I have to say - as someone who has spent a lot of time seeing what medicine can and can't do - Dave is right to be cautious with his hand. I have seen both sides of the 'miraculous' and the cautionary in medicine.
My son was born with a heart defect which required, in the end, an operation to be carried out when he was 4 month old. His heart was the size of a walnut. The surgeon had to stitch together arteries that were 1.4 mm to ensure that blood flowed to his lungs.
The surgeon did such a good job that my son has gone 12 years without needing any follow-up surgery. Best hopes at the time were 4 years. It was incredible, the surgeon did maybe 2 of these surgeries a year and the procedure had only existed for 10 years. That's at most 20 other children.
My son also has a problem with his palette. There is surgery that can resolve that problem. It will make his speech much clearer and therefore easier to understand. However, it will more than likely mean he will snore loudly forever more, even worse it could mean that he will develop sleep apnoea and start losing oxygen, requiring him to have oxygen overnight. These are the extremes that face you when considering surgery.
As Dave has pointed out himself. The bowel operation was a no-brainer, because choosing to do nothing would have meant he was dead, like my son's heart surgery. Whether his hand is operated on is another matter. It's a matter of choice at the moment, with the possibility that it could resolve itself and with the FACT that Dave can still do something with it.
As to Dave's mistrust of medical practitioners and their diagnosis, let me give you another example - my wife fell and tore the ligament off the back of her knee and ripped the side ligament of her leg. It was misdiagnosed as a slipped patella and she was given a brace to wear for 6 weeks. This weakened all the muscles around her knee which de-stabilized the ligaments. It's 2 years later and she is still trying to recover from that error.
This is not uncommon. She teaches dance for a living and this has had a direct impact on our income levels.
I would say to Dave that considering treatment in Canada is worth it if you look at it's rating as in the top 5 countries for medical treatment. Also, Dave can always ask for a second or third opinion if not satisfied with the initial diagnosis. That's not to persuade him that what he is doing is WRONG, that's in case he was unaware of those things. Forewarned is forearmed.
For clarity - I don't believe the current Tory government is heading to Nazi-ism. I was referring to the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP as they like to call themselves to hide their political agenda) and their anti-immigration, anti-Europe stance that relies heavily on xenophobic and anti-Islamic propaganda. And how this has been allowed to influence Tory (and Labour at the time) agendas. Even then I pointed out that they were racists and not Neo-Nazi's. Two very different things.
However, other countries are facing a HUGE resurgence in far-right groups (France and Italy for example).
As to the declining rate of birth. That's an interesting one in terms of points raised, one complicated by the improvements in medicine and in general health seen by improved access to food within Western culture. I think it is also this that has seen a decline in birth rates - more children survive to adulthood, meaning families can be smaller because they do not have to worry that 6 of their 10 children will die.
The reducing of a population is only a PROBLEM if you require that population to work to support an increasing number of non-contributing leisured individuals in a lifestyle that matches current aspirations. Or to put it another way, it is a very COMMERCIAL concern.
We need people to spend to support our economy, if their money is spent on looking after their relatives, then it is not necessarily fostering the growth of a consumer economy, rather it is spent fostering a care home/ pastoral care economy. This does not require manufactured goods, which are the heart blood of the current economy, particularly the shareholder financing that supports most western countries.
One also has another quandary in countries, like the UK, where a pension is provided to those older individuals. It is the quandary of how you pay out money to these people when you have not saved that money in readiness. A central question. And yes, it is interesting to have to struggle with what you do when you have a falling birth rate.
Having created a society where families require 2 incomes to support their lifestyle is the other side of Dave's question. If you get those women out of the workforce, who replaces them and the income they generate within the larger economy. Which, in the end, will be the greater concern with 'The System', rather than questions of feminism or equality. However, I bet they will wear that dress to hide their own selfishness.
On a more positive note - It was really interesting to see the post about Jaka's inspiration and even more interesting to consider that she became an exotic dancer.
I'm intrigued to know whether this inspired Cerebus as feedback, as it lends greater weight to the reading of Cerebus as a work of semi (or outright auto) biography.
I also second the option of Dave talking about comics’ history. Simply from the selfish standpoint that he has a vast hoard of understanding locked away that I cannot access unless he writes it and I would SURELY love to read it.
iestyn, people want to hear from me until they hear from me and then they don't want to hear from me...and they usually want me destroyed, just in a general sense. That is, if I tell comics history the way you want it told, you would SURELY love to read it. If I tell it the way it happened, all that will happen is everyone will just go ballistic all over again.
Which is fine with me, I've lived that life for at least twenty-one years and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't know what to do in any other kind of life since it seems likely that the parabolic curve of the Feminist Theocracy will still be arcing upwards long after I'm dead. So it really only makes sense for me to get things ready for when I'm dead. I don't anticipate anything changing even incrementally in our society between now and then.
