SJW professionalism

Or, as you might suspect, the lack thereof. So, back in February, before we found our current colorist, I was contacting different colorists to see what our options are. Ethan van Sciver recommended a gentleman by the name of Bill Baumann, and I quite liked his approach to coloring so I contacted him. For some inexplicable reason, that email was posted on Twitter today.

I contacted Mr. Baumann to ask how this extraordinarily unprofessional publication of my email to him had come to be in the possession of Corey Hodgdon, and he didn’t see fit to explain himself. But Spacebunny did bring the following Facebook post to my attention; it appears that Mr. Baumann is foolishly attempting to ingratiate himself with the SJWs in the comics industry. Who knows, perhaps they will even reward him for behaving in this manner.

Of course, like all SJWs, Baumann is lying. I never said anything about being in the forefront of either Gamergate or Comicsgate; I never mentioned anything about Comicsgate and I’m not involved in it anyhow. And while I am, of course, the Leader of GamerGate, I did not see fit to mention that. I didn’t brag about anything, but I did give Mr. Baumann an accurate idea of who I am and Arkhaven stands for. The pretense that he didn’t know anything about me until he Googled it after our conversation is entirely false. I warned him that both the project and I were considered to be controversial by some in the comics industry and even told him that we had no problem with him using a pen name; he assured me that he had no problem working with us at all.

As for his over-inflated rates, he must be quite a bit cheaper these days, because the rates he quoted me didn’t seem unreasonable at all for a top-flight colorist. In fact, I was planning to take him up on coloring some covers until discovering how hopelessly unprofessional he is today. So, in order to set the record straight, here is the complete email exchange between Mr. Baumann and me, redacting only his telephone number and email address.

On 2/9/2018 5:39 AM, Bill Baumann wrote:

Heya Vox,

Thanks for the kind words. We’re going to get along a whole lot better if you call me Moose!

My dance card is pretty full these days, but I could probably fit in some covers, depending on what kind of deadlines we’re looking at. I’m in Iowa, I think seven hours behind you. You can usually catch me before I go into the office at 730am, or after 5pm local time. And I’m almost always free on the weekend. Feel free to give me a shout whenever it’s convenient for you. [telephone # redacted]

Moose-

On Feb 9, 2018, at 8:08 AM, Vox wrote:

Hey Moose,

Great talking to you this morning! I’m delighted to hear you may have some interest in working with us. Here are some examples of Cliff Cosmic’s work – we encourage the use of pen names – as well as what the colorists have done with it. This is his first pro work, so he’s very inexperienced, but I tend to like his style. I’ll be curious to know what you make of his potential and if you’d be willing to work with him.

As I mentioned in our conversation, I’d like to know your page rates for interiors and covers, as well as what interior scenario is of the most interest to you.

Best regards,

Vox

On 2/9/2018 6:45 PM, Bill Baumann wrote:

Hey Vox, I really enjoyed our talk this morning. You’ve got some exciting things going on, and I look forward to being a part of it all.

I definitely like Cliff’s work. It’s a little rough here and there, but he really has potential. The animation style coloring on the first piece is the type of look that I’d go for, more hard-edged coloring on the figures, which a painted style/look for the backgrounds. I did something similar in the past, and it turned out really sweet.

I’ll quote you my DC page rates, which is $250 for a cover, $150 for an interior page. I think I’d rather just stick with a flat rate, if that’s okay with you. I think it would be less hassle for everyone. 

Would this be a monthly book? The standard 22 pages? 

Moose-

On Feb 9, 2018, at 11:51 AM, Vox wrote:

Hey Moose,

I’m glad to hear you think Cliff’s work is sound. It will be a more or less monthly book, assuming Cliff can maintain his pace. We usually do 23 pages.

We don’t have the budget yet to meet those rates on the interiors, but I will definitely want to buy a cover or two from you. And that’s good to know for when we plan our summer Kickstarter. Given that we haven’t gone to print yet and we don’t know what our sales range will be yet, it’s probably too soon for us to be working with top notch guys like you and Ethan.

But we’ll get there soon, I think.

Thanks very much,

Vox

On 2/9/2018 7:16 PM, Bill Baumann wrote:

Sounds good. I’ll be here when you need me.

M-

I’m with her

Her 2020 candidacy, anyhow. Hilary Clinton’s 2016 campaign was one of the most amusing I’ve ever seen. But I think a reprise would be even funnier.

The messages convey a sense of urgency, and are coming with increasing frequency. They are short, focused reactions to the latest “outrage” committed by President Trump.

Some end by asking for money, some urge participation in protests. All read as if they are sent from the official headquarters of the resistance.

Hillary Clinton is up to something.

