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

[AnOminous]

That depends on Disney and where they decide to take things. I've heard some suggest they scrap the whole comic division and pay other studios to make comics but it's possible going down that route just kills Earth-616 and each company has their character off in their own world.

They should just do away with that division entirely, fire everyone, and just hire Archie or some shit, it couldn't possibly be worse.

 

[RockVolnutt]

They should just do away with that division entirely, fire everyone, and just hire Archie or some shit, it couldn't possibly be worse.

If they're going to do it then it'd be preferable if they still kept everything in Earth-616 continuity even with faults. Besides not unfounded beliefs that different studios would go off the rails with recreations, capeshit doesn't really work without a shared history to pull from. I can certainly tell you that that shit will crash harder in that event to the point of killing the industry.

It requires the Mouse to have a tight leash so no one they loan them out to doesn't do a complete Woke do-over. You risk losing the people who buy a series out of habit if you completely kill it. Probably not as much of an issue if they're all at one company though.

 

[Emperor Julian]

Honestly I wouldn’t be surprised if Wendig’s firing was as simple as him just being a pain in the ass to work with and twitter tirade was just the final straw for his superiors. His work was pretty universally panned by hardcore fans and curious casuals alike and didn’t sell well enough for him to be considered irreplaceable, his antics are well documented in nerd circles, and from what Wendig’s said so far I wouldn’t be surprised if he threw a massive tantrum of an editor ever tried to get him notes.

Difference between Rodriguez and Wendig is that Wendig simply pissed off the wrong person.

It seems pretty likely that Wendig was told to knock it off a couple of times, It's really unlikely they'd fire him for a first time offense. He's either been called in for his charming posts in the past or for fucking up behind the curtain a couple of times.

 

[The Doktor]

So possible unpopular opinion: I don't think Wendig should have been fired before Robbie "Rectum" Rodriguez, the butthole tweeter. That doesn't make sense to me. It seems odd he would be fired just for his tweets, since they don't really seem all that different from what we've come to expect from Marvel writers and the blue checkmark crowd in general. What Robbie did, though, was on another level.

Maybe I'm tinfoil hatting here, but I can think of two reasons why Wendig was fired while Rodriguez has not been. One, there was actually some other reason that Wendig had to go that both he and Marvel/Lucasfilm want to keep under wraps, so the tweets were used as a convenient excuse; two, someone at Lucasfilm, not Marvel, made the call that he wasn't to be associated with their product anymore, and he is lying or was lied to about Lucas actually being satisfied with his work.

They’re employed by different companies. Different companies make different decisions. Robbi’s current deal is with DC. Wendig with Marvel.

 

[Sissy Galvez]

Is Rectum Rodriguez contract with DC or full time? I bet when his Zoe book tanks he’ll be let go.

 

[Judge Dredd]

it's barely outselling a MST3k comic?

fftopic: How would a MST3k comic even work? fftopic:

And in this case, you'd think it'd be fairly simple to turn the meme around and depict NPCs as a mass wearing MAGA hats and, in CG's case, blindly throwing money at whatever comic Uncle Ethan features on his show tonight. But I guess that would require taking a brief break from being perpetually offended.

They can't do that because they've already said anyone who uses the meme is a nazi. If they were to try and turn it around they'd have to admit they either lied, or be branded as a nazi themselves. It also wouldn't work because people would embrace the joke.

 

[The Doktor]

Is Rectum Rodriguez contract with DC or full time? I bet when his Zoe book tanks he’ll be let go.

Unless he’s on an exclusive (unlikely), he’s essentially work-for-here & a contractor. He’s probably got a deal for X issues on Y title (or potentially X issues on Y title with Z issues of title A, B, or C in the event that title Y gets cancelled before it completes.)

 

[XYZpdq]

fftopic: How would a MST3k comic even work? fftopic:

Same way the Beavis and Butthead comics worked. Panels of old comics with them commenting "over" it. Best Brains were making moves towards doing one with old Gold Key comics back in the late Comedy Channel days iirc.