Just more of the same.
I've hit the "Jeff Smith strips" in RIP KIRBY Volume Two, 1949, which -- under the rules that I've imposed on myself -- means that I have a massive amount of research/commentary to do to get past that point. The most recent example of that was a reference to "The Prodigal Son" -- one of the Synoptic Jesus' parables -- in the RIP KIRBY sequence "Like Flies to Honey". Pages and pages and pages.Virtually nothing of which will make it INTO SDOAR, but, as I say, something that I've chosen to impose on myself at the research/script-writing stage.
So, I've gone back and re-read BONE, making notes and photocopying panels and breaking them down into general categories about which I'll have specific observations to make. I'm also writing the entire BONE Saga as I recall it, starting with Jeff Smith giving me the first four issues of BONE at the Cap City Trade Show in 1992 and have started getting Eddie to post those at the Patreon site, in the hopes that a site dedicated to sponsoring THE STRANGE DEATH OF ALEX RAYMOND will be open to what I have to say. As with this week, I'll be very much attuned to what it does to the financial support and will probably pull the plug over there if the people sponsoring start withdrawing their support. Which I imagine they will do.
A last-ditch "Hail Mary" pass in the hopes of getting Kickstarter going again: the Canadian dollar, at least at the moment, is dropping against the US$, so anyone pledging to Kickstarter can count on having each US$ pledged valued at roughly $1.25 Canadian. Possibly more or possibly less. The exchange rate today was $1.33 but Amazon, I guess, will be "betting against the spread" with their own exchange rate.
Anyway, US$ and Euros are going further right now.
Hope some people find prints that they're interested in getting before Saturday!
I'm late posting today because of another "Hail Mary" pass which looks as if it's actually connecting! Wes at COMIC WAREHOUSE here in Kitchener has agreed to take all of the warehouse inventory and we're brainstorming a number of ways to get the books to as many interested people as possible.
One of the ideas is a FREE CEREBUS TOUR where Wes would bring the books to the various show that he and his guys go to (not including me, of course: I'm a misogynist, remember?) and making them as close to free as possible. We've got everyone's mental slide-rules going on what the actual cost is of transporting the comics, bagging and boarding them and putting them in long-boxes. AND the best way to offer as many of them for free as possible while allowing Wes to get his investment back out of his generous acceptance.
THE COMIC WAREHOUSE is real "old school": WAY out Old King Street -- JUST comic books, usually priced well below Overstreet and all of them bagged and boarded (which surprised me and Sandeep and Fisher: from the name you expect to see dog-eared copies spilling out of pickle barrels: $1 a pound -- not at all. Just tens upon tends of thousands of bagged and boarded comics at rock-bottom prices).
I genuinely like hearing what you have to say, but I've always been a bit different from other people, so maybe that's just me.
I would love to see what you have to say about things like Bone, about other modern comics and especially about comic history. You're certainly one of the most well versed and well placed individuals around to talk about this subject.
I expect you've neither heard of nor read anything about Frank Santoro, but he's a guy who takes comics seriously. Along with a couple of others (Dan Nadel, who now runs the Comics Journal website) he did a lot to get people to revisit comics work like Master of Kung Fu.
He's very strong on comics history and also on the theory of the geometry of a page (see here http://franksantoro.tumblr.com/post/132990748320 if you get the chance, or maybe someone could print it off for you).
He also did a great post about visiting a new comics show set up in Columbus and the history of that place relating to comics. The article is here http://www.tcj.com/cxc-2015-reports/ You may want to visit the Billy Ireland library because they sound like they have a lot of interesting resources.
This almost feels like I'm appearing in a letters page. Now I feel really nostalgic.
I've inferred from a couple of your posts that the Kickstarter isn't going as well as hoped or has stalled. I will start sharing on my Facebook page now that I'm starting to have a little free time after a hectic couple of months.
$15,000 for a $611 goal is nothing to sneeze at. Some people may see that you're well over your goal and think "Well, he doesn't need any help." This has happened to me.
How much do you need to make for it to be a success, to cover all the expected costs? If it's, say. $25,000, shouldn't your goal be $25,000? I think it would be easier to rally people if you're short of your goal: "At 10 days to go, we're only at $19,000! We need another push here, people!"
I noticed you don't have any stretch goals; it's helpful to have those if you're already past your main goal. "STRETCH GOAL #1: If we can reach $17,000, we can afford a new scanner!"; "STRETCH GOAL #2: If we can reach $20,000, we can afford to pay Sandeep!" (or whatever), and so on.
Sorry if this is coming too late to be of use. Like I said, I've been busy.
