The high profile victimization of both Peter Simeti and Edwin Boyette helped to fill a narrative hole in the ComicsGate mythology. The online harassment lobbed at trans and female creators left the general public extremely wary or largely turned off by the idea of associating with the group or even engaging with their ideas. Having two prominent figures harassed in a very public and dangerous manner who are at least tangentially related to the group provided a convenient excuse for some of their actions, even if Simeti’s involvement was through remaining neutral or from circumstantial evidence. Ethan Van Sciver’s immediate push to blame the anti-ComicsGate crowd and to highlight these incidents the moment they happened was crucial to fulfilling this role. Now the argument could be made that their actions were bad because they had to deal with this level of engagement from their enemies. Perhaps more importantly, they could position themselves as the real victims in their campaign. The only downside is that Peter Simeti had still not claimed to be ComicsGate and, thus, the only ComicsGate publishers were either run by a devout Christian Nationalist or were indie groups crowdfunded specifically by their fans. Regardless of how often people like Van Sciver would loudly proclaim their movement was massive, this severely limited their audiences. Crowdfunded campaigns exceeded their goals, sure, but the idea was to branch out and grow bigger. For this, they still needed a mainstream outlet friendly to their cause.
Dynamite
In July of 2020, a Twitter user pointed out that Dynamite Entertainment’s publisher Nick Barrucci made a surprising appearance on a ComicsGate stream (@Sjwspiderman, 2020). The company itself was famous for publishing comics like The Boys, James Bond, Game of Thrones, John Wick, Red Sonja, and Vampirella, so there was a much larger audience than that of the indie publisher Alterna. The prospect of a publisher cozying up to a group widely known for their hateful attacks left many uneasy and others angry. Comic book fans who opposed ComicsGate flooded Twitter and other social media sites to let it be known that this course of events needed to be stopped. This only grew louder when Dynamite launched their own crowdfunding campaign for a Vengeance of Vampirella variant cover (Jackson, 2020). Dynamite had a history of crowdfunding variant covers for their comics, so this would require little-to-no attention for most, except this time they featured the character Cecil from the indie comic Cash Grab by writer Cecil Jones and artist Donal DeLay. Cash Grab is a comic largely funded by the ComicsGate community, but the real reason for the outrage is that both Jones and Delay have a long history of awful behavior online, including several racist or sexist tweets (Delay, 2020; Jones, 2022). Jones’ association with ComicsGate, and Ethan Van Sciver in particular, did little to quell the growing frustration creators and fans had with Dynamite. Almost immediately after these events were made public, resignations poured in (Jackson, 2020).
Several of the high profile talent behind comics like Red Sonja and Pathfinder made public statements on their way out just as heavy metal band GWAR removed their own comic from the company (Lovett, 2020). Things were taking a downward turn, and, in response, Dynamite decided to release a statement from Publisher/CEO Nick Barrucci as they ended their commitment to the Cecil variant cover stating they “didn’t think the cover would be so polarizing (Lovett, 2020).” Many creators shared their surprise that a mainstream publisher would risk being associated with a group widely known for their hateful tactics. Writer Karla Pacheco spoke to Comicbook.com about this fear in detail:
"The final line for me was, I think, two weeks ago. That was just when screenshots were being posted of Nick Barrucci being on Comicsgate podcast, and apparently paying to get his comments promoted on a Comicsgate podcast. I was just like, 'Yeah, I'm good. I'm done.'" (Lovett, 2020).
This was, unfortunately, not the first time that Dynamite had made Pacheco uncomfortable. Earlier in the year, Barrucci gave the keynote address at an annual ComicsPro industry summit where some familiar themes seemed to appear on the subject of culture wars (Lovett, 2020). Before we dig too far into this, I think it’s relevant to discuss what Barrucci had to say on the subject of being a young fan.
“I made new friends at the comic store because it was a haven where I could talk to people about comics and to get excited for when I would have more money to buy more comics and this fostered a community in the shop.
There are sliding doors that happen in life. Here’s mine. My parents sent me to a private and elite high school, and it sucked. I was the nerd. I read comics. I didn’t like sports. I wore hand-me-down clothes. Oh, and my name was Nicola, not endearing. High School really sucked. But I was able to get through it all with some friends and the comics and heroes I loved. Barry Allen, Matt Murdock, Hal Jordan, Prince Namor and others.” (MacDonald, 2020)
Barrucci’s experience in high school mirrors many young comic book fans, down to finding some of the only solace available through the fictional four color worlds presented by Marvel, DC, and others. This isolating experience acts as an inroad for small communities to form. Comic book shops, early internet message boards, and fan conventions were some of the only places these groups found that felt like home. Barrucci underlines this concept when discussing the relationship between publishers and retailers later on, stating:
“We are family. We can argue, but we need to find the middle ground and work together. And that means not always getting 100% of what we want.” (MacDonald, 2020).
Barrucci is aware of the collaborative and restorative nature that having a community, especially one built by and for outsiders, can be for those that are in need. This intense relationship between consumers, fictional media, and corporations is what fosters the feelings of deep connection with the material and the sincerely felt betrayal if any element of this triad is changed or damaged. The downside to such strong correlations like this is that when change, like with GamerGate, includes representing or adding more people to the family, then the outrage is directed at any alterations. This is particularly harmful when those same changes are the ones that would bring in other outsiders, regardless of their vulnerability or similarities in circumstance to the original members. This is, in part, why it is alarming to see Dynamite be supportive of ComicsGate or Barrucci’s comments further in his keynote address about cancel culture.
“I’m going to say something that may come across as too blunt, but feel it needs to be said. The overwhelming majority of retailers are communicative and are up for discussions. At times, there is a retail minority that are loud and the equivalent to “keyboard cops,” and they may not realize it, but they border on bullying. They prefer cancel culture over discussion and understanding and mutual cooperation…
Cancel Culture for some has also allowed politics and personal views to affect the comics you order or the experience your fans have at your store. We need to be open to everything. We need to service everyone.” (MacDonald, 2020)
Barrucci’s pleas for understanding and acceptance are, on the surface, admirable. Digging a bit deeper, however, this reveals what is known as the balance fallacy. This occurs when two sides of an argument are assumed to have equal or comparable value without regard for merits. In this instance, Barrucci wants it to be clear that those taking a stand against Christian nationalists like Vox Day or outright harassers like Richard C. Meyer and Ethan Van Sciver are the problem. When Barrucci claims Cancel Culture is stifling creativity within the marketplace, he is stating this while a group is actively campaigning against diversity. Their stated goals relate to apolitical storytelling, but we’ve already discussed in exhaustive detail how this actually means only their specific form of politics is acceptable.
The argument against Cancel Culture is also faulty in that it doesn’t actually exist. For instance, the idea of not associating with a person or a brand that is against one’s own ideals is foundational to the ComicsGate community. They are loudly demanding changes to accommodate their personal beliefs and, failing that, have decided to make their own books instead. This is a basic principle of a free market, capitalist society, which is why it is so important for ComicsGate to make it seem that the comic book industry is failing. If comics are making more money than ever before, then it invalidates their entire stance. The market system would be fulfilling its function. For their narratives to work, they need to both be seen as the victims and the ones trying to save the comic book industry from going against its own financial interests.
The other main problem with the idea of Cancel Culture is that the consequences of being cancelled never seem to have extremely long lasting effects. Famously cancelled comedians like Louis C.K. or political journalists like Mark Halperin still have lucrative careers even though they may not have the same status they once did. For many, the idea of facing consequences, regardless of how effective, is the most horrific element, but, like how Chuck Dixon is not guaranteed a job regardless of how much he has written in the past, having a specific job or a specific form of entertainment is not a human right. Barrucci or other critics can claim this is a matter of free speech being shut down, but this reveals that they fundamentally don’t understand how free speech within America works and that the stated goal is to abolish the free speech of any that criticize them.
