Season 2 - Episode 6 - Something Interesting Happened While I Was Away
Intro
I would like to thank the handful of people that reached out to me and said they would like me to continue with this blog/substack/whatever-you-call-it. It’s nice that some people dig it, nicer that some people took the time to tell me. I did this with no expectations other than getting better at finding my voice and to practice expressing myself via the written word. Anything additional is gravy but gravy that is greatly appreciated.
Let’s Talk About the Red Room Thing
Last week, Ed Piskor and Jim Rugg unveiled the Jim Rugg variant cover to Red Room Season 2, Issue 3. Rugg’s variants have all been homages to “classic” covers from independent and outlaw comics and this was an homage to Art Spiegelman’s “Maus”:
Friends started messaging me about the fan reaction to this cover last Friday afternoon. Some saw no problem, some saw bad taste and some were offended. After a few hours of outrage, Fantagraphics (the publisher) issued a statement where Jim Rugg apologized for the cover and it was decided that the cover would not be used.
But that wasn’t the interesting part. At least, not to me.
I thought the cover was in bad taste only because I have a pretty solid knowledge of the European theater of World War II and am very aware of the atrocities the Nazis committed against various peoples, most prominently against Jews so there are people who have either lived through a nazi concentration camp or have relatives that have done so and I can see them being offended. I personally wasn’t offended. However, what I found much more interesting was watching people, fans and cartoonists, react. Since I wasn’t emotionally invested (I decided not to pick up the second season of this title a few months ago because it’s not my thing) and I don’t worship any comics creator, I thought it was a cool way to see this whole thing unfold. Sort of like Sting up in the rafters during his WCW scarecrow phase. So, after watching and thinking about it, I came away with a few takeaways. Opinions are my own and I stand by them:
Some people really hate Ed Piskor. In wrestling there is a term called “heat” which is when the fans boo you because you’re a heel (ergo: a bad guy). Then there is something called “white heat” (or “X-Pac heat”) when the fans don’t boo you because you’re a bad guy, they boo you because they genuinely don’t like you and want you out of the ring. Ed definitely has white heat with some people. It’s not just comics readers, there is a stable of comics creators that take great glee in running Ed down. Ironically, Jim drew the cover but Ed got ALL of the heat. What’s even more ironic is that people don’t realize this is just a heel gimmick that Ed is doing. In wrestling, the term “mark” means a person that thinks wrestling is real (i.e., not scripted). Those of you that buy into Ed’s heel gimmick are total marks and don’t realize it’s a “work” (i.e, a scripted/planned action). Now, if you don’t like him because he called you a jobber or for other reasons (yes, I know of a couple and no I’m not going to talk about it), I can get that. But for the people that have bought into the heel persona, here’s some news: It’s a work. It’s not real. I don’t think he’s acting too hard to be a heel but it’s a work.
Jim Rugg apologized and I’m good with his apology. Jim Rugg apologized and it sounded sincere. He owned it. I don’t know him that well but I have chatted with him many times and he has always been a sincere, cool guy. He is who he appears to be, he has no gimmick. In fact, having no gimmick (other than being a technical cartooning badass) is his gimmick. If you don’t take my word for him being a nice guy, he is one of the few creators in the comics industry that is universally liked. If you think fanboys, cosplayers and store owners are petty, they are Triple-A ball compared to some comics professionals and publishers. In my experience, most of them are cool but the ones that aren’t are petty AF. When you’re universally liked as a member of the comics industry, that means you have f****d no one over and have been a professional all the time. When female creators like you, that means you' have been respectful to them, treated them as an equal and haven’t been a creep to them. In comics, that’s a hard trick to pull.
Some of you need to stop with the comics idolatry and thinking that comics creators are like Jesus Christ and were born without sin and can heal the sick and lame. Some of the idolatry in defending Ed and Jim I saw is unhealthy for grown-ass men and women to have. You’re not 12 years old. You can respect and/or like someone’s work, you can admire their style and what they do, but it doesn’t mean that you have to worship them like gods. That just makes you a fanboy. There are handful of creators like Paul Pope, Daniel Warren Johnson and Steranko that don’t have fans, they have disciples. Criticize those creators and see how people react. It’s really lame. Be a fan, don’t be a disciple.
