Saturday, February 2, 2013

I’LL NEVER BUY ANYTHING BY YOU AGAIN

I am a member of a handful of comics-related mailing lists.  Right
around the 2012 elections, there was a post on one of those lists
that caught my interest.  The poster remarked that, in this age of
social media, we can learn and read the political positions of our
favorite and not-so-favorite writers and artists.  He wondered if
any of his fellow list members ever found the comments of writers
and artists so distasteful that they simply stopped buying anything
by those creators.  It’s a good question.

Intrigued by this discussion, I asked my Facebook friends and other
online pals/readers/acquaintances if they had ever stopped buying
the work of writers and artists whose political opinions (or the
creators’ caustic expression of said opinions) had turned them off.
I requested that those who wanted to respond to my question do so
privately.  I wasn’t looking for public arguments or to mention any
creators by name.

Friends of Old Tony know my political leanings are most definitely
liberal and progressive.  While I respect actual conservatives, an
endangered species in these days of extreme right-wing madness, I
haven’t been silent about speaking out against what I consider the
often vile positions staked out by the uber-righties.  If this has
cost me readers, and it likely has, it doesn’t seem to have cost me
many readers.  Oh, sure, there was the guy who used to write Comics
Buyer’s Guide
on a regular basis demanding I be fired and replaced
by a conservative comics reviewer, but most readers did not seem to
have a problem with my expressing my opinions.

If I were to conduct a survey of my regular readers, I suspect the
liberal/progressives would be in the majority.  If stating this is
stating the obvious, I do so only because that’s something to be
considered as we discuss the results of this informal, unscientific
survey of my readers on the matter.

Here’s my summation of what I learned from your e-mails and private
messages:

Most of the respondents did not have any problem with writers and
artists whose opinions were at odds with their own as long as the
creators weren’t jerks about it. If the opinions didn’t overwhelm
the entertainment value of the work, the respondents could and did
continue to enjoy the work of these creators.

The “I’ll never buy your work again” line was only crossed when a
creator expressed bigoted or racist opinions.  Some of the examples
mentioned were a creator whose attitudes towards women turned off
many of his previously faithful readers, a creator made contemptible
anti-gay comments and a cartoonist who drew racist cartoons for
a right-wing website.  I was familiar with the work of each of the
creators and found myself in agreement with the respondents to my
survey.  I couldn’t enjoy the work of these creators after they had
done these things and, since I couldn’t enjoy it, I stopped buying
it...though not without some regrets.

There are creators whose work I stop buying simply because I don’t
care for it anymore.  But I can only think of five whose political
opinions were a leading factor in my decision and, in the case of
two of those five, I thought the quality of their work had either
fallen off tremendously or wasn’t consistently good from the start.
Those two could be shining beacons of liberalism; I still wouldn’t
be buying their work these days.

Save for the obvious consideration that creators should strive not
to be jerks no matter what their politics, I don’t think creators
should pay much heed to whether or not their opinions are costing
them readers.  If they have something to say in their work, then,
by all means, they should say it.  Avoiding controversy to sell a
few more copies of their work won’t improve their sales in the long
run.  It will simply hobble the creators.

That’s what I had to say.  Now I’ll sit back and read what you have
to say.  I only ask you not name creators by name when you comment
here or on my Facebook page.

This should be a civil discussion and not a hit list.

I’ll be back tomorrow with more stuff.

© 2013 Tony Isabella

32 comments:

  1. As always, well said, sir. The creator I mentioned in my earlier private message to you (whom I won't name here) continues, in my opinion, to produce work worth reading despite my distaste for the misogynistic tendencies he display in his non-comics essays...so I simply don't read those and instead concentrate on his comics work. As long as he keeps those two separate, I don't expect he and I will have a problem. Of course, if he should attend a con that I'm attending, I'll avoid him like the plague.

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  2. Tony, there is only one person whose work I assiduously avoid, and it has nothing to do with politics. As far as a person's politics go, unless they're doing political satire or editorial cartoons, I don't find it relevant to to their craft.

