Response to David Johnson

Carson Grubaugh:

I was going to send this to Matt, as he just pointed out to me that David is saying I am avoiding answering the questions David posed to me under the guise of Hazel Poni, but figured I would save Matt the effort and post it myself.

"Hi Matt,

Please feel free to post the response I had written to "Hazel" before David came out as being Hazel (which is what I expected was going on all along) and caused me to lose all respect for him due to his deceitful behaviour.

Maybe also suggest that David go read Matthew 7: 1-5, Luke 6: 37-42, James 4: 11-12, Roman 2: 1-3 and 12:16-18 since he is supposedly so well versed in scripture and such a devout follower of Jesus.
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Original response: 

I am very confused about this Hazel Poni/David Johnson situation. The original communication I received from Hazel stated that she was a "middle-man" for David. All of the questions and accusations in the communication were presented as David's. I see no clear indication of what their actual relationship is or why she feels empowered to ask Brian, Ger and myself questions on David's behalf. If David has questions David can ask them himself. If David finds something we have done untoward he is free to express that himself. I am tempted to think this actually IS David using a pseudonym for some totally incomprehensible reason. Is there some good reason for Hazel to be communicating for David that I am unaware of (his caretaker, partner, lawyer etc.)? As I have never heard from, or of, David Johnson until now my conclusion was that Hazel was either inserting herself into a situation where she does not belong, or was manufacturing a situation that does not exist.

Her response to me on AMOC today suggests that some of the problems/questions that she originally presented as David's are actually problems/questions she has, namely the concern about the "Take On Me" story I did with Brian C. and Gerhard. As it is now clear that this is HER concern/question I am willing to answer it.

Following is the communication Hazel sent, with my replies interspersed. This is an answer to Hazel. I believe that these are her words, not just sentiments she is passing on.

This is NOT an answer to David. David, if you read this and have problems with my answers please feel free to speak with me directly.

I only speak for myself, not for Brian or Gerhard. My inclination is to follow their lead and just ignore all of this.  Hazel is thoroughly ignorant about any of the pertinent details and really doesn't need to know them, but really seems to want to. But, given that any attention I get from you all is due to your being Dave Sim Fans I am trying to follow the example Dave Sim has set for interacting with his fans: If they ask questions you answer them publicly and as thoroughly as you can.

I'm trying to be a middle man between Dave Sim, Matt Dow, certain fans or not fans whoever they may be, and David Johnson, with Brian Copolla, Carson Grubaugh, and you concerning the Take On Me story that the three of you did. Not any of them or anyone has asked me to do this.

Not sure why anyone here needs a middle man. We are all adults who can speak for ourselves. Dave Sim, Matt Dow, and I can all communicate with one another very easily. Any fan can get a hold of me as easily as you have.

      David has replied to me about an earlier unrelated email I sent him. David has lodged a complaint concerning the story and the three of you, to the fans or not fans and Dave. He wrote to Dave about it and Matt Dow of A Moment Of Cerebus. Matt replied about a about a couple of days ago to David's points made about the three of you, along with other unrelated things David had asked him.

      I emailed David and asked if I could email you three about all of this, and see if I can get some kind of business reply from all of you. If all of you do so, I will email it to Matt and ask if he'll run it in as a reply for the AMOC Mailbag, and I'll fax Dave your replys. I'm sending this to all three of you.

      David explained to me, how he once liked you along with Dave a lot. That he also helped you once by  asking Dave not to be hard on you, after your stomach or something hurt around Cerebus #288. Lately, David started to get back to you too and was interested in seeing if you would do a small regular commission for him. Once he saw the Take On Me story, he was hurt. He started to write the three of you, but was hurt more by seeing certain things that Carson Grubaugh was into. Then, he decided not to write the three of you.

Something I am “into” "hurt” David? I would apologize to David but he hasn't reached out to me to explain what I did to harm him, and none of this has anything to do with you, Hazel. I find it very unlikely I managed to hurt an individual I didn't even know existed.

      He wants all of you to know that he likes all of your past good works, but he doesn't like Take On Me. At first his complaint was that all of you were in his words, doing an unauthorized Cerebus comic book and breaking the law by using a copyrighted work, when you had asked Dave to buy out your share of it for your own reasons.

      Since then, Dave and Matt have said to him that Dave allows anyone to do whatever Cerebus thing they want to, and that their works will either prove or disprove if or if not it's a good work. Dave has added, that it doesn't sound like Brian's approach to Take On Me is a good one, but David said that Dave told him that kind of action by one taken towards him isn't a new thing.

As you point out yourself, Dave has long had a policy of authorizing anyone to do anything they want with Cerebus. Why even bring this up?

Furthermore, when Brian came to me with the  idea the first thing I did was talk to Dave about his interpretation of the project from a Comic-Book-Metaphysics standpoint and obtained permission to work on it (at my own risk, according to Dave). There were a number of ideas I shot down in the planning stage based on the input Dave gave me and out of my personal respect for Dave.

