Diseased #Comicsgate - The Culture Wars Hit The Funny Books!

[XYZpdq]

Not from the Big Two anyway. While superheroes have been the dominant genre since the forties (with only a brief dip in popularity in the fifties) there had been other genres. War comics like DC's Sgt. Rock and Marvel's Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos had existed into the eighties. Marvel published comics based on the martial arts craze in the seventies and DC's Warlord was long-running fantasy series. Horror comics saw a revival when the Comics Code Authority loosened up its regulations in the seventies, which led to Alan Moore's Swamp Thing and the eventual rise of Vertigo Comics. It largely disappeared by the nineties, with only independents publishing material from other genres. A shame too because I liked Battle Chasers.

I largely blame the lack of diversity on the moral panic over comics in the fifties. EC Comics was publishing a large amount of mature and diverse content that included science fiction and horror. The congressional hearings solidified the perceptions that comic books were exclusively a format for children and thus never branched out the way European comics and Japanese manga did.

iirc there's legends that say DC/Marvel actively encouraged the panic because EC was kicking their ass up and down the newsstand, and that's why the CCA rules were mostly "Don't be EC"

 

[Steamboat_Bill]

iirc there's legends that say DC/Marvel actively encouraged the panic because EC was kicking their ass up and down the newsstand, and that's why the CCA rules were mostly "Don't be EC"

Of course one of the big publishers behind the whole thing - and we know this - was Archie Comics as well. The publishers of Archie supposedly didn't take too well to a comic in MAD parodying Archie and showing Archie and Jughead as juvenile delinquents...

But I digress. Where were we?

 

[XYZpdq]

Of course one of the big publishers behind the whole thing - and we know this - was Archie Comics as well. The publishers of Archie supposedly didn't take too well to a comic in MAD parodying Archie and showing Archie and Jughead as juvenile delinquents...

But I digress. Where were we?

At this point the big companies setting up a new Public Concern System to try to muscle out indies that are kicking their shit in doesn't seem like much of a digression.

 

[AnOminous]

Of course one of the big publishers behind the whole thing - and we know this - was Archie Comics as well. The publishers of Archie supposedly didn't take too well to a comic in MAD parodying Archie and showing Archie and Jughead as juvenile delinquents...

But I digress. Where were we?

Which is funny because Jughead's cut up fedora hat was actually a style of hat generally associated in movies with juvenile delinquents.

 

[Not even once]

Mike Miller is a douchebag.....

I don't know much about Comicsgate outside EVS and our Boi Zack, so if you don't mind me asking, why is Mike Miller a douche?

 

[damian]

Richard Pace another anti-CG scammer, [Insert Fry’s “I’m Shocked” meme here]:

I don't know much about Comicsgate outside EVS and our Boi Zack, so if you don't mind me asking, why is Mike Miller a douche?

IIRC a couple months ago he started a couple slapfights with other CG spergs, calling them SJWs because they disagreed with him on some stuff. Can’t remeber any specifics of those tweets, I just remember thinking “wow, what a douche”.

Let me tell you the story of ComicsGate by only talking about D&C because I barely know anything about this autism war:

Rich “I’m not a journalist”Johnson is cracking out the old propaganda machine again:

 

[Ineedahero]

Hey I'm sorry guys I've gone back six pages and I can't seem to find the squirrel girl comic that everyone was talking about - could someone please post it?

 

[Elwood P. Dowd]

Didn't see this posted yet. It is the Mary Sue weighing in, carefully evaluating each side's positions objectively and calmly providing a thorough analysis.

j/k - Business as usual from TMS. About what you'd expect. Icky men being icky men doing icky men things in their icky men hobby.

Archive

Legendary Comics Artist Bill Sienkiewicz Pens Scorching Rebuke of “Comicsgate”

Spoiler: contents

Legendary Comics Artist Bill Sienkiewicz Pens Scorching Rebuke of “Comicsgate”
by Ada Byron | 6:18 pm, August 24th, 2018

331

“Comicsgate,” if you’ve been fortunate enough to avoid it until now, is a comics-focused offshoot of Gamergate. Much of its inception can be traced back to the “milkshake selfie” and subsequent harassment of Marvel editor Heather Antos and other female staffers for daring to take a photograph together. But the root of the “movement” is a general decrying of “SJWs” and diversity in comics, and that’s been happening for a much longer period of time.

