HOPE IT’S BEEN A BETTER ONE
Hello. I’d like to thank those of you who are not interested in the depressing stuff for sticking around. Been a bummer moment in comics and I’m not immune to lingering on it. So thank you for your patience. Hope you had a good week. We’ll be back to our regularly scheduled program of scattershot news and craft pondering next newsletter. Maybe even some images to break up all the words.
THE LAST WORD (FROM ME)
Substack tells me how many people read my newsletter each week. Last week’s was shared a great many times. The feedback I received was positive, but I’m sure there’s a non-zero number of people who felt the other way about it. That’s how it goes. Appreciate anyone who gave it their time.
I came across the tweet below apropos of, I think, nothing. I don’t believe this was about Piskor and maybe not about anyone in particular. I don’t know this person or their account. I think it’s a band. But whatever this account is about they speak a true fact here:
People don’t give a shit. Nobody cares about the women at the center of the Piskor matter. If they did, they’d have been mindful to give the proper response to this type of thing. Talk to a mental health professional. You people all claim to value therapy. People who work in that field will tell you it’s dangerous to validate unproven statements. This was weirdly hushed during #metoo, but you can just ask someone whose career it is to handle the fallout. They’ll tell you, there’s a genuine danger in confirming a potential delusion. It’s irresponsible to do the perfunctory “sorry this happened to you” because should it have not have happened, should it be a delusion of some type, you’ve just anchored the unwell person in that delusion. You’re supposed to check to make sure the person is alright, then examine the matter further, referring the individual to legitimate avenues of assistance. But, really, why are you doing any of this? You are not family, friend, or mental health professional and you will not be available for the ACTUALLY IMPORTANT part of the process. More likely you are a gossip hound. And if the person making the allegation truly needs help, either because the allegation is true or because it is not and they are in a crisis of some type- you offer nothing.
People don’t give a shit. If they did, they wouldn’t have been organizing Piskor’s downfall in private Discords for a year before the allegation came out. I was aware of it. Piskor was aware of it. People got together and shared screenshots of Piskor “being a creep” by which they meant telling grown women that he liked their art. Typically in response to recent posts of their art. Normal human behavior. Thirsty, maybe. But you’d have to be the darkest cynic imaginable to see it as ‘predatory.’ And everyone ultimately had to agree that Piskor hadn’t done anything wrong. But there was a disappointment in that. “Maybe next time,” was the vibe. That’s not the behavior of people who are serious about ‘protecting aspiring creators.’ It’s the type of dehumanizing gossipiracy that bored failures can’t get enough of.
People don’t give a shit. If they did, under no circumstance would they make jokes about a young girl getting exploited, on platforms they knew her to be on. Is it serious or is it not? ‘Pedo’ or no? Seems like your glib ass can’t decide.
People don’t give a shit. If they did, it wouldn’t be the same 20 underemployed hanger-ons at the center of every scandal in comics. Think about it. Why is every matter in comics the purview of a couple dozen people you only know from previous scandals? Did you elect this tribunal?
People don’t give a shit. If they did, they wouldn’t take a serious thing and twist it into an opportunity for self-aggrandizement/indemnification. “I think DMing 17-year-olds calling them naughty girls is #wrong and #istandwithdudeswhodontdothat”. Thank god for you, brave allies. You really fucking made yourself look not-guilty of being weirdos when, instead of keeping the focus on a potentially serious allegation, you leapfrog to how you wouldn’t DM a kid. Normal people don’t need to say that.
People don’t give a shit. Because if they did, the goal wouldn’t have been to clown Piskor onto an island. The goal shoulda been some type of clarity on what actually happened (there was zero interest in this), and what to do next to resolve and ‘heal’ if we choose to use the word (likewise, there was zero interest in this). The brave allies instead committed themselves to celebrating a dude’s embarrassment.
Unserious people got a serious result. Whoops.
DRAWING LINES
Artist Greg Smallwood announced on his social media that he will be opting out of work with collaborators that dog-piled Piskor and now refuse to take responsibility.
This was met with praise by some and criticism from others. Who would have guessed.
Smallwood is a work-for-hire artist. Contract worker. He is not in a position to hire/fire. But his sentiment was cosigned by Mark Millar, whose collaborations have made more than a couple artists financially independent. This set off another round of praise and criticism.