    Granted, the one person whose work I avoid is due to something personal. When I was a kid of 15, I went to my very first comic book convention. Though things were kind of ramshackle back then, with different attractions and guests scattered through different parts of a hotel, being at the show was quite a high for a small-town kid from Michigan.

    In one of these rooms, I met a creator whom I looked upon as one of my creative heroes. I engaged him in conversation, thinking his gruff attitude was maybe kind of cool. Until he jumped from his chair and shouted at me--at length--using foul language and humiliating me in front of everyone present. My transgression? I had paid him a compliment. I referenced a specific scene he had written and referred to it as "genius". That's when he blew a gasket.

    "You [censored] kids! What the [censored] is it with all'a you? You [censored] [censored] think that it's some kind of [censored] [censored] [censored] and it's just a [censored] [censored] comic book! Why don't you just [censored]--"

    Well, you get the idea. Over the years, I have bought the work of comic creators whom I do not care for personally. One artist whose work I find unfailingly exceptional I met once in Chicago and found him to be an interminable boor. But damn, he can draw. So I continue to buy his work. I'll just never go to lunch with him.

    But the aforementioned one? The one who verbally attacked a kid at his first convention? His work I can no longer stomach. It comes with too much baggage. As to his political leanings? I haven't a clue. I'm uncertain what political affiliation supports deriding kids for giving you praise.

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  3. Brian's comment reminds me of something I was told a long time ago (and is more or less true): it can be a mistake to meet your heroes. I've pulled myself out of contention for certain TV show gigs because I loved the show but heard the process/people involved were diabolical... in cases like that I'd rather not see how the sausage is made, just enjoy the end product.

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  4. I've experienced this situation recently myself (which is why I committed to not sharing my political opinions on my FB pages a few years back) as I encountered quite a few over-the-top political opinions that forever will keep a few creators at arms length for me.

    That's not to say I begrudge anyone for voicing their opinions, but I think some people loss track of why they use tools like FB and Twitter. Is it truly about having a vehicle to wax poetic about their political leanings, or is it about marketing their brand?

    The same thing goes for nationally advertised businesses. There's a couple national food chains (which shall remain nameless) which have lost my business forever more, after voicing the political beliefs of their ownership!

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  5. I'm fairly middle of the road on most political stuff. I've voted both Democrat and Republican depending on the candidate and what they have to say, even though deep down I feel everything they say is just BS to get my vote and they are going to do whatever they want once they are in. I have had a particular comic artist tell me, and I quote as closely as I can remember, that I was "Exactly what is wrong with this F**king world, a f**king moron, and should have my GD voting privileges revoked for being retarded!" He is the most extreme of right wingers, who complains that 90% of conservatives "aren't conservative enough for him and should just disappear" or something to that extent. I wanted to leap over his table and strangle him for how rude he was being to myself and my friends, whom he also verbally attacked, but as I was working at Mid Ohio Con at the time, I retained enough professionalism to simply turn and walk away. I still appreciate his artwork even though I think he is an awful human being. He will never get another dime from me for a print or commission though (bought a sketch from him a few months before the MOC incident), and I don't go out of my way to buy books with his art unless it's on a title I already get monthly.

    I should add that he DID give me one of the greatest compliments I have ever received on my own art-when he saw a particular piece, he thought it was done by his friend Ivan Reis and telling me he thought it was incredibly good, so maybe he's not all bad.

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  6. Tony, I read your blog regularly. I am a conservative, but I don't have a problem with someone having opposite political views from me, provided they will give me the same respect that I give them. I have a music blog and I'm pretty sure the majority of my readers have liberal views. They will never know my views according to what I post on there, because I don't mix music and politics.

    However, in the past, I've had people who have unfriended me on Facebook if I opined on the rare political item (and I'm not one of those "firebreathing right wingers" either, so no ranting or raving on my part). Even though you and I may not agree on everything as far as political leanings go, I still value your experiences in the comic book field and that's what I come here for.