As Inverse explained in February, Comicsgaters are obsessed and angered by the participation of women and people of color in the comics industry, and the growing diversity of representation. You can read Inverse’s history of how Comicsgate began and spread like a disease here. The primary thing that you need to know to understand what’s going on:

Comicsgate … seems to just want less diversity, both in characters and creators, in an attempt to save comics and keep the medium white, male, and familiar. That’s it.

A new chapter in this ugly saga was opened this week after Comicsgaters made a video making their case for why the late DC comics artist Darwyn Cooke, who died in 2016, “would have been #ComicsGate.”

Cooke’s widow, Marsha Cooke, took offense to this suggestion, responding to a tweet about the video: “Hi guys, this is Darwyn’s wife and I can guarantee he thought you comics gate idiots were a bunch of crybaby losers ruining comics. because you are.”


rosie knight @ home @RosieMarx
https://twitter.com/RosieMarx/status/1032016006552543234

We don’t deserve Marsha Cooke

pic.twitter.com/bMq2SGUJtq

5:26 PM - Aug 21, 2018

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Needless to say, this feedback was not well-received by said crybabies. Some Comicsgaters comicsgate’d, sending harassment to the widow of a man they professed to adore.

The incident with Cooke prompted prominent names in comics to speak out against the Comicsgate ethos and the harassment it engenders. Taking a particularly scorched-earth stance was Eisner-winning artist Bill Sienkiewicz. Sienkiewicz has been in the industry since he was 19 years old and is revered for his innovative style and his work on titles like Sandman: Endless Nights, New Mutants, Daredevil, Elektra: Assassin, Batman, and many, many, many, many more.

“To Comicsgaters – but also: to general friends and colleagues in arms. Profuse profanity to follow. Be advised,” Sienkiewicz wrote in a Facebook post that was cross-posted to Twitter. Which should advise you if profuse profanity (for a good cause) offends you.

Sienkiewicz’s post reads:

To Comicsgaters – but also: to general friends and colleagues in arms . Profuse profanity to follow. Be advised.

To begin.
I’m convinced Comics chose ME as a practitioner, emissary, evangelist, what-have-you—rather than the other way around.
Perhaps that’s why I tend to view most other creators through a similar lens. Whatever the actual reason people create comics, tell stories, live in this world, it’s still a wonderful calling.

Creators are family; every voice is unique and necessary.

That said, Comics sure as hell didn’t choose the so-called Comicsgate contingent to promote hateful, misogynistic and plain-old-ugly dogma. No, these ‘Gaters- you guys- you brought that ugliness all by yourselves.

To be honest, I just don’t get your deal. Are you so insecure, so afraid, so fearful of the prospect of bearing the ‘incel’ moniker, or by sharing creative space with someone with more estrogen than you- that you’re all somehow threatened to your very manhood or your livelihood? How super-heroic of you.

I’d ask you to explain it to me, but frankly what I’ve heard from your quarter already bores me; as well as just plain pisses me off. I fucking despise bullies. Cowards.

What you’re each promoting individually is not some divine creative dispensation; it’s just you being an asshole. Collectively, you’re a gaggle, a clan,(-potentially with a k unsubtle as that shot may be)- a veritable bag’s worth of douches. Whatever the name you give for your assembly, you’re not the Avengers. You’re still just a bunch of assholes.

