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I’ll sit back and see where they place “Smile”…
Let’s see how many kids’ titles are placed, as well as DC and Marvel.

Since it’s now 2015, wouldn’t this be the best time to rethink the best comics/creators of the Twentieth Century?

As a artist in this industry. after a long day of work I like to wind down and read gossip and get into some mischief. Having been present at some of the alleged allegations of antagonism and first hand accounts not so nice naughtiness. The whole situation would be better presented in a comic book!
The underhandedness, lies, corruption and betrayals, all within cliquish secret society’s would make for some damn good reading. We got the writers! let’s start lining up artists and making money instead of putting it out there for free.

I really appreciated this break down of something I’d seen swirling around a lot on Twitter. I also agree with Spurgeon and appreciated the Rich Johnston tweets – it’s easy to toss around rumors on blogs, but I think everyone should hold themselves to old school journalism standards if they can, which means chasing leads, getting a source (even anonymous), and being confident before publishing allegations as truth. That isn’t to say this isn’t true OR that this story isn’t worth more digging, but I 100% agree with having reservations publishing allegations that aren’t directly sourced.

So, who is worse? Chris Sims or this guy?

Does Charles Brownstein still run the CBLDF?

I’m confused. Are you calling Edmonson a rapist?
Or do people just not like him because he’s conservative? If so- YAWN.

I’m gonna play devil’s advocate here (and frankly, I’m on the opposite political side of Edmonson) but:

– isn’t all this a legal matter? We can talk how much we want about somebody’s behavior but if the victims don’t go to the proper authorities, what are theu searching for, another kind of self-justice?

– what is the purpose of all this: to make it so that this kind of guy will never have any job ever available to him? Newsflash: if people can’t find a job and sustain a living, don’t expect their behavior to improve, it will not work! Now, I could understand if they guy was supposed to become the head of a firm with values opposed to his behavior, but here, he’s only writing a comics. Assholes and people who have been convicted can write comics, and I frankly don’t want to live in a world with, on one side “so called pure people who can work and do what they want” and on the other side “bad people” who can’t find a job and have limited freedom. People are not either 100% right or wrong.

– on the fact that Edmonson is, as I understood it, a right-right wing guy, writing a comics on a native super-hero character. Well, let’s see what he’s gonna produce. If you make your memory time bubble work, you can probably remember how some others far-right writers have depicted for exemple how poor people were living in the streets, and they did it right. The guy can probably write something good, if he doesn’t let his political judgment take over. He’s a writer, it’s their job, they usually know how to do that. There are probably tons and tons of racist people handling a business who, in the context of their business, in their business relation to colored or foreign people, are not assholes and behave as they should, with all the courtesy they should. People are allowed to be assholes and racist in the privacy of their home, as long as they don’t hurt anyone.

– so, this Edmonson guy has hurted some other people. Sue him for that, not for writing comics. He’s allowed to write comics, to have a job and make a living.

Now, on the other side, because I don’t want to play devil’s advocate so much for someone who would have such an inapropriate behavior, it’s true that people who complain about such behavior for sure should not be put away or silenced, that’s a problem.
And yeah, putting a far right writer on their first native ongoing super-hero serie in 40 years is either stupid from Marvel, or the controversy was exactly was exactly what they were searching for to advertise it for free. (even if I’m not sure that’s good advertising)

@TheDudePerfect – I don’t see how you could genuinely read this article and think that it’s just about the guy’s political views. He’s been accused (unfortunately without specifics) of sexual harassment.

“He’s been accused (unfortunately without specifics) of sexual harassment.”

But he hasn’t actually been accused of that, apparently. People have talked about bad behavior in the comic business and then mentioned this guy’s name. That seems to be about it.

And on another stupid subject, if stories about American Indians can only be told by American Indians then we can expect no such stories to be told. Should Steven Spielberg not have directed “Amistad?”

Mike

Thank you for writing this, Heidi. I’m an outsider who likes to remain an informed consumer. I keep up here and on Comics Alliance and on Bleeding Cool (much as I loathe the sensationalist culture of the latter, there’s some genuine wheat in the chaff), because I want to make informed choices about the comics I buy. Sometimes that means making moral judgments based on where my money will ultimately be going, and that why I pay close watch to what little legitimate comics journalism I can find in the time I have to work with. Your work is pretty much the tops in my book, incidentally, and this article is the perfect illustration of why. I wish I had the teeth for journalism, but I can only wear so many hats, especially when none of them really provides particularly meaningful cash flow. ;)

Down to the specifics here, everyone on the comments seems to be focused rather intently on Nathan Edmondson, and while he’s at the center of the article, it’s not about him at all. His story is certainly at the center of this, but seriously, read the article, the whole thing. This is a story about gossip, about the fact that this story *is* a void, either through lack of digging, people not asking the right questions of the right people, the right people not coming forward, or there not even being a story at all. It’s a snapshot of an insular industry that can’t progress, because it can’t talk about itself above a whisper. By all means, talk, but remember, this article is not fact regarding the writer in question. It says so itself many a time. It’s about the fact that the truth of the matter just isn’t coming to light, which is a damned shame if the cited rumors are true. As much as there’s a lofty cold, academic ideal to divorce the work from the artist, I can’t do so in good conscience. Maybe it’s a virtue, maybe it’s a failing on my part, but I don’t want my money going to someone who (insert specific act of unwanted advancement here, because I won’t feed into rumor-mongering by citing a nonexistent “for instance” out of a hat). But again, that’s all “if.” It’s all speculation without credible journalism investigating… credibly.

It’s a very small pool of people with (as I understand it) a very small pool of resources, and that’s the problem. Credibility and integrity are at the heart of this matter, on all levels, from the rumors conduct to the reporting of it. And it’s eye opening and heartbreaking, all at once. Anyway… Bravo, Heidi, and thank you again.

Thom – if this article isn’t about accusing Edmonson of ‘something’ which is heavily implied to be rape or sexual harassment but never explicitly stated (“Ha~! Take that libel!”) – then i’m not sure what it’s about.
That’s all the article talks about.