"I wouldn't say that my opinions of feminism haven't changed over the years, but I do think that I've refined my opinions and arrived at a few conclusions that merit society's SERIOUS consideration, foremost among them: that you can't STRUCTURALLY have 86% of women out in the workforce because of what that does to your replacement birth rate. I'm pretty sure that's not a "Well, whatever..." or "Well, BESIDES that..." kind of observation."
But the observation isn't true. I mean, of course those factors correlate in some countries, but the correlation doesn't hold steady when you look at other countries.
Italy's female labor participation rate is 66% (for women age 25-54, which is the age group I'll refer to throughout this post), which is quite low. But Italy also has one of the lowest fertility rates in the world, 1.4 births per woman. That's way below replacement rate (which is 2.1).
Greece's female LPR is 75%, and their fertility rate is the same as Italy's, 1.4 births per women. (Both Greece and Italy have the sort of cultural expectation that women will prioritize family over work that I get the impression you favor, Dave.)
Sweden's female LPR is 88%, and their fertility rate is 1.9, one of the highest in the developed world. So, contrary to what you think, it's quite possible.
Similarly, in France, the female LPR is 83.5%, and the fertility rate is 2.08.
In Iran, the female LPR is 17%, one of the lowest in the world. But the fertility rate is actually lower than Sweden or the US: 1.85. Hard to blame Iran's fertility rate on feminism.
(In Canada, in case you're wondering, the female LPR is 82%, and the fertility rate is 1.6.)
Basically, the correlation you're talking about - high female labor force participation equals low birthrate - isn't very strong. In some countries it's true, but not in all countries. There's nothing about female employment which prevents a fertility rate close to the replacement rate.
Of course, there are countries with much, much higher fertility rates - 5.5, 6.5, in that range. But they're almost all countries with horrible poverty problems and corrupt or dysfunctional governments. (I wouldn't live in Somalia if I had a choice. Or Afghanistan. Or East Timor. Or Ethiopia. But they all have sky-high fertility rates.)
I think if Canada wants to improve its fertility, most Canadians would rather change to be be more like France or Sweden, than more like Afghanistan or Somalia.
"That is, if I tell comics history the way you want it told, you would SURELY love to read it. If I tell it the way it happened, all that will happen is everyone will just go ballistic all over again."
Someone can correct my recall, but it seems to me Eric Reynolds, associate publisher at Fantagraphics, made a public expression of interest in publishing SDOAR not long after Glamourpuss ended. At about the same time, Ted Adams approached Dave about IDW publishing the book. That's two fairly prominent publishers who are/were directly interested in Dave's comics art metaphysics approach to comics history as already established in 26 published issues of Glamourpuss prior to those expressions of interest.
Personally, I regard the Neal Adams issue of Following Cerebus as a valuable resource in comics history as discussed by artists who know what they're talking about. I'm sure that volume isn't widely available but its value can't be dismissed by any who see it and read it. It's at least as important as a typical Comics Journal interview in documenting how the sausage was made.
That said, I think Dave's true artistic purpose these days is to complete SDOAR artistically and truthfully, not putting his left hand to the test of typing up a Cerebexegesis of Bone, as interesting as I would find that, too. Frankly I wish he could place the day-to-day management of the restoration of Cerebus into someone else's capable hands so that SDOAR can be his day job. Here's hoping more frequent updates to the Patreon from Dave himself can drive up the support over there where it belongs.
Barry Deutsch - I think you're still evading the point: There is a percentage of women that you can have out in the workforce -- that is functional and above a "0" replacement birth rate -- but I'm pretty sure it's well short of 86%. And we're -- ALL the G7 countries -- HURTLING in the other direction towards 100% and labelling anyone who suggests that's structurally unworkable -- which I think it is -- as a misogynist.
The White Plague, is, I think, self-evidently the result. Feminism is an invention of white women and constitutes societal suicide. People born into the Feminist Theocracy context -- white people, 1970 to the present -- are dying at a much higher rate than the general population. Higher incidents of alcoholism -- self-medicating -- and extremely unhealthy eating seem to me to be white men and women "consoling" themselves that the Overall: Over-Arching UBER Reality that white women chose for white people 50 years ago is, self-evidently, suicidal in a societal sense.
Also, Sandeep points out that you just sort of disappeared after saying you were going to respond to the "moving goalposts" definition of misogyny in the Oxford Dictionary on your blog: if you add on "distrusting women" to "hating women", you're doing the same thing the Feminist Theocracy does with "sexual assault". "One in three women will be sexually assaulted by age 20". And you find out that that definition NOW includes "being a victim of sexist comments".
And I repeat the central point I see there: How can you NOT distrust a sensibility -- the Feminist Theocracy -- that changes definitions in mid-discussion to skew an argument in their own favour? It's only common sense to distrust ANY group that does that. That's the whole point of Orwell's ANIMAL FARM and 1984, right?
