Do Not Siege Walled Cities - 212
Hello all! Welcome to new readers. I’ll be talking about some HOT TOPICS this newsletter, so I thought I’d start off by highlighting how disagreeing with me won’t be the end of either of our worlds.
A comic hero of mine said something I think is wrong. Not evil. Not attempting to harm me or anyone else. Just incorrect in a way that has ramifications. I can’t pretend to be disappointed: I don’t know this man. He doesn’t live in my home. Never even met him. Just an admirer of his work.
…and continue to be. Because people are entitled to be wrong. I don’t agree with my father, for example, on anything and nevertheless love him very much. That’s life outside of the internet.
Disagree. It won’t kill you.
It’s Pride Month.
And Angry Birds just announced their first non-binary bird character. ‘Jo.’
Angry Birds.
The argument, always, is that young people need to see themselves in media. There’s some debate as to what that means, to ‘see oneself.’ With some additional clash over the possible ramifications of limiting the ability to identify with another person to shared phenotypical traits. I’ve heard compelling, if not convincing, arguments on all sides. Make up your own mind.
BUT…
I’m gonna posit something that I hope you’ll take in the right spirit. If Jo, the ten-pixel-wide nonverbal ‘character’ from a physics engine mobile game is what you need to see yourself in media, it’s time to view yourself through a more complex/complete lens.
Simply put, these… efforts… from corporate marketing divisions… are not sincere.
Pride Month is a period in comics where editors pat themselves on the back for pulling off their corporate pride anthologies with the same 12 creators. “List is getting thin. Call in that lady who worked on Modern Family for half a season.” All while the comic creators politic for a quick buck and publicly refer to themselves as ‘checkboxes.’ Meaning, they know this is a perfunctory exercise where populations are pooled for a yearly harvest. Could anything be more cynical? Is there an uglier expression of corporate monoculture?
I wish I could share some of the behind-the-scenes stuff here. You hear the internet talk about straight creators pretending to be queer for additional job opportunities. And you just gotta dismiss it. It’s such a personal thing and impossible to parse from the outside, so it’s just rude to speculate.
AND THEN YOU LEARN IT’S TRUE.
Goddamn, man. What are we doing out here?
Lets presuppose Pride Month is a great thing. Helps marginalized populations connect and recognize some solidarity among the broader culture. Perfect. But then the vampires arrive with their “you mean the world to Citibank” and “Disney wants you to be yourself” gibberish. “Raytheon believes love is love.” Haliburton flying the flag.
Naturally, the vanguard of the demographic disaffiliates from the movement. Too corny. Too contrived. Too engineered. Too corporate. And all you’re left with is centrist millennials posing as involved. That last line is print comics in a nutshell. In the words of one notable queer comic creator, “I know they’re using me. But I’m using them too.” Fair enough, but then who is the performance for on the part of the corporation? If you thought this creator was capable, you coulda hired them without the dance.
For your consideration: There’s a video game publisher that’s faced a barrage of accusations the past few years. Toxic workplace, sexual harassment, discrimination, etc; the full English breakfast of bad things to be said about a company. I never worked there. Don’t know what’s true and what’s not. But what’s not up for debate is the pattern. Fans have noticed every time this company is about to get slammed with a public callout or lawsuit, it rolls out a marginalized character and a .jpeg of meaningless corporate diversity ad copy. “Gillian is Game X’s first disabled non-binary hero. Their commitment to justice for all marginalized peoples mirrors Corporate Giant X’s own pledge to underrepresented communities.” Blah blah. It’s all the same shit and nobody is fooled.
“Nobody is fooled” is an apt phrase that maybe we should have ready to go for any number of situations.
Next up: #comicsbrokeme is available for your perusal on Twitter. It was born from the death of Ian McGinty, a 38-year-old cartoonist many pros considered a friend or inspiration. It’s clearly very sad that someone so young has left us. I haven’t seen it confirmed that he died as the result of overwork, etc, but many are using his passing as an opportunity to talk about the perils of a life in comics.
I don’t feel entirely able to talk on this because as a writer I have more flexibility and am less susceptible to burnout. I have artist partners on projects who were completely destabilized by the unpredictability of a sales-dependent monthly periodical schedule. It’s high-stress, emotionally taxing, and provides no security. And then life happens and there’s no chance of keeping up. It’s a recipe for disaster, and hard working people can get sucked under- often blaming themselves. I get it.
All that said, let’s just be real with each other. The hashtag is dominated by cartoonists who worked at indie publishers and were treated like dogs. And the stories are no doubt unfortunate and ugly. But, if I may, developing a nervous twitch for your $70 page rate on RAINBOW BRIGHT ADVENTURES is obviously not worth it. And the obviousness of it means there’s some personal accountability here. Across so many of the tweets was a general shock and indignation at the idea someone working on “a major property” could be poor.
C’mon, man.
