Disney de-SJWs

First James Gunn, now Chuck Wendig.

Chuck Wendig@ChuckWendig
So, here’s a thing that has happened – I just got fired from Marvel. Taken off issues 4 and 5 of SHADOW OF VADER, and taken off an as-yet-unannounced SW book.

Chuck Wendig@ChuckWendig
Today I got the call. I’m fired. Because of the negativity and vulgarity that my tweets bring. Seriously, that’s what Mark, the editor said. It was too much politics, too much vulgarity, too much negativity on my part.

 It’s a little soon to call it a trend, especially since Kathleen Kennedy had her contract extended, but it is a pair of very small steps forward for the Evil Empire.

No worries, Chuck. I’m sure DC will find something for you to ruin.

Imagine that

Thank you for contacting Indiegogo’s Customer Happiness team! This is an automated note to confirm we’ve received your message and will review it shortly. As we are currently experiencing a high number of requests, it may take us longer than usual to respond, however, a member of our team will be in touch as soon as possible.

A high number of requests. That seems unusual. I wonder why that might be?

On a not-necessarily-unrelated note, will the VFM who emailed me the detailed information on Indiegogo’s current financial status send it again, please? I don’t currently have access to the machine on which I’ve got the email and there are some people who would like to review it. At first glance, it does not appear Indiegogo is presently in any shape to play the extend-and-bleed game that GT Interactive tried unsuccessfully with us for two years before finally submitting to our requirements.

Responses to IGG’s retro-cancellation

Just a few of the reactions to IndieGoGo’s self-destructive decision to retroactively cancel AH:Q and refusal to make payments it was obligated to make:

Chuck Dixon, the creator of Bane, and an all around comic book legend saw his Alt-Hero: Q crowdfunding campaign shutdown by IndieGoGo on Thursday without any kind of explanation.

We reached out to Dixon to get his thoughts on the matter and one thing is clear. He’s determined. Dixon already has the entire first issue scripted and a good chunk of the second issue. The series is expected to be six issues long with each issue being 24 pages. The entire story will eventually get collected into a graphic novel.

Dixon told us, “I’ll do my work on this project if I have to write it for free.”

He believes the campaign was shut down due to “politics.” And he doesn’t think this will be the last time independent creators who have differing politics will be targeted. We asked him if he believes further moves will be made against creators because of their politics. Dixon responded, “Absolutely. The left will weaponize anything to shut down free speech.”

Dixon did tell us that he will keep using IndieGoGo for other projects he is working on.

“Well, I’m used to being blacklisted. And I suppose IGG can do more. But we received funds on my other projects so they will continue on.”

However, he did note that IndieGoGo denied the funds for Alt-Hero: Q. But once again he showed his determination to get this project completed.

“Qanon will have to be completed by other means as the funds we raised have been denied us. But it WILL be completed. This is a speed bump.”

From one typical backer:

I’ll quadruple the amount I pledged for AltHero Q to 300. The 300 I gave you last time has done more than all the money I’ve given to charity.  

From another:

I will triple my backing from $40 to $120.

And a third:

Having Alt-Hero-Q on IndieGogo had a knock-on effect, I subscribed to several other campaigns. All of which I’m canceling. 

If you’re canceling support for any other campaigns on IndieGoGo, be sure to tell them why. As I mentioned previously, we expect to get version 2.0 of the AH:Q campaign up in about two weeks. As always, we’re focused on doing it right rather than doing it fast, so rest assured that work has been proceeding on the first issue regardless of when we relaunch the campaign and how we do it. As The Legend has already declared, those involved will do it for nothing if necessary.

UPDATE: We’re looking into various legal options and assessing our optimal strategy. To maximize those options, if you’re a backer, please email Indiegogo at support@indiegogo.com and opt out of their arbitration process by sending an email from your registered email address on Indiegogo let them know that you are opting out of the arbitration and class action waiver provisions by contacting them with the subject line, “ARBITRATION AND CLASS ACTION WAIVER OPT-OUT”.

Ignore their self-declared 30-day time limit on it. That’s probably not applicable in this particular situation given the fact that their action took place retroactively several weeks after the campaign ended.