Dynamite had gone through this before, including from ComicsGate. During the protests in the aftermath of the George Floyd’s murder at the hands of a police officer, Dynamite had included some of their comics in a bundle that was about and by persons of color (Lovett, 2020). Money raised from this bundle went to charities like The Bail Project to help those needing to meet bail to be reunited with their families. Many in the ComicsGate community were angered by their involvement. This is possibly due to Dynamite having previously supported high profile members of ComicsGate, such as when they commissioned Ethan Van Sciver to produce variant covers using his creator-owned characters and Dynamite staples.
This event, in particular, brought new focus on Barrucci when Van Sciver himself took to YouTube in the aftermath of the Cecil variant cover scandal to detail how the CEO of Dynamite had been secretly helping him for years, but kept it quiet to protect the publisher (@Renfamous, 2020). During the video, Van Sciver repeatedly mentions the meetings the two men had and the help he received learning everything he could about publishing before stating that his working relationship with the company was over in response to how they handled the criticism of working with ComicsGate. This, if true, would represent both the largest comic publisher willing to, at least implicitly, promote ComicsGate, and also the first time a publisher was completely rebuked after showing support. Ethan Van Sciver cut ties with someone who was no longer useful, just like what happened with Edwin Boyette or even Moose Baumann, who walked away from coloring a comic for Van Sciver and found ComicsGate supporters attacking him and making fun of his wife’s cancer diagnosis (Baumann, 2018). Van Sciver’s parasitic approach to relationships keeps ending with a complete denouncement of the other party, except in this particular instance it left ComicsGate without a major publisher once again.
Mark Waid
This brings us back to “cum dumpster aficionado” Richard C. Meyer. In 2015, years before ComicsGate made its name and loads of cash, Meyer was able to successfully crowdfund a comic series known as Jawbreakers (Polo, 2018). The series itself isn’t that important, but it lays the groundwork for a hilarious string of events. First, it should be noted that Jawbreakers just made its funding goal, which is a far cry from how ComicsGate projects, specifically under Meyer, would perform later. The fact that before Meyer’s notoriety was firmly established he was just barely able to raise $3,500 brings into sharp focus a monetary incentive for why pushing ComicsGate was so important for him on an individual level. The money raised for this comic is applaudable and many would hope to get even a fraction of that for some of their projects, but it’s nothing compared to the more than $400,000 from a Jawbreakers book drawn by Malin and with covers by Van Sciver that Meyer was able to raise with ComicsGate support. Even after Meyer’s falling out with his chosen community, which we will get to a little later, he was still able to pull in over $106,000 for a single project (Indiegogo, n.d.).
With an immense amount of funding behind a single book, Meyer now had to focus on distribution. That’s where Antarctic Press, a small publisher known for satirical political comics from both sides of the spectrum, suddenly becomes useful. The two parties reached an agreement where Antarctic Press would publish and distribute Meyer’s book, with the profits being split between the two (Polo, 2018). The announcement of this partnership drew immediate pushback from several retailers and prominent comic book professionals. Some of the comic shop owners refused to carry the book altogether, so Meyer decided to tweet the names and addresses of the stores, causing a bombardment of negative reviews from those opposed to this practice. Unfortunately, that was just the beginning of the story.
Mark Waid, a comic writer famous for his runs on The Avengers, The Flash, Justice League, Captain America, X-Men, Archie, and many more of the most famous characters of comics, wrote a post on a Facebook where he detailed calling Antarctic Press to leave a message inquiring if they were aware of Meyer’s online behavior (Baker-Whitelaw, 2021). Shortly after, Antarctic Press announced they would no longer publish Jawbreakers. In the announcement, they specifically point out the blurred lines between art and artist when it comes to this comic and the difficulty with which they made their decision. Essentially, Meyer was too much of a potential problem for them to risk a business relationship. Unfortunately, Meyer did not see it this way.
Taking to Twitter, Meyer publicly accused Waid of harassing Antarctic Press into dropping the title, specifically claiming he received a call from the owner who was crying and begging forgiveness because he couldn’t handle the bullying that Waid directed toward him (Baker-Whitaw, 2021). Whether or not this is true, it’s interesting to see Meyer’s reaction to online abuse considering the legions of fans that followed him and Ethan Van Sciver into doing the exact same things. Meyer went further, though, and shared a post from Reddit and 4Chan that claimed C. B. Cebulski from Marvel had received numerous angry emails from Antarctic Press threatening legal action over Mark Waid’s conduct (Polo, 2018). Supposedly, Waid threatened physical violence against the company for publishing Meyer’s book. All of this is unsubstantiated and Antarctic Press actually publicly denied ever contacting anyone at Marvel over anything to do with Meyer. The book itself was even published, but from the new ComicsGate publisher started by Meyer called Splatto Comics. Overall, this would be just another incidence of ComicsGate’s squandered opportunities due to their own actions if not for what came immediately after.
Nearly 4 months after the public back-and-forth between the two, Richard C. Meyer sued Mark Waid for not only the intimidation of Antarctic Press, but also for defamation (Polo, 2018). According to the complaint, Waid damaged Meyer’s career by characterizing him as racist, continually harassing minorities, and associated with white supremacists- and if he’s wondering why someone would do something like that, I have a few episodes of this show I would like to play for him. His complaint included that these assertions caused Meyer to miss out on opportunities to appear at conventions or search for new talent, which is why he was demanding a jury trial and damages in excess of $75,000. The issue quickly galvanized both sides of the community, with crowdfunding campaigns started to fund the legal battles. Waid took to his website and across social media to explain how the lawsuit represented not just standing up for himself, but for all women, trans people, queer people, and people of color who work in the comic book industry.
The legal battle would continue until 2020 when a joint statement was released stating that Meyer had voluntarily dismissed the lawsuit (Zaid, 2020). Part of Meyer’s argument is that the lawsuit came about due to Jawbreakers losing out on a publishing deal and since the book was later published and COVID-19 significantly impacted both the industry and the world, there was no reason to continue in a legal setting. This is all true, and good on Meyer for the dismissal, but I also think it does a disservice to our show if we don’t look into any other reasons this might have happened.
When we started this series by detailing the events leading up to and including GamerGate, there was a reason I wanted to heavily focus on some of the front runners like Milo Yiannopoulos or Mike Cernovich. Throughout the onslaught of harassment, the inevitable benefactors of attention were those who could speak loudly and with enough vitriol to gather support. This had the effect of both normalizing this behavior within, and to an extent, surrounding the community, but it also meant that these people were primed as front runners of the movement, and, to some, demagogues. With the rise of this specific type of attention economy came opportunities for actual financial gain. Afterall, if they hold the minds and at least some respect of thousands of people, how hard could it be to also earn their dollars? When discussing these specific events it is important to remember that the currency they barter with is both attention and monetary. When criticized for what they say, they always position themselves as underdogs fighting censorship, and, therefore, are deserving of more attention and more money for the fight.
Richard C. Meyer, Ethan Van Sciver, and others in ComicsGate are not quiet about how much money matters to their movement. When they flaunt how much a particular project made via a crowdfunding campaign, they use that as a way of validating the emotions of their followers. The comic book community outside of ComicsGate is failing in their eyes and any money that is made is always seen to be lesser than that of a ComicsGate project. The logic they use is that if you donate to our projects, then you are right and can use the act itself as evidence of such. There are many flaws to this thinking, with perhaps the biggest being that there are hundreds more titles of mainstream comics as there are ComicsGate projects which means the pool of money is split much more. In addition, most publishers don’t crowdfund all of their projects and instead operate on a smaller scale budget with much clearer oversight to how that money is actually spent, which is rarely seen in ComicsGate. This brings the focus, though, back around to GamerGate and Meyer. The lawsuit filed against Waid garnered lots of attention and fulfilled a deep emotional need for many ComicsGate followers. Waid was seen as the leftist comics writer who was always inserting politics into his books. Now ComicsGate had a much more direct fight against a perceived enemy. With this more direct fight comes more direct participation, and, therefore, fundraising. This is how the feelings of victimization and vindication collide.