    I think a lot of the problem stems from both sides of the political aisle's refusal to buckle on anything (usually liberals will say it's the conservatives and conservatives will say it's the liberals, of course....but it's really BOTH sides when it comes down to it). For everyone to function in society and for society to function as it should, everyone has to realize that we don't always get everything we want.

    Hope we can still be friends. :)

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  7. I'm pretty sure I know who Mike May is talking about. I admire Mike's professionalism.

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  8. I have to agree with Mark Verheiden, and maybe even take it a step further; it not only can be a mistake to meet your heroes, it can be a mistake to even know too much about them. I was a huge fan of the original Star Trek (going back to the mid 1970's). I made the mistake of reading some of the autobiographies of the various actors on the show, and came away with a terrible taste in my mouth for the people involved. Intellectually, you know they are just actors, and regular human beings, but those autobiographies tainted my enjoyment of Star Trek from that point forward. I haven't watched it in years. I think it's better to just enjoy the art, and not delve too deeply into the artist.

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  9. I've seen my fair share of people I previously admired acting like jerks, but I try to seperate their work from their personal faults. For years I would not buy the work of a man I thought of as one of our best writers, as he had made fun of me during a convention where I was volunteering. When I had the chance to see him several years later he could not have been more pleasant, so I chalked off that one time as being an off day.

    I can only think of two artists currently working (both major names) who I tend not to purchase, as their attitudes towards women in one case and Muslims in another are distasteful in the extreme.

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  10. I had considered your question, then had to ask myself, "What is a political opinion?" Pete Seeger once said that whenever people gather to talk, they are participating in the body politic. There's also the old saw about all politics being local.

    It seems to me that what is a "political opinion" is something that has, at that time, captured the attention of the voting public. The economy, gay rights, women's rights, the Middle East, health care, gun control--all of these and many more things have been in the forefront of political opinion for one reason or another.

    So, to my mind, the question became, was someone's expression of an opinion in opposition to my own sufficient to make me stop buying his or her work?

    Mostly, I had to say the answer was "no". I believe in the rights of the individual, even to expressing their views--up to a point. If someone advocates violence, or cruelty, then I have no desire to support them. There have been a handful of people in the business whose work I will no longer support because of their expressed views, largely because I feel too much like I'm supporting their desire for cruelty of one sort or another. This also applies to a handful in other media--films, music, etc. for the same reasons.

    But it bothers me most for the ones involved-past or present-in the superhero genre who are like that. The very nature of this genre posits that the good guys should ultimately win, and their stated worldview is decidedly more villainous then heroic, in my view.

    Like some previous posters, I've met some people at conventions who I'd rather not speak with ever again. Thankfully, they are a miniscule minority in contrast to the ones who made the day better by their presence.

    To those who harbor hatred in their hearts, I have only the old Irish toast; "Here's wishing to you....whatever you're wishing to me." I'll try to think of them as wishing a little better.

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  11. I've often found that people in general have a hard time accepting that someone can have an opinion - and express it - contrary to their own. It's almost as if they take it as a personal insult or an attack upon themselves.

    To give you an example (and this will make a few hackles rise), if you were to ask me what I thought of gay adoption, I'd have to say that I'm not for it. I don't have an axe to grind over it, but if asked I'd have to give an honest answer. Now, let's not get into that debate here; the only reason I mention it is because there are those who would decry me as an objectionable human being for my point of view, and ban me from their blogs, and call me a homophobe - or a lot worse.

    I, on the other hand, am perfectly content to let others hold and express the opposite view to mine, without calling them names or refusing to buy something from a store they might own or work in. That's because I'm not threatened by someone holding a contrary view to my own.

    As I said, when one starts to make one's decisions about what to buy or who to like based merely on someone's opinion differing from our own, then the motivation, to me, seems somewhat suspect.

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  12. I have to say that, were you someone whose work I had bought in the past, I would no longer buy it after reading your comments here.

    Whether you recognize it or not, your comments were bigoted.

