Posted in: Comics, Editor's Picks Comic News, Recent Updates | Tagged: Comics, entertainment, trump

The Comic Book Industry, Protest And The Battle Of Donald Trump

Bleeding Cool has pointed out how the vast majority of comic book creators who expressed any kind of political allegiance in recent months were pro-Hillary Clinton or at least anti-Donald Trump. Even the anti-Clinton people did not express many pro-Trump sentiments. And those that did kept them quiet, in private friends groups on Facebook, on Slacks, on instant messenger. And some decided that expressing any political opinion at all was a bad thing, no matter what it was.

But after the election of Donald Trump, the dial has been turned up to 11. Mexican artist Humberto Ramos and George Perez, the child of two Puerto Rican immigrants to the USA have both sworn off attending comic shows held in states that voted for Donald Trump, though Perez has committed to fulfilling his agreed to commitments first, through 2017. 

As a result of this, comic writer and artist Tony Harris – not of descent south of the border – posted the following, which was  then reposted publically (with his highlights) by comics commentator Kevin Huxford.

Scott Lobdell echoed this, in a slightly less antagonistical fashion.

With a similar response from comic book artist and political activist Mark Badger..

It is turning into a bit of a barney. Matthew Rosenberg posted how he would go to any show that donated to progressive causes, to continue the conversation. Mitch Breitweiser is wondering why his friends are unfriending him after he posted some celebratory Captain America Donald Trump art. While other comic book creators have been protesting on the streets.

https://twitter.com/wastedwings/status/797300860493725696

https://twitter.com/mollycrabapple/status/797568622961037312

Or watching it all go down,

https://twitter.com/kateleth/status/797518068905672708

Dirk Wood, VP of IDW Entertainment was very expressive,

But Dennis Barger, retailer of Quickstop and Wonderworld in Michigan where Trump got 0.3% more of the vote than Clinton, is worried however about what all this means for comic books- and his sales. He tells Bleeding Cool,

We all need to calm down and get back to work. The comic community has and always be INCLUSIVE. Some of the earliest fans of comics were outcasts, misfits, "freaks and geeks" – comics, comic shops and comic and sci fi conventions were the only places for acceptance. Creators wishing to draw lines against "red states", turn their backs on promoting their work in "red states" is non-inclusive, isolationist, some might even say xenophobic. As a retailer it will hurt sales. Customers holding their political ideology close to the vest get uneasy when the creators of their favorite books call them racists. They get angry at those creators and that hurts us all. We are comics, we are inclusionary, we change minds with the power of comics, if creators are "offended" by "red states" I think they'd be better serving the common goal by going to those states and changing minds one fan at a time, inspiring them through the work and personally. This industry made social change through, They punched Hitler, They showed green lantern he wasn't doing enough for the down trodden, they made green lantern black, they made Spider-Man black, they had gay weddings, they made Thor a woman. I almost dare them to make red states blue, but they shouldn't discriminate against promoters and fans in red states because of their fears or hatred.

Talking to comic book retailers, I am aware of a number of readers who have told stores to drop comics written by people speaking out so. This is not a small number, on some books that's 25% of readers or more. Lines are being drawn, people are choosing sides and finding people to ally with.

People are boycotting Marvel because their CEO financially supported Trump, boycotting Diamond because their President voted Trump, boycotting ComiXology because Amazon owner Jeff Bezos, heavily criticised by Trump, nevertheless tweeted congratulations to Trump.

Meanwhile, people are also boycotting Marvel because they are disrespecting and disregarding marginalised voices and simultaneously pandering to SJWs and feminists which is a nifty trick.

This is only the beginning. Because this is where we are…

https://twitter.com/HackinTimSeeley/status/796562984692813824

https://twitter.com/HackinTimSeeley/status/796563352642326528

https://twitter.com/HackinTimSeeley/status/796563684462096385

https://twitter.com/HackinTimSeeley/status/796564199191232512

Welcome to 2017 already…

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