Jon Del Arroz
When dealing with those who have a need to fulfill a victimhood narrative it is easy to note that the most beneficial elements at their disposal is subtlety and cleverness. It can’t be obvious how little power you have or how little anyone is trying to oppress you. They need to be seen as both the ones who can turn the tide, but not without the support in some way of their fans. This is a delicate line to walk because if you fall further to one side there is no need for your followers to support you because you’re just as ineffectual as they tend to be, and if you fall further on the other side you shouldn’t need their support. That balance is kept through clever use of subtlety to present yourself as oppressed in very specific instances.
Our next subject, Jon Del Arroz, lacks this ability.
Part of why I kept coverage of this man to the very end is because, while he shows up frequently in ComicsGate specific topics, he is laughably bad at the game. During my research, I found several specific claims that only ever seem to come directly from Jon Del Arroz and he has complained on several occasions of persecution based on his deeply held religious beliefs only for it to be revealed he was never sanctioned in any way or that it was due to his harassment of others. In one video, he stated that Alterna comics was publicly supportive of ComicsGate, but I haven’t found any indication of this from anywhere except for his own assertion (Jon Del Arroz, 2020). Repeatedly throughout that same video he affirms his status as a journalist to give himself credibility. That’s wonderful, except I’m going to spend a couple of short paragraphs ripping this credibility apart. We have too much to cover before we end our look at ComicsGate to spend an ounce of extra effort on someone who barely deserves mentioning, so here is a list of why this man should never be taken seriously, as a journalist or as a person.
Jon Del Arroz is a science fiction author, one who often loudly proclaims his status as Christian, conservative, and hispanic (Trent, 2021). After announcing his intention to wear a body cam at WorldCon, he was banned from attending due to what was seen as an intimidation tactic. After being removed from their site, WorldCon posted a statement of how they were in the process of removing “racist, bullying elements” from their convention (Trent, 2021). The use of the term racist without much merit is unfortunate since Del Arroz took this to mean that the convention was calling him a racist, and decided, on the advice of Christian nationalist Vox Day, to sue the organizers, San Francisco Science Fiction Conventions, Inc. This was eventually settled out of court. Del Arroz then sent a letter to Vox Day, which was published on his blog, stating:
“In early 2017, Vox Day gave me a platform on this blog to speak the truth about how the science fiction publishing and fandom communities had become nothing more than toxic, gossip-filled political arms of the extreme Satanist, globalist elites.” (Trent, 2021)
If any of that sounds familiar, it is because this is identical rhetoric to Alex Jones of InfoWars, which finds most of its conspiracy background from antisemetic propaganda like The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. I have no proof that this is where Del Arroz gets his information, but Vox Day has been on InfoWars a few times and this conspiracy is one that isn’t only attributed to Jones (Jones, 2018). I mostly just wanted to point out how interconnected these people and ideas really are. So just within this first story, we have ties to a Christian nationalist and assertions that the publishing community is run by Satanic elites. This is an odd stance for a journalist to take, so I went to his website to see what journalistic credits he has and it turns out he is a contributor to The Federalist (Del Arroz, 2020). The Federalist is an online magazine known for their extremely right wing views and a long list of reporting on misinformation about everything from vaccines to climate change (Center for Countering Digital Hate, n.d.; Merlan, 2021). A quick glance at some of the articles written by Del Arroz show numerous articles about how political correctness is killing comics, how he was banned from Twitter after claiming transgenderism is a mental illness, and a guide to keeping your online browsing free of political propaganda- which is a bit fucking rich coming from specifically him at specifically this website (The Federalist, 2019). This isn’t the end of the issues with Del Arroz, though.
Author Jim C. Hines collected a list on his website of the long history of trolling and harassment coming from Del Arroz, from which I’ll be heavily referencing for the rest of this. It’s wonderfully sourced, and I recommend everyone take a quick glance.
Jon Del Arroz repeatedly insults others online by calling them autistic or some variation thereof (Hines, 2022). When not insulting others, he has spent his time complaining about being blackballed from BayCon in an act of discrimination, when actually it turns out they just rotate who they invite each year and he was asked back for the next year’s event. In alignment with some of the people we discussed before, Del Arroz has claimed American Muslims should be forcibly converted to Christianity, repeatedly uses or promotes homophobic slurs, and often misgenders other authors. In short, Del Arroz has shown himself to be an absolute ass who can’t handle being held accountable for his own actions. He is a waste of literacy.
Teaming with Dave Sim
In late 2018, previous subject of this show, Dave Sim, sent an open letter to comic book news and gossip site, Bleeding Cool, and addressed his letter to Ethan Van Sciver (Johnston, 2018b). At the time, ComicsGate and Van Sciver were engaged in a heated debate over whether or not the late comic artist Darwyn Cooke would be supportive of their movement. This caught the attention of Cooke’s widow, Marsha Cooke, who vehemently disagreed and spoke out against ComicsGate as a whole by calling them “crybaby losers” (Johnston, 2018a). From there, her Twitter feed was bombarded with a dogpile of disagreements. When Marsha pointed out that Van Sciver’s followers continued to be transphobic about creators and also harass her, Van Sciver refused to denounce or call off any that were doing so. This was where Dave Sim’s letter comes into play.
For those that haven’t listened to the episodes about Dave Sim, which would be episodes 6 and 7 of last season titled “Dave Fucking Sim,” I’ll give a very brief description on who it is we are discussing. Dave Sim is an independent comic creator who championed creator’s rights, penned an epic 300 issue comic with only the artistic help of an amazingly talented background artist, and is a devout misogynist. I highly recommend listening to my previous episodes for a fuller understanding of just how misogynistic this person is, but to flesh it out a little further, he wrote several rants on how women use only emotions to make decisions and frequently pull logic away from men, started an argument with a female journalist within minutes of the interview beginning, and had to create a petition called “Dave Sim is not a misogynist” that anyone had to sign if they wanted to speak to him. The most important element of all of this though is that Dave Sim is also a groomer.
Dave’s letter to Van Sciver was a show of support, which got the ball rolling on these two creators working together. Shortly after the publication of the letter, Van Sciver announced that Sim would be helping with Cyberfrog, Van Sciver’s creator-owned book (Johnston, 2019). For those not plugged into the indie scene of comic books, this is a huge deal. As much as Sim is seen as the misogynist that he is, he is also seen as a masterful storyteller. There’s a reason his comics still sell. Unfortunately for them, though, Renfamous pointed out on Twitter Sim’s very strange relationship with a 14-year-old girl. Sim met the girl as a teenager and would sporadically draw pictures of her, even commenting on her beauty. They remained in contact until she was in her twenties, when Sim admits that they had sex together. Afterward, he would write about how wrong the situation was, and how wrong he was for acting on it, but claimed the only law he broke was the Mann Act, which prohibits transporting a minor across state borders for illegal acts. He was never charged with such a crime so that part could be accurate or a misunderstanding of the law. His actions, however, were accurately described as grooming this child.
Van Sciver’s initial public response was to defend Sim by comparing his relationship with that of Elvis and Priscilla, which is actually true, but doesn’t quite let Sim off the hook so much as it shines a light on Elvis Presley’s behavior (Johnston, 2019). Eventually Van Sciver relented and decided to remove Dave Sim from the project altogether. While this could have been handled much better, I appreciate that Ethan Van Sciver actually did the right thing in this scenario, so kudos to him.
Meyer’s Comedy Central Interview
The final thing I want to discuss in regards to ComicsGate before we wrap up this up is actually how *not* to cover them. A common logical fallacy found often in places like CNN, Fox, or MSNBC is that of false equivalence. When two people are invited onto a show to debate the merits of a topic, this presents both sides as having an equal ground. When the topic is something like climate change or the efficacy of vaccines, this actually just bolsters the arguments of those who have little-to-no backing from the scientific community. The same thing applies here. In 2018, The Jim Jefferies Show on Comedy Central decided to run a piece on Richard C. Meyer (Comedy Central, 2018). While they’re not a news outlet, there are still practices that can be followed to mitigate any harm that could come from such a piece, and, while Meyer may have been roundly mocked during his exposure, Comedy Central’s approach did little to expose why this man is a problem.