    There is no logical or moral reason to deny gay law-abiding Americans the same rights as other law-abiding Americans. Your bigotry is heading for the dustbin of history and it can't get there soon enough to suit me.

    I don't decry you as an objectionable human being. I object strongly to a point of view I find repugnant.

    For me, as for most of the readers who responded to my question, bigotry is where we draw the line.

    You believe gays should not be allowed to adopt...presumably just because they are gay,

    That's bigotry. Pure and simple.



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  13. Please note that I will not approve comments that name a specific creator or creators. In the blog, I asked nicely that you not do that.

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  14. I was Facebook friends with one creator whose work I liked and he was posting rabidly right-wing looney posts. He commented on the number of folks who unfriended him for his beliefs. I explained that I was not the type to do that and that while I disagreed with his posts--quietly and to myself--I would not unfriend him over that since I did appreciate his work. He then proceeded to personally take me to task for MY beliefs and actually started name-calling (I did not respond at all, btw)...so I got fed up and did exactly what I had just told him I wouldn't do. I unfriended him. Haven't bought or even looked at anything by him since but I'm not sure if that's because of the situation or because he's working on junk these days.

    On the other hand, I've been email friends off and on with another well-known to be hardcore rightwing creator for a few years and the subject just hasn't come up. We talk about comics and art...period.

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  15. Well, with respect, Mr Isabella, it's far too easy to call someone a bigot just because they don't see things your way. If I took the same attitude as you do, then I would not read your blog, not buy anything with your name on it, nor treat you with the respect with which I treat others, etc.

    Obviously, I don't want to get into the gay argument here, but I feel compelled to make a few observations. You call me a bigot based on a presumption, but again, it's far too simple a statement of the case. Are you saying that all those who disagree with gay adoption, either on religious, moral or ethical grounds, are bigots? Even if they're not actively involved in fighting against it, and it just happens to be a point of view they don't suscribe to?

    I happen to think that every child, where possible, has a right to be brought up by a mother AND a father. In a situation where same sex couples adopt, the child is deprived of that right. When it comes to what consenting adults get up to in private, I have no interest; nor do I believe that the state should intervene and introduce "oppressive" legislation.

    However, in the case of children, their rights are paramount, and no amount of social engineering should dictate otherwise. Children are the result of parents of the opposite sex, and it seems entirely reasonable to me that they should be brought up in that environment.

    I regard the idea that gay couples are allowed to adopt as objectionable. However, if the majority decide to allow it, I would just have to accept it. What I wouldn't do is call people names simply because they hold the opposite view to my own. The fact that you have a different opinion to mine is not something which would prevent me from buying your work; that it would in your case surely marks you out as a far more intolerant, "bigoted" (according to your own definition of the term) individual than you claim I am.

    When it comes down to it, most people's definition of a bigot seems to be "anyone who doesn't see things as I do".

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    1. "I happen to think that every child, where possible, has a right to be brought up by a mother AND a father. In a situation where same sex couples adopt, the child is deprived of that right."

      This goes back to the fundamental(ist) believe that a gay parent is per definition a bad parent. That a kid is better off in a children's home than with a gay couple. That a kid with abusive parents is better off, because it's a mom AND a dad.

      My partner's dad died 2 days before she was born. Presumably the state should have taken her away, because of the fundamental right for the child to have a mother AND a father?

      "What consenting adults get up to in private" makes it sound like gay love is something incredibly disgusting. But it's not of your business. Just like what happens in ANY couple's bedroom is none of your business.

      Remco

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  16. I have stopped buying works from creators I disagree with. We don't expect people to support candidates who's position we disagree with and the same should hold true for creators.

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  17. The difference being that candidates who get voted in have the power to change our lives in potentially negative ways, so if we don't agree with them we don't vote for them. In the case of a comics creator, they're only writing about a guy in longjohns saving the world, not raising our taxes, so in most instances what does it matter if they have different political beliefs?

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  18. Tony and I are poles apart politically. We don't discuss politics (not that we had any reason to anyway). I just take the position that actors Henry Fonda and James Stewart took.