Comics isn’t a boys club. It’s not “NO (insert ethnic group, gender, religion, sexual preference here) ALLOWED.” It’s a club , a meeting place a forum for creators. Of all stripes. Like a real life Legion of Super Heroes, or a Justice League. Only with pen and ink paper and Cintiqs and laptops and…

Stop being the creepy racist misogynist uncles showing up at reunions and pissing in the punchbowl to disprove your beta standing. Stop being the weird cousins the entire world points to as the definition of every “comic book nerd” stereotype. Or do it far away from us. Stop being whiny misunderstood victims bitching bout favoritism, intolerance, and sexism. You’re slinging inky-black aspersions, obliviously crying racism in your Wite-Out™. You’re damned right some corrections need to be made; starting with the guys in the mirror first.

So stop being awful ambassadors for the worst of our natures. Stop being brownshirts. Stop being goddamned ugly dicks. And to re-jigger an ugly phrase you sling at women, I’m instead going to channel it here in the spirit of my Aussie friends: Stop being such insufferable clueless cunts.

The medium didn’t call on you to be the best version of assholes you could be. Neither did we.
Knock it off.
Either step up. Or step off.
We, Comics, and The Audience- will be absolutley fine without you.
And you won’t be missed one damned bit.

It’s vital that people with power in the industry like Sienkiewicz take a strong stance on issues of harassment that are disproportionately shouldered by the targets of that harassment, namely women, people of color, queer people, disabled people, and other marginalized groups. Sienkiewicz’s Twitter and Facebook reply fields are full-up with thousands of people thankful for what he said.

It should not be left to the groups who are being attacked to fight battles they did not ask for alone and unaided. Beyond Sienkiewicz’s calling-out of the bullying behavior that he despises, it’s equally crucial to hear him say that “Creators are family; every voice is unique and necessary,” and that “Comics isn’t a boys club.” These are the sort of messages that need to be repeated over and over again until they drown out the hateful hordes.

(via Bill Sienkiewicz on Facebook, image: Bill Sienkiewicz)


Bill Sienkiewicz

✔@sinKEVitch
https://twitter.com/sinKEVitch/status/1032730857319084033

To Comicsgaters - but also: to general friends and colleagues in arms . Profuse profanity to follow. Be advised.

To begin.
I'm convinced Comics chose ME as a practitioner, emissary, evangelist,... https://www.facebook.com/bill.sienkiewicz.18/posts/1783747811661967 …

4:46 PM - Aug 23, 2018

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Ada Byron is a freelance writer and comics fan. She is the daughter of Lord Byron and the first computer programmer.

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—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—

 

[AnOminous]

Didn't see this posted yet. It is the Mary Sue weighing in, carefully evaluating each side's positions objectively and calmly providing a thorough analysis.

j/k - Business as usual from TMS. About what you'd expect. Icky men being icky men doing icky men things in their icky men hobby.

Archive

Legendary Comics Artist Bill Sienkiewicz Pens Scorching Rebuke of “Comicsgate”

He hasn't been legendary in decades, and the only reason he's legendary now is he's now the left wing version of your crazy uncle on Facebook who constantly harasses other family members with rants about Obama copypasted from WorldNutDaily.

 

[damian]

Bill is very grateful he’s relevant again:

The market is shrinking, you bigot. Our fanfics-level writing and devianart-level are irrelevant:

“The problem isn’t the current people buying our books, the real problem is we aren’t getting the phantom audience we keep marketing ourselves to buy our books!”

Mags Vissagio, a Comicsgater:

“Print media is dying”
https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2016-11-30/top-selling-manga-in-japan-by-series-2016/. 109352

https://twitter.com/magsvisaggs/status/1033709240484081664 https://archive.fo/DFbSQ

 

[Hatoful Dandy]

....and yet two crowdfunded campaigns run by a guy who reviews comics on his phone and an ex DC artist reviving an old property of his somehow raised a combined $1.5m in the past 3 months.

Reeaaaaally must sting ol'Mags and co. that diversity hires do nothing for sales....

 

[AnOminous]

The market is shrinking, you bigot. Our fanfics-level writing and devianart-level are irrelevant:

Markets tend to shrink when they produce nothing but garbage that nobody wants.