I will be the first to say that our project is dramatically inferior to Dave’s work. This is not a Cerebus story. This is a story about a Cerebus fan, me, running around in a world Gerhard designed.

      Since these things were said, David has agreed to the three of you having the rights to do Take On Me, but he still doesn't like it. He says people like Matt Dow and you three love the old Dave and Cerebus, but don't like them after God became a part of them. David is ok with all of you choosing those things, but wants you to know that God doesn't like it.

The first time I read Cerebus the biblical commentaries in Latter Days were some of my favorite parts. The second time I read it, I found them boring. I said as much in the re-read commentaries I did a few years ago, which I assume are still available to read for anyone who cares.

I find it seriously disturbing that anyone could think they know what God does and does not like. Given the massive amounts of information you are obviously missing about this issue, mM

      David says Brian makes it clear on his notes on your posts of the Take On Me story, that besides liking the old Dave and Cerebus, it's all about making fun of God and Dave, how fans like you three have now grown up and put Cerebus behind them (In relation to how all of those fans like yourselves, can take a trip back through it  sometime like Brian did.), but how in the end in all of your words it's being said Dave was saying in the past in Cerebus, that all of the fans were wrong for not believing in God, because  all of you are saying that Jesus isn't the son of God.

Not how I read Brian’s commentary, but, hey I am not Brian, so who am I to say. Please don’t confuse my intentions with your interpretation of Brian’s intentions.

My understanding was that it was intended as a piece of fan-fiction-tribute for the 40^th anniversary of Cerebus and a fun piece for Brian add to his impressive art collection. Brian is one of the largest collectors of original Cerebus art out there.  He has commissioned many pieces from Gerhard, and one other piece from me. This was all in good fun - “Let’s bring Dave’s former artistic collaborator together with his current one for a special treat to the fans.” Brian also owns all kinds of other amazing art, so being part of his collection is a huge honor and a great line for my resume.

My personal intentions with Take On Me were: Get paid a good chunk of money to have the honor of seeing Gerhard put backgrounds behind my figures. An honor so cool I never even bothered to dream it was possible until Brian suggested the commission.

Beyond that, I worked very hard to make sure that what we did would not affect my relationship with Dave or our work on SDOAR and YDKJ. It has not.

      In Matt's reply to David he explained all of you could do what you want, that he was  an agnostic, and that belief in a Creator outside of any simple idea and sharing that with others was wrong, and added a link to Take On Me. He made it clear that he liked the old  Dave and Cerebus, but not how God is a part of them now. David says Matt and some of the other fans wish to continue helping Dave do, what they call the old style Cerebus in Cerebus In Hell?, but they don't want to do anything about God.

      David says that God is the one who Dave serves and that CIH? has it's foundation in making the point, that not serving God will send one to hell. He says they know that but continue to (The creative team on CIH?) do new CIH? stories each month, where they assume that they're getting what they want.

      David said he has asked David Birdsong to do a stand alone story with him about God or one for CIH for Feb. 2020? David Birdsong said he would look at the story and get back to him in private with his answer. David Birdsong said that Dave probably wouldn't do it for CIH?, but said he was game if Dave was, but if Dave is, it would come out in 2021 probably because CIH? is plotted up to then. David Johnson said that if the three of you would do the backgrounds to the cover with David Birdsong for it for free, that would show that all of you were sorry.

I am not part of the CIH? Team, nor do I want to be.

The money I made from the Take On Me commission is the only money I have ever seen from my involvement with Dave Sim. Everything I have done for SDOAR and YDKJ has been done absolutely free of charge. Dave does recompense me for my material costs.

I spent two-and-a-half years ignoring my own fine-art and academic careers - probably putting the later at risk by working with Dave - working almost exclusively on Dave-Sim-Projects. This was done with the understanding that my payment comes on the back end. I signed up for it being that way, and remain content with that agreement. Two graphic novels and two 24-page issues of YDKJ - somewhere between 75 and 100 pages of extremely painstaking art - completed for over a year now, with no release date in sight, and I don’t make a single cent until they do get released.

So, no, thank you, I will pass on doing a free cover as an apology that is not owed. 

      At first David said Dave had willingly handed the keys over to the inmates in the asylum, and he said the chess game principle used by Dave in Cerebus, when the feminist wins and asks, "Now what?", to which the other replies, "I don't know. You tell me.", was his way of proving that. David also thought that maybe Dave was making fun of hell and those who go there, and asked Dave to seek God more through Jesus.

      Since then after hearing Matt, some fans, and Dave's replies concerning those things about how that's wrong, David now believes Dave is happy with doing CIH?, and believing in God the way that he does. Dave told David that he wasn't making fun of hell or those that go there, but was using dark humor to make fun of feminism. David said the needful thing was Christ and his gospel. Dave told him he doesn't want to talk about those things, but said that he'd made a choice, and that others and David could make their own choice.

