Posted in: Comics, Comics Publishers, Current News, DC Comics, Image, Marvel Comics | Tagged: Cancel Pigs, Mark Millar

Mark Millar And His Cancel Pigs Are Now Trending On X/Twitter

Mark Millar has coined the term "cancel pigs" and has managed to get it some traction, as he fights for free expression.

Seriously, if Mark Millar were to launch a new comic book, Mark Millar's Cancel Pigs, in the manner of Jim Lee's WildCATS, as part of the five Millarworld titles he's launching this year, I think it would do rather well. It certainly has been trending on Twitter. But what is a Cancel Pig? And why does Millar want to cancel the Cancel Pigs?

The co-creator of Kick-Ass, Wanted, Kingsman and The Unfunnies, Mark Millar first used the phrase ten days ago, after tweeting, "Here's a weird thing: Every decade has a very specific, unique comedy style & 10 big comedies you can name, The 30s, 50s, 70s, even 00s. But name 10 big comedies of the past 10 years. Bridesmaids one of the last ones general public can quote lines from plus big box office." I dunno, I can probably quote from Anchorman 2, Ted 2, the Lego Movies, Borat, Sausage Party, the Deadpools, Barbie and the like, but no I'm getting distracted. Because in reply, he said "Comedy evolution meant being brave & trying something new, risking upsetting people, but performers were scared of this in the Cancel Pig era -when it was sport to suicide or bankrupt creative talent. Now they've been shamed back into their caves I think big comedies will return."

Dawn Of The Cancel Pigs

No one asked him what he meant by that. Not yet, Someone suggested it was because movies needed to be more internationally appealing these days, so Millar replied "To some extent, but these medium budget flicks were reliable domestic returns for a century. Performers and studios both terrified in Cancel Pig era. Stand-ups had same problem. But that High Sparrow, pop fascism period is over, thankfully." And he doubled down, saying "Fear. But the era of the Cancel Pig trying to suicide/ bankrupt creatives is over, thankfully. I think a massive resurgence coming here with a brave, revolutionary 70s style cinema and medium budget pictures. for a few years."

No one was biting on the Cancel Pig thing yet. So a week later, he tried again. Posting, "When I tell pals Cancel Pigs equate the actions of a villain with the TRUE VIEWS of a writer, like Stan Lee siding with Dr Doom, they don't believe me. There's a light shining on these goons now & they look very silly….We know, of course, what's really going on here. Cancel Pigs hunt creators under the guise of virtue a) because many of them are sociopaths who take pleasure in hurting others and b) they really want their jobs. See the current situation at the Big 2 for how THAT worked out! :) The most shameful episode in their little reign of terror was their hunting and marginalisation of Howard Chaykin, one of the nicest and most talented creators in the biz. They tried to destroy a man in his 70s for internet likes & pros must never be silent if this happens again. So many big name creator pals are buzzing about our big ENOUGH last week, but it's honestly so easy. Just block them and laugh at them. It's meaningless. These people don't even READ comics. Never, ever appease or encourage their cruelties. The Cancel Pig doesn't believe it either. He just wants you dead for the two reasons outlined earlier. The details don't matter! :)… Cancel Pigs Be Bacon!"

The next day, he was off again, as Cancel Pigs started trending on Twitter, and he was asked what he actually meant by the term. "Twitter packs like the people who mobbed retailer Glenn O'Leary last week, mocking him and trying to destroy his reputation. We've seen it happen with comic pros, too like Howard Chaykin & many others. Entirely for sport. The Cancel Pig exists to destroy because he cannot CREATE."

That would be Glenn from our recent Comic Retailers Say The Funniest Things. Reader Jeremy Bellamy replied saying, "I'm a fan of your work, but I just worry the direction you're taking all this. You don't want to be associated with them and here you are calling people that don't agree with you pigs. It's not exactly a positive message"

Mark Millar retorted, "It's not people who disagree with me. That's absolutely fair enough. A Cancel Pig is someone who hunts pros for sport or that retailer Glenn O'Leary last week. They're beneath our contempt and it's been happening too long. Oh, and nice try to the Cancel Pigs trying to frame me as a Comicsgate guy so they can use their typical line of attack. I don't believe in ANY factions. I'm my own man and I believe in GOOD COMICS. They. Have. No. Power. I spoke to one of DC's biggest writers at the weekend and he told me he's lived in fear of them for years, but I couldn't emphasise this hard enough. Cancel Pigs hurt people for sport because they're damaged personalities. You must never take em seriously…. Some genuine career advice for any wannabe Cancel Pigs – A huge part of freelance life is your peers/ editors wanting to work with you. Everyone just wants to enjoy their job and have fun. If you're toxic nobody wants to TOUCH you and many of you are in this place now."

