With over $700 million in ticket sales and abounding critical praise, Joss Whedon, now over 20 years into a Hollywood career that’s had its ups and downs, could be excused for basking in the spotlight and even getting a big head. But the writer-director of The Avengersdidn’t build a passionately devoted fan base through arrogance, and in a new letter to those fans, he makes it clear that he isn’t letting the blockbuster success of his Marvel film change him.

Whedon on very early Wednesday posted a long note to his core supporters on the fansite Whedonesque.com, thanking them for their loyalty through thick and thin — with the trademark pop culture references, asides and sarcasm that helped win them over in the first place.

“People have told me that this matters, that my life is about to change,”  Whedon writes. “I am sure that is true. And change is good — change is exciting. I think — not to jinx it — that I may finally be recognized at Comiccon. Imagine!” 

“What doesn’t change is anything that matters. What doesn’t change is that I’ve had the smartest, most loyal, most passionate, most articulate group of — I’m not even gonna say fans. I’m going with ‘peeps’ — that any cult oddity such as my bad self could have dreamt of,” he says. “When almost no one was watching, when people probably should have STOPPED watching, I’ve had three constants: my family and friends, my collaborators (often the same), and y’all.”

“I have people, in my life, on this site, in places I’ve yet to discover, that always made me feel the truth of success: an artist and an audience communicating. Communicating to the point of collaborating,” he writes. “If you think topping a box office record compares with someone telling you your work helped them through a rough time, you’re probably new here.”

Joss Whedon is the Man. Thank you for sharing your endless genius with the rest of us ‘plebs. You and Neil Gaiman, a couple of the finest story-making/telling minds and voices of our generation.