Over the weekend, the big news broke that big names in the industry put pressure on retailers, fans, and Antarctic press, over Richard Meyer’s new book, Jawbreakers, which is one of the biggest successes in comic history on the crowdfund level. Antarctic Press caved and won’t publish the book. But what does this mean globally?
I started to see the Twitterverse piece together what I’ve been saying all along in some circles, and the message needs to spread. It’s time to let Marvel and DC go.
These companies have spent decades riding on Stan Lee and others’ properties from the 60s or even before, not coming up with new ideas, but rehashing the old in a never ending train of nostalgia. It’s not producing good work, original work, or interesting work. And moreover, for the last decade, these companies have been politics first, product second.
Chuck Dixon and Brett R. Smith (Brett is Jawbreakers’ colorist) have both warned for years that these companies blacklist over politics. Now we’re seeing the ugly reality naked in front of us.
You can’t both support Richard, Chuck, Brett, and others and simultaneously give your hard earned dollars to these Disney and Warner Bros. movie licensing machines. They don’t care about comics at these houses, they don’t care about you as fans. They don’t want you as fans as they’ve told you dozens of times.
I know it’s hard, believe me. I read Spider-Man for decades too. I dropped the book after One More Day and kept coming back periodically hoping it would get better. It’s a habit that’s hard to break like cigarettes. But the Peter Parker being written now isn’t even the same character of my youth. He doesn’t act the same, he’s not married like he was, there’s no reason to care. Moreover with Nick Spencer primed to take over the book — Marvel told me they’re happy to stick a middle finger in my face with the guy who made Cap Hydra and has called fans all sorts of terrible things on Twitter.
And Cap himself? The symbol of America and patriotism? They put Ta-Nahesi Coates, race baiter and extreme identity politics advocate on the book. How could they allow that when they’re telling us at the same time they’re making changes and they are going to care about us again?
It’s because it’s done with a wink in the industry, while making their phone calls to black list anyone who disagrees on the political angle. They constantly call you harassers and evil people, because you want good comic books that are fun and without extreme politics all over the pages. Why do you keep supporting that system?
It has to be torn down completely. There is no minor change to these companies. They have such deep pockets, even minor sales changes don’t matter to the scheme of things. They’re movie machines that happen to produce a monthly side product for you to throw money at.
Doomsday killed Superman.
Mephisto killed Spider-Man’s soul.
There is nothing left. Find indie creators you love, support them with all your heart and all your funds. It’s time for revolution in comics.
I’m working on getting my own comics out, and am putting out a lot of prose fiction on Patreon, working hard every month. I need your help. Even at $1, it’ll send messages and help me to get my quality product out. I’ve got a lot waiting in the wings. My shorts come out every month at $3/mo, and people are saying it’s really good work. Check it out and help the cause.
I’m very upset about this whole thing, too, but I’m not ready to do a complete boycott of Marvel and DC. If there’s a good book, where the author keeps his politics out (I don’t even like politics I agree with in a book, it tends to make very bad story-telling), I don’t see not supporting it. I thoroughly enjoyed Sean Gordon Murphy’s Batman: White Knight, for instance, and would love to see more (I’ve been a Marvel girl when I read non-indie comics, from the earliest days of the new X-Man, but Batman is Batman, after all.)
Marvel is harder. It’s in a real mess, but it’s a mess that was caused by Marvel Comic’s own bad management, starting around 2014 when they hired a bunch of very young girls to be their “editors.” It’s going to take a while to turn around that damage and I’ve heard they’re stuck with some bad contracts. D&C has said to give Cebowlski at least a year (maybe even longer). Personally, I think Marvel needs a complete reboot, but they have to turn over a lot of the writing/editing staff if they hope to pull that off.
Of course, a boycott from me is involuntary. I can’t think of any Marvel books right now I could recommend. Danny Cates is a fun author, I just enjoyed his run on Dr. Strange. But anyone else? Removing altogether the truly terrible (Coates on Captain America, Waid, Spencer, all the rest), there still isn’t anything left I can say I even want to read. I’m picking up Thor again now that the loathsome She-Thor is done, but that’s really a holdover from my love of the Straczynski-Gillen Kid Loki run.
I still love the movies, but I’m scared that Disney-On-High is going to interfere and ruin those, too.