The claim of “a major property” demands some examination. Conspicuously absent from the hashtag is testimony from current Big Two pros. Curious, right? There’s guys making really nice livings working on BATMAN. But there’s plenty of pain from people who took a job for Oni drawing STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE or whatever. I believe everyone should be treated fairly and work without exploitation. But, so we’re clear, there’s no money in the Strawberry business. It is not a ‘major property.’ It’s a novelty with limited appeal. Margins. And while it’s true that publishers wouldn’t do a book they didn’t think could make money… it’s actually only partially true. There’s a lotta chances being taken at any given time and what constitutes a ‘win’ varies greatly.
Another common refrain among the hashtaggers is anger at the advances offered by publishers for original long-form work. They are given an advance that wouldn’t cover a year’s work to do work that’ll take two or three. Some said they required medical care for what they put their bodies through to get the work done, skipping necessary treatments or not eating, etc.
The takeaway from that is cold, but self-evident. Don’t take the job. That’s it. We all wanna see our visions take shape and exist in the real world. We all wanna do what we were put here, in our view, to do. But the starving artist thing only works in celebration of the fact, not dismay. If you’re miserable, unhealthy, and THAT IS NOT A STATE YOU CAN TOLERATE, then do something else. ‘Failing’ at something that was killing you doesn’t make you a failure. You can just do something else. Nobody wants to see you die for a graphic novel, regardless of how good it may turn out.
And the final aspect I thought was worth exploring was the shockingly high volume of hashtaggers who invoke their status as ‘award winners’ to justify further indignation. Maybe it’s time to confront that these awards are not real. Or, possibly, they are real but merit is not the primary consideration in comics hiring. Because, what other options are there? You were recognized as great by the greatness-recognizing bodies of the industry. How is it possible you’re unemployed or exploited?
I want you to win. I want you to be successful and treated fairly. If there’s any criticism above, it’s the one I have for everyone, everywhere: there is no cavalry and waiting for it is a waste of time.
Rest in peace to Ian McGinty. Hopefully the discourse coming outta his passing is positive in some respect.
Onto things I’ve read in the van!
I’ve been consuming as much bad girl assassin genre comics as possible. The GEHENNA series Maurizio and I did is modeled more after THE PUNISHER than JENNIFER BLOOD, but it’s good to have an idea of what we’re under the umbrella with.
If you’re familiar with Garth Ennis, you know his magic is adding personality to very stock ideas. Which sounds like faint praise, but is really the essence of genre comics. Genre anything, really. John Wick is just cool ideas and style layered over a bog-standard revenge story. JENNIFER BLOOD is somewhere between the movie The Long Kiss Goodnight and The Destroyer paperback series. An action revenge story with not-quite-a-twist-but-some-flavor in the form of an unlikely protagonist. She’s a homemaker and a mother. Who drugs her family so she can go out and kill her uncles, who killed her father. It’s dumb, of course. Just read that logline. And because it’s Garth Ennis, it’s crass at times. But as with most of his work, it works.
The series’ publisher, Dynamite Entertainment, has a few models. One of which is spending the entire budget on a name-brand writer like Ennis or Wagner and leaving art duties to newer or unproven or sometimes amateur talent. I think it works for series in the direct market, but I wonder if the budget could be balanced in such a way to get artists that make an impact and help bookmarket trade sales. JENNIFER BLOOD is a slower read than you’d anticipate and the ending feels rushed. But all that could be forgiven if the book was an art show.
Blood has become a franchise character for Dynamite. The title continued under other writers and there’s been spinoffs. I may give them a shot, but it’s difficult to imagine Al Ewing having the essential Ennis’ bite.
I confess I don’t know much about Aspen as a publisher. The hot girl covers they sell are of a style that doesn’t speak to me and, perhaps as a result, I’ve never investigated the line very deeply. But I decided to give vol 1 and 2 of EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT: IRIS a shot.
Whereas Dynamite often pays a premium for writers and cover art, Aspen seems to fully prioritize the latter. No disrespect to David Wohl, who has created a proper franchise out of thin air, but this isn’t exactly the ‘elevated genre’ material Ennis is capable of. That said, the first volume deserves praise for its trust in the reader. It’s a remarkably slow burn for a book about a concubine/bodyguard/assassin. I found myself respecting the rollout. The art ranges from good to merely serviceable. Again, I think this is just a matter of priorities on the publisher’s part. It never offends, and you’re never confused. But you do find yourself wishing for something with teeth.
I can’t award vol 2 the same praise. It managed a nice misdirect, but it’s unclear who we’re supposed to follow as a result. Regardless, an interesting series to have such a long life in a difficult market.
Last thing I’ve got to share for today. While everyone else is offended by AI’s lack of humanity or scared by its ability to replace us, I’m just mad that the thing is so antiseptic. Everyone keeps assuring me that there’s no way it can stay corporate forever. But I don’t see it that way. I’m concerned AI art will be omnipresent and Disneyfied. A world where ‘provocative’ is a forbidden prompt.
So I try to break it.
Here’s the prompt I tried to circumvent some controls. It did not attempt to stop me.
wet t-shirt contest, shot with Nikon D850 and Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED lens, natural light, style of National Geographic
But I’m unsure if it is confused or willfully obtuse.
I’ll make my efforts to subvert the Midjourney platform a weekly feature here.
That’s it for me. Take care of yourself. Do for self.