You may not believe it, but I spend many a happy hour on Sundays watching documentaries and watching lectures on everything from particle physics to philosophy. I once spent an entire day doing nothing but watching videos on how to identify different types of leopards and how to see the differences between leopards and jaguars. Hint, there are a lot. A lot a lot.
Today, I spent the evening listening to some Third Quarter Financial Reports and their analysis by people in that type of business. It's not that I'm an investor, but I have learned, in the past ten plus years to keep a careful eye on certain industries. Plus, there was an important one out by an industry tent pole that has spend the past ten years telling off their consumers to the point they are only now worth, about seven million bucks, but they owe so much they are, for all intents and purposes, bankrupt. We sold our stock in the that company two years ago based on what one of their writers and editors posted on Twitter. Since then the company has doubled down on all of the bad and crippled itself while whining no one will by their product.
The problem is, this is the shortest of the tent poles in this industry. There are four of them and when this one snaps, the third in line will quickly drown in the tent coming down and the two tallest, will snap from the pressure. I know, you're saying to yourself, who the hell could destroy their own business so bad, much less four businesses that at the top of that hill? Because when you are told from kindergarten on that you are special, and the only thing that matters is your self-esteem is the only thing that matters in the world, well, you pay that forward instead of using common sense.
I've been conflicted watching this industry set itself on fire, then run around crying that someone else was trying to kill it. And there is no more apt description for what they've been doing for the past nearly twenty years in the industry, only to culminate, nearly fifteen years ago with a surge of pure hatred for their customers that has driven most away with the sheer acidic vitriol they spew hourly on Twitter, while telling us it's a privilege to even have that access to them online.
I am, of course, speaking of the comic book industry. It's a hobby I've enjoyed since I was nine and my dad bought my comic books to shut me up on a long, summer road trip. He had no idea the monster he'd created. But, he indulged me and it became a lifelong love. I worked in that industry for a few years, made some friends and a few acquaintances and we've gotten in touch the past few years as we watch an industry we once loved commit suicide while screaming they're just fine.
You know how that goes. At first, you're horrified, you try to help, see what you can do to help, but soon it pretty obvious to even the blind that their wounds are all self-inflicted and they aren't even capable of helping themselves, much less the business they are in.
At this point, I know most of you are saying, Sev, what the hell does this have to do with the Twentieth Century Motor Company? Never heard of it!
And you'd be right to be confused if you've never read Atlas Shrugged. I would urge you to read The Train Tramp's Story that is at the very end of Act II of Atlas Shrugged. It's involved, but if anything is analogous to what's going on today, this is it. The stories Jeff Allen relates to Dagny Taggart are easily recognizable by anyone who reads news or watches TV. That one passage in the book has stayed with me since I was sixteen when I first read it. I stick to how Allen describes the night they voted in the plan and what happened afterward. I don't know of a single person who carries this story in the forefront of their mind on a daily basis, but I do. I filter everything through this speech.
Twentieth Century Motors is a company mention all through the second and third act of the book. Especially, when Hank and Dagny are looking for the inventor of the motor. They speak to the Starnes heirs that are left, and both of them are whining, puling meat bags. They drove their father's legacy into the ground trying for their lofty principles never thinking of what would happen to the people effected by the reality of their motors not working. The one heir not around, killed himself in his former girlfriend honeymoon cottage to teach her a lesson. Reading that showed me why suicide is a mortal sin. Yes, you do kill yourself and you have no chance to seek forgiveness, but it's also the most selfish act a human being can pull on loved ones and everyone talks about "their pain". Don't even get me started. I watch a woman I respect almost daily tear herself apart over her son's suicide. He did more than kill himself, he harmed her, badly. And his kids. He must be so proud. That's all I can think while I watch her spiral a couple of times a year thinking the eternal question. Why?
So, let me get to how the Twentieth Century Motor Company ties in with the death of the comic book industry.
Around fifteen years ago, several writers and editors got an attack of the clevers and they began writing beloved characters darker, in an attempt to keep up with Frank Miller, who is a visionary, or was. They wanted to be Alan Davis, without the talent to pull off anti-heroes. They ruined Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Captain America, and so on down the line. Then they accused us, the customers, the readers of not understanding their vision. They were trying to teach us acceptance, inclusivity but we were too racist and sexist to understand our own bigotry.