    Fonda was a liberal and Stewart was a conservative. Yet they were lifelong close friends. Why? They NEVER discussed politics.

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  19. I know, replying to an "anonymous" is never a great idea, but still...

    Anonymous, calling a bigot a bigot is not bigotry. Refusing to deal with a bigot, on a personal or professional level, is not bigotry. As for you not calling people names, you have just said that every person in a same-sex relationship with children is an unfit parent. I think they'd find that insulting.

    Also, I'd be very surprised if any straight couple looking to adopt a child was told "Sorry, but that same-sex couple that just left got the last one".

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  20. This is a very interesting topic (Thanks for giving us the opportunity, Tony) and I'd like to ask a question pertaining to some of the commentary here.

    If you don't support an artists political stance on an issue or issues but still buy the books they create or help create, isn't that at least a passive acceptance of that person, wholly, including what they say?


    At first I would say of course not, that I am buying some thing that I enjoy and that I'm entertained by. I don't have a dog in this hunt. And it's not a complete, whole sale buy in. If you can give me what I like keep giving it to me. Isn't that what it all comes down to?

    However, if I'm giving an artist a part of notoriety, money, and respect even in a small way by buying a 4 buck (heh, three buck?) book am I not supporting their ability to get on a soap box and advocate views that I disagree with? And views I some times disagree with vehemently?

    To be fair I should share what decisions I have made in buying or not buying stuff from artists and writers whose positions I disagreed with.

    One artist/writer's stuff I never bought in the first place. I would have loved to buy their comics but their books were more expensive and harder to find. After hearing their opinion on an issue (I'm being vague in keeping with the request not to divert from the topic) I was shocked and surprised! I really couldn't believe what was coming from this guy! This was an artist I saw making powerful and important statements in evey way in his comic book but was coming off the rails, frankly, as far as this certain issue was concerned. If I had known how they felt about that issue and could afford and find their books would I buy them?

    No

    Another artist I had given up on because I became disinterested in the way they wrote. It was then that I heard some things from them that I found disappointing, to be honest and I actively avoided their books because of their behavior.

    I'm not trying to beat my chest or rend my shirt or, well, chose any number of worn out metaphors if you'd like. I am certainly not saying I am any hero and certainly I am not climbing the scaffold to be a martyr. To be completely frank, There is an Author that would have to do something hugely offensive to get me to stop slowly building up shelf after shelf of his books. And he's started to vibrate at an odd frequency, lately. We are all only human after all (even this guy, dammit).

    It's just that some of the stuff some people say, people I had once respected and admired, can really get to me.

    I apologize if I'm being sanctimonious. I am really not sure if I am.

    In most cases (getting fewer and fewer as time goes by) these Artists and Writers are supposed to be writing about heroes.

    Aren't they?

    I could go on(and on?) but this comment I'm making is already too damn long. =)

    Thanks!

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  21. Just a quick addendum for Mark Verheiden and Ron Clark- I would like to add that the majority, and I can add without hyperbole that is the vast majority, of creative heroes I have met at conventions have been truly marvelous, gracious, and pleasant people. I could bore you at length with stories of when I have met my professional heroes and had the most wonderful experiences. Perhaps one of the reasons the bad apples do tend to stand out so severely is that they tend to be in the minority.

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    1. Hi Brian...you are, of course, correct, and I have no doubt that most of the creators of the things we love are good and decent people; after all, they are drawn from the same well of humanity as the rest of us, and most of us fit into that category too. I'm definitely not an absolutist about it, and wish I hadn't come off that way in my original posting; if I saw the creator of something I loved standing in line at a store, there's no doubt I'd have to say something to him. As I've gotten older, I just tend less and less to want to know anything about a creator's personal life, political leanings, scandals, etc. Those things don't matter to me, until a creator who has a (to me) repellent viewpoint and allows that viewpoint to creep into his work. I would stop following that creator at that point, because I could no longer separate the man from his art.