Michael G - Well, I'm glad that YOU think the Neal Adams issue is valuable. So do I. However my Larger Point is that it is a central facet of the Feminist Theocracy that ALL that matters is whether you ARE or ARE NOT a feminist. If you're not a feminist, then, by Feminist Theocracy fiat, everything you have done or said is discredited. You're either IN the Feminist Theocracy narrative: feminism is an inherent good no longer subject to discussion. "The science is settled." or you're OUTSIDE the Feminist Theocracy narrative: Dave who? CEREBUS what?
That's why I'm determined, God willing and with the assistance of CEREBUS fans to preserve CEREBUS and keep it -- insofar as it is possible -- as an island of free-thinking integrity in the face of the unrelenting Feminist Theocracy tidal wave which I don't think has even BEGUN to crest in 2015. I certainly don't want my work associated with Stalinist college campuses -- "Stalinist" in the totalitarian rather than "left political wing" sense: "We eradicate and ban things with which we don't agree" -- let alone housed on one of them.
Hi Barry. I didn't receive any response to my letter to you. Since I did you the courtesy of responding to your posts here, I think it would only be appropriate for you to extend the same courtesy to me. In case you lost the link, here it is:
"And we're -- ALL the G7 countries -- HURTLING in the other direction towards 100% and labelling anyone who suggests that's structurally unworkable -- which I think it is -- as a misogynist."
100% of women in the workforce will never happen, even in the most feminist-friendly society imaginable, for no other reason than the fact that not all women can or want to hold jobs.
"People born into the Feminist Theocracy context -- white people, 1970 to the present -- are dying at a much higher rate than the general population."
At the risk of sounding callous, that's pretty interesting - can I ask where you're getting that information from?
"How can you NOT distrust a sensibility -- the Feminist Theocracy -- that changes definitions in mid-discussion to skew an argument in their own favour? It's only common sense to distrust ANY group that does that."
Except, words shift meanings all the time (often enough, in fact, for the phenomenon to have a name - Semantic Change) - why is it only a conspiracy when it involves one particular subject?
"Barry Deutsch - I think you're still evading the point: There is a percentage of women that you can have out in the workforce -- that is functional and above a '0' replacement birth rate -- but I'm pretty sure it's well short of 86%".
Your point is empirically false. If you look at real-world statistics, there are countries like Sweden and France combining women in the workforce at around 86% (give or take) with enough births to keep population levels steady.
"People born into the Feminist Theocracy context -- white people, 1970 to the present -- are dying at a much higher rate than the general population."
My guess is that you're referring to this study. If you want me to talk about that study, I can, but I don't want to discuss it if you actually meant something else. So hopefully, you'll clarify that point.
Also, my new "Hereville" book is out, but since I'm not signing your petition you might prefer not to have a copy. But if you'd like a copy, I'd be very happy to send it to you. (I do list you in the acknowledgements this time.)
Dave writes: you're doing the same thing the Feminist Theocracy does with "sexual assault". "One in three women will be sexually assaulted by age 20". And you find out that that definition NOW includes "being a victim of sexist comments".
From a quick scan, it seems that the reason France and Sweden appear to have a higher percentage of women in the workplace and higher replacement birth rate is due to government subsidization.
From a research paper by the Rand corporation in 2005 http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB9126/index1.html
"No single policy intervention has worked to reverse low fertility. Historically, governments have attempted to boost fertility through a mix of policies and programmes. For example, France in recent decades has employed a suite of policies intended to achieve two goals: reconciling family life with work and reversing declining fertility. To accomplish the first goal, for example, France instituted generous child-care subsidies. To accomplish the second, families have been rewarded for having at least three children."
from a 2008 article http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/European-nations-offer-incentives-to-have-kids-3201278.php
"Two other pro-natal laggards, Spain and Italy, are also joining a number of European governments offering cash incentives to have babies. Several years ago, Rocco Falivena, the mayor of Laviano in southern Italy, said his village would pay a $15,000 bonus on top of the government's $1,500-per-child rate to residents having children."
22 comments:
Here's a larger version of the Road Map:
http://i.imgur.com/xIQ7jlD.jpg
Hi All
the self-proclaimed left wing/ anarchist here.
Number of conversation pieces to continue...
I have to say - as someone who has spent a lot of time seeing what medicine can and can't do - Dave is right to be cautious with his hand. I have seen both sides of the 'miraculous' and the cautionary in medicine.
My son was born with a heart defect which required, in the end, an operation to be carried out when he was 4 month old. His heart was the size of a walnut. The surgeon had to stitch together arteries that were 1.4 mm to ensure that blood flowed to his lungs.
The surgeon did such a good job that my son has gone 12 years without needing any follow-up surgery. Best hopes at the time were 4 years. It was incredible, the surgeon did maybe 2 of these surgeries a year and the procedure had only existed for 10 years. That's at most 20 other children.