UPDATE: CC’d from a backer:

ARBITRATION AND CLASS ACTION WAVER OPT-OUT
This is to notify Indiegogo that I am opting out of your arbitration and class action waiver process, in light of your retroactive cancellation of the Alt-Hero:Q fundraiser.  As a backer of that campaign, I intend to support whatever legal action the project chooses to pursue.

“Unusual activity”

Believe it or not, that’s Indiegogo’s lame excuse for failing to deliver as promised on a contract. We’ve also figured out what tactics they are hiding behind; they put the information in the account instead of emailing you, then delete your access to the account so you have nothing with which to hold them accountable. Too bad for them that I’m in the habit of taking detailed notes and screenshots when I don’t trust people, so we can already prove exactly what they did and where to confirm it.

 Needless to say, it looks like we’ll be moving forward on this one. We already have several alternatives, so if you’re a backer, please just be patient and hold your fire. It will probably be a week or two before we open up the campaign version 2.0.

Unless you’re VFM, in which case you know what information we want.

DC to Disney: Hold my beer

Disney: We simply can’t have pedophile partiers who make sick jokes about molesting children directing our movies. You’re fired!

DC: Hey, James Gunn is available now? You’re hired!

Bounding Into Comics has the details:

Warner Bros. confirmed to Gamespot that Gunn will write the next installment of the Suicide Squad. They told Gamespot, “It is confirmed that James Gunn is writing the next installment of the Suicide Squad franchise.”

Bleeding Cool goes full SJW

This retraction and apology is more than a little amusing, in light of Mark Siefert’s well-intentioned attempt to understand the other side and play peacemaker. But as I had originally warned him, SJWs cannot understand anything and one cannot reason with them. Delenda est.

An Apology Concerning Vox Day: We Made a Mistake
Posted by Kaitlyn Booth October 11, 2018

We at Bleeding Cool wish to issue an apology.

Bleeding Cool does not support bigotry of any kind, nor will we become a bullhorn for the bigots of the world to go off.

Today one of our writers made an error in judgement resulting in giving exposure to viewpoints that we abhor. We will do better, going forward, and that is a promise. The author admits that this was an extreme error of judgement that never should have been made and that other members of the Bleeding Cool writing staff were unaware of the contents of this article.

In a first step towards that end we are announcing, effective immediately, I am stepping into the role of Editor-in-Chief and will be implementing new review policies across the Bleeding Cool teams. Yesterday an extensive interview was run with publisher, author, and political figure Vox Day.

The intention of the interview was to investigate Day’s political and ideological views, and his operations as a publisher. But these intentions do not matter. The intent of the article and interview were poorly executed, and poorly communicated.

While the intentions of the author might have been one thing, the reality of the situation is another. Bleeding Cool would like to issue a sincere apology to everyone for the article in question.

We do not, in any way, agree with the ideology of Vox Day. We do not support divisiveness in the fan community, or in our culture at large. We do not support those that try to bring down others. We support diversity in all aspects of pop culture. We support everyone fighting the good fight against bigotry and only wish we could play a part in making not only the internet but the world a safer place for all individuals. We cannot apologize enough for the people we have offended. We cannot apologize enough for the breach of trust this has had with our readers and people within the community. We hope you’ll be willing to give us a chance to win back that trust in some capacity.

We will do better.

Read the original article here. Meanwhile, John Trent of Bounding Into Comics is celebrating his new monopoly on all the independent comics news.

Indiegogo cancels AH:Q

Your transaction has been refunded
Your transaction to ALT-HERO:Q on Indiegogo has been refunded!
Indiegogo’s Trust and Safety Team determined this campaign didn’t comply with our Terms of Use. You’ll no longer receive any perks associated with this transaction. Please visit our help center for further information on how Indiegogo protects users.

Needless to say, we’re looking into this. We’ve got everyone’s email addresses and so forth, so if we have to set up our own crowdfunding platform, we will do so. However, in light of the fact that Indiegogo has done this retroactively, we are already looking into the legal aspects of their actions. I am not yet aware of any reason, in fact, I do not even know if the scheduled payment for the campaign was delivered on schedule or not two weeks ago. I assume not, but I won’t be able to confirm that until tomorrow.

I’ve already talked to The Perfect Aryan Male, the architect of our lawsuit against GT Interactive. Suffice it to say that the band is back together!

If you’re Legal Legion of Doom and licensed in California, get in touch and join the team.