I got the message early one and had already stopped my pull list at my local comic book shop. I bought books few and far between them and each one was worse than the last one I'd made the mistake of buying. So, I began looking at comic book reviews online, looking for a line of my beloved hobby. I'd stayed out of the word on the street. I finally found Richard C Meyer, and his YouTube Channel, Diversity and Comics, which is now Comics Matter. I loved his reviews, still do. He's sworn off new books because they are so awful, so propagandist, that he simply can no longer stand to even attempt to read them. I've seen the books and let's just say, I sometimes have a very hard time believing Goebbels is dead. See any Humanity First comic book as a reference. Pure swill that is physically and mentally painful to read. The stupidity is weapons grade.
I got back in touch with several old friends after, people I used to work with. We used to have an old email thing. It was crazy. I nearly wept getting back in touch with some of them, it had been so long. At first is was all catching up, hearing news and a lot of laughter about back in the day when we were all drawing at night because it was the only quiet time we had in our day. And then we started talking about what happened to who and who was working where on what and it soon became obvious that the industry had purged those of us with a certain point of view, and you know which way that signpost points.
And then Ya Boi Zack, aka Richard C Meyer, had the Dark Roast where he accurately roasted Heather "I got no talent but I got a job" Antos and her ilk in the industry and why it was bringing it down. Comicsgate was born. It started a war that is still being carried out in a Federal Court in Austin, Texas. I've been in touch with Zack, he's a very nice guy and extremely helpful to anyone who asks for it. Sincerely, the man is ready to help. He isn't protecting his own position. He realizes that a rising tide raises all boats. His Jawbreakers comic book was outstanding. I cannot wait for the next one.
During all of this, my friends and I, and most fans have been called names you wouldn't call another person in front of your mother, and if you would, you're a pretty awful person and that's bad coming from me because my threshold is already too low. We've been branded as racist, sexist, homophoibic, islamophobic, haters, murderers, Nazis, Hitler, Worse Than Hitler. You name it, they have called us that name. They've called us everything but a decent human being. We're supposed to look up to their example of humanity? Right.
So, I watch the IDW Tent Pole fall. Next will come Image. Then DC, and finally Marvel because even The Mouse won't be able to save them as they are too busy inflicting wounds on themselves in their suicide attempt.
Twentieth Century Motors was the prop used to show nihilism in Atlas Shrugged. We're seeing it played out in the entertainment industry as we scroll through material online. I think about it as I watch comic books do the same thing.
They've taken gaming from me. Then comic books. Then they came for my knitting, believe it or not. I'm not allowed on Ravelry because I might knit a pro-Trump jumper? WTF?
Fuck them, because now they're going for my anime. They want to make us all as miserable as they are. If we have no hobbies then all we have to do it sit around listening to them whine about how they've fucked the world. It's like Baby Boomers on steroids. I despise millennials.
Today, I spent the evening listening to some Third Quarter Financial Reports and their analysis by people in that type of business. It's not that I'm an investor, but I have learned, in the past ten plus years to keep a careful eye on certain industries. Plus, there was an important one out by an industry tent pole that has spend the past ten years telling off their consumers to the point they are only now worth, about seven million bucks, but they owe so much they are, for all intents and purposes, bankrupt. We sold our stock in the that company two years ago based on what one of their writers and editors posted on Twitter. Since then the company has doubled down on all of the bad and crippled itself while whining no one will by their product.
The problem is, this is the shortest of the tent poles in this industry. There are four of them and when this one snaps, the third in line will quickly drown in the tent coming down and the two tallest, will snap from the pressure. I know, you're saying to yourself, who the hell could destroy their own business so bad, much less four businesses that at the top of that hill? Because when you are told from kindergarten on that you are special, and the only thing that matters is your self-esteem is the only thing that matters in the world, well, you pay that forward instead of using common sense.