My son also has a problem with his palette. There is surgery that can resolve that problem. It will make his speech much clearer and therefore easier to understand. However, it will more than likely mean he will snore loudly forever more, even worse it could mean that he will develop sleep apnoea and start losing oxygen, requiring him to have oxygen overnight. These are the extremes that face you when considering surgery.
As Dave has pointed out himself. The bowel operation was a no-brainer, because choosing to do nothing would have meant he was dead, like my son's heart surgery. Whether his hand is operated on is another matter. It's a matter of choice at the moment, with the possibility that it could resolve itself and with the FACT that Dave can still do something with it.
As to Dave's mistrust of medical practitioners and their diagnosis, let me give you another example - my wife fell and tore the ligament off the back of her knee and ripped the side ligament of her leg. It was misdiagnosed as a slipped patella and she was given a brace to wear for 6 weeks. This weakened all the muscles around her knee which de-stabilized the ligaments. It's 2 years later and she is still trying to recover from that error.
This is not uncommon. She teaches dance for a living and this has had a direct impact on our income levels.
I would say to Dave that considering treatment in Canada is worth it if you look at it's rating as in the top 5 countries for medical treatment. Also, Dave can always ask for a second or third opinion if not satisfied with the initial diagnosis. That's not to persuade him that what he is doing is WRONG, that's in case he was unaware of those things. Forewarned is forearmed.
For clarity - I don't believe the current Tory government is heading to Nazi-ism. I was referring to the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP as they like to call themselves to hide their political agenda) and their anti-immigration, anti-Europe stance that relies heavily on xenophobic and anti-Islamic propaganda. And how this has been allowed to influence Tory (and Labour at the time) agendas. Even then I pointed out that they were racists and not Neo-Nazi's. Two very different things.
However, other countries are facing a HUGE resurgence in far-right groups (France and Italy for example).
As to the declining rate of birth. That's an interesting one in terms of points raised, one complicated by the improvements in medicine and in general health seen by improved access to food within Western culture. I think it is also this that has seen a decline in birth rates - more children survive to adulthood, meaning families can be smaller because they do not have to worry that 6 of their 10 children will die.
The reducing of a population is only a PROBLEM if you require that population to work to support an increasing number of non-contributing leisured individuals in a lifestyle that matches current aspirations. Or to put it another way, it is a very COMMERCIAL concern.
We need people to spend to support our economy, if their money is spent on looking after their relatives, then it is not necessarily fostering the growth of a consumer economy, rather it is spent fostering a care home/ pastoral care economy. This does not require manufactured goods, which are the heart blood of the current economy, particularly the shareholder financing that supports most western countries.
One also has another quandary in countries, like the UK, where a pension is provided to those older individuals. It is the quandary of how you pay out money to these people when you have not saved that money in readiness. A central question. And yes, it is interesting to have to struggle with what you do when you have a falling birth rate.
Having created a society where families require 2 incomes to support their lifestyle is the other side of Dave's question. If you get those women out of the workforce, who replaces them and the income they generate within the larger economy. Which, in the end, will be the greater concern with 'The System', rather than questions of feminism or equality. However, I bet they will wear that dress to hide their own selfishness.
On a more positive note - It was really interesting to see the post about Jaka's inspiration and even more interesting to consider that she became an exotic dancer.
I'm intrigued to know whether this inspired Cerebus as feedback, as it lends greater weight to the reading of Cerebus as a work of semi (or outright auto) biography.
I also second the option of Dave talking about comics’ history. Simply from the selfish standpoint that he has a vast hoard of understanding locked away that I cannot access unless he writes it and I would SURELY love to read it.
iestyn
iestyn, people want to hear from me until they hear from me and then they don't want to hear from me...and they usually want me destroyed, just in a general sense. That is, if I tell comics history the way you want it told, you would SURELY love to read it. If I tell it the way it happened, all that will happen is everyone will just go ballistic all over again.
Which is fine with me, I've lived that life for at least twenty-one years and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't know what to do in any other kind of life since it seems likely that the parabolic curve of the Feminist Theocracy will still be arcing upwards long after I'm dead. So it really only makes sense for me to get things ready for when I'm dead. I don't anticipate anything changing even incrementally in our society between now and then.
Just more of the same.
I've hit the "Jeff Smith strips" in RIP KIRBY Volume Two, 1949, which -- under the rules that I've imposed on myself -- means that I have a massive amount of research/commentary to do to get past that point. The most recent example of that was a reference to "The Prodigal Son" -- one of the Synoptic Jesus' parables -- in the RIP KIRBY sequence "Like Flies to Honey". Pages and pages and pages.Virtually nothing of which will make it INTO SDOAR, but, as I say, something that I've chosen to impose on myself at the research/script-writing stage.