 

[RodgerDodger]

Honestly I wouldn’t be surprised if Wendig’s firing was as simple as him just being a pain in the ass to work with and twitter tirade was just the final straw for his superiors. His work was pretty universally panned by hardcore fans and curious casuals alike and didn’t sell well enough for him to be considered irreplaceable, his antics are well documented in nerd circles, and from what Wendig’s said so far I wouldn’t be surprised if he threw a massive tantrum of an editor ever tried to get him notes.

Difference between Rodriguez and Wendig is that Wendig simply pissed off the wrong person.

He was also working on Star Wars, a property the mucky mucks at Disney actually care about and don't want to see fucked with. Considering what Rodriguez has gotten away with, either the comics end of it is so insignificant they literally don't give a shit and Rodriguez could rape a newborn baby and then eat it in public and not get fired, or they're just completely unaware of it, which itself signifies they seriously don't give a shit.

Wendig was working on Star Wars. Even though commonly owned Star Wars is still functionally a Licensed Product for Marvel Entertainment (comics). Lucasfilms, who is bleeding millions thanks to social media asshatery are th eones who demanded Wendig go bye bye. Marvel just got to deliver the news as he was currently working for them. It's more similar to the Aubrey Siterson / G I Joe fiasco, where HAsbro demanded he be terminated.

Is Rectum Rodriguez contract with DC or full time? I bet when his Zoe book tanks he’ll be let go.

Rodriguez is an independent contractor. Not a DC or WB employee. They likely will not go through the drama of firing his (literal) ass as that would stir up the twitter warriors due to the Zoe Quinn partnership. In the unlikely event Quinn ever delivers a book to publish (incredibly unlikely unless she has some Beta writing it for her.) They will either hold there nose and print the first issue, then try and pretend it never happened. Or simply quietly pull the solicits and pretend it never happened.

 

[Ponderous Pillock]

For what it's worth, I got my copy of Iron Sights today. It's ... not bad... It's no Watchmen, but I've read worse. It has a few rough spots. But it's decent enough for a Freshman effort. It's a fairly bog standard indy book from the late 80's - 90's. Before they became all about Troons Trooning out and similar weirdness.

Isn't that... Like, as advertised though? Meyer said it was going to be 90s tv action movie schlock.

 

[RodgerDodger]

Isn't that... Like, as advertised though? Meyer said it was going to be 90s tv action movie schlock.

Mostly. There are one or two points where dialog or character identification could be better or smoother. But pretty typical of the breed. Pretty standard for a self published work with no overbearing third party editor. But fairly good given that.

 

[AnOminous]

They’re employed by different companies. Different companies make different decisions. Robbi’s current deal is with DC. Wendig with Marvel.

This is probably the third time I've forgotten that and assumed he was still with Marvel because his behavior is so Marvel.

Is Rectum Rodriguez contract with DC or full time? I bet when his Zoe book tanks he’ll be let go.

Apparently contract. Wendig was on contract, too, though, and they canceled all upcoming books. I'd like to think at least some of that was just that his writing was so fucking terrible they were already looking for an out.

 

[One Man Bland]

Rodriguez is an independent contractor. Not a DC or WB employee. They likely will not go through the drama of firing his (literal) ass as that would stir up the twitter warriors due to the Zoe Quinn partnership. In the unlikely event Quinn ever delivers a book to publish (incredibly unlikely unless she has some Beta writing it for her.) They will either hold there nose and print the first issue, then try and pretend it never happened. Or simply quietly pull the solicits and pretend it never happened.

Rodriguez is also working on an original comic through Vertigo, which also gives him a couple extra degrees of separation from coming on the radar or pissing off anyone important. And with the way the industry is set up, glorified indie comics like Quinn and Rodriguez’s rely on the creators to market/promote their product. And with the both of them likely working for peanuts anyways, it’s likely no skin off Vertigo’s back if Rodriguez decides to voluntarily make a literal ass of himself and tank his own audience.

