Four Color Thursday
The big news in the comic world the last two days has been about a love triangle between three creators. There are two major problems here. First is that we have the story of one person involved, theres an old saying: Theres three sides to every story yours, mine and the truth. I think thats the case here. We are far from hearing the full story and probably never will. The second problem here is that it went from a simple on-line journal posting to being covered by one of the comic news sites. This isnt comic news; this is tabloid gossip with no second source verification.
The reason this bothers me is more the second part than the first. Someone got dumped and is asking for sympathy/pity depending on your outlook. It happens every day. This guy just happens to be doing it on the internet but when the comic media picks up the story and treats it like facts, we end up with a mess and people getting hurt. This is the second time in a very short period something like this happened. A story was run about an incident at a comic convention where an unnamed man made unwanted sexual contact with a female. Im sure most of you who know the industry know who the parties are involved Im not going to rename them here because its not the point of the piece. But in the midst of all of that, one site put out the story without naming names but with just enough details that someone completely uninvolved became the favorite suspect on-line. The person had nothing to do with the case, wasnt even at the convention but still a lot of people assumed it was he and it caused him a lot of damage. This story was again taking from the original site and then treated like legit comic news.
There are gossip columns out there. Rich Johnston has been running one for a long time but goes out of his way to check his facts and tells you upfront that its gossip. Plus, most of what he covers is actual news publishers financial problems, creators new projects, etc. This isnt a love letter to Rich he did cover the second issue above, but he did so showing both sides equally. My point is, it is irresponsible to post something on a comics news site if you have not verified the validity of the story. The love triangle story there was only the dumped boyfriends account. There wasnt even a comment that the other parties involved were contacted in anyway.
A few years back, I was writing for a comic news site. An artist accidentally let information slip he wasnt supposed to. A request was made by the publisher for the news not to be run. The Editor in Chief ran the story anyway. I left the site and started my own. So Im not speaking from left field here. Ive done the job the other sites are doing now. But its comic news. Not covering the search for WMDs in the Gulf. Just because someone writes it in a blog or a live journal doesnt make it true and it doesnt make it news. So blindly copying that tidbit onto a comic news site without any additional verification is irresponsible and bound to hurt people who dont deserve to be hurt.
The big news in the comic world the last two days has been about a love triangle between three creators. There are two major problems here. First is that we have the story of one person involved, theres an old saying: Theres three sides to every story yours, mine and the truth. I think thats the case here. We are far from hearing the full story and probably never will. The second problem here is that it went from a simple on-line journal posting to being covered by one of the comic news sites. This isnt comic news; this is tabloid gossip with no second source verification.
The reason this bothers me is more the second part than the first. Someone got dumped and is asking for sympathy/pity depending on your outlook. It happens every day. This guy just happens to be doing it on the internet but when the comic media picks up the story and treats it like facts, we end up with a mess and people getting hurt. This is the second time in a very short period something like this happened. A story was run about an incident at a comic convention where an unnamed man made unwanted sexual contact with a female. Im sure most of you who know the industry know who the parties are involved Im not going to rename them here because its not the point of the piece. But in the midst of all of that, one site put out the story without naming names but with just enough details that someone completely uninvolved became the favorite suspect on-line. The person had nothing to do with the case, wasnt even at the convention but still a lot of people assumed it was he and it caused him a lot of damage. This story was again taking from the original site and then treated like legit comic news.
There are gossip columns out there. Rich Johnston has been running one for a long time but goes out of his way to check his facts and tells you upfront that its gossip. Plus, most of what he covers is actual news publishers financial problems, creators new projects, etc. This isnt a love letter to Rich he did cover the second issue above, but he did so showing both sides equally. My point is, it is irresponsible to post something on a comics news site if you have not verified the validity of the story. The love triangle story there was only the dumped boyfriends account. There wasnt even a comment that the other parties involved were contacted in anyway.
A few years back, I was writing for a comic news site. An artist accidentally let information slip he wasnt supposed to. A request was made by the publisher for the news not to be run. The Editor in Chief ran the story anyway. I left the site and started my own. So Im not speaking from left field here. Ive done the job the other sites are doing now. But its comic news. Not covering the search for WMDs in the Gulf. Just because someone writes it in a blog or a live journal doesnt make it true and it doesnt make it news. So blindly copying that tidbit onto a comic news site without any additional verification is irresponsible and bound to hurt people who dont deserve to be hurt.