One would think they’d be happy that the geeks won the culture wars, but they’re still stuck in their high school bitterness that their “genius” and “specialness” wasn’t recognised. Worse for them, just when the triumph of the geeks arrives, women and LGBTQ folks and PoC who are smarter and more talented than they ever were are entering the field; instead of recognising that the timing of this entry of formerly marginalised people into the industry and culture is anything but co-incidental they turn into whingey little ragequitters and vandals.
The same goes for conservative politicians and a certain type of techbro.
I do not like these people and it’s clear they are not fans of comic books as a whole or even just fans of Marvel or DC, they want to hold on to some nostalgic ideal of these characters that they vaguely remember. Talking to them for any amount of time and they will start complaining about things from a decade ago because they just found out about it, like Gert smack talking Spider-man in Runaways, or something that’s an alternate universe version of a character, like gay cowboy Wolverine from X-treme X-men. And to top it all off they have no concept of publishing companies out side of the big two, they were harassing Brandon Graham to try and “fix” Marvel when he’s never even worked for them.
Nobody said we can’t publish adaptations of Lovecraft stories anymore. We’re saying that if you’re still writing new material with the level of racism that Lovecraft put in some of his work 100 years ago then you should have a difficult time finding a publisher in 2018.
I was taking that implied dichotomy from your comments. Correct me if I’m wrong, but you seem to be lamenting the idea that if we live in a world where some, most, or the most popular comics agencies have a “progressive agenda,” you will ipso-facto lose your favorite genres…
You’re right that it can be a shitty way to discuss serious topics - but you can say the same thing about any media. For every thought provoking item, you will find dozens of hamfisted schlock, honest but problematic attempts, and out right failures.
You’re wrong that it can’t be an amazing way to discuss serious topics. As you are aware of, there are some great examples out there.
All media, including comics, are products of the society which creates them. Which means politics and social issues are part of the formative experiences that create those stories. So even if one doesn’t consciously interject these things, they are there in some subtext.
True, but he was talking about NEW ADAPTATIONS. Which of course would require editing in many cases. Or not. When it comes to actual new reprints, most people prefer to leave the language as is, with notation in the beginning that language we may consider archaic or unacceptable has been left in.
As a person who makes comics, this is absolutely delightful news. Yes! Please get into a protracted war over who gets to own the term “Comicsgate”, guys! Take all that money you’re preening about making on Indiegogo (presumably because Kickstarter won’t have y’all’s sorry asses) and give it to lawyers instead. Spend all your energy fighting each other instead of making comics that all seem to be caricatures of the worst excesses of Image. Start swatting each other.
Meanwhile the New York Times has long since stopped printing their graphic novel sales charts because they got tired of Raina Telgelmier having a lock on the top three or four positions for its entire existence…
I would think the last decade+ of internet history has proven that “ignore the trollies” (as well as its corollary, “let all the trollies stew in their own rot on 4chan”) is not a viable tactic.
I think this guy might, but I wonder the same thing as you. Hell, I’d even briefly considered having MAGA shirts made just to make money off of rubes.
EDIT: I remember Milo Yiannopoulis (remember him?) claiming that the alt-reich was the new counterculture. So yeah, I think there’s a bunch of people who are doing it just to be edgy, just to piss people off. They even say so: it’s “to trigger the libs”.
I think I understand what you mean to say, but I think you may be thinking of “political” in a very narrow sense as consciously proposing a viewpoint. While I wouldn’t go so far as to say that art needs to be political, modern day art is either politically upfront with it’s message or the politics of the message are driving the art.
If it’s commercial, it can’t be apolitical, whoever puts out a book intends to make a profit from it and merely catering to the tastes of the public and not challenging their views means reinforcing them. If you are comfortable with whatever a story is about it’s because you like the story. The politics of the world in the book don’t seem like a political message if it’s what you already believe to be true about the world.
Using a narrow definition of politics as in what I think you meant to say is perfectly fine, but it only goes so far as to point out specific political agendas, it ignores that there are many other political agendas, like maintaining the status quo, that are also pushed on us all the time. Just because it’s not always a conscious effort does not make it less a real push or any less political.
Well, yeah. Gamergaters, Sad Puppies etc. are people who think they’re the Real Fans, the Only True Fans, largely because they’re white men. (Exceptions do exist, but by and large these groups are all composed of straight white men.) It’s no surprise that they have astonishingly narrow knowledge and shallow understanding of the things they claim to be fans of.
The thing I really liked about Maus/Maus II was it was so real and genuine. This book isn’t really just about the Holocaust. It is about a man and the problematic relationship with his father. A man who lived through terrible things, but also was kinda a jerk in his life. Of course being male, even though I don’t have a bad relationship with my father, I can still empathize with Art’s struggles with his.