 

[damian]

Got 2 exceptional reports from Bleeding Cunts:
After Chelsea Cain and Chuck Wendig – Will Comic Creators Unionize?
Posted by Rich Johnston October 18, 2018

Patrick Kindlon writes and shares with Bleeding Cool. You can sign up to his mailing list here.

Ok, so if you’re not up on this stuff, two novelists were treated like comic writers and realized it sucks. So they went to social media. Because they’re non-comic writers and don’t have to take the abuse.


Let’s look at it.

I’ve been critical of out-of-comics hires because I think it sets a dangerous standard. If major publishers can convince the reader that anyone can write comics, they’ll hire anyone to write comics. A moonlighting novelist has every right to try his hand at comics. But if he doesn’t intend to make it his career, major publishers are getting the milk for free. They’ll never buy the cow. They don’t need to worry about worker rights, because the closest they have to workers are passionate hobbyists. Vacationing prose writers. Essayists on sabbatical. That’s dangerous for us, and the medium. Forget hopes of a union when every comic writer is beaten into believing they can be replaced with a writer from an unrelated field (or, god help us, a wrestler).

Turns out, I may have been wrong. It’s possible that non-comic creators will be the only ones with enough self-respect to spotlight the bullshit. They’re not scared. And that’s power. Maybe it’s hobbyists who can say “no.” Which is what it takes to unionize. A willingness to refuse.

Buuuuuut, asking tourists to feel as committed as the nationals typically doesn’t work. If your passion lies elsewhere and you can make a nice living in that other space… why die on this hill?

So, I dunno. I’m 8 years into my comic career. That’s only 1/4 the length some writers have in this game, and I’ve already seen the call to unionize boom and fizzle at least three times. I’m a bit cynical on the matter.

When I don’t know about something, I like to ask someone who does. So, to either give us clarity or add some confusion, I went to the only union organizer in my life, Harrison Watkins. Below are a few questions I had for him, and his very considerate answers. More ideas to chew on; let’s go.

—–

My name is Harrison and for the past seven years I have worked as an organizer and researcher for the Laborers’ International Union of North America or LiUNA. We are a construction union and part of the AFL-CIO. I work with an organizing team that covers all of New York State. Before that, I did community organizing work centered around jobs, housing, and direct community control of resources in Buffalo, NY.

Here’s the situation. We’ve got an industry that nobody knows how many people are employed in, with a high percentage of freelancers willing to cut each other’s throats, that has trained its workers to struggle for 10 years before being able to make even a modest salary. Are some workforces past the point they can unionize? Because I think I found a candidate.

So, admittedly I don’t know much at all about the comic industry other than enjoying comics. I did try to read up on it and do a bit of research so I can more fully answer these questions, but I want to say front and center that the beginning of any responsible union push would be to get this research done.

It’s my belief that no workforce is past the point of organizing and that the only people who can decide when it’s time to organize are the workers themselves. I think what has happened with the wave of digital media platform unionization is instructive. 10 years ago people may have said “that’s impossible” and perhaps at the time that was the correct analysis, but here we are with a bunch of brand new unions in media which is inspiring. That doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be hideously difficult! But these things are almost never easy. I will say labor law in the US is pretty bad and that the use of independent contractors complicates things under the National Labor Relations Act. Freelancers under the current law are not considered part of the “bargaining unit” (what would be considered the union). I think to find the answers to some of these questions, you have to talk to the folks that work directly for DC and Marvel etc.

From a practical perspective, how do unions start? Organizing comic pros is herding cats, and it’s a very scared workforce. Do we need the largest voices to come out first, or is it possible to unionize from the (true) bottom up?