I've been conflicted watching this industry set itself on fire, then run around crying that someone else was trying to kill it. And there is no more apt description for what they've been doing for the past nearly twenty years in the industry, only to culminate, nearly fifteen years ago with a surge of pure hatred for their customers that has driven most away with the sheer acidic vitriol they spew hourly on Twitter, while telling us it's a privilege to even have that access to them online.
I am, of course, speaking of the comic book industry. It's a hobby I've enjoyed since I was nine and my dad bought my comic books to shut me up on a long, summer road trip. He had no idea the monster he'd created. But, he indulged me and it became a lifelong love. I worked in that industry for a few years, made some friends and a few acquaintances and we've gotten in touch the past few years as we watch an industry we once loved commit suicide while screaming they're just fine.
You know how that goes. At first, you're horrified, you try to help, see what you can do to help, but soon it pretty obvious to even the blind that their wounds are all self-inflicted and they aren't even capable of helping themselves, much less the business they are in.
At this point, I know most of you are saying, Sev, what the hell does this have to do with the Twentieth Century Motor Company? Never heard of it!
And you'd be right to be confused if you've never read Atlas Shrugged. I would urge you to read The Train Tramp's Story that is at the very end of Act II of Atlas Shrugged. It's involved, but if anything is analogous to what's going on today, this is it. The stories Jeff Allen relates to Dagny Taggart are easily recognizable by anyone who reads news or watches TV. That one passage in the book has stayed with me since I was sixteen when I first read it. I stick to how Allen describes the night they voted in the plan and what happened afterward. I don't know of a single person who carries this story in the forefront of their mind on a daily basis, but I do. I filter everything through this speech.
Twentieth Century Motors is a company mention all through the second and third act of the book. Especially, when Hank and Dagny are looking for the inventor of the motor. They speak to the Starnes heirs that are left, and both of them are whining, puling meat bags. They drove their father's legacy into the ground trying for their lofty principles never thinking of what would happen to the people effected by the reality of their motors not working. The one heir not around, killed himself in his former girlfriend honeymoon cottage to teach her a lesson. Reading that showed me why suicide is a mortal sin. Yes, you do kill yourself and you have no chance to seek forgiveness, but it's also the most selfish act a human being can pull on loved ones and everyone talks about "their pain". Don't even get me started. I watch a woman I respect almost daily tear herself apart over her son's suicide. He did more than kill himself, he harmed her, badly. And his kids. He must be so proud. That's all I can think while I watch her spiral a couple of times a year thinking the eternal question. Why?
So, let me get to how the Twentieth Century Motor Company ties in with the death of the comic book industry.
Around fifteen years ago, several writers and editors got an attack of the clevers and they began writing beloved characters darker, in an attempt to keep up with Frank Miller, who is a visionary, or was. They wanted to be Alan Davis, without the talent to pull off anti-heroes. They ruined Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Captain America, and so on down the line. Then they accused us, the customers, the readers of not understanding their vision. They were trying to teach us acceptance, inclusivity but we were too racist and sexist to understand our own bigotry.
I got the message early one and had already stopped my pull list at my local comic book shop. I bought books few and far between them and each one was worse than the last one I'd made the mistake of buying. So, I began looking at comic book reviews online, looking for a line of my beloved hobby. I'd stayed out of the word on the street. I finally found Richard C Meyer, and his YouTube Channel, Diversity and Comics, which is now Comics Matter. I loved his reviews, still do. He's sworn off new books because they are so awful, so propagandist, that he simply can no longer stand to even attempt to read them. I've seen the books and let's just say, I sometimes have a very hard time believing Goebbels is dead. See any Humanity First comic book as a reference. Pure swill that is physically and mentally painful to read. The stupidity is weapons grade.
I got back in touch with several old friends after, people I used to work with. We used to have an old email thing. It was crazy. I nearly wept getting back in touch with some of them, it had been so long. At first is was all catching up, hearing news and a lot of laughter about back in the day when we were all drawing at night because it was the only quiet time we had in our day. And then we started talking about what happened to who and who was working where on what and it soon became obvious that the industry had purged those of us with a certain point of view, and you know which way that signpost points.
And then Ya Boi Zack, aka Richard C Meyer, had the Dark Roast where he accurately roasted Heather "