So, I've gone back and re-read BONE, making notes and photocopying panels and breaking them down into general categories about which I'll have specific observations to make. I'm also writing the entire BONE Saga as I recall it, starting with Jeff Smith giving me the first four issues of BONE at the Cap City Trade Show in 1992 and have started getting Eddie to post those at the Patreon site, in the hopes that a site dedicated to sponsoring THE STRANGE DEATH OF ALEX RAYMOND will be open to what I have to say. As with this week, I'll be very much attuned to what it does to the financial support and will probably pull the plug over there if the people sponsoring start withdrawing their support. Which I imagine they will do.
A last-ditch "Hail Mary" pass in the hopes of getting Kickstarter going again: the Canadian dollar, at least at the moment, is dropping against the US$, so anyone pledging to Kickstarter can count on having each US$ pledged valued at roughly $1.25 Canadian. Possibly more or possibly less. The exchange rate today was $1.33 but Amazon, I guess, will be "betting against the spread" with their own exchange rate.
Anyway, US$ and Euros are going further right now.
Hope some people find prints that they're interested in getting before Saturday!
I'm late posting today because of another "Hail Mary" pass which looks as if it's actually connecting! Wes at COMIC WAREHOUSE here in Kitchener has agreed to take all of the warehouse inventory and we're brainstorming a number of ways to get the books to as many interested people as possible.
One of the ideas is a FREE CEREBUS TOUR where Wes would bring the books to the various show that he and his guys go to (not including me, of course: I'm a misogynist, remember?) and making them as close to free as possible. We've got everyone's mental slide-rules going on what the actual cost is of transporting the comics, bagging and boarding them and putting them in long-boxes. AND the best way to offer as many of them for free as possible while allowing Wes to get his investment back out of his generous acceptance.
THE COMIC WAREHOUSE is real "old school": WAY out Old King Street -- JUST comic books, usually priced well below Overstreet and all of them bagged and boarded (which surprised me and Sandeep and Fisher: from the name you expect to see dog-eared copies spilling out of pickle barrels: $1 a pound -- not at all. Just tens upon tends of thousands of bagged and boarded comics at rock-bottom prices).
Details on this week's Weekly Update November 20!
Thanks for coming back to me Dave.
I genuinely like hearing what you have to say, but I've always been a bit different from other people, so maybe that's just me.
I would love to see what you have to say about things like Bone, about other modern comics and especially about comic history. You're certainly one of the most well versed and well placed individuals around to talk about this subject.
I expect you've neither heard of nor read anything about Frank Santoro, but he's a guy who takes comics seriously. Along with a couple of others (Dan Nadel, who now runs the Comics Journal website) he did a lot to get people to revisit comics work like Master of Kung Fu.
He's very strong on comics history and also on the theory of the geometry of a page (see here
http://franksantoro.tumblr.com/post/132990748320
if you get the chance, or maybe someone could print it off for you).
He also did a great post about visiting a new comics show set up in Columbus and the history of that place relating to comics. The article is here http://www.tcj.com/cxc-2015-reports/
You may want to visit the Billy Ireland library because they sound like they have a lot of interesting resources.
This almost feels like I'm appearing in a letters page. Now I feel really nostalgic.
Hope this doesn't feel like a waste of your time.
Iestyn
Hi Dave,
I found an interesting article about the various injuries cartoonists have suffered due to their work habits. Might be worth a read.
http://comicsalliance.com/artists-drawing-injuries/
Best,
Michael
Maybe another hilite color than yellow for a big white underpants shaped document
Dave-
I've inferred from a couple of your posts that the Kickstarter isn't going as well as hoped or has stalled. I will start sharing on my Facebook page now that I'm starting to have a little free time after a hectic couple of months.
$15,000 for a $611 goal is nothing to sneeze at. Some people may see that you're well over your goal and think "Well, he doesn't need any help." This has happened to me.
How much do you need to make for it to be a success, to cover all the expected costs? If it's, say. $25,000, shouldn't your goal be $25,000? I think it would be easier to rally people if you're short of your goal: "At 10 days to go, we're only at $19,000! We need another push here, people!"
I noticed you don't have any stretch goals; it's helpful to have those if you're already past your main goal. "STRETCH GOAL #1: If we can reach $17,000, we can afford a new scanner!"; "STRETCH GOAL #2: If we can reach $20,000, we can afford to pay Sandeep!" (or whatever), and so on.
Sorry if this is coming too late to be of use. Like I said, I've been busy.
In an earlier thread, Dave wrote:
"I wouldn't say that my opinions of feminism haven't changed over the years, but I do think that I've refined my opinions and arrived at a few conclusions that merit society's SERIOUS consideration, foremost among them: that you can't STRUCTURALLY have 86% of women out in the workforce because of what that does to your replacement birth rate. I'm pretty sure that's not a "Well, whatever..." or "Well, BESIDES that..." kind of observation."