 

[RockVolnutt]

Ironically, assuming things do turn around, comics as a whole might be better off for it. If you want to claim "comic literacy" is an issue, there totally are people who are just following this mess and unintentionally learning about different series the Big Two has put out. If you're smart with turning the ship around, that would certainly be an asset.

There's a reason why D&C is always saying that he loves hearing from people he convinced that there was good shit out there and that it doesn't have to die like this.

 

[Peace and Harmony]

Now THIS is how to rally the troops to the Battle of the Autistic Frontiers.

 

[damian]

Hey I'm sorry guys I've gone back six pages and I can't seem to find the squirrel girl comic that everyone was talking about - could someone please post it?

This?:

Did you watch D&C review of unbeatable squirrel girl #35 with his 8 year old daughter? Holy fuck is it terrible, it's exactly how you describe; static, dull and flat angles filled with word balloons. As he describes some pages; 12 pages of moral relativism discussion and 4 of saying goodbye. Here are choice quotes from the book 'I believe the idea dates back to the French national convention in 1793 where they said Ils doivent envisager qu’une grande responsabilité est la suite inséparable d’un grand pouvoir.' and 'I am certain you're familiar with Dostoyevsky's existentialism but have you read Shestov'.

I'm an adult so i get this - the author is trying to appear smart and well read by referencing; great power... from the French revolution, the Russian author of 'Crime and punishment' and 'the brothers Karamasov' and a Russian philosopher from >100y ago. But according to Marvel this book is aimed and 'does well' in schoolastic sales, the targeted kid audience doesn't know or care about that - D&Cs kid is completely disinterested. Even with 'Crime' and 'brothers' being considered classics, they are probably only really read in higher literature studies by wankers everybody hates.

It won't take much to have a decent start - anything would be better than current Riri, but i expect 'wikipedia brown aka eve ewing aka lil muji pen' to out-woke Ta Nehisi Coates and only be self fellatio.

Now THIS is how to rally the troops to the Battle of the Autistic Frontiers.

If that’s really his ass, he needs to see a doctor.

 

[Kosher Dill]

WTF is "comics literacy"? The whole point of comics is that subliterate kids can just pick it up and read a story about Superman leaping tall buildings in a single bound and what-have-you.
Or, that used to be the point. I dunno.

 

[RockVolnutt]

WTF is "comics literacy"? The whole point of comics is that subliterate kids can just pick it up and read a story about Superman leaping tall buildings in a single bound and what-have-you.
Or, that used to be the point. I dunno.

It's the idea that people don't pick up Superman because he's not the one from the cartoons or movies so they throw their hands up in frustration and never return. There's this idea people toss around that you need to know every storyline that happened with every character ever before you can jump in despite most of the time that not even being true of the writers.

 

[Trilby]

It's the idea that people don't pick up Superman because he's not the one from the cartoons or movies so they throw their hands up in frustration and never return. There's this idea people toss around that you need to know every storyline that happened with every character ever before you can jump in despite most of the time that not even being true of the writers.

Seems pretty pointless to me, but then I suppose simply picking up a comic isn't worth it anymore.

 

[damian]

Ladies and gentlemen...and troons, the pissing matches have begun:
Strawmen tweets:
https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&q="I believe comics are for everyone. There is no excuse for harassment. There is no place for homophobia, transphobia, racism or misogyny in comics"&src=typd

Comicsgate tweets:
https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&q="Comics are for everyone. There is no place for harassment, racism, misogyny, bigotry, homophobia, transphobia or sexism in comics. Everyone should be welcome to make great comics!"&src=typd

EDIT: Clarification.

 

[AJ 447]

Ladies and gentlemen...and troons, the pissing matches have begun:
https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&q="I believe comics are for everyone. There is no excuse for harassment. There is no place for homophobia, transphobia, racism or misogyny in comics"&src=typd

https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&q="Comics are for everyone. There is no place for harassment, racism, misogyny, bigotry, homophobia, transphobia or sexism in comics. Everyone should be welcome to make great comics!"&src=typd

Looks like it started with Tom Taylor, and then was taken up as today's virtue signal du jour.