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  22. Bob, the definition of a bigot is "One who is strongly partial to one's own group, religion, race, or politics and is intolerant of those who differ."

    "...is intolerant of those who differ." I no doubt have a different opinion on some matters than you do and vice versa. However, I tolerate a difference of opinion even when I might find it objectionable. However, just because I tolerate something doesn't mean I necessarily accept it as having equal validity to my own view. But if I'm going to stop buying things from people because they disagree with me then where do I stop?

    Am I going to stop buying meat from a supermarket who employs someone I disagree with on some issue, because in paying that person's wages, the supermarket is (inadvertently) supporting him and enabling him to continue voicing a view I might find outrageous?

    As I said before, most people's definition of a bigot is someone who holds a different opinion to them, so it's an entirely subjective term.

    As for your assertion that I think gays are unfit parents, again, like Tony, you're being somewhat presumptious as to what motivates me. It's not so much the persons involved that I take issue with, it's the situation. I don't believe that it's in a child's best interests to be brought up in a same-sex environment, and it's the children who should be the priority, not those who wish to adopt. In my view, a child has the right to a mother and a father wherever possible and that's the environment we should be striving for. Gay adoption denies the child of that right.

    Many decent, law-abiding, selfless, self-sacrificing, good people hold the same view as myself. It seems like an entirely rational, reasonable position to take, and does not spring from hate, fear, panic, or any kind of emotional imbalance. If the state decides to adopt a different view of things in the way our society is run, those people will abide by the law, even if they don't agree with it. However, just because they tolerate something doesn't mean they accept it as being right or approve of it.

    To call such people bigots just because they have a different take on the issue to yours, is really nothing more than an infantile exercise in name-calling because you're "intolerant of those who differ."

    So, tell me again...who's the bigot?

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  23. You are...and this is your last post in this thread. I've been very patient with your expressing your bigoted opinions without having the courage to sign your name to them. However, your bullshit rationalizations have exhausted that patience.

    Yes, there are people...foolish, uninformed, bigoted people...who agree with your positions. Thank God there are fewer of them every year.

    Use the door marked "dustbin of history" because that's where you are heading.

    From here on in, my tolerance of anonymous posters will be slight. It's not at all difficult to add your name/signature to your posts. Like this...

    Tony Isabella

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  24. Yes, as usual, when you hear something you don't like, you resort to insults and hatred, throwing a hissy fit because someone refuses to see things your way. No tolerance for those who differ, you see, because you cannot consider the possibility that, in using your own purely subjective opinions as the final authority, there might actually be something in the other guy's point of view. That makes you the bigot, sir.

    As for anonymity, is it any wonder when there are such hateful people as yourself around, who insist on insulting others who hold a different opinion to themselves. It bothers me not that you won't print this. I've proved my initial point, which is that most people who call others bigots are the intolerant ones.

    I'll tell you another thing that is heading for the dustbin of history (apart from your career, which landed there sometime ago), and that's courtesy, consideration, kindness, politeness, and good old-fashioned decency.

    Bill Anderson.

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  25. I'll paraphrase Harlan Ellison here....everyone is not entitled to their own opinion; everyone is entitled to their informed opinion. If there is a study conducted by a legitimate, recognized, peer reviewed scientific body that suggests that gay parents are somehow less fit than a traditional married couple, then name the study. Otherwise, it's just an opinion based on personal bias, and it doesn't matter whether the bias is religious, cultural, or anecdotal. Formulating an opinion not based on fact is the definition of prejudice. Everyone is prejudiced in some way or another, but if you're going to be prejudiced, then you have to be willing to own up to that label when someone hangs it on you.

    Nice slam on Tony's career, though. That was really classy.

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  26. Ron...don't be concerned on my account. I guarantee you that I have accomplished more in my life and am far more content and happy than "Bill Anderson."

    He can't lay a glove on me.

    By the way, whether he realizes it or not, "Bill" has left the building.

    Which, if he's who I'm pretty sure he is, won't stop him from sending me increasingly nasty messages that will never see the light of this blog.