Five times in the last month alone, she sent e-mails touting her super PAC’s role in combating President Trump. Most seized on headline events, such as the family-separation issue at the southern border…. And the day after Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement, Clinton introduced a newly minted resistance partner. Called Demand Justice, it promises to protect “reproductive rights, voting rights and access to health care” by keeping Senate Democrats united in opposing any conservative Trump nominee.

The instant, in-house nature of Demand Justice was reflected by the name of its executive director: Brian Fallon, Clinton’s campaign press secretary. In truth, Fallon’s role doesn’t tell us something we didn’t know. Onward Together, formed in May of 2017, is a Clinton 2020 campaign vehicle in waiting.

Run, Hilary, run! Do it for the glory of the God-Emperor! Don’t forget to check out the back.

Good news from Thailand

The story of the Thai soccer team trapped 800 meters underground is pretty incredible. Two of the boys are now out, so here’s to hoping the rescuers are able to safely extricate the rest of the team.

First two members of Thai soccer team are OUT of the cave: Official reveals news after threat of rain forced divers to begin mission to rescue children and coach from flooded tunnels

  • The first two schoolboys were rescued safely after divers executed a carefully constructed rescue mission  
  • The treacherous rescue operation to save 12 young Thai footballers from a flooded cave begun this morning
  • Eighteen divers have been sent in to complete the mission as officials said Sunday was ‘D-Day’ for rescue
  • The young footballers and their coach have been trapped in flooded caves in northern Thailand for 16 days   
  • As soon as the boys exit the cave they will be airlifted by helicopter or driven by ambulance to local hospital 

A Thai Navy SEAL has already died bringing in oxygen and other supplies. It’s good to know his sacrifice wasn’t in vain.

UPDATE: four of the boys are out now.

The inevitable conclusion

The discussion on dysgenics and failure migration, which naturally circled back to the conceptual distinction between posterity and the proposition nation, was usefully clarifying for several readers.

Garuna said: The true America really is dead. Just look at all the “nationalists” here pushing the proposition nation meme.

lynnjynh9315 added: I think this is Vox’s point: American identity is dead. Even without non-whites, there will still be Anglo-America, Scots-America, German-America, Scand-America, Cajun-America, etc. This is the source of the problem. Even whites are not homogeneous. The United States is dead, it’s just a matter of what new nations the fragments will form into. No one group is going to win it all.

Both observations are correct. That has been my consistent theme since 2004.

Tibetan religious tradition has it that when the Dalai Lama dies, the Buddha of Compassion leaves his body and incarnates in the body of a young child. The monks immediately go out in search of this blessed child, and when they find him – as they inevitably do – he is tested by a group of high lamas and enthroned as the reincarnation of his successor.

Imagine, however, if the lamas refused to recognize that the Dalai Lama was, in fact, dead. Suppose that instead of going in search of the Buddha’s new carnal home, they hooked the corpse up to a life support machine and waited patiently for the Holy One to awake and rise up. It’s not hard to see that they would be doomed to disappointment, and furthermore, would fail to find the next Dalai Lama as well.

This is precisely our dilemma today, for America, as envisioned by the Founding Fathers, is dead. By every measure, large and small, the original vision of limited government by, for and of the people has been folded, spindled and mutilated beyond recognition. When one reads the Constitution, one simply marvels at the distinct difference between its words and our present reality.

America is dead. Let us go, then, and find her.

Melting the mic

It’s more than a little amusing that the SJWs in comics who hate the Alt-Right so much don’t even have the courage to actually address the real Alt-Right in their attacks on it. They prefer to go after the likes of Ethan van Sciver and Diversity & Comics and call relative moderates like them “Alt-Right” because they are so afraid of us that they don’t even dare to directly engage.

Dusty Good@DangerDusty
News flash for the Alt-Right comix trolls. The industry/hobby/craft doesn’t want or need you. You’re not welcome here. The cosplay girls won’t fuck you, the pros absolutely hate you, your fellow fans despise you. Go ahead and continue to circle jerk each other on KS.

Dusty Good@DangerDusty
Oh we raised $300,000 on KS! We’re legit! Nobody worth a shit cares. Even the KKK has financial backing … in fact I bet that’s the driving force behind the crowd funding!

Dusty Good@DangerDusty
Love making the Alt-Right trolls dance. They can’t help themselves; they’re idiots. They don’t realize that the more they respond, the more they retweet and tag, the bigger my reach grows. @EthanVanSciver and @DiversityAndCmx goons are the best PR free can buy!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Dusty Good@DangerDusty
Looks like Audio Henchmen is coming back full time. They may fire me from the site. But I still own the rights to my podcast and I’ve got a contract. Who wants to hear me melt a mic against the Alt-Right comic fans?

