Posted in: Comics, Current News | Tagged: blue sky, twitter

The Great Comic Book Migration From Twitter/X To Bluesky Continues

The great comic book migration from Twitter/X to Bluesky continues, as Greg Pak sets out the grand plan for folk to do so.

In 2022, Bleeding Cool got the word that DC Comics had encouraged its talent pool to make accounts on the social media app Hive and to build their audience using the hashtag #comicstwitter rather than on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, in the wake of Elon Musk taking over Twitter. Basically, no one listened. And Hive frittered away fast. Mastodon has stuck around a bit. Threads is basically Instagram and Facebook, and it may prove to be a contender. But newcomer Blue Sky or Bluesky seems to have taken the lead in Twitter/X alternatives in the last year or so. And with the recent election results and more changes to X regarding blocklists and the like, more people are looking for alternatives. We mentioned JH Williams III the other day, but Greg Pak has recently set out the state of play.

Greg Pak posted to X after a long time having not. He writes "this has been my Twitter profile image for months. Please feel free to use it yourself if you're locking down and walking away. And on his website, he writes, "Twitter is now run by someone who regularly platforms bigotry and transphobia and shares unconscionable lies and conspiracies. The site is also becoming less safe all the time, allowing harassers and even literal neo-Nazis to post and, most recently, promising to deprecate its block function. So almost exactly a year ago, I deleted most of my posts and stopped using the site for anything other than pointing folks to other, better sites to use instead. The best of those alternative sites? I don't generally love cheerleading for corporations and realize that any product can fall apart at any time. But after a couple of years of trying almost everything, I'm pretty sure the best Twitter alternative for me is Bluesky — by a long shot."

He also lists a number of prominent comic book creators, journalists and the like on BlueSky, and talks about the advantages the site has, such as the Nuclear Block. I appear to be a recipient of this, but he is most definitely not alone. I have seen a jump in BlueSky followers, as well as a drop of similar size on Twitter. And plenty of other comic book folk are following:

Christian Carnouche:Huge influx of new followers this morning on Bluesky. Is this happening to you dudes as well? I guess everyone is leaving Twitter finally.

Ramzee: If you want wholesome Ramzee content (lol) follow me on Bluesky. I'll be riding the Twitter wagon until the end of the year where I'm thinking that I'll maybe keep it but not post (to keep up with any publishing related stuff) – but maybe it's better to delete entirely? idk

Tango: For the past few years every opportunity & creative connection I've made on twitter has vastly improved my quality of life My appreciation is endless. Hope to see you all as I shift new art priority over to bsky

David Quantick: If everyone I followed who just left Twitter Kickstarted my novel THE HYENA, I'd have £14.000,000.73.

Marcus Kwame:I'm getting off of twitter soon. You can find me on Bluesky … or threads and IG (a)marcus_kwame

Dan Freeman: Leaving Twitter. You can find me at https://www.danfreeman.co.uk/

Yoshi Yoshitani: Just a reminder, I'll be retiring my twitter account at the end of the year. So if you like my work, consider following me on another platform, subscribing to my Patreon, or joining my newsletter

Asher Elbein‬:With all of my old tweets now imported over here, no reason to keep the old account around. Bye, Twitter

‪Chris O'Halloran:Ahoy (yet again) Bluesky. I'm an actual real life comic book colorist. Batman? Saga? Yep, I've read those too but also coloured books right next to them on the shelves. Previous achievements: modest twitter following, millions of followers on the now defunct app, Skrumpy. Blur, not Oasis.

Scott Snyder: Going to be using this account a lot more from now on. I still use SM mostly just to post about new comics by creators I'm excited about, and our own stuff, but I'm looking forward to finding more people to connect with here too. If we're friends or peers and I don't follow you, just ping me.

Gail Simone: The Gail Simone Starter Pack: Me.

And as part of a much larger post on Facebook, Gail Simone, who is now on Bluesky (above( but hasn't left X, wrote;

"After the election, I had no intention of leaving Twitter. I still felt like it was a useful platform to promote people's work and causes, and I felt like I have a lot of stuff coming up that I want people to at least be aware of. But something is broken. I've always gotten lots of angry hate on Twitter. Lots of angry oddballs of all stripes. But very early on, I realized that I just didn't care about them, they didn't mean anything. Because there were thousands and thousands of nice people, funny people, comics-loving people. So the haters, the ugly side, none of that really bugged me. You might have seen me, it got to a point where it wasn't even fun to make fun of them anymore, I'd just block them. It was ramping up since before the election, but got stunningly worse after. Everything was mean. Not funny mean, not even POV mean, just pointless ugly cruelty, from people, or more likely bots, without a shred of wit or knowledge. And I stress, this wasn't aimed at me, mostly. It was aimed at ANYONE who posted with a scrap of empathy or anxiety. Post you are worried for your country? Be prepared for dozens of single-sentence posts calling you an ugly stupid bitch. Post you are worried for a family member? You are guaranteed to be assaulted by levels of delighted bigotry that just never seem to stop. Not just from people with large audiences. Moms, dads, kids, anyone who said they were scared or nervous or crying, whatever. There would immediately follow the parade of angry comments that are so gross, you actually feel bad for the SENDER, so messed up they are. It's endless. People ask where I've been, because normally I'd have posted half a billion posts like I usually do (I admit it). But it's just I would see all these nice people, people who used Twitter as their social outlet, and the MINUTE they express sadness, these gloating jackals come in and rip at them for no other reason than to be part of the trash heap squad. I always said that as long as Twitter was fun, I'd stay on it. Watching nice people get ripped to shreds in the incel Thunderdome for daring to be sad is not fun. And it's ENDLESS. And it's encouraged at the very top."

And some are putting their flag in the ground.

Wes Greer: Shame to see so many leaving Twitter. I will not be going anywhere because if we all leave, they win. My good friend Cap hits the nail on the head here –

I've been on Blue Sky for a bit (despite some people's wishes), as is Bleeding Cool, and it does seem as if things are ramping up over there all of a sudden. For those who want to make the move, this has been doing the rounds…

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