Sex Trafficking at ComicCon

Neil Gaiman turning out to be a potentially criminal creep doesn’t surprise me in the least; I read Sandman after the success of the Alt-Hero campaign made it clear we were getting into comics. But this news from Fandom Pulse was definitely eyebrow-raising:

Fandom has been rocked by a new scandal at San Diego Comic-Con involving a human trafficking sting set up by the California Attorney General. According to the California Department of Justice Website, Attorney General Rob Bonta announced a sting at San Diego Comic-Con, where police and other government agencies set honeytraps for men looking to pay for sex at the convention. Fourteen different men were arrested as sex buyers, though the task force didn’t mention that any of the actual traffickers had been brought to justice. The state also claims ten young women were liberated from their enslavers who had been forced into performing these acts.

“Unfortunately, sex traffickers capitalize on large-scale events such as Comic-Con to exploit their victims for profit,” Attorney General Rob Bonta said. “These arrests send a clear message to potential offenders that their criminal behavior will not be tolerated. We are grateful to all our dedicated partners involved in the San Diego Human Trafficking Task Force, whose collaboration has been invaluable. We take great pride in our office’s commitment to uplifting vulnerable Californians by offering them assistance and guidance when they need it most.”

The joint task force included San Diego Sheriff Kelly Martinez, San Diego Police Chief Wahl, HSI special agents Christopher Davis, and NCIS special agent Nicholas Carter.

I understand that a lot of my readers are far more interested in US politics, war, economics, and religion than they are in what sometimes must appear to be a tempest in a fairly small teapot. But this reluctance to pay attention to the details of the high ground in the cultural war is one reason that Clown World has successfully managed to subvert Western civilization in general and the USA in particular.

I’ve never watched a Mr. Beast video. But tens of millions of children have, and they are influenced by the hedonistic, secular, and ultimately satanic philosophy being pushed by him. I don’t own a single Neil Gaiman book, comic, or movie, and few of you probably read him either, but he’s one of the best-selling, most highly-awarded authors of the last forty years.

If you don’t fight a cultural war, you will lose it, and then you will lose your culture. That’s why these things matter, even if you don’t happen to care very much about that particular battleground. Because they certainly do; here is but one of many similar examples.

NG’s work means so much to me that I’m existing like one big, walking sunk cost fallacy atm. There really are no other comparable authors to me personally when it comes to inspiration to write, learning to love reading, escapism… good quotes. And, until recently, belief that there are some genuinely good people of the celebrity kind still. The Netflix adaptation of my beloved comic Sandman has been, and continues to be, one of my most intense hyperfixations and sources of joy in an otherwise bleak world. And I know so well that the reason the series became a reality and is so good is precisely because of NG’s tight involvement.

The Sandman adaptation is terrible, by the way. Literally unwatchable. Spacebunny and I didn’t even make it to the second episode. The Gaiman cult is like a sad and twisted parody of the Tolkien cult, but that doesn’t mean they deserve their collective treatment at the hands of their contemptuous, contemptible idol.

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He Never Had a Shot

Given the mainstream media’s determination to maintain its wall of silence even as Neil Gaiman cancels his planned public events, it seems appropriate to ensure that Mr. Tubcuddle is not allowed to simply avoid being forced to answer for his alleged actions.

One of Neil Gaiman’s public speaking appearances has been cancelled, according to the following information provided by a writer for Tortoise Media, which first reported about the sexual assault allegations he’s now facing, with a police report to back them up. So it looks like the reports have indeed had some negative effect on Gaiman’s career and reputation, though as some may have noticed, any coverage by the comics specialty press has been very muted, and last time I looked, comic-centric sources like Bleeding Cool, Newsarama, Comics Beat, and even Popverse haven’t said anything at all. Only Bleeding Fool, CBR, and Comic Book Movie seem to have reported anything. Most peculiar that the “believe all women” liberal establishment in comicdom has apparently chosen to ignore this potentially serious issue.

On Sigma Game, there are a pair of posts on the subject of Neil Gaiman that I believe help put the situation in context, one an analysis of his “close friendship” with Tori Amos and the other in response to an upset “leave Neil alone!” defender. And one thing you won’t want to miss on Thursday is Arkhaven Nights. You definitely will not want to miss that!

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A Tale of Two Crowdfunds

There are two Arkhaven-related crowdfunding campaigns that kicked off just yesterday. The first is the second volume of Ascendant: Star-Spangled Squadron from our friends at Autarch. We’re relaunching the entire series on Arktoons in two weeks, so this is a good way to support our partners in the comics industry.

The second campaign is, of course, THE HIDDEN EMPEROR by Jon Del Arroz. Arkhaven will be publishing the retail edition of this graphic novel, and it will be featured on Arktoons as well, as part of the OVERMIND series that will be launching there soon. Mike Murphy, Razorfist, the illustrator, and I were all on Arkhaven Nights with Jon last night to launch the crowdfund, which by the end of the stream had already passed its initial objective.

Ayla Rin, Agent Of The Terran Imperium, returns to face a new sinister plot against the Imperium! Something is amiss with the Emperor of Mankind. Ayla Rin discovers he’s been replaced by a clone who’s intentionally sabotaging the Imperium on behalf of the evil Scorpio Alliance! But worse, the Scorpio Alliance knows she knows. And that means blackmail. Ayla is forced to find a secret superweapon that could unleash devastation on the Imperium. Fans of Valerian, The Incal, and Saga epic science fiction comics will love THE HIDDEN EMPEROR! 

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An Acting Challenge

Today’s MIDNIGHT’S WAR: NIGHTSTREETS is up, and frankly, I think Synthia has a point. It is tough to be sexy with an axe. Unless, of course, you’re Kingsguard…

Speaking of Arktoons, I’m happy to report that the new size and printing quality of the color edition of GHOST OF THE BADLANDS has passed review and we will be making it available at NDM and Amazon as soon as Razor pulls the trigger. We’re going to be redoing AH in the 8.5 x 11 size, and if it proves to be popular enough, may do the same for some of our other series. But our minimum size will be 8 x 10.88, replacing the old 7 x 10 often utilized by the legacy publishers.

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