantly - with editors, publishers, lawyers, HR, gatekeepers of every kind. In comics especially, Wein's era ran on editorial fiefdoms and corporate IP, where the desk often belonged to the person who got to define what's "professional."

It's funny because it's true, and it's true because it's architectural.