If you’re going to be “outlaw”, then you have to live the gimmick and protect the business. Before Vince McMahon officially confirmed that pro wrestling was scripted, the various territories and related promotions did something called “protecting the business” which means “you have to make it seem as this is ‘real’”. That meant you were in character 24/7. A heel didn’t travel with a babyface (a “good guy”), you had separate heel and babyface dressing rooms and it was accepted that if you went out to a bar or restaurant and someone picked a fight with you over wrestling being “fake”, if you didn’t win that fight you were fired from the territory. Ed Piskor has done much to talk about outlaw comics and express his love of them and has talked a bit like an outlaw. That’s part of his image, he’s taking a page out of pro wrestling 101. The problem is that you have to live up to that persona 24/7 and “protect the business” because if you don’t, the marks that actually believe in that persona are going to realize it’s a work and the ones that know it’s a work are going to say “see, I told you he wasn’t legit!”. While Jim apologized for the cover, Ed went silent. Some friends of mine told me hd deleted negative comments over the posting of the cover, and he hasn’t addressed the cover on social media as of this date. I have no idea what Ed, Jim and Fantagraphics agreed on regarding the messaging and I’m not going to speculate. Maybe they told Ed to stay quiet, that Fantagraphics and Jim would issue an apology and let it die down, just like Janet Jackson (in her recently aired and excellent documentary) told Justin Timberlake to stay quiet to not draw attention to himself after the famous “wardrobe malfunction” [Side note: We, who have held Timberlake to task because he didn’t man up and defend Janet and then went on to have a successful career based on black music just like every white rock/pop/soul performer from Elvis Presley on down, will never forgive him for his silence and not defending the Queen that is Janet Jackson]. However, Red Room is Ed’s book and he had to have greenlit the cover. By staying quiet, he didn’t protect the business because a real outlaw wouldn’t have stayed quiet. One option he had would be to take partial ownership but then make legitimate points about free speech and the censoring of art and use Crumb and other underground artists as examples so he could defend his friend and business partner but still keep the persona of an outlaw. He could have but didn’t. Even friends I have that idolize Ed thought it looked poor of him to not say anything.
Being an “outlaw” isn’t commercially viable on a mass basis. In my opinion, Ed wants to have his cake and eat it too. He wants to portray himself as an “outlaw” but you can’t be an outlaw and be commercially viable on a mass basis. To be an outlaw means you don’t care if it hurts your wallet. Guys like Spain and Crumb, they didn’t care. They weren’t thinking about selling their original art at very high prices and deals with mainstream publishers. All they cared about was the art. Yes, Crumb was successful and made money but he’s an outlier. If Ed would have gone full heel and bashed people that complained about the cover, it would have impacted not only himself negatively, but possibly Jim Rugg, Fantagraphics, the Cartoonist Kayfabe youtube channel and the comic book shops that are ordering Red Room and looking forward to those sales. If you’re living the real outlaw comic life, worrying about your sales and how many clicks you get isn’t part of the formula.
I don’t hate Ed. I have a lot of his comics in my collection. I respect him as a cartoonist and I think he’s smart when it comes to the business side of the business. However, I don’t think he handled this in the best way but it doesn’t mean I have to hate the guy and run him down. But I’m gonna be honest here. He cold have done better. It’s his business he has to protect.
Substack News
Recently Jonathan Hickman’s “3 Worlds 3 Moons” ran an ad here promoting a 180-page hardcover “source book” if you subscribed to their substack by April 12, 2022. I have no problem with ads or trying to get people to sign up to your revenue stream, but I find it ironic that so many people tried to make substack sound like it was going to help drive growth in digital comics yet it has to incentivize people with a hardcover book (the physical book it’s allegedly replacing). As I wrote in a previous substack, digital comics will never replace physical comics for various reasons, chief among them that physical comics have a collectibility component that can’t be duplicated in digital form. But honestly, whatever, I wasn’t going to get it anyway. A Hickman story is great but you have to wait at least five years for the story to end. If that soon.
Videos
I’ve been busy. if you like anything, give it a like or even a comment!
Outro
As always, thanks for taking the time to read this and I hope you found it at least a bit entertaining. Until next time. Or to quote The Rock: