Dissecting Comicsgate (Pt. 3): Attack On Creators

In addition to making racist comments towards comics like MS. MARVEL on YouTube and Twitter, Richard C. Meyer and the members of Comicsgate actively insult and make inaccurate assumptions about creators of books that they personally dislike. Going back to the example of MS. MARVEL from the previous column, Meyer has repeatedly called G. Willow Wilson a “self-hating white woman” and a “fake cosplay-Muslim who converted to Islam solely for the oppression.” This assertion is completely inaccurate since Wilson has openly stated in her autobiography THE BUTTERFLY MOSQUE that she originally grew up in an atheist household but converted to Islam after dealing with adrenal problems in college since she had begun to fear for her own mortality and out of all the various religions she studied, Islam appealed the most to her since she interpreted it as a personal pact between the individual and God. This information is also available to read on Wilson's Wikipedia page, but apparently Meyer was too lazy to bother doing actual research and instead jumped to bigoted assumptions based on his own inherent Islamophobia.

Several of Meyer’s followers have followed in similar suit. For instance, Comicsgate member Capn Cummings made the video “Ms. Marvel Writer G Willow Wilson Deflects for Marvel” when Wilson spoke out against Indonesian artist Adrian Syaf on Tumblr. Following the release of X-MEN GOLD #1 on April 8, 2017, several critics noticed that the comic's artwork contained hidden references to the controversial Quran verse 5:51, which allegedly encourages Muslims not to take Christians and Jewish people as leaders, advisors, or friends. Syaf hid these references in an attempt to spread an anti-Semitic and anti-Christian message in the predominantly Muslim nation of Indonesia, which had then-recently appointed a Christian governor.

The X-Men Gold #1 Controversy. From X-Men Gold Vol. 2 #1 (Apr 2017). Art by Adrian Syaf. Copyright © Marvel Entertainment. From http://entertintname.com/2017/04/12/marvel-fired-an-artist-after-he-snuck-religious-and-political-symbols-into-a-new-x-men-comic/.

Although Syaf was rightfully fired from Marvel a few days later, Wilson, a fellow Muslim comics' creator, was still naturally furious over the artist's actions and wrote an essay-length Tumblr post denouncing the Indonesian interpretation of the verse referenced in the comic. In her post, Wilson elaborated how the verse's usage of "friend" or "leader" was actually a mistranslation of the original Arabic word "awliya" which actually translates to "legal counselor" or "guardian." Wilson was simultaneously critical of the original interpretation, stating that it had "very little relevance to a democratic, multi-ethnic and multi-religious state," and that Muslims have had non-Muslim legal representatives throughout history. She further supported her arguments by providing a credible source about the surrounding context in which the verse originated. Despite this, Capn Cummings completely dismissed Wilson's arguments as "nonsense" in his video and he falsely accused her of being a liar and an advocate for "Sharia law in America.” Cummings’ only supposed evidence to support this claim was Wilson supporting the 2017 Women’s March that was partially spearheaded by Linda Sarsour, a divisive Palestinian-American political activist who has faced similar accusations from the right. Ignoring the fact that Sharia is actually a series of religious guidelines rather than an official substitute for civil law (and has been subject to many misconceptions and conspiracies that have been used to demonize the Muslim American community), thousands of women in the U.S. supported the march, including both Muslim and non-Muslim women. That doesn’t automatically mean that they're best friends with one of its leaders or that all of their political beliefs align perfectly like Cummings seems to believe. Additionally, MS. MARVEL’s other co-creator, Sana Amanat, has been repeatedly targeted by Douglas Ernst, another Comicsgate correspondent and a writer for The Washington Times. The most frustrating of these instances was when Ernst claimed to have dug up old deleted tweets from Amanat stating “Brown will rule [through] inter-breeding. Muhahahaha,” and “One day, we will all be brown (And NO that does not mean I plan to spread Sharia law).” Ernst used these old tweets to compare her to Richard Spencer, i.e. the biggest white supremacist/Neo-Nazi in America.

Sana Amanat's tweets as presented by Douglas Ernst...

Except that not only were both of these tweets jokingly sarcastic in their overall tone, but the latter tweet was clearly edited by Ernst since he neglected to include the portion featuring the link to an article about London electing its first Muslim mayor, Sadiq Khan, the subject of which Amanat was alluding to her tweet.

The full tweet, which Ernst fails to present...

Ernst (as well as the pro-Comicsgate website Bounding Into Comics) even outright lied about Amanat deleting the tweets since I actually searched for them on Twitter myself and they’re still there. And what was Ernst's reason for generating all of this pointless controversy? He was offended by the fact that Sana once stated in an interview that Marvel was no longer "a boy brand." It’s also worth noting that Ernst once gave the overtly Islamophobic comic HOLY TERROR a positive review, citing its author Frank Miller as “a brave man who wrote a brave book.” This immediately makes him lose all credibility with me, since it clearly suggests to Ernst having a prejudiced stance towards both Islam and Muslim Americans (not to mention that HOLY TERROR is objectively the absolute worst comic that I've ever read or reviewed). These examples effectively demonstrate how Meyer and his followers completely fail to do any research on the people they criticize, and instead make bigoted assumptions based on their own inherent biases.

But G. Willow Wilson and Sana Amanat are not the only people who have been targeted by Comicsgate, and it’s important to acknowledge the movement’s assaults against broader comics’ community. The members of Comicsgate like to single-out comics creators who fail to meet their desired quota, including being a woman, LGBTQ, a person of different ethnicity or religion, or even merely a person who holds left-leaning ideas. These people have been actively insulted and belittled by Comicsgate, which not only assumes that they're hired solely for being minorities, are not really interested in comics in general, and are instead utilizing the medium to further their own political agendas. This type of closed-minded thinking is reflected in the following statement Meyer made in an interview with The Daily Beast:

“One of the things about SJWs is that they get a job because of surface qualities, being a woman, being black, being gay, being trans, and there’s no adjustment on the ground to negative fan reaction due to low sales.”

Meyer has also encouraged the harassment of female and minority creators, which was most especially evident with the “Milkshake Crew” incident. Several of the toxic tweets aimed at Heather Antos and her female co-workers were actively goaded by Meyer, whose involvement is made clear with one tweet stating, “You’re right, @DiversityAndCmx. No Life experience, the creepiest collection of stereotypical SJWs anyone could possibly imagine.” Furthermore, Meyer himself has not only encouraged the lie about the controversy being manufactured by Antos, but has also made the following statements in relation to her and her colleagues: 

“They obviously seemed to not be qualified. They can’t spot basic typos, they can’t notice major plot holes, they antagonize the fans... I talk to all these people, actual, legitimate talents, who can’t get a job to save their lives. Meanwhile some airhead who calls the fans Nazis and turns out laughably bad work is getting Eisner awards.”

One of the more infamous cases of harassment involving Meyer was a private-video he made titled “The Dark Roast,” wherein he and his followers made incredibly harsh insults and assertions about certain creators without their consent. I have not seen the video myself (and I refuse to watch it…), but from what I’ve read it features Meyer slandering Brian Michael Bendis, Dan Slott, and Mark Waid by calling them pedophiles, stating that female creators like Devin Grayson “literally sucked their way into the comic industry,” and even had him calling Heather Antos “a c** dumpster.” Similarly to Donald Trump’s infamous ACCESS HOLLYWOOD tape, Meyer’s “Dark Roast” video was eventually leaked to the public and has since become one of the single most-used sources of criticism against him.

On top of other examples of Meyer's bigotry such as him calling Ta-Nehisi Coates a “race hustler” or constantly using the words “Autism” and “Asperger’s” in a derogatory manner, Meyer and his followers seem to hold a particular grudge against gay and transgender creators. For instance, transgender writer Magdalene Visaggio has been one of Meyer’s most frequent targets. On top of making videos with clickbait titles like “SJW Mags Visaggio Takes Advantage of Trans-Trender [sic] PRIVILEGE To Get Hired And Make Money,” Meyer has repeatedly misgendered Visaggio by calling her a “man in a wig,” and he has equated being transgender to mental illness on his Twitter. His ire towards Visaggio appears to stem from her having only recently risen to prominence as a writer and even being nominated for an Eisner award for her series KIM & KIM. Meyer seems to believe that Mags was only able to achieve success by supposedly weaponizing her transgender status, a n assumption that is both ridiculous and transphobic. Additionally, Meyer also seems to despise anything that even remotely defies traditional gender roles. This is best evidenced by his criticisms of the character Carol Danvers, aka Captain Marvel, who in recent years has been less sexualized in her physical appearance as she’s been drawn with smaller breasts, a short haircut, and a more modest costume.

Carol Danvers Before & After. (Left) From Ms. Marvel Vol. 2 #1 (May 2006). Art by Frank Cho. 
(Right) From Captain Marvel Vol. 9 #1 (May 2006). Art by Kris Anka. Copyright © Marvel Entertainment. 

In response to this, Meyer and his followers started calling her “Carl Manvers" while joking about her being secretly transgender. Furthermore, the aforementioned Daily Beast article mentions Meyer stating:

“I started noticing a lot more weird stuff. Feminization of men, masculinization of women, basically, all the classic heterosexual pairings being destroyed... you realize this is a trend, and you start wondering why they’re doing it. Why is Luke Cage, the quintessential blaxploitation tough guy, why is he pushing a baby carriage and he’s the wimpiest, most soft-spoken — this is not done on accident.” 

Further highlighting Meyer’s homophobia is the fact that the two comics he’s attacked the most on his YouTube channel are ICEMAN and AMERICA, both of which feature LGBTQ-leads and are written by gay authors Sina Grace and Gabby Rivera respectively. It was also in one of these videos that Meyer made the following statement about Grace:

“We really need a world war and a draft. We need stuff like this winnowed out of society. This guy is -- let’s look at his picture -- Yeah, we’ll get him on a nice artillery crew. He’s probably good at math, he’s good at doing range tables. Tragically taken out by enemy counter-battery fire. Nice medal to his mom. Never has to explain why he was never married to a woman. Yeah. Yeah, that would settle it up.”

I still maintain this is the absolute worst thing Meyer has ever stated. It truly is sickeningly horrific and homophobic. In essence, Comicsgate is at its fundamental core, a movement dedicated to harassment and espousing racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, and Islamophobic beliefs, no matter what its defenders might claim.