Dusty Good @DangerDusty
A podcast for all those folks in CYBERland feeling FROGgy and anyone who likes to hear me flap my JAWs about all you rule BREAKERS. BEWARE. The ALT-RIGHT need not apply. We plan on practicing freedom of speech to its fullest extent.

These sad little gamma males have absolutely no idea what is going to hit them soon. The bigger his reach grows? He has all of 440 followers on Twitter. And while I’m pleased that Cyberfrog and Jawbreakers have managed to replicate Alt★Hero’s crowdfunding success, and in doing so, prove that it was not a fluke, that is literally the first and smallest step that Arkhaven has taken in our combined arms offensive on the SJW-held territory of the comics industry.

We know the pros at Marvel and DC hate us. We don’t care. We don’t want the fat cosplay girls, we have real models. We know the SJW comics media won’t cover us. We don’t need the coverage. We know SJWs in the mainstream media will write hit pieces about us. We don’t talk to them. We know Disney and Warner Bros won’t work with us. We don’t want to work with them. We’re not here to join an SJW-infested industry that is dying by more than 10 percent every year, we’re here to replace it with something new, better, and more entertaining.

Two weeks ago I signed an agreement with a movie producer. We’ve since had a number of meetings with various organizations and I can state with some confidence that we will be skipping the whole “option” phase and go directly to making the movies and/or television shows ourselves in partnership with people who know what they are doing. Some of these scenarios involve crowdfunding and backer participation, others do not. We are also discussing the creation of a major new comics imprint with one or two partners and are in the process of completing Chuck Dixon’s Avalon #1, after which we will launch our comic store campaign with the assistance of the VFM and the Dark Legion.

There is more, of course, but that will do for now. And now, for the punchline. To absolutely no one’s surprise, it took all of one week for Brave Sir Dusty to bravely sacrifice his principles, take his nuts off the chopping block, and beg for his job back.

Dusty Good@DangerDusty
I’m better than this and bigger than this, so I apologise to @EthanVanSciver  and @DiversityAndCmx  for my childish and unprofessional comments and any shade that was thrown on @ComicCrusaders  because of my social media posts.

Dusty Good@Dusty Good
I have requested my previous position back with @ComicCrusaders and if accepted will make sure that an incident like this never happens again.

But is his room clean?

A reader writes:

20 years ago, when faced with adversity or challenge, I may have given up. I did many times. Raised by a gamma and public school, I was taught too much backward bullshit.

Then I started reading Vox Popoli.

This week I had a serious medical situation. The thought to feel sorry for myself never crossed my mind. Business, family, friends, projects. I was seriously still trying to get out of bed to take on the world. I kept asking myself: okay, how will I work around this? What can I accomplish?

Between eviscerating his enemies and leaving their charred bones on the battlefield, the Dark Lord of the Evil Legion of Evil occasionally makes time to inspire people too. The horror!

I have always felt that we Dark Lords are woefully underestimated. I mean, consider Sauron, for example. Has anyone ever given any thought to how charismatic he must have been, how inspiring, to not only convince whole kingdoms, whole races, to support his vision for Middle Earth, but even convince some of his most avowed enemies to abandon their fellows and throw in with him?

Quarterfinals Day 2

England is the better team, but Sweden is solid at the back. Russia shouldn’t be able to play with Croatia, but given all the upsets in this World Cup, who can say anymore.

At the end of the first half, England is up 1-0 and controlling the game easily. They could have had a second goal if Sterling could either a) finish one-on-ones or b) pass the ball to his open teammates.

And it’s over. 2-0 England. Gareth Southgate has clearly had his team working hard on penalties and set plays.

Dysgenics and failure migration

Be very careful before casually throwing out that “seeking a better life”  rhetoric to justify immigration. Because you’re granting entry to the vast majority of the global population with that rationale:

The victory of Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) in the recent Mexican presidential election likely means an increase in immigration to the United States. AMLO has called immigration a “human right that we will defend” and will probably continue the Mexican government’s meddling in American affairs. AMLO has also reportedly promised to demand “respect” from President Trump and the United States, which probably means less cooperation in stopping Central American migrants from moving through the country.  If Mexico continues its decline into lawlessness or goes into recession, immigration from Mexico itself will sharply increase.

The ironic result of all this: the worse Mexico performs, the more powerful that nation becomes. Many nominal American citizens believe their first loyalty is with Mexico. Though they don’t want to live there, they don’t want to surrender their identity. Exporting its underclass to the U.S. spares Mexico and other Latin American countries the need for internal reform. As Tucker Carlson recently put it: “America is now Mexico’s social safety net, and that’s a very good deal for the Mexican ruling class”.

Furthermore, Mexico and other Latin American countries continue to benefit from the endless flow of remittances from the U.S. America is literally paying welfare benefits to illegal aliens (if only for their anchor babies), some portion of which they then proceed to send home.