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  27. LOL, no sweat, Tony. After years in the comic industry, I have no doubt that you don't need my help in dealing with snark. It just struck me as a classless thing to say, and needed to be pointed out to someone who just got done posting about the demise of "courtesy, consideration, kindness, politeness, and good old-fashioned decency". I think I can safely use the word "irony" here and not hear the voice of Inigo Montoya saying "that word you keep using, I do not think it means what you think it means"....

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  28. The subject of 'support' for a creator/vendor that you find distasteful is a question I asked myself a couple of years back in my own blog. I had had some email exchanges with a popular author who's work I enjoyed. I found out, through these exchanges, that the author and I had very radically different political views. I stopped the exchanges immediately and then asked myself, do I separate the person, who I now realized was ... let's use distasteful again ... from the work, which I found frequently, but not always, insightful and entertaining? I opted to continue to read the weekly offerings from the author in the form of a newspaper column being uploaded, somewhat haphazardly, to the web.

    Cut to early 2012. Another author, a real BIG name, revealed himself to be of the same ilk as the author I described earlier. He actually typed a sentence in his blog that made me think a illness of the recent past had addled his mind to the point where he would type nonsense of an offending sort. Unlike the earlier case, I immediately stopped reading him, on the blog or in print. I read his work for both information and for enjoyment. I could neither any longer. So why continue?

    At that point, I decided that enjoyment trumps political views, but the views have to well-reasoned, if different from mine. Reasonable men can agree to disagree, as has been seen in many comments in this thread. But, hard-line promotion of an offending agenda, simply makes it easy to spend my valuable media-consuming time with a far more palatable alternative. Thus, I have deleted bookmarks to long-time sites because, somewhere along the line, I have read claptrap, revealing the beliefs of the author.

    Take the stress off. If you don't like the author for whatever reason, real or imagined, STOP exposing yourself to the stress. Interact with a commenter, until the commenter shows his or her troll nature. Then STOP. Trying to reason with an unfathomable opposite agenda is time wasted that could have been spent informing or entertaining one's self insted. Time is limited on this planet. I still have a mountain of good stuff to get to.

    That's the path to take.

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    1. Interesting that this column is published before the announcement by DC that the writer of the first two issues of their new Superman comic is on the board for the National Organization for Marriage and has said that “Laws against homosexual behavior should remain on the books, not to be indiscriminately enforced against anyone who happens to be caught violating them, but to be used when necessary to send a clear message that those who flagrantly violate society’s regulation of sexual behavior cannot be permitted to remain as acceptable, equal citizens within that society.”
      So, yeah. I'm not going to buy anything by him. Ever.

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  29. Well, my position is simply that I don;t care if the person has a political POV that is opposed to mine, unless I were convinced that a dime of my money was funding terrorism or something. How some of the same folks who would condemn the atmosphere of the McCarthy era can see no problem in doing pretty much the same is beyond me.

    I differ with Peter David on many issues but one reason I respect the man is that he shares the view that the "This guy voted for (Fill in the name of a candidate that almost half the country voted for)! Why, his work will never darken my nightstand again!" attitude is just an attempt at ideological bullying. Ineffectual bullying, true (unless one manages to raise enough of a stink to actually get said person fired, in which case one would rightly be very very ashamed of oneself, if one were decent enough to feel such things, in which case one would not have done it in the first place, so there you are) but bullying none the less.

    Which is one reason I consider his opinions with care--a man who does not resort to threats, boycotts and name calling is one who has confidence in his beliefs, which makes them worth contemplation. Other people, eh, not so much.

    One last point--if someone is compelled to deny themselves any enjoyment from the art created by people of differing political views wouldn't that require them to ditch a fairly large body of work from people who were far far worse--child molesters, wife beaters, bigots, drug pushers, associates of organized crime murderers...some of the names would probably surprise you. Or maybe they somehow justify it, the way some Hollywood types would sneer at a person who voted for the GOP but would love to work for Roman Polanski.

    Bill Mulligan

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