The Hollwood Reporter today has an interesting interview with Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney.
The big news from the interview, is the admission that Star Wars has not been handled well.
“ I think the mistake that I made — I take the blame — was a little too much, too fast.”
This is obviously a can of worms, Star Wars being something of a religion and not something that should be brought up lightly in polite society. And given the passions aroused on all sides of the current debate, and the violence of the language it provokes, it is interesting that Mr Iger blames himself and chooses to explain away the various controversies as matter of excess production — perhaps given he is a business man, this excess production caused inflation, which in term led to devaluation.
And perhaps it is this glut in production which has led to the apathy expressedby some with regard to the Star Wars brand.
It will be interesting to see what the writing team behind Game of Thrones can come up with. And whether they can bring something of the character driven plots from that show to Star Wars, which let’s face it is at this point rather a comedy. Might I suggest that if Mary Sue Skywalker — sorry Rey — had been on a journey akin to Sansa, there would not be anything like the criticism the current franchise gets.
And while I am aware that the projects the writing team are working on are set in the wider galaxy, it would be most welcome to see a similar brand of story telling to that within Game of Thrones, in which there are no goodies and baddies (with the exception of Joffrey).
And I want to point at his comments about ESPN, in relation to this…
“ There’s been a big debate about whether ESPN should be focused more on what happens on the field of sport than what happens in terms of where sports is societally or politically. And Jimmy felt that the pendulum may have swung a little bit too far away from the field. And I happen to believe he was right.”
Now it is easy at this point to get out the placards, become overly partisan and start shouting ‘The Future is Female” only to hear in echo “No It Isn’t”. And from there start pointing fingers, looking for third nipples and branding those found in error as SJW or Alt-Right.
But clearly Mr Iger is acknowledging there is a problem.
Which makes me wonder what he intends to do about Marvel comics.
There is currently a thing called Comicsgate, of which I am a supporter… yes I know it makes me sound like a first time attendee at Alcoholics Anonymous… and no, I am not involved in a culture war, and no, I am not a Nazi, what I am is someone who by listening to YouTube channels like, I Love Comics, Diversity & Comics, Clownfish TV, and various other channels have had an interest in comics reignited.
And what is more, as I have children and they like comics too, and have begun buying them on the recommendations of these channels.
Therefore when Mr Iger says his three primary goals as head of Disney are…
“ The first is make great content…. The second is to be incredibly innovative about how you bring that content to market… The third is to be truly global in nature.”
I am rather reminded that this is stated purpose of those involved in Comicsgate… that is when they are being dragged around with pointless questioning and angry accusation…. i.e. the goal is to make good comics, to find a way to sell them, and not to push an agenda.
Now those who oppose Comicsgate see it rather differently. Their goal is to brand those making the comics racist, to misrepresent everything, to threaten and harass them, and to threaten those working at Marvel that they better join in this campaign or they will be next. And all of this they do in the name of ‘love’… I would say apple pie, but Ethan ate it.
The past few weeks have seen some interesting developments… that Mr Iger might like to take into account when next he speaks to Joe Quesada, editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics.
There was the revelation in the Guardian that as part of Comicsgate, Marvel writer, Mark Waid, had been involved in the targeted harassment of a Woman-of-Colour because she had accused him of racial stereotyping.
This came as somewhat of a surprise because for some-while Mark Waid had been the bette-noir of Comicsgate: having been involved in an alleged plot to physically assault Richard C Meyer, a.k.a Diversity & Comics, before involving himself in the cancellation of his Mr Meyer’s agreement with Antarctic Press to publish his comic book Jawbreakers… which led to a complaint to the Federal Trade Commission.
Waid has always been controversial, like when he argued piracy benefited comics sales. But, to see the Guardian state that he was part of an ‘alt-right’ ‘hate group’ for harassing a black woman for her criticism of his book about lynching black people…. well it tickled a few ribs.
Next Dan Slott — who was criticized in 2010 for making dick jokes — was back in the firing line for his Fantastic Four book, apparently was racist.
And again this was rather odd, because Mr Slott was more usually under attack from ‘alt-right’ types like Douglas Ernst (he’s so ‘alt-right he has an Asian wife). So ‘alt-right’ and villainous is Mr Ernst that he has made it into a recent issue of Moon Knight.
Making him the second Comicsgate figure to appear in a Marvel comic, the first being ‘literally Hitler’ Richard C Meyer, with a reference to his hot-dog analogy.
At which point, you might think that comics is a bit to incestuous, that people should all calm down — you might even take the BBC route and conclude that if you are being attacked by all sides, you must be doing something right.
Though perhaps what you shouldn’t do, is to do what Joe Quesada actually did.
He decided to go on Twitter, and sperg out over a number of days.