      David thinks that your choice to ask Dave to buy you out, was based on you wanting to hurt him for whatever it is that made you make that choice. He thinks that hurt Dave. He says Dave had to seek work for hire and things to help himself, or he would've maybe lost his house and more. He thinks that these things helped lead Dave to do CIH?

      David's complaint is that, if all of you have made or are still making money off Dave, who has helped make you popular Gerhard, Brian make money from the comic book art of Dave and things that he sells, and Carson  be helped too by things like The Strange Death of Alex Raymond, but that all of you don't want to like God or him, then all of you should leave God and Dave alone.

I have probably spoken to Dave twice in the last year. We do pretty good at leaving one another alone.

What goes on, or does not go on between me and God is between me and God.

      David says, instead all of you have done Take On Me, which he says is how all of you are telling Dave to take all of you on. It hurt David that all of you used Cerebus to do these things, when he says all of you should've just left them alone, because they weren't hurting any of you.  David said, instead all of you even looked for a publisher for your story, when all of you could've asked Dave to do it, and David thinks Dave would've said yes.

“Take On Me” is the title of a song by the band Ah-ha. The music video has real people getting sucked into a drawing, as I do in the story. It was just a cute name that many people would recognize, not a challenge to Dave. Don’t over complicate things, Hazel.

I had actually suggested we call it “Carson’s Ah-Ha Moment” but Brian had the final say. I highly doubt it was antagonistic.  I do know that Dave thinks Brian is antagonistic towards him. We talked about that. I disagree. As far as I understand this stems from Brian helping Gerhard regain possession of his share of the original Cerebus artwork, which, apparently, Dave wanted to keep in the archives. This is before my time, so I really don't know more than that.  All I know is that Brian is an extremely nice guy. We have only had pleasurable interactions and I have personally seen evidence that Brian still tries to do things to benefit Dave, not attack him.

I did send the project to Ted Adams at IDW, who forwarded it to the editor of Full Bleed Magazine. We never heard back and assume they are not interested. The same is true with a submission to Fantagraphic’s NOW anthology.

We were trying to get it out there so that the fans could own a copy. This is a fan project meant to entertain fans, after all.

Dave told me that he wanted nothing to do with the project, so, Hazel, you are wrong that Dave would have published it. Why? Because you are ignorant about every aspect of this.

The last we talked about how to release it Brian, super nice guy that he is, suggested doing a set of prints through Kickstarter and donating the proceeds to  Pride Stables, an organization that offers therapeutic horseback riding to people with disabilities. So much for the idea that we are trying to make money off of Dave Sim's creation and a fine example of exactly how much ignorance you display in coming at us with these accusations of trying to do Dave harm.

      Earlier, David thought all of you were wrong to recreate Cerebus comic backgrounds or covers to use in your story. Matt told David that the backgrounds belong to you. Before, David had said that you had Dave buy back your backgrounds. Now, he thinks you can use them. Still, David thinks that all of you are wrong to do the story.

      When he saw that Carson likes kabbalah, he didn't understand how he could make fun of God and Dave, when in David's thinking that Dave's thinking of the unified field theory, kind of sounds like it. David wants all of you to tell God and Dave you're sorry, and not do the story. He says if you don't, it will make God mad. He says if all of you do the right thing, God will be happy.

I spent eight years of my artistic life doing a series of paintings about the Kabbalah and Tarot, pretty much because Alan Moore’s Pormethea had such a huge impact on me. It was silly and derivative, but I do not regret it.

Nothing I have done makes fun of God. If I have, that is between me an God. Brave of you to not only act as an intermediary for David, but for God on top of that. Hope that goes well for you.

Take On Me does not make fun of Dave. It has nothing to do with Dave. We do make plenty of fun about Dave in YDKJ and the Hermitage Auctions catalogue, both of which I made with Dave, and in which Dave also makes fun of me. Lighten up. We are adults and can handle poking fun at one another.

I myself like all of you, but think what all of you have done by doing the story, is wrong. If all of you reply to this, I'll send it to Matt, Dave, and David. Matt and Dave didn't ask me to do this.  If any or all of you do or don't agree with David, he wants all of you to reply back. If I can help any of you, let me know.

As far as I am concerned our communication is over. I have no interest in your thoughts on any of this as it is obvious they have been formed with the deepest ignorance of the situation possible.

I also hope that you do not pass any of this on to David Johnson, especially as a response from me to him. This is to you, Hazel. Furthermore, you do not have my permission to be a "middle-man" between me and David. Leave David alone. Let him speak for himself.

David, if you see this on AMOC and feel like you need to respond I will be happy to answer you questions.

Best,

Carson Grubaugh