[bass boosted j.a. seazer music]

from this twitter post, tomato soup (mangaka for jaadugar: a witch in mongolia) had made a doujin that was called "The Ark Departs From Palestine" 方舟はパレスチナを発つ(たつ)

the story is set around two shia muslims (who are from the order of assassins) sent to assassinate conrad, the king of jerusaleum. the time period was set during the crusades. proceeds of this doujin were sent towards the UNHCR

The media blackout on Palestine coinciding with new bomb types dropped in a ceasefire tells its own story.

I don't know, the answer to this question ... I think it's easy to have a theory, if you remember what happened.

Which is that Image didn't "CUT TIES" easy back in 2021. Ellis and Image had what sounded like a go-project with Ben Templesmith. But then people found out... and at first, nothing happened. They weren't going to do shit. Until one thing was different-- Scott Snyder said "what? what the fuck??" Or words to that effect.

Scott Snyder is a Pro, and he was willing to say something. And **then** that book went away. Image prioritized keeping a good relationship with other creators. There was social pressure from creators.

But Eric Stephenson or whoever's in charge over there and Image Comics never fucking cared about what Ellis did and you know that because they fucking published Brian Wood comics. And granted, Ellis seemed more toxic than Wood, but... you know, you're comparing dogshit on a pizza and catshit, past a certain point.

So what's changed now?

I don't know. But my understanding is Scott Snyder's got some big hit book at DC, and DC used to be pretty notorious about not letting their creators say shit about anything back when. Maybe that's changed under the new regime but... is the guy doing the #1 book in comics going to say anything again besides "hooray for us"? Is that energy DC wants out there when they promote Batman? And like, there is no comics journalism to ask the guy-- that does not exist.

Plus: who knows the conversations he had in the last 5 years, with Stephenson or Kirkman or, you know, one of the million white guys in comics that own Hawaiian shirt? I'd love to be wrong-- I respect that guy for having done that before; (plus, you know, I thought Zero Year were good Batman comics). (I wanted to buy a Hawaaian shirt when I was in Hawaii but then I remembered I like John Buscema's Wolverine and I was like "I can't wear those in my condition, I can't be one of those guys"...).

The reporting says James Tynion said something too. I don't remember that as strongly. But I think of him as an Image guy. I'd be really curious what changed for him. But again, who'll ask? It's not his job to say anything. But without that...

Sure, there's the the rest of the world-- AOC today or yesterday pivoted from pretend-sobbing outside of detention facilities for immigrant children to blathering in front of a camera about how "woke 1 was crazy"... She's working tirelessly to stop woke 1 now, I guess. We're in Trump term 2. It's a different time. Plus, James Gunn's on Team Ellis, so there's money to be made, when the movies come around, as long as Gunn doesn't keep blowing up large piles of money adapting dopey-looking Supergirl comics before his plans come to fruition...

But I think that's the major difference-- who's going to push back that actually has push behind them? No one fucking cares about what readers think-- if they did, they wouldn't be in comics. They only care if some pro says something; and who's left that'll say anything? I'm not on Bluesky so maybe people are saying things; it's not my world so I don't really care to look. But a lot of people came out of that forum are still around; and you know, they don't have to pretend to be For the Little Man anymore to sell their little funnybooks; it wasn't convincing at all when they did pretend; free like butterflies now. Who fucks with a dick that actually gets hard in that crowd? Beats me, man-- I wouldn't know; not my world.