And that succeeded, finally, in making Fetch happen. Cancel Pigs started trending, and everyone threw in an opinion. But how far does this go back?

Cancelling Orson Scott Card

It is ten years since DC Comics managed to drop Orson Scott Card from writing Superman. The sci-fi author of Ender's Game, known for anti-gay rhetoric and sitting on the board of the National Organization of Marriage, which fought against gay marriage legislation, had written Iron Man for Marvel without a peep, but Superman touched a nerve, and thousands signed a petition that called for a petition to drop him. In the end, it was the decision of the artist Christopher Sprouse that he didn't want to draw a story by Card, that scuppered the publication, or at least that's how DC officially span it. But they were looking for an excuse.

Since then, a number of creators have fallen foul of such movements. Howard Chaykin's satirical Divided States Of Hysteria was accused of transphobia and racism for some passages that were certainly intended as satire, to which Millar references, eliciting an apology from Millar's current publisher, Image Comics… but not from Howard Chaykin. Joe Bennett apologised for scenes in Immortal Hulk that some interpreted as anti-Semitic, with Hulk writer Al Ewing saying he would never work with Bennett again and has not worked for the publisher since. X-Men Gold saw the artist Ardian Syaf condemned after he inserted specific references to an anti-Christian/Jewish march with violent demands, and has not worked for the publisher since.  and has not worked for the publisher since. Magdalene Visaggio and Darick Robertson raised a lot of heat after posting about her DC plans to make Superboy a trans character and that Mags had already set that up in a published story. They have not worked for the publisher since. Comic creators condemned the CBLDF for opposing a boycott against Simon & Schuster for publishing the work of Milo Yiannopoulos. Chuck Wendig was cancelled at Marvel on Star Wars after complaints about his posting politics in relation to his work on Twitter, and has not worked for the publisher since. CB Cebulski was condemned for writing using a Japanese identity years previously and… became Marvel EIC. And Geoff Johns was been repeatedly targeted for… not liking Zack Snyder's Justice League? Anyway, he has grabbed a bunch of DC Comics talent for his new Ghost Machine. There are dozens of examples across the political spectrum.

Cancelling Gender Queer

And indeed, the last couple of years have seen the biggest attempt to cancel a comic book I have seen since Frederick Wetham and the trials that followed, with the graphic novel Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe. With politicians repeatedly using it in their political campaigns, and launching lawsuits to get it banned not just from libraries but also from bookstores, along with many other graphic novels that feature black, gay or trans protagonists.

I've generally been on the side of the anti-cancellation movement, an advocate of divorcing the creator's work from their views, abhorrent or otherwise. Plenty of people have tried to cancel me for this, that and the other, and Mark Millar is himself aware of one successful attempt back in the day. Bleeding Cool's publisher Avatar Press has also been a target of such campaigns over the years, over some of the more extreme comics they have published, including Crossed, Caligula and one book that Millar sees to have self-cancelled these days, The Unfunnies.

Indeed ten years ago, covering the Orson Card story, The Guardian at the time joined Mark Millar and me together, saying " not all responses to its decision to hire Card have been negative. Kick-Ass writer Mark Millar tweeted that "petitioning to have writer Orson Scott Card fired for his social views is as fascistic as politicians condemning a sexual preference", and comics journalist Rich Johnston of the site Bleeding Cool News took the stance that he found "the idea of campaigning to get a writer fired because you disagreed with his beliefs, however abhorrent, problematic"."

How dare they use the J word. I should cancel them. But what I am saying, I guess, is that I agree with Mark Millar in principle, if not the way he practices it online. But I'm hardly going to cancel him for it. That's the thing about Cancel Pigs (and I guess we are using that term now, though I'd prefer to use it to refer to the concept of cancelling people than those doing it), once you let them out, it's hard to get them back into the pen. And while you may have had a virtuous intent in doing so, in half an hour, it will be your rhubarb they are eating. The principle of Cancel Piggery (that feels better) gets emboldened by each its success and you end up with a war of attrition. Porcine conflict is never pretty. It is notable that the biggest people screaming "cancel pigs" right now… are doing it to try and cancel people. That's the way these things go.

And also, Mark Millar should really un-cancel his comic with Anthony Williams,  The Unfunnies, a comic about cartoon characters coming to life and engaging in the worst of sexual crimes, especially now he is moving from the Portland-bases liberal-minded socialist workers unionised co-operative that is Image Comics, in favour going to the Portland-based Trump-backing Dark Horse Comics owned by Swedish video game and media holding company, Embracer Group. Maybe he could create a sequel to The Unfunnies, and call it Cancel Pigs? I think it would do quite well.

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