#squee rat

I feel like this needs to get some more traction on social media…

#comicsbrokeme trended recently, with comics creators and artists telling horror stories of extreme low wages, cruel bosses, and the constant struggle to make ends meet.

One company, and one person came up in an alarming amount of posts… Iron Circus Comics and its founder, Spike Trotman.

What Trotman has been accused of is not just run of the mill mismanagement or low wages, though they are infamous about underpaying and missing payment dates. They will actively and precisely bully, berate, and mentally destroy creators working under them. Trotman uses their clout as an internet famous comics publisher to keep people in line, and a recurring threat that if creators ever spoke out, Spike would sic their fans on them.

If you ever wondered why so many creators from Slipshine and Iron Circus up and vanished, THIS IS WHY. Several artists and creators have said that Spike Trotman sapped them of their desire to make comics.

This is downright sociopathic behavior to be sure. But then one starts digging into Spike Trotman’s past, and there’s a lot of skeletons in the closet. Squee Rat and Darth Versace were their previous handles on the internet. Squee Rat may sound familiar to people who have heard of the ‘Burned Furs’ movement.

Burned Furs was a puritanical, homophobic, transphobic offshoot of the furry fandom, founded by Spike Trotman, who also wrote the ‘Furry Manifesto’, which outlined their goals of getting rid of pornography, degeneracy, and expression of sexuality in the furry community. They distributed pamphlets at cons encouraging ‘degenerates’ to kill themselves.

A very inconvenient past to have when your brand is leftist and sex positive. Spike very much knows this, and they have tried to scrub all evidence of their past as Squee Rat from wikis and articles about Burned Furs.

Right now, Spike is hoping that this all dies down. In fact, they just had a big party for the success of the Lackadaisy cartoon pilot.

Especially ironic given that Spike once encouraged people to eat one meal a day to make ends meet in the comics industry.

What you can do is make sure this reaches the eyes and ears it needs. Find the dissenting voices against Spike and Iron Circus, and boost them as much as you can.

Fun Furry Facts! 

Spike Trotman (aka Squee Rat) was the founder of the “Burned Furs”, a conservative (and later deeply homohobic) Furry movement. Spike was also the author of the “Furry Manifesto”, a truly bizarre rant that outlines the beliefs and motivations of this group. 

Burned Furs claimed “Anthropomorphics fandom is being overrun by sexually dysfunctional, socially stunted and creatively bankrupt hacks and pervs.” Spike now hypocritically makes a living selling pornographic comicbooks and refuses to discuss her past as “Squee Rat”.

Spike Trotman also distributed material encouraging certain individuals to commit suicide.

“I remember when being a pervert was a bad thing. I don't know what the hell happened here.“

-Spike Trotman, editor and publisher of “Smut Peddler”.

Spike Trotman was also known as “Darth Versace” on the “Something Awful” forums. She used to be a very vocal in that community, taking part in the mocking, bullying, and harassment of young child artists on DeviantArt.

Apparently Spike Trotman was also responsible for purposefully changing a hosted image on her website to a pornographic gif in order to knowingly spread that image on a children’s art forum (the now defunct BakaNeko forums).

Other names that Spike Trotman has gone by are “Charla Trotman” (her actual name) and “Charlie Trotman”.

How people describe Spike Trotman during the time of the “Burned Furs” movement:

“The woman self-destructed. She had all the interpersonal skills and charm of a tasmanian devil with herpes, and she snapped and frothed at everyone around her, friend and foe alike.“