It wasn’t so much that he was biased — fair enough Mr Meyer had called Mags Versaggio ‘a man in a wig’, and he had called Heather Antos ‘a cumdumpster’, but what Joe didn’t address, because he has been woefully misinformed, is that people he hires and employs had been involved in doxxing, targeted harassment, and they had gone so far as to track down Mr Meyer’s kid and contact him over voice-chat.
But…. KNOCK, KNOCK, Joe….
CAN YOU HEAR ME MR IGER?
D&C gets people excited about reading comics, and he got people buy the fucking things.
Don’t believe me?
#movetheneedle — that was Mr Meyer’s idea. People use it, people like it, and they buy more comics….
Since you haven’t got the message @JoeQuesada your boss has three things he wants you to do…
“ The first is make great content…. The second is to be incredibly innovative about how you bring that content to market… The third is to be truly global in nature.”
Got that?
He wants you to make great comics.
He wants you to sell them in innovative ways — which to me suggests he doesn’t want the people you employ (on his behalf) insulting people who use #movetheneedle, encouraging others to be blockbot them if they do. In fact in the ideal world Mr Iger would give you a raise because you came up with the idea.
And he wants your product to have a global appeal — which means Joe, he doesn’t want you, or your employees, going round calling people Nazis, or trash, or idiots, or trying to doxx them, or set brigades of internet trolls on them.
Because what happens?
Oh yes Peter Simeti happens….
Because a man thanks a customer for buying his comic, and being so happy with their purchase they go to the trouble of taking a picture, and uploading it onto the interwebz, and marking it #movetheneedle in order that someone with an interest comics might see it, and consider it next time they are in the comic shop — or they might look up the company online, and see they have other comics they might like, and buy them.
And because of this crime, he gets set upon by all the usual suspects, calling a mixed-race man, a Nazi, a white supremacist, ‘alt-right’, a bigot, a fascist, an incel, a fuckwit, trash, garbage. Writers and artists who he has worked with and defended, and promoted and published when no one else would give them work, abandon him because they don’t want the abuse of the hate mob whipped up by people @JoeQuesada employs and defends.
Is this company policy @RobertIger?
And we get this 3 hour video, in which he recounts how he was so racially bullied as a teenager that he tried to kill himself by downing a load of pills and sticking a plastic bag over his head.
And because of this @Marvel sanctioned abuse, by a hate mob the company condones and supports, and in some cases employs, he was driven to that point again…. hmmmm…. it really makes you think….
And guess what Mr Iger? The people who your employees are telling to fuck off, to not buy their comics, those ‘deplorable’ #comicsgate scum, they rallied round. They went out and to show their love for Mr Simetti and their love of comics (and maybe as a big-old middle finger to the people who had been defaming and abusing them) they bought his comics.
And what’s more, some of them liked his comics better than Marvel comics, and decided they would buy Alterna in the future and wouldn’t buy Marvel.
I know you are a busy man Mr Iger, but I’ll post the video again… I mean who doesn’t like to watch a man driven to the point of suicide?
And, did any of those dog-piling Mr Simetti apologise?
No they didn’t.
They laughed, and moved onto the next target, hoping that in the name of @WaltDisneyCo they might actually succeed next time, and all the better if the suicide would be streamed live on Youtube… which is after all the wet dream of your average troll.
But… but…but… I here Mr Iger say… what you say can’t be true… why I read in the Washington Post only the other day that #ComicsGate was hate group… why Joe Quesada clipped it from the paper and sent it to me with a note saying how well the comics were selling…. that people love the racism and cliches pumped out by Marvel….
Yeah well he would say that wouldn’t he?
He’s hardly likely to send you the tweets he has been exchanging with one of the ringleaders of the hate mob, @renfamous, is he? I mean how would that look in the papers if Peter Simetti had blown his brains out? And there were Marvel and Disney employees waving their torches over the lifeless body?
How about this Bob… fit the company image does it?
“ Anyway, since you seem so focused on @renfamous who’s just a fan, maybe even someone who would have bought your book, I finally had time to really take a look at her feed… Man o’ man is she saucy!”
Well she is… when she isn’t getting banned from various platforms for harassment and abuse… like the others Joe supports…
And perhaps Joe thinks that this is somehow an innovative marketing strategy.
If it is, it certainly seems to be working for those producing #comicsgate books. Who have outsold Marvel in some cases — and in many cases those people buying Cyberfrog or Jawbreakers, or numerous other titles, are perfectly happy to state they won’t buy from Marvel again.
It must be why Marvel recently declared that they are moving to be a lifestyle brand, probably because they no longer have global appeal.
I mean who doesn’t want to buy a comic about a Lesbian from Space, who is an obvious racist claiming to fight ‘Whiteness’. Especially when simply talking about the book at school gets you put in detention because the teacher wouldn’t believe that such a book would be made by Marvel, and she thought the kid was being homophobic.
True story @RobertIger, it must make you feel proud of your products… when simply talking about your product can get a kid almost put on a Extremist watch-list.
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