Practically speaking, in this industry, I think it would look like some the artists and writers and editors employed by, let’s say DC, getting together for coffee or a beer (or just emailing) and talking about how much work sucks because management wants more for less and how maybe it could be different. Unions start because people feel disrespected and feel like they’re not being treated with dignity. Obviously everyone would like to be paid more but that rarely motivates anyone to take serious action. Workers talk to each other, find they have common ground, and it an be off to the races from there. The recent wave of wildcat teacher strikes is a great example of this and something very much worth reading about. Usually there is a small group of people who have taken the temperature of their colleagues about how everyone is feeling at work, and one of them will reach out to a union to talk to an organizer about what it might look like to start organizing for a union. I would say that it’s extremely helpful to have the largest AND most respected voices come out. There are always people in any industry whom everyone respects even if they’re not vocal about organizing. If you get those folks on board, it’s immensely helpful.

It is certainly possible to organize from the bottom up. In the construction industry, we do both. Top-down is much, much easier. That’s when the contractor, whether through the goodness and purity of their heart or in response to a pressure campaign agrees to use union labor. Bottom up is going through the card-signing election process. A rule of thumb with bottom up campaigns is that you want 80% of the workers in the bargaining unit to sign cards saying they want union representation before filing for an election because, then, all hell breaks lose. With bottom up, you’re doing house calls. Meeting workers for breakfast, talking to their families, hearing their stories.

Many comic pros are don’t have experience in other unionized fields and don’t necessarily know what they should be asking for. What are the basics? What protections are seen as universal?

Contracts vary from union to union, but often what workers say they need are benefits like paid sick time, health care, and planned wage or salary increases. Nearly all employment in the US is considered “at will” which means you can get canned for anything at any time. Often unionization turns that into “just cause” which means per the bargaining agreement workers in the unit, let’s say the writers and editors employed by Marvel, have negotiated, you can only be fired for reasons articulated in the agreement. Also, if there are layoffs, unions are critical in negotiating things like severance etc. I think those things make up the foundation of union benefits. My guess would be if that you sent pros a survey it would include sick time, health benefits, and protection against the whims of management.

Some people fear that the comic book marketplace is too weak and unionize would pull companies under. Is that a valid concern or is that echoed in every industry?

This is the line in every industry. I hear it all the time from developers who complain about construction labor costs. “If the construction site is too safe, I can’t make money on these luxury condos!”. I think it creates a false binary. Clearly some people are making good money here. One of the values of unionizing is the contract negotiation process. Without solidarity, management can use that line on every individual and it’s much scarier. How can you fight back unless you’re, I don’t know, Greg Pak or someone like that? No one wants to lose their job, but it’s wild to place the onus of a whole marketplace being successful on workers demanding better treatment instead of a fairer share of capital. What is interesting to me, broadly speaking, is the movie money floating around. It’s hard to imagine that Marvel and DC would want the wells for their films to dry up but my ignorance of the industry could be showing here. I understand that the comics companies are separate corporate subsidiaries but they definitely part of that immensely profitable ecosystem. More pointedly, it is hard for me to imagine comic industry workers having codified benefits and salary increases as the iceberg that sinks the Titanic and not any broader market trends or shifts in how we consume our storytelling. The workers should get as much as possible while they can in my opinion. The contract negotiation process is a built in method to respond to market conditions.

For people who are far outside these conversations, could you finish by explaining why unions are important?

We leave in a new gilded age of rampant inequality with a looming climate apocalypse and a rise in white nationalism around the world. Sounds pretty bad!

However, as one organizer I look to for guidance says, “Hope is a discipline.” I try to practice it daily. If you want to effect positive change, if you want to fight back effectively, you have to have organized money or organized people and unions are a spectacularly great way to organize people. I mean, about one hundred years ago, we had children in the US working in factories, we had no weekends. Just a few years ago, pundits said that raising the minimum wage to $15/hour was impossible. Turns out it was very possible but only through the collective struggle of workers and organizers. Take a look at the idea of Medicare for All. That has gone from fringe idea to being endorsed by just about every Democratic Presidential nominee. The list goes on. Unions have played key role in all of these fights.