I have a message to those who feel one way or the other on this: this is everyday. And what I mean by that is, every day you make decisions about how to carry yourself and what to say publicly. All of these decisions come with consequences.
And that can be annoying. And it can feel unfair. I don’t like it. Nobody likes it when they are the one on the no hire list. Let’s explore it…
I believe off-worksite speech should be protected against managerial reprisal. I believe that’s a fundamental labor rights matter and I think it’s insane when people limit labor rights to arbitrary salary numbers while missing the larger point.
BUT I also believe in freedom of association and frankly it is ok for people to find you off-putting.
So which one is this? Well, take it from a guy who loses opportunities weekly, it’s technically fair as hell. You say things, people feel a way about the things you say. It’s why the really smart guys say nothing.
Depending on your echo chamber of choice, you’re prolly hearing from one mentality or another saying they are modifying their collaborations and/or hiring practices after this incident. And it’s easy to run with a narrative off a small sample. I’ve heard from a number of ‘important’ people that they don’t want vicious weirdos on their list of contractors. But that’s because of what I wrote last week. Had I instead essayed about how Piskor’s death was a loss but comics is a garden that needs maintaining and consequences are crucial and yadda yadda, I am sure I’d be hearing from a different set ‘important’ people. That’s how it goes.
So you understand: water finds its level. You take whatever stance you want to and some people will be more apt to work with you and others will be less apt. And, some, maybe the smart ones honestly, will not pay any attention at all and work with you in an aloof fashion that reveals none of their personal beliefs. You are a resource, not a friend, after all.
And, as someone taking a stance, you gotta be happy for the outcome. You need to stand on business, as the kids say. Come what may. Ramon Villalobos is never gonna get more than a few cover gigs and maybe interiors at an indie that can’t afford to pay him. If saying what he said about Piskor was worth it to him, he should be happy with this outcome. He can comfort himself that he didn’t fail at comics, he was locked out for taking a noble stance on an important matter. Whatever. We all make decisions about the words that leave our mouths or fingers and what they’re worth to us. I just did.
AND ERASING THEM
So, editors feel strongly one way or the other on the Piskor thing. ‘Save women from Piskor and future Piskors’ on one side and ‘Piskor’s critics murdered him’ on the other. Both are reductive, but that’s to be expected. The question is, how do we work together after such thick, red, lines have been drawn?
It’s hard, admittedly.
There’s a handful of creators I won’t have anything to do with. Nothing Piskor-related. Truthfully, I did not follow enough of the nonsense this time to attach many names to stances I feel strongly against. Muted a few hysterics. But a prior “we’ve all gotta take a position on this or the sky falls” moment has pushed some creators outside my personal comfort zone. I still try to get through their books, as I think good work often comes from shithead morons. But being associated in a professional capacity? No.
And, let’s be honest, most of these people are on a higher level than I am. There is no call for us to be associated. Yet. But, they’ll fall as I rise, and we’ll see each other. Not because karma or any such cosmic order, just because that’s the nature of careers. These people plateaued, no commentary on their abilities, and that’s just how careers work. So, see you soon. But won’t be working with you.
Clearly, I’m not a guidepost in this matter. I can’t get past something I found really offensive. So I can’t ask you to. But I do think it’s possible to have divides so deep and wide that they stop great work from being made. And I worry we’re just about there. Not exclusively because of the Piskor fallout, but the general culture war nonsense. We’ve got a cold war between the pronoun crowd and the Bill Maher liberals. I’m not counting the right-leaning contingent here, simply because I think they’ve pulled from the dock and reconciliation will be a major undertaking. But even without including them, we’ve got a generational divide that is gonna prove a problem, if it isn’t already.
I don’t know what the solution is because I’m as lost in my feelings as anyone. It’s easy to reframe everything you don’t like as a moral wrong. And every stubborn moment as a moral stance.
MORE OR LESS THE SAME THING
For anyone who needed the audio-video media of me struggling through a difficult topic.
BE LESS GLIB
You aren’t important and you don’t have actual enemies. Any villains you see standing against you is just excuse making and boredom. Nobody cares about you. Stop looking for opposition that isn’t there. Stop celebrating the downfall of strangers. It’s transparently loser behavior. Do for self.