Meyer is introduced and shamed almost immediately for his dislike of minority characters and his annoyance at some female characters’ smaller breast size (Comedy Central, 2018). Meyer’s responses are quickly edited, bringing laughs from the audience in attendance, while Jim Jefferies makes a joke of his stances. Later, multiple cosplayers and comic fans were interviewed about Meyer, where they give quick rebuttals to the argument that comics are too political and largely speak against Meyer as a whole. There are several issues here. For one, they allow Meyer to come onto the show to be humanized through deceitful editing, giving him the opportunity to say he was mistreated, and they give him the ability to make a statement that calling a woman a cumdumpster was a mistake, even though he continues this type of behavior. His role in the online harassment is downplayed because the actual nature and human element of it is almost entirely removed from the coverage. Never once does the show mention ComicsGate or Ethan Van Sciver or the ongoing responsibility that these people sideline. Jefferies also interviewed the comic fans in cosplay and treated their love of comics largely as a joke, while Meyer is presented in regular attire. Meyer has the ability to seem more presentable in this situation by the simple fact that both sides are mocked.
Complicating things a bit further, Comedy Central had reached out to Heather Antos, one of the first victims of ComicsGate, to have her on the show as well (Antos, 2018). She refused and, according to her, the producers stopped answering her emails directly after. Taking to Twitter, she let it be known how Meyer was only seeking a spotlight, that Comedy Central was providing it, and that the show put no thought into how this could possibly affect his targets. When Jim Jefferies released the segment for his show, it was at the expense of the wishes of the victims, and provided ammo solely for ComicsGate. In fact, Bounding into Comics ran an article criticizing the segment while using antiComicsGate voices to bolster their arguments (Trent, 2019). Shortly after, Meyer responded to the video, claiming this was done entirely to boost his brand before stating:
“Regarding the Jim Jefferies video, I’d describe it as an egregiously edited hit-piece that has hilariously back-fired. My enemies are gnashing their teeth over it and even his own fans realize it is a viciously inept hatchet job.
Regarding his pearl-clutching over the 4th grade swear-words I used once in a single video 9 months ago, I’m arching an eyebrow (higher than his) at the ten years of misogynistic rape jokes that he built his stand-up career on.
I could tell he had an abiding interest in diversity since one person out of his ten-person crew wasn’t white.” (Trent, 2019)
While there wasn’t much in the way of major fallout for Meyer or ComicsGate, his personal standing in the community did diminish to some extent. Ethan Van Sciver has taken the reins as the clear commander of the ComicsGate crowd. Some saw Meyer’s agreement to join Comedy Central for a segment embarrassing from the start, and others rightly realized that some things are better off left out of the mainstream. The takeaway that I personally got from the whole ordeal was that coverage of a group so quick to play the victim needs to be thorough and at no point should they be allowed to take the attention away from the victims of their campaigns.
Conclusion
The reasons for a rise in movements like GamerGate, Q Anon, The Proud Boys, ComicsGate, and others like them aren’t easy to dissect. There are issues across multiple platforms and ideologies that lend themselves well to developing into radicalization. A frequent undercurrent seen, and one often commented by those that study fascism, is the need to call back to a better time by rejecting modernity. This is perhaps best known from Umberto Eco’s essay “Ur-Fascism,” but it’s relevant here not for the fascistic leanings of these groups. It’s relevant because it is a wonderful recruiting tactic. Learning history is often depressing and dealing with changes in how we feel about ourselves and the world can lead to drastic actions. It’s hard to discuss depressing topics all the time. It takes a toll on the mind that is hard to pay. It’s often seen as better to imagine the world was once more pure because when you were younger or more naive it actually felt that way. Anger and fear are addictive emotions, but they become increasingly so when tied with the notion that there was once some happiness we can return to.
A fundamental problem I see recurring within groups that reject hateful rhetoric and ideologies is that they tend to become just as obsessed with combating hate as the perpetrators are with sustaining it. Embracing happiness however it comes should be just as important. For those whose lives have been dragged down by the hateful few, I hope they find a way to seek out the good that can keep them going. Negativity can be just as toxic if held within as it is coming from the outside. This is one reason I tried to start each episode with a bright spot. We need to embrace what little we can.
