Anonymous Cerebus fan "Mr. J." to bequeath $500,000 to Dave Sim in order to preserve and protect the Cerebus Archive after Dave Sim's death. Thanks Mr. J.!
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12 comments:
Thank you Mr. J!!! This is great news for Dave, great news for Cerebus and great news for Cerebus fans!
I also like this comment on the video:
(Hotmustardgas20 4 hours ago):
"Will you make a video talking about the silly allegations that you don't like women? I hate this PC culture that we are in now"
After the good news at the beginning this video sure got upsetting towards the end.
I suspect the Viacom thing could've been Eastman's doing. He works on the Turtles currently over at IDW, after all. I'd be surprised if it was Laird, since he went out of his way to erase Cerebus from Turtles history with that issue of Tales of TMNT about a decade ago (which, of course, never caught on, thankfully).
Yeah, it would be cool if he did a video about the misogyny allegations! He should tell his side of the story, in his own words.
The problem is(speaking as a Gen Y/Millennial/I wish we could agree on a term) in the modern realm of social media and the internet, most people don't even know about Dave Sim. And those that are old enough to remember, kind of wrote him off.
In my opinion, from what I've been able to piece together, it seems like the doing of Gary Groth and the people at The Comics Journal that kind of started the whole thing. And once that label was tossed, it kind of stuck in peoples minds as "Oh, well I guess that's the truth. I read it in TCJ". And TCJ is hooked up into the modern social media experience (tumblr, facebook, twitter) so their views are much more prevalent.
But to get Dave's side of things, one has to murk around old message boards, livejournals, back issues and letters pages. To quote the popular internet meme: "Ain't nobody got time for that!". The modern comics fan can't be expected to be an internet archeologist.
Making a Youtube video clearly and succinctly addressing the charge, and responding to these allegations in an Atticus Finch-like defence I think would really have a good impact on Dave's reputation. Not just for the old-school fans(they've already made up their mind and are stuck in their ways) but for the future fans of Cerebus.
I know what it's like to be judged based on hearsay and conjecture. Anyway, I'm glad to hear about the money; you'll get a lot of mileage from that.
So when did you stop beating your wife?
Speaking as an old-school guy who didn't write Dave off, I can "school" you Millenials. The misogynist label (completely false) stemmed directly from and started almost immediately after the publication of Cerebus issue #186.
Some issues earlier in the Reads run didn't exactly do Dave any favors, but it was the culmination in 186 that pissed off the majority of Dave' female audience, the majority of whom were feminists (or, at the time, Feminists).
Many of Dave's peers in the comic-book industry (who probably resented his success, but that's just me guessing), picked up on the response and joined in, vocally.
After all, the industry, at that time was (and may still be) rife with liberal feminists (Liberal Feminists).
Once you start a snowball like the M-word rolling downhill, it can become an avalanche before you know it.
For the record, Dave Sim is not a misogynist.
He is, however, staunchly anti-feminism.
There IS a difference.
FYI ~ Noted comics-writer Ed Brubaker mentioned this back in 2012 on that tortuous 'Sim/Fantagraphics Negotiations' thread at TCJ.com:
"I’ve been in comics about 20 years, and I didn’t even know Dave Sim had a petition he was demanding people sign. So I don’t see how the number of signatures he’s gathered is an indication of anything."
http://www.tcj.com/dave-sim-responds-to-the-fantagraphics-offer/#comment-77662
As someone who has both not signed the petition and doesn't think Dave is a misogynist it might be worth giving my reasons.
Maybe something for Dave to think about...
First and foremost - I STRONGLY believe that the petition comes across as petty.
I even more strongly believe the whole thing is a straw man. That's my opinion and no one has to agree with it. However - the whole Dave Sim/Fantagraphics thread from 2012 showed that they would LOVE to publish Cerebus and gain it a wider audience. IDW are falling over themselves to publish Dave as well.
