I got a small story about Brandon Graham that's been bugging me for ages and really should've been when I cut the dude out of my life. Like, if y'all aren't going to listen to the women who've been talking about this I dunno what to tell you, but maybe this'll help.
ECCC 2015 afterparty in the hotel lobby. I think it was Saturday? Me, Brandon, a bunch of other folx are shooting the shit, talking about comics, getting drinks, etc. I'm talking to Brandon about porn comics, and he asks me if I've ever heard of Onta.
He talks about how much he likes the dude's work, how he wants to work with him on something, anything. If you're unaware, Onta is a (mostly furry) porn comics guy who, while kind of being influential in furry in the 2000's, makes his money off of really awful shit.
He uses slurs (tr*p, f*ta, etc) to market his work, has a furry 'species' that can only feel pleasure when they're being assaulted, is an extremely abusive boss (I know mult folx who used to work on his paysites), and is an obsessor over the JPN author Po-Ju (don't look him up).
I tell Brandon this, and I remember going into detail about Onta's exploitative business practices. Brandon says "well, he's been nice to ME. And I still like his work." So. I frown, say "well whatever" and I go get a drink from the hotel bar. End of that conversation.
Skip forward to... late 2015, I wanna say? November? Island #6 is announced. The comics people I know are split between "uhhh okay furries now" and "holy fucking shit, is Onta really in this, does Brandon even KNOW". Folx go at him on twitter.
Brandon claims that he's never heard any of the Bad Awful Super Mean Things people are saying about Onta, and how he just wanted to 'uplift' furries into the 'mainstream'. How this will 'pave the way', despite the fact that there are better, older, kinder comic authors in furry.
He goes on the defensive, tells people to just wait and read the story, how people shouldn't be so judgemental, etc etc. Twitter meltdown over a shitty furry comics guy who draws what very much gets his goat. Claims he's never heard any of these accusations before.
Like many entitled white comics dudes, he has selective memory, and his stories end up being about he's the victim. And the comic is published anyway, with, last I heard, him calling it one of his favorites.
Take this story however you want to, but those are the facts. If y'all could keep this situation in mind when he talks about how mean and 'petty' indie comics is to him, that'd be great.