UPDATE: This lawsuit should prove educational. At first glance, it looks very similar. It’s very interesting that it was filed in Massachusetts.

Business, SJW-style

I wish Marvel Studios would hire Megan Ellison to run it:

According to The Wrap, Annapurna Pictures has run into financial difficulties as of late, culminating in the “jettisoning of two upcoming films with marquee talent” and the exit of its film division head…. Coming in December, Annapurna will be releasing the Christian Bale star vehicle “VICE,” another leftist propaganda film in which Bale plays former Vice President Dick Cheney opposite Sam Rockwell playing President Bush. The film is reported to have cost a “bloated $60 million to produce” when it should have cost only half that. Factor in marketing cost and the film hasn’t got a prayer.

“There is a financial issue going on,” a source told The Wrap. “Her dad has put a lot of money into the company and I don’t think he wants to support her behavior and what’s been going on. There are restraints — the money is not flowing.”

Annapurna also recently dropped its slated film about Fox News founder Roger Ailes just three weeks away from starting production. It had been approved for a whopping $35 million budget.

A source close to Megan Ellison says she has been making political passion projects with zero regard for financial cost or box office potential.

“She makes bad decisions,” the source said. “She wanted to chase all these expensive movies that weren’t going to make money, and she said, ‘I don’t care whether they make money.’ That’s not how you run a company.”

It is if you’re an SJW. From a Financial Times article in 2014:

She is Megan Ellison and, depending on who you talk to, she is either the saviour of an industry that has succumbed to brain-numbing comic-book movies and superhero sequels or a wealthy heiress who splashes the cash on films that don’t necessarily make financial sense.

It would appear we have the answer to that question.

Darkstream: Jordan Peterson stars as Wormtongue

From the transcript of the Darkstream:

It’s really amazing to see how someone like Jordan Peterson simply doesn’t understand that people pay attention to what you say, and that people pay attention to what you said yesterday. People pay attention to what you wrote! He seems to think that as long as you fold, spindle, and mutilate the ideas that are coming out of your mouth, as long as you pretend to be thinking very seriously, really debating with yourself and thinking very hard like you’ve never ever thought about the subject before, then you can say whatever you want. Because, you know, you don’t think you’re right, it’s just a thought experiment, it’s just an idea, just, you know, contemplating various options and throwing ideas out there. It’s total bullshit! It is from the start, it is all the way through, it is at the finish.

Let me make it clear for you: Jordan Peterson is a used car salesman, except the used car he is selling is himself. Okay? He’s not your dad, he’s not your uncle, he is somebody who is making a lot of money off of you and people like you because you’re dumb enough to fall for this guy! Look, I’m a writer, I am an editor, and I knew before I finished the first chapter of 12 Rules of Life that Jordan Peterson was an intellectual charlatan. Now, I will admit that I wasn’t aware that he was a complete lunatic until I read Maps of Meaning. I didn’t realize that there was something genuinely wrong with him until I read Maps of Meaning and I didn’t realize how totally full of bullshit he is until I watched some of his videos.

Look, when you see him pull this move, “no, I’ve never thought about this before, I’m really just working my way through the same thing that I’ve been asked about 50 times before, but I want you to think that I’m really trying to puzzle my way through this and I don’t want you to hold me accountable for anything that I say,” I mean, you should be embarrassed! You should be irritated with yourself for listening to this guy at all!

Interview with Bleeding Cool

Over the last few weeks, I was interviewed extensively by Mark Siefert and Rich Johnston of Bleeding Cool, the comics media site. It is quite literally the longest, most thorough interview I have ever read, much less participated in on either side. Bleeding Cool posted the entire interview almost entirely verbatim, including the follow-up questions and answers. It is precisely 767 percent more honest and fair than the NPR hit piece was, and demonstrates rather clearly how the Internet media puts the mainstream media to journalistic shame.

This doesn’t mean either Siefert or Johnston agree with me at all about anything. They very clearly don’t, for the most part. But they recognize that Arkhaven and Dark Legion have successfully established themselves in the comics space and that it makes no sense to simply pretend that we don’t exist. Beyond that, they observably understand that the customary SJW response is not only ineffectual, but serves to add considerable fuel to the fire that motivates us and our supporters.