I also think that the petition actually lends credence both to those who believe and 'believe' Dave Sim to be a misogynist and/or generally a crank. (The distinction to me being those who come from a point of having read all the material and considered what was said, and those who have heard about Dave's comments as summaries from other people and are choosing to believe them rather than form their own opinion.)
Part 2 - apparently I rambled on for too many words -
It's like Dave is hampering his own legacy and place in the world - (Apologies to Dave if that seems rude or crosses a line, but I do find myself looking and seeing someone who metaphorically is tying one hand behind his back and throwing away opportunities - maybe that's truly the message of the injury to your hand?)
I once read (can't remember where or who said it, sorry) that when we criticise others we are attacking what we hate most about ourselves. These people 'criticising' Dave- I feel - are trying to flex the muscles of their own weak self confidence and 'feel' like they are doing something.
But, I also feel like Dave is criticising the world for not agreeing with him and is withdrawing himself for that reason - but I know little of Dave the person to make that any more than a FEELING - in other words I don't think that or know that as a fact, but I get an emotional sense of someone disappointed turning away from the crowd that doesn't recognise his genius.
I withhold judgement of Dave Sim the person as a misoginist. Having never seen how he treats women, nor heard any stories of his having treated women badly or attacking them I strongly favour the opinion Dave is not a misogynist. I'd like him to know that.
On the other hand - I do disagree with how Dave has classified voids and feminised men - I think he's seeing an issue through sexist blinkers - although there are genuine truths there, they are not only applicable to women. I know I read one woman's response to Dave's opinion's where she stated that she took the words and THOUGHT about them and whether they applied to her as a person and made sure that she was avoiding making arguments for the sake of it. I know, personally, that there have been moments where Dave's description have made me see my behaviour for exactly what it was once I'd calmed down. I'm a man and I'm not feminised into a baby - my reaction is that 'classic' male reaction to difficult situations, 'tough it out or get angry'. In other words stupid and unthinking.
So, I feel like signing the petition would make Dave believe that I agree with his opinions - I don't. I think there are GENUINE insight there, but they are filtered through sexist opinions.
For example, I'm, going to say that ALL creative people will find those that want to suck the life and creativity out of them for the sake of feeling like they are creative themselves (maybe we also steel from others what we wish we had ourselves?) - that's not women that do that, that's men as well.
This has been very rambling, sorry - to be more succinct -
I won't sign the petition even though I believe Dave is not a misogynist because I believe the thing to be a straw man argument in the first place. I believe that maintaining it, reinforces the very thing it supposedly exists to deny. I believe it would make Dave consider me as someone who holds to his opinions when I don't.
Finally and most importantly to me - and probably me only - I personally don't have to agree with someone to admire them or their work. I hold strongly to the idea of agreeing to disagree being one of THE MOST important pillars of any society.
Sorry to have rambled on so. And congratulations to Dave on the donation from anonymous Mr J.
Iestyn Pettigrew
Got behind on these videos.
Mr. J? Does he have a lady friend named Harley Quinn? (hee hee) Thank you sir, but as I like to say whenever I listen to public radio and the one local lady says she's made a gift to the station in her will, "don't tell them that, now they'll kill you!" (kidding!)
As to the TMNT/Viacom thing, I did find it interesting in the last few years that when IDW was reprinting the entire original Turtles series in a newly colored series, I'm pretty sure that they skipped 8. It's possible I just missed it at my local store, but I think it went from #7 to #9, iirc. So it's quite likely that the agreement with Laird played no role at all. It may just be that Viacom responded to these Czech publishers who inquired about 8 (as they seem to be knowledgeable about comics), in attempt to cover themselves, and some Viacom lawyer drone just said, oh, you better get permission from that guy, because he might sue. Even if their lawyers could crush you like a bug, they still might find the prospect of a lawsuit an annoyance, particularly if it brought them bad PR as a result. You could probably inquire of Ted Adams or Chris Ryall and see if they did reprint the issue, and if not, why not.
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