I want to end our coverage of ComicsGate with a few suggestions on how to push the needle a little bit more to the positive side of the scale. If you find yourself in a situation where you are being harassed, the block or mute button is your friend. Report harassers to the social media platform they’re using. Call the local police and keep records of everything. Sometimes this isn’t enough, but I have a few suggestions for how we can, perhaps, make a difference.
One of the resources available to combating all of the behavior we have detailed before is the Games and Online Harassment Hotline. Coming directly out of pioneering work established by Zoe Quinn and Crash Override, this new hotline brings decades of experience in crisis help together with mental health and social services to take on sexism within the online and gaming communities. It is a free, text message-based, confidential emotional support hotline that can offer in-the-moment help or find the referrals and resources victims may need. Fewer things can irritate serial harassers than seeing someone get the help they need, so this is a perfect way to help yourself and enjoy seeing trolls online drive themselves crazy because they’ve been kicked out of your life. In fact, the only thing that could irritate them more is if this were somehow an organization run by a previous victim of online abuse. That would be pretty inspiring to others.
Well guess fucking what?
The Games and Online Harassment Hotline was founded in part by none other than feminist media critic, GamerGate survivor, and all around badass, Anita Sarkeesian.
You can find more information on how to get help or volunteer by going to gameshotline.org or texting SUPPORT to 23368. If you are looking to donate, there is an option on their page for that, but I thought it would be a little fun to see if we could do more with this. Over the last few months of researching and writing for this series of episodes I have had to spend an insane amount of time trudging through some of the worst ComicsGate has had to offer so in the interest of expressing my deepest gratitude I bought the domain name FuckComicsGate.com and if you enter this into your browser it will take you directly to the donation page for the Games and Online Harassment Hotline. There is an option to leave a message with every donation and I sincerely hope everyone that is listening will write even just a sentence about the wonderful work these people are doing. They are actually trying to make a difference in the world and they should be applauded for that.
Finding support after dealing with harassment is one thing, and if there’s anything we’ve learned from Anita Sarkeesian it’s that current laws don’t really have the framework for how to deal with this type of abuse. There will need to be changes to how we handle everything from online stalking to direct targeted abuse so many of the people we have discussed have had to go through. It’s important to make sure our elected officials take this type of thing seriously and that they know it is a topic their constituents feel strongly about. The main problem here is that most people don’t even know who their elected officials are or don’t want to take the time to compose a letter. That’s why I put together a campaign where all you have to do is text PSJDDL to 50409 and you’ll be immediately set up with a letter that you can send directly to your representative, even if you don’t know their name. Again, text PSJDDL to 50409 so we can finally do something about what has been a problem for years.
And if, by any chance, Vox Day, Ethan Van Sciver, Richard C. Meyer, Avi Green, Jon Del Arroz, or any of the other knuckleheads we spoke about during our coverage are listening: go fuck yourself.
This concludes our look at ComicsGate, but I’m not opposed to coming back to see what more we can learn about the people we’ve discussed or the organizations that support them. For now, though, I’m excited to take a break from some of the heavy research and I might even come back for an episode or two about silly comic book characters. There’s plenty I want to write about and more I want to learn. I want to thank Corinne for being with me for all of these episodes and providing some much needed levity during some of the heavier topics.
You can find more information, including all of the sources for today’s episode at ComicallyPedantic.com. You can also follow us on Twitter and Instagram by searching @PedanticCast and @DerekLChase on both platforms. New episodes will come out at some point in the future on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and at ComicallyPedantic.com, though it might be a while for the next big drop. You can support some of the truly amazing people doing good work by going to FuckComicsGate.com. If you have any comments or questions you can send them in text or audio recording to comicallypedantic@gmail.com. Please indicate if you’d like your name or question read on the air.
We will be back after a hiatus to research for more episodes, but until then you can find more exciting adventures at your local comic shop.
References
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