But the observation isn't true. I mean, of course those factors correlate in some countries, but the correlation doesn't hold steady when you look at other countries.
Italy's female labor participation rate is 66% (for women age 25-54, which is the age group I'll refer to throughout this post), which is quite low. But Italy also has one of the lowest fertility rates in the world, 1.4 births per woman. That's way below replacement rate (which is 2.1).
Greece's female LPR is 75%, and their fertility rate is the same as Italy's, 1.4 births per women. (Both Greece and Italy have the sort of cultural expectation that women will prioritize family over work that I get the impression you favor, Dave.)
Sweden's female LPR is 88%, and their fertility rate is 1.9, one of the highest in the developed world. So, contrary to what you think, it's quite possible.
Similarly, in France, the female LPR is 83.5%, and the fertility rate is 2.08.
In Iran, the female LPR is 17%, one of the lowest in the world. But the fertility rate is actually lower than Sweden or the US: 1.85. Hard to blame Iran's fertility rate on feminism.
(In Canada, in case you're wondering, the female LPR is 82%, and the fertility rate is 1.6.)
Basically, the correlation you're talking about - high female labor force participation equals low birthrate - isn't very strong. In some countries it's true, but not in all countries. There's nothing about female employment which prevents a fertility rate close to the replacement rate.
Of course, there are countries with much, much higher fertility rates - 5.5, 6.5, in that range. But they're almost all countries with horrible poverty problems and corrupt or dysfunctional governments. (I wouldn't live in Somalia if I had a choice. Or Afghanistan. Or East Timor. Or Ethiopia. But they all have sky-high fertility rates.)
I think if Canada wants to improve its fertility, most Canadians would rather change to be be more like France or Sweden, than more like Afghanistan or Somalia.
I don't quite get this comment from Dave:
"That is, if I tell comics history the way you want it told, you would SURELY love to read it. If I tell it the way it happened, all that will happen is everyone will just go ballistic all over again."
Someone can correct my recall, but it seems to me Eric Reynolds, associate publisher at Fantagraphics, made a public expression of interest in publishing SDOAR not long after Glamourpuss ended. At about the same time, Ted Adams approached Dave about IDW publishing the book. That's two fairly prominent publishers who are/were directly interested in Dave's comics art metaphysics approach to comics history as already established in 26 published issues of Glamourpuss prior to those expressions of interest.
Personally, I regard the Neal Adams issue of Following Cerebus as a valuable resource in comics history as discussed by artists who know what they're talking about. I'm sure that volume isn't widely available but its value can't be dismissed by any who see it and read it. It's at least as important as a typical Comics Journal interview in documenting how the sausage was made.
That said, I think Dave's true artistic purpose these days is to complete SDOAR artistically and truthfully, not putting his left hand to the test of typing up a Cerebexegesis of Bone, as interesting as I would find that, too. Frankly I wish he could place the day-to-day management of the restoration of Cerebus into someone else's capable hands so that SDOAR can be his day job. Here's hoping more frequent updates to the Patreon from Dave himself can drive up the support over there where it belongs.
Barry Deutsch - I think you're still evading the point: There is a percentage of women that you can have out in the workforce -- that is functional and above a "0" replacement birth rate -- but I'm pretty sure it's well short of 86%. And we're -- ALL the G7 countries -- HURTLING in the other direction towards 100% and labelling anyone who suggests that's structurally unworkable -- which I think it is -- as a misogynist.
The White Plague, is, I think, self-evidently the result. Feminism is an invention of white women and constitutes societal suicide. People born into the Feminist Theocracy context -- white people, 1970 to the present -- are dying at a much higher rate than the general population. Higher incidents of alcoholism -- self-medicating -- and extremely unhealthy eating seem to me to be white men and women "consoling" themselves that the Overall: Over-Arching UBER Reality that white women chose for white people 50 years ago is, self-evidently, suicidal in a societal sense.
Also, Sandeep points out that you just sort of disappeared after saying you were going to respond to the "moving goalposts" definition of misogyny in the Oxford Dictionary on your blog: if you add on "distrusting women" to "hating women", you're doing the same thing the Feminist Theocracy does with "sexual assault". "One in three women will be sexually assaulted by age 20". And you find out that that definition NOW includes "being a victim of sexist comments".
And I repeat the central point I see there: How can you NOT distrust a sensibility -- the Feminist Theocracy -- that changes definitions in mid-discussion to skew an argument in their own favour? It's only common sense to distrust ANY group that does that. That's the whole point of Orwell's ANIMAL FARM and 1984, right?
Oh Dave. A battle lost long, long ago, but still alone on the battlefield wildly yelling and swinging.
