unpopular opinions: comics edition

Man oh man, was I full of unpopular opinions today! Somehow I managed to keep all these terribly uncharitable thoughts to myself--not one, not two, not three, but FOUR separate times over the course of just one ding-dang day. That's way, way more discretion than I care to muster. Maybe I can offset my regularly scheduled two to four hours of shitty insomnia with a ritualistic Airing of Grievances. My opinions...they are sort of bad. But they are mine.

1. Peter David can go fuck himself



Oh hey, Comics. Heyyyyy. It's me, Peter David. Quick favor I gotta ask. Boy, this is awkward. It's just embarrassing for me, a racist-ass Man of Comics, to stoop and make myself vulnerable in this way. But, what the heck, here goes: Can you guys give me $88,000? I mean, I know there are trans people who are virtually unemployable because we live in a nightmare world, and that people are crowdfunding their fucking insulin because same, and that every talented comics person on earth who's had far fewer opportunities than me has some magical "Patronus" that converts their actual labor into legal tender, but, like, I just spent a good 20 minutes coming up with this dubious anecdote about my bitch ex stealing all my hard-earned money. OK, look, I'm also willing to (begrudgingly) sign your comic if you'll send me a self-addressed stamped envelope with a check for $88,000 in it. I'm a nice guy, that's why that stupid bitch stole all my money. Everyone says. I'm so nice that if this half-ass blog post manages to reach six figures I'll even appear on your Old White Man diversity panel to discuss how the Actual Poors are out there crippling their young for money like the mongrels criminal swine they are. Please just help me out of this one jam.

Lord. I mean...

Wait, what's that? You think it's in bad taste to comment on someone's financial distress? Uh huh, I get that, but newsflash: I'm the tackiest bitch you know, and also I think this is pretty much unethical. To be clear I'm not at all unsympathetic to this guy's plight. I've been self-employed for most of my adult life and I get it. I really, really do. I totally understand how that situation snowballed, dubious anecdote notwithstanding. David says he's going to use any extra "to pay any taxes due on the new income." Like...is he serious?? This guy fully expects fandom to give him $88,000. Can you imagine?

I mean, they probably will.

2. Maybe it's time to give up on Marvel
Um...listen, I'm not going to tell you how to live your life. I myself have written about diversity at Marvel many, many times, which is pretty weird since I don't read Marvel comics. I just feel like maybe the time has come to recognize that Marvel leadership from the C-suite on down to whoever the fuck David Gabriel is consists of deluded garbage people who would probably cripple their own children to make a buck continue not selling comics about Straight White Man in Tights Model No. 1058B-1C. Like...enjoy reading Marvel comics and live with that knowledge, or boycott them forever, or something in between. Whatever you gotta do, you know? I think all of those choices are valid. But this discussion isn't going anywhere, ever, in my humble opinion.

3. Comics Alliance has shuttered forever
I don't care about this at all. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

4. Dan Nadel should promote whoever he wants
I have a lot of random, semi-deranged Mystical Comics Opinions, and while the logical part of my brain understands that this is something I should be ashamed of, it's actually a thing I sort of enjoy about myself. Anyway one of these Opinions is that your preferred editor at TCJ dot com says something about you. Mine is Dan, largely because he's among the few comics people who will admit to having an opinion.

I'm not sure what it would take to persuade me to leave a comment there ever again, so I'll just say it here...Dan Nadel should blog about the cartoonists he's published whenever he feels like it. Some dude left a comment that was all for some reason I find it shocking that a person who's very involved with art would stoop to name favorites and Dan, in what I think must be the only capitulation I've seen him make in years of reading that website almost daily, was all I feel you, I should probably stop doing that. Really?? Countless pieces of feedback about what they should be doing at TCJ--and countless times either one of those guys dismissed it like the smarmy dicks they so often are--and that's the critique that struck a chord?

I mean, editing, or some real attempt at editorial coverage, is one thing; blogging is another. But something that always speaks to me as a reader, whoever the writer and whatever their project is--even a little blog post--is when they talk about something they really believe in. The stuff that they love. Like, I'd go so far as to say that's something people should really cultivate in themselves. If I wanted some fake gesture to objectivity, my fave would be Tim.