This phenomenon should be termed “Failure Migration.” The lower a people’s level of civilizational accomplishment, the more that people is able to expand its influence. This paradox is another example of how the modern social and political system has a destructive and even dysgenic effect.

As I’ve been pointing out recently, it’s going to be interesting to see how the non-Posterity US citizens attempt to thread this particular needle. Why should their German, Dutch, Italian, Irish, and Jewish ancestors have had the right to seek a better life that they are denying to Mexicans, Somalis, Libyans, Syrians, and Iranians today?

Average IQs are plunging across the West, most significantly in the USA and Sweden. This is more than societal self-destruction, it is civilizational suicide.

Dragon Awards 2018

Here are my recommendations for the 2018 Dragon Awards. In the comic book category, note that they want the series name first, then the issue and publisher. And while it might seem a bit much to put John C. Wright’s novels forward in both categories, frankly, I defy you to find a better science fiction novel published in the last year than Superluminary: The Lords of Creation or a better fantasy novel than Tithe to Tartarus. The man is simply the greatest science fiction author alive, and I say that despite being a hard-core fan of both Neal Stephenson and China Mieville.

The rules follow. Be sure to get your nominations in before the deadline. I’ll post a reminder as we get closer to it.

Once you have submitted a nomination for a category you cannot change it. If you are not sure about a category, then leave it blank. You can come back at a later date and add nominations for any category you leave blank using this same form. Make sure your name (First and Last), and the email address match your original submission. No need to fill in your original nominations, the form will append the new nominations to your prior list. Do not nominate a book for more than one category. If the same book is added more than once, all your nominations will be null.

Nomination Deadline: July 20, 2018. We encourage you to get your nominations in early.

Best Science Fiction Novel
Superluminary: The Lords of Creation
John C. Wright

Best Fantasy Novel (Including Paranormal)
Tithe to Tartarus
John C. Wright

Best Young Adult/Middle Grade Novel
Young Man’s War
Rod Walker

Best Military Science Fiction or Fantasy Novel
Wardogs Inc. #1 Battlesuit Bastards
G.D. Stark

Best Alternate History Novel
Hammer of the Witches
Kai Wai Cheah

Best Media Tie-In Novel   
Before the Storm (World of Warcraft)
Christie Golden

Best Horror Novel    
The Death and Life of Schneider Wrack
Nate Crowley

Best Comic Book
Alt-Hero
Alt-Hero #2 Rebel’s Cell, Arkhaven Comics

Best Graphic Novel
Rebel Dead Revenge
Gary Kwapisz, Dark Legion Comics

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy TV Series, TV or Internet
Stranger Things
Netflix

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Movie
Incredibles 2
Brad Bird

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy PC / Console Game
Kingdom Come: Deliverance
Warhorse Studios

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Mobile Game
Hearthstone
Blizzard

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Board Game
The 7th Continent
Serious Poulp

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Miniatures / Collectible Card / Role-Playing Game
Starship Samurai
Plaid Hat Games

Vaccinated sterility

It is becoming abundantly clear that the material costs of vaccines now considerably exceed even their theoretical benefits:

Birth rates in the United States have recently fallen. Birth rates per 1000 females aged 25–29 fell from 118 in 2007 to 105 in 2015. One factor may involve the vaccination against the human papillomavirus (HPV). Shortly after the vaccine was licensed, several reports of recipients experiencing primary ovarian failure emerged. This study analyzed information gathered in National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which represented 8 million 25-to-29-year-old women residing in the United States between 2007 and 2014. Approximately 60{f82a6d9b5e5cff01d97267394322fca158507b75156f51cfa613d94c4c7ae29a} of women who did not receive the HPV vaccine had been pregnant at least once, whereas only 35{f82a6d9b5e5cff01d97267394322fca158507b75156f51cfa613d94c4c7ae29a} of women who were exposed to the vaccine had conceived. For married women, 75{f82a6d9b5e5cff01d97267394322fca158507b75156f51cfa613d94c4c7ae29a} who did not receive the shot were found to conceive, while only 50{f82a6d9b5e5cff01d97267394322fca158507b75156f51cfa613d94c4c7ae29a} who received the vaccine had ever been pregnant. Using logistic regression to analyze the data, the probability of having been pregnant was estimated for females who received an HPV vaccine compared with females who did not receive the shot. Results suggest that females who received the HPV shot were less likely to have ever been pregnant than women in the same age group who did not receive the shot. 

All of this to try to reduce the incidence of a very widespread virus that is so non-lethal that it annually kills one out of every 5,575 women who have it. I wonder how many young women will be willing to be vaccinated against HPV once they have a better understanding of how it will lower their chance of ever having children.