In some ways it’s a debate as well as an interview; while I could offer a few objections to some of his corrections to my answers, there is little point in going down those rabbit holes. For example, I don’t view Marvel’s denial of its director of content and character development Sana Amanat’s connection to the Clinton Foundation to be conclusive or convincing given the direct relationships between the foundation, her cousin, and her two brothers. But given the in-depth investigation they clearly did into my family and heritage – which was very interesting as I previously knew nothing about my historically significant Irish ancestor – they doubtless have the ability to dig considerably deeper into that situation if they wish to do so.

But it is a fair, detailed, and extremely informative interview, which I suspect a number of people on both sides of the ideological spectrum will enjoy reading. I expect a fair number of SJWs will be outraged by the fact that Bleeding Cool acknowledged my existence at all, and when they did, failed to devote the entire interview to angrily denouncing NAZICOMICSHATE, but then, birds will fly and fish will swim too.

We no longer live in a world where we can mutually pretend that our comics don’t contain politics so we don’t have to argue about it. Politics covers everything like a rash you want to scratch even though you know that’ll make it worse. Comics are no longer a brotherhood beyond politics, and fandom is no longer sacred ground.

Vox Day has played a role in creating that world, in my opinion (which he disputes to a substantial degree in the interview below, for the record), and has also published books that I dislike, and things that are intentionally antagonistic. On the book and comics publishing front, that doesn’t bother me, at all. Have at it. It is a legitimate function of art to be disagreeable, to inspire dislike and even anger.

Because comics can in fact be dangerous, very many publishers in our history have faced struggles for distribution and placement on newstands or in stores. Day has stated that he’s had some inexplicable issues with selling his comics on Amazon. If that’s true, it’s wrong. Any distributor or retailer can refuse to carry a comic for any reason (a concept that I am personally very familiar with), and that’s perfectly fine too. But if there’s any third party or rogue employee interfering with Castalia House books or comics from being sold at Amazon when those comics are salable according to standard policies, not only are you in the wrong, but you’re also helping Vox Day, not hurting him. You’re giving him and his followers something to fight.

You won’t convince anyone that Vox Day’s politics and opinions are wrong by restricting his followers’ ability to buy his comics. Quite to the contrary. Attempting to win by restricting the publication of information (note that this is a different thing than controlling the flow of information that you yourself consume) does not put one in particularly enviable company. That’s not how to win any modern conflict, let alone a conflict based on information… which is all of them now.

I’d much rather be reading the There Will Be War series than discussing Vox Day’s politics. Or writing that post about Luis Senarens that I mentioned earlier. But politics are the core of who Vox Day is and what he talks about — for the moment — so let’s go….

Bleeding Cool: I want to start off with something that’s come up in connection to Comicsgate and events that have spun out of your disagreements with Ethan Van Sciver. Comicsgaters often say they want politics out of comics. At its core, the idea that people want comics to be escapist entertainment certainly isn’t objectionable. But you recently noted:

“Second, comics have always had political and ideological elements to them; the core problem with what the SJWs are doing in comics is less about how they are inserting their lunatic politics into the comics and more about the way in which they are ideologically policing who is permitted to produce and publish comics at Marvel, DC, Image, IDW, and other comics publishers.”

Is it possible to create superhero comics without political elements? Is “with great power comes great responsibility” a political statement?

Vox Day: Yes, it is possible to create superhero comics without political elements, but one will end up with a limited range of stories that are intrinsically unrealistic. After all, there is no way that the governments and militaries of the world would simply ignore the increased power that superheroes could offer them. “With great power comes great responsibility” is not a political statement, it is a moral statement. And it is not possible to create superhero comics without moral elements.

Read the whole novella-sized article, entitled Vox Day: Altered States of America, there.

Also, speaking of Arkhaven Comics and Chuck Dixon, I’m happy to report that CHUCK DIXON’S AVALON #2: RULEBREAKER, is now available in a gold logo edition from Arkhaven Direct, this time complete with dialogue. We’re working on getting replacement issues out to those who received what we shall euphemistically describe as “silent collector’s editions”.

UPDATE: The initial response on Twitter is, of course, entirely surprising to absolutely no one.

Smack Talk Showdown@SmackTalkShwdwn
This is disgusting. Why give this hate monger a platform?