Michael G - Well, I'm glad that YOU think the Neal Adams issue is valuable. So do I. However my Larger Point is that it is a central facet of the Feminist Theocracy that ALL that matters is whether you ARE or ARE NOT a feminist. If you're not a feminist, then, by Feminist Theocracy fiat, everything you have done or said is discredited. You're either IN the Feminist Theocracy narrative: feminism is an inherent good no longer subject to discussion. "The science is settled." or you're OUTSIDE the Feminist Theocracy narrative: Dave who? CEREBUS what?
That's why I'm determined, God willing and with the assistance of CEREBUS fans to preserve CEREBUS and keep it -- insofar as it is possible -- as an island of free-thinking integrity in the face of the unrelenting Feminist Theocracy tidal wave which I don't think has even BEGUN to crest in 2015. I certainly don't want my work associated with Stalinist college campuses -- "Stalinist" in the totalitarian rather than "left political wing" sense: "We eradicate and ban things with which we don't agree" -- let alone housed on one of them.
Okay, back to my BONE Commentaries.
Hi Barry. I didn't receive any response to my letter to you. Since I did you the courtesy of responding to your posts here, I think it would only be appropriate for you to extend the same courtesy to me. In case you lost the link, here it is:
http://waterlooversus.blogspot.ca/2015/09/letter-to-barry.html
And Joe Blow wins the thread without breaking a sweat.
"And we're -- ALL the G7 countries -- HURTLING in the other direction towards 100% and labelling anyone who suggests that's structurally unworkable -- which I think it is -- as a misogynist."
100% of women in the workforce will never happen, even in the most feminist-friendly society imaginable, for no other reason than the fact that not all women can or want to hold jobs.
"People born into the Feminist Theocracy context -- white people, 1970 to the present -- are dying at a much higher rate than the general population."
At the risk of sounding callous, that's pretty interesting - can I ask where you're getting that information from?
"How can you NOT distrust a sensibility -- the Feminist Theocracy -- that changes definitions in mid-discussion to skew an argument in their own favour? It's only common sense to distrust ANY group that does that."
Except, words shift meanings all the time (often enough, in fact, for the phenomenon to have a name - Semantic Change) - why is it only a conspiracy when it involves one particular subject?
Hi, Sandeep.
I've posted a response to you on my blog.
"Barry Deutsch - I think you're still evading the point: There is a percentage of women that you can have out in the workforce -- that is functional and above a '0' replacement birth rate -- but I'm pretty sure it's well short of 86%".
Your point is empirically false. If you look at real-world statistics, there are countries like Sweden and France combining women in the workforce at around 86% (give or take) with enough births to keep population levels steady.
"People born into the Feminist Theocracy context -- white people, 1970 to the present -- are dying at a much higher rate than the general population."
My guess is that you're referring to this study. If you want me to talk about that study, I can, but I don't want to discuss it if you actually meant something else. So hopefully, you'll clarify that point.
Also, my new "Hereville" book is out, but since I'm not signing your petition you might prefer not to have a copy. But if you'd like a copy, I'd be very happy to send it to you. (I do list you in the acknowledgements this time.)
Dave writes: you're doing the same thing the Feminist Theocracy does with "sexual assault". "One in three women will be sexually assaulted by age 20". And you find out that that definition NOW includes "being a victim of sexist comments".
Citation?
From a quick scan, it seems that the reason France and Sweden appear to have a higher percentage of women in the workplace and higher replacement birth rate is due to government subsidization.
From a research paper by the Rand corporation in 2005
http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB9126/index1.html
"No single policy intervention has worked to reverse low fertility. Historically, governments have attempted to boost fertility through a mix of policies and programmes. For example, France in recent decades has employed a suite of policies intended to achieve two goals: reconciling family life with work and reversing declining fertility. To accomplish the first goal, for example, France instituted generous child-care subsidies. To accomplish the second, families have been rewarded for having at least three children."
from
http://www.france24.com/en/20130611-why-french-women-make-more-babies-fertility-austerity-welfare-reforms-france
"According to INED’s Olivier Thévenon, an expert in populations and social programmes, France’s family welfare system goes a long way in explaining the trend. When studying long-term trends associated with high fertility, he said two important factors had been identified: welfare programmes that include the availability of long-term care for children under 3 years old and regular cash transfers to families with children."
from a 2008 article
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/European-nations-offer-incentives-to-have-kids-3201278.php
"Two other pro-natal laggards, Spain and Italy, are also joining a number of European governments offering cash incentives to have babies. Several years ago, Rocco Falivena, the mayor of Laviano in southern Italy, said his village would pay a $15,000 bonus on top of the government's $1,500-per-child rate to residents having children."
Oh what the heck, one more.
Mr. Dave Sim (middle) and his dietitians, hold up his old underpants to show how much he has lost in just 1 year.
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