Blood, Trolls and the Mad World of Chelsea Cain
I see Chelsea Cain is ‘not staying quiet’ in the Daily Beast.
As quick recap, let us remind ourselves how she got the gig at Marvel.
From an interview she gave to CBR, as it appears on her blog…
“ Also,
I have no shame. This is important. It has gotten me far. I got this
gig through sheer gall. I emailed [Brian Michael] Bendis and was like,
“I want to write Mockingbird!” and he wrote back and was like, “Yeahhh,
we need to talk.” And he came over and sat me down and explained very
patiently and gently that Marvel doesn’t generally hire people with zero
experience. And I was like, “I want to write Mockingbird!” And he
sighed and put his head in his hands. But in a strange fit of kismet (or
as my husband calls it, The Law of Everything Working Out for Chelsea),
Marvel happened to be planning this Mockingbird one-off.”
“ Marc
and I hang out with a lot of comics people. They are like pigeons here
in Portland. If you stop and pay attention to one the next thing you
know there are thirty-five of them standing around you with their heads
cocked. If the first pigeon likes you, you’re in. You know what comics
people like to talk about? Comics.”
“ Marc
and I hosted that dinner party with the singular goal of convincing
Chuck to write a comic. Marc was the one who came up with the idea. It
was just an aside, “You know who should write a comic? Chuck!” Then I
went with it with the tenacity of a terrier. It just made so much sense
to me. Bendis, his wife Alisa, Matt, Kelly Sue, and Marc and I had spent
the whole evening plying Chuck with wine and explaining why this comic
book needed to happen. We were making great headway, too. Then Matt
looked up at me and said, “You should write a comic book, too.””
Now
you can either look at this as a Quinnspiracy, cry #GamerGate or
#Comicsgate, and clutch your pearls: or you can say this is how the
world works… she knew a guy, who knew a guy… etc.
And let’s be honest, in terms of #Comicsgate all sides do it.
What
is being described is exactly what is going on with Ethan Van Sciver,
and the people appearing on his YouTube show. They have a slight
variation on the theme, in terms of effectively broadcasting the dinner
party in order to sell the books, and allowing potential customers to
get to know the creators: but the principle is much the same.
The real difference is in the marketing.
When Alison Tieman of the Honey Badgers, and creator of the Xenospora comic book, appeared on Mr Van Sciver’s Comicsgate Live stream, and tried to play the ‘I want to tell you my story’ routine: she was shut down and told to show her book, in order to sell it.
Whereas
the Daily Beast take the opposite approach. They want to hear ‘the
story’ — and they want to link to all kinds of things: misogyny, Trump,
trolling, etc. Perhaps two thirds of the article is about the ‘drama’ of
the cancellation of the Vision book, the attempts to silence Cain-which may or may not be true-and the ‘drama’ surrounding Mockingbird.
I say ‘drama’ because according to article there was clearly no need to cancel the book at all…
“ Her
Mockingbird run was nominated for two Eisner Awards, the highest honor
in comics, and its first collected volume became the №1-bestselling
Marvel comic on Amazon — a week ahead of its release date.”
Oh,
if only it hadn’t been for those meddling kids… and their nasty
trolling ways… let’s stick to the story…and not get into how and why
companies, particularly in the music, television and book business,
manipulate award ceremonies and charts… because we are not dealing with
reality here… we have a story to peddle.
Following
the cancellation of Vision, there has been much speculation as to why
the book was cancelled. The official explanation, as Cain claims, was
given to her, is that her vision of the character didn’t match the
vision of the company moving forward. Other’s have speculated that the
comic was just terrible or that it was behind schedule: you pays your
money and takes your choice.
One thing not mentioned, is that Brian Michael Bendis is now at DC: writing Superman. Ergo, ‘the
guy who knew a guy, no longer knows the guy who knows the guy — or he
maybe he does, but he doesn’t gossip and politic with him over coffee:
because he is too busy building a position in the politics of the new
office.’
And CB Cebulski is now running the show, and given the recent criticism of Dan Slott and the new Fantastic Four being racist, appears to be making changes.