The way I approach my work is that our world can always be better and there is dignity and inherent value in fighting the fight. You have to dream big. Late capitalism can be a grinding and dehumanizing experience but demonstrating solidarity with your brothers and sisters as they fight for better treatment can cut through that. I believe organized labor and unions have a key role to play in the battle for a more humane, just, and livable future. Individual actions matter but we are at our strongest together.

Trump Administration Sued Over Refusal to Release Records Regarding Marvel’s Ike Perlmutter’s Involvement With Veteran Affairs
Posted by Rich Johnston October 18, 2018

The Military Times reports that officials at the US Government department for Veterans Affairs are declining to give members of Congress documents related to accusations that outside businessmen are unduly influencing department policy, citing legal ongoing disputes over the issue.

Those businessmen include Ike Perlmutter, Chair of Marvel Comics, major donor and close friend of Donald Trump, his Thanksgiving dining companion at Mar-a-Lago rather than members of Donald’s own family. Ike does not hold an official administration position but all three are confidants of Trump and members of Mar-a-Lago.


Tim Walz. the ranking member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee has called this “an attempt to stonewall not only a member of Congress, but the American public.”

In a statement he wrote “we have received nothing from VA except excuses… The reports of corruption and cronyism are serious and we cannot allow VA to sweep this under the rug. This issue will remain a top concern of the committee until all our questions have been answered” and is demanding the documents be turned over to the committee before the end of the month.

And now activist group Democracy Forward, with the support of another group VoteVets, has sued the Trump Administration for what they call ‘unlawfully withholding records detailing the full extent of the influence members of the President’s private golf club have in shaping decisions that affect millions of America’s veterans’.

They claim that ‘earlier reporting based on records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) revealed that President Trump’s ‘Mar-a-Lago Council’—a group composed of Marvel Entertainment CEO Ike Perlmutter, Palm Beach concierge doctor Bruce Moskowitz, and Marc Sherman, a private lawyer—has wielded unprecedented influence over senior officials at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and has regularly weighed in on decisions affecting millions of America’s veterans, such as the push to privatize veterans’ health services. In an effort to learn more about the conduct of the Mar-a-Lago Council, and the extent of their influence over veterans policy, Democracy Forward requested records from the VA. The VA violated federal law in failing to disclose the requested records.’

This guy called it:

 

[AnOminous]

Somehow they finally noticed this Ike Perlmutter shit when some completely insignificant loser got the can?

I'm sure pissing Ike off is going to help their cause a lot.

 

[Sissy Galvez]

Bruno should be careful, Shuri came out today (/co has a story on it) and it looks bad like exactly what he described.

Not very woke imho

 

[SiccDicc]

Somehow they finally noticed this Ike Perlmutter shit when some completely insignificant loser got the can?

I'm sure pissing Ike off is going to help their cause a lot.

fftopic:As far as the VA stuff is concerned Perlmutter served in the Israeli Defense Force and in particular participated in the Six Day War. He also gave $1 Million when Trump ran that rally for Wounded Veterans Initiative. Outside of the lack of protocol, I'm not entirely sure why they're mad at a man who seems very eager to help veterans -- especially seeing as he is one. Then again I don't know what's going on behind the scenes, but I figure a veteran's input might be useful. Maybe I'm just optimistic.fftopic:

Otherwise, yeah, biting the face tends to get the dog put down. Haven't seen any "creators" actually going after him, yet, though. Should keep an eye on their timelines.

 

[AnOminous]

Outside of the lack of protocol, I'm not entirely sure why they're mad at a man who seems very eager to help veterans -- especially seeing as he is one.

Because this is Bleeding Cool, an SJW hive full of scum who hate veterans and consider anyone who ever served their country to be a literal Nazi?

 

[damian]

 

[SiccDicc]

Because this is Bleeding Cool, an SJW hive full of scum who hate veterans and consider anyone who ever served their country to be a literal Nazi?

Probably doesn't help that said country was Israel.