Saturday 28 November 2015

Colleen Doran: "Don't Be A Bully"


COLLEEN DORAN:
(via Twitter, 28 November 2015)
I see the way young artists get harangued on the internet today, and it really breaks my heart. I'm used to it by now, but if I were a young creator just getting into comics, if I had to deal with that level of abuse right out the gate, I might just run away from the biz entirely. Back in the day: no internet. We were insulated from a lot of hostility if we simply didn't go to conventions. Now: it comes to you courtesy your email, social media, and websites. We were the nerds who got our heads slammed into lockers, and way too many of us grew up to slam other people's heads into lockers. Dial it down a notch, people. You may not like someone else's picture or story, but there is no call for the kind of rage I see dished out to creative people. Support the things you love, and try talking about the things you don't love with an eye toward helpful, thoughtful consideration. Or maybe just don't buy it or don't mention it. Don't be a bully.

Colleen Doran's A Distant Soil is the sci-fi/adventure series which broke several barriers during it's original run in the 1980s: Colleen was one of the first women in the indie comics scene to write and draw creator-owned comics; A Distant Soil featured openly gay characters in leading roles. After a recent hiatus, Colleen has returned to complete A Distant Soil with publisher Image Comics and the series is scheduled to conclude at #50. The restored collections Vol 1: The Gathering and Vol 2: The Ascendant are available directly from Colleen Doran.

12 comments:

CerebusTV said...

If you want the adulation of the public, you have to be willing to expose yourself to its possible calumny. TANSTAAFL.

Anonymous said...

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/isis-uncovered/yazidi-women-tell-rape-enslavement-hands-isis-n462091

Anonymous said...

Black and white thinking. Who said the artist wanted the "adulation of the public"? No one. Simply making art does not equal a desire for "adulation".

The opposition of liking someone's work is not calumny. Calumny means "the making of false and defamatory statements in order to damage someone's reputation; slander." No one deserves that.

Equating public abuse as the price for lunch is a logical fallacy of false equivalency if there ever was one. Public abuse is a price no one should have to pay for anything when all they did was write a book or make a picture. Criticism is not the equivalent of abuse.

I'm also not sure what a story about ISIS has to do with bullying artists on social media. I'm sure Dave Sim doesn't enjoy getting bullied on social media.

Jeff Seiler said...

I think that if Anonymous wants to continue his or her agenda about the Yazidi crisis (which it is) in this forum, he needs to identify him or herself. Or, failing that, take that agenda elsewhere.

Moderator? Care to moderate?

CerebusTV said...

Granted, the individual artist can be right and the public wrong. But how do you compel the public to applaud, unless it is by making execution the price for being the first one to stop clapping?

Reality dictates that making offerings to the public comes with the possibility they may be rejected.

There has to be sufficient egotism on the part of the artist if willing to offend the audience, to also be willing to endure insult.

Anything that is challenging will be met with resistance. To expect otherwise is to presume a deference that is megalomaniacal.

Jim Sheridan said...

CerebusTV, i think Ms. Doran's point is more that the internet and anonymous p poo sting allow for some new lows in human communication. Check out the "comments" section on any news article on Yahoo, for example. Plenty of people clearly jump online to insult, spew insults, gain attention, rather than engage in ideas with intelligence or grace. It's the same mentality that leads people to carve obscenities on bathroom walls. Doran is simply asking for some decency and maturity.

You know - reason, not emotion.

Jim Sheridan

CerebusTV said...

Any time now, maturity and decency will break out...

Jim Sheridan said...

...as Dave Sim has asked for in his critical appraisal, right?

The subpar level of most online discussion is why Dave stays offline, right?

Jim Sheridan

CerebusTV said...

As Sandeep put it, "Haters gonna hate" ...

Jim Sheridan said...

I can only imagine a world in which Dave Sim would accept Sandeep's wisdom so that he would not repeatedly write lengthy essays describing himself as the Pariah King. Imagine the insights he could discuss instead!

In fact, if he had accepted this wisdom long ago, I bet his hand would probably not be injured....

CerebusTV said...

I don't know how the 'right hand of doom' is credibly connected to Dave's views; rather the province of the 'fickle finger of fate' had a hand in it, placing it in the sling of outrageous fortune.

Given the volume of artwork and the level of detail, it does seem a repetitive motion injury, especially given Dave's sometimes 20 hour work marathons.

Jim Sheridan said...

The repetitive motion I'm referencing occurred in countless "Pity me, I'm a Pariah King" offerings from Dave. If only he had access to the advice given in this thread, he would have shrugged off criticism and not spent so much time typing about it. He would have accepted the fact that haters will hate, and saved his muscles for art rather than soliloquies.