Or it could be this — as described in the article…
“ She
founded a company called The Ministry of Trouble to help facilitate
more storytelling, and to “make trouble in spaces where women are
usually told to be silent,” she says. And she lined up another
high-profile gig at Marvel, writing the follow-up to Tom King’s
Eisner-winning run on The Vision.”
First off, Tom King has also gone to DC.
But of more relevance, having already caused a furore with Mockingbird, and now undermining the current spin that Comicsgate began with the Heather Antos Milkshake picture, this article then causes trouble with this sentence, “At the time, however, the campaign against Cain had no name.”
Or maybe it goes back to 2014…. when Marvel sought to create a weird hybrid between the indie and ‘mainstream’ market… a kind of ‘Action Bunty’ if you will.
Frankly who knows or cares? The cat is out of the bag. everyone is calling each other names and the click-bait denunciations roll out on all sides.
But
one does have to ask what was is the point of The Ministry of Trouble?
Which would appear to be a publishing company, certainly that would seem
to be the case if the upcoming Image title Man-Eaters is anything to go by.
But
it could equally be seen as threat; which the Daily Beast article
implies worked, by getting her the gig on the now cancelled Vision
title. And, it might explain why it was taking so long to produce the
Vision comic, if she was also working on Man-Eaters.
Sorry, I was just looking at how much you have to pay to get an Eisner award nomination… though I was more interested in the price of the ticket for the dinner… since my mate, a BAFTA academician, informs me that you can usually tell how much of a scam an award is by checking fee details….
Oh I notice that independent publishers can nominate their books…. interesting….
So, apparently Ms Cain has a comic coming out… the link is above… and it is all about menstruation… periods… being on the blob….
There’s
this bloke meets this woman, and he says, ‘fancy coming back to mine?’
And she says, “I can’t I’m on my menstrual cycle.” And he says, “That’s
alright, I’ll follow in my car.”… arf, arf…
Yes, I know, it’s a childish joke… funny though… suit yourself…
And
I offer it because Ms Cain in her comic uses the word ‘menses’ to
describe periods. Which struck me as a bit ‘dark meat/white meat’, as a
euphemism for breast and leg.
So I when to check if ‘menses’ is a real word, and for my own interest it’s etymological history….
btw the etymological dictionary to which I linked is a most useful
thing. You can find things out like until the 1680’s there was no such
thing as a ‘vagina’ — they had far more ‘sexist’ terms.
That’s interesting… ‘menses’… “ “monthly discharge of blood from the uterus,” 1590s, from Latin menses, plural of mensis “month” (see moon (n.)).”
Ok, so it’s a Werewolf story… with cats… no wait, ‘were’ “from wer “man, male person”” (one for the Game of Thrones fans there)… and these are females turning cats on their ‘monthly’… let’s see if there is a ‘shewolf’?
Nope… but there is ‘shewel’… “something hung up to keep wild animals away,”…
yeah that might work… assuming that Ms Cain is trying to keep the
wolves from the door, and not courting controversy with The Ministry of
Trouble.
So let’s see what this is all about…
““There
is this cultural messaging about our body and this weird discomfort
about periods that is so insidious,” she continues. “Like, the most woke
men I know in my life still won’t buy a box of tampons. Which is like,
what kind of message are we sending our girls? That this is something
that happens to their bodies that is monstrous. And I really think we
need to get over that.””
Can anyone tell me what she is talking about?
In what world does this happen?
“I’m off up the shop for beer and fags. Do you want a Bounty?”
“Yes please, you know how I love chocolate when the red mist descends. And can you get me a box of tampons?”
“WHAT?!?
You’ll be making me wear dresses next! No I bloody well won’t. What if
Charlie up the pub sees me. I’ll be a bloody laughing stock!”
Or perhaps…
“Right that’s the Tesco order done. Can you think of anything else we need before I click send?”
“Tampons.”
“WHAT!?!
I will not order those. Suppose the van comes when you are not here.
The neighbours might see. Oh no. If you want the devils pencils, then
you’ll have to put this sack over your head and go buy them yourself….
after dark…from the next town…wearing this scary crow mask.”
Ms Cain appears to be a cross between The Modern Parents and Millie Tant.
Sadly the product she is selling isn’t Viz, but herself and her feminist agenda.
It remains to be seen if that is enough to shift comics.#amwriting
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