I generally like to highlight positive things with my comics, so unless anything new happens with Harry Potter/JK Rowling down the road Iâm anticipating this being the last time I want to have a comic on the subject.
There was another idea that folks were putting out there in comment threads last week that I thought was a little silly, so Iâd like to quickly address it in non-comic form: folks saying that anything we consume has some kind of morally dubious strings attached.
To that point, I absolutely agree! Everything we consume, especially in more affluent nations, has some amount of exploitation involved.Â
Where I break away from this concept, however, is that folks were listing things like gasoline, electronics, food, clothing, etc.
What, exactly, is the caloric value of Harry Potter?Â
When parents come back from work and put food on the table, are they serving up a hot tray of Weasley sibling plushies?Â
How did they earn the money to provide that plentiful bounty if not by using fossil fuels and telecommunication devices in a society that compels their use?
Equating a book series to necessities like food/clothing/etc is an intellectually dishonest argument.Â
Saying âdonât consume Harry Potterâ is literally offering self-proposed allies a simple, insanely easy layup.
The fact that doing something that requires zero effort, nor is asking any life sacrifice to be made, is still too much of an ask for some people tells you what you probably already know:
Those folks were never allies to begin with.
One more thing that I want to touch on regarding responses from last week. Iâve been making comics for fifteen years; for the most part, I wouldnât respond to negative comments, but one thing I would never respond to was cruel comments.Â
There was a comment that, for me anyway, fit the bill of âcruelâ. The person in question accused me of not being transgender, and that Iâm a bad actor MAGA trying to stir up strife. I couldnât see the whole of the comment as it was deleted before I woke up the next day, but in my notifications on mobile I was able to see the commenterâs name and the first bit of what they wrote.Â
For the first time in my life, I responded to a cruel comment. Hereâs what I wrote:
Wanted to reach out to you regarding a comment you made to me that appears to have been deleted. I first saw it on mobile and was only able to see part of the comment, but of what I did see, it read:
              âHi! Just wanted you to know that I am an ally to trans people, but not you, because you donât deserve allies. I honestly donât even think you are actually a real trans person. Youâre more than likely a right-wing MAGA who just wants to pick fights and cause trouble for the LGBTQâŚâ
              -your comment
Iâm sure to a degree you knew that this was wrong to say, as it appears as though youâve deleted the comment.Â
What Iâm not sure about is why you came to the conclusion that you did, and Iâd like to understand.Â
My comic is available online and I donât hide anything about myself, at least not anymore since I came out. As a quick rundown of my journey to this point, I was questioning my gender starting around twelve/thirteen, knew I was trans at twenty, didnât speak a word of it until I was twenty-nine when I came out to a few people, then didnât do anything about it again until I was thirty-five and decided that I wanted to transition. I then publicly came out at thirty-six (Iâm currently thirty-seven).
It took a long time to get to a point where I could overcome the shame I had for how I felt, and an even longer time to finally start talking about this part of myself that I was compelled to hide.
Itâs an awful thing for someone to waltz into a situation multiple decades in the making and then declare that a journey they had no part in or knowledge of to be untrue.
Even the smallest amount of double checking would have revealed that Iâm being genuine, itâs a shame you decided to say such a hurtful thing with no due diligence.
Iâve strolled through your comment history to better understand where youâre coming from. I appreciate that you are someone with strong convictions and that youâre open to communicating them. However, a lot of what youâre saying doesnât appear to be productive.Â
For one, having strong convictions mean nothing when youâre voting third party. I understand that you voted blue in 2024, but it looks like Libertarian is your party most of the time. There is no such thing as neutral on a moving train. You either push the train forward, or try to stop it. Neutrality only helps the people pushing the train forward.
While my comic certainly is accusatory of a specific behavior, Iâm not looking to pick a fight. Your comments, however, are calling people losers, telling people to âstay madâ, telling people theyâre worthless, and gloating about all the sex youâre having.
Thatâs what trying to pick a fight looks like, why are you doing it?
Iâm not going to pretend to understand the story of your life, or tell you that your experiences arenât true. But what I can say is that I have an understanding of what itâs like to be angry at things in life and not always have the most elegant words to communicate those feelings.
Whatever it was in life sparked so much anger in you that you decided to invalidate my identity so casually and callously, Iâm sorry that happened and I hope things improve for you.
I guess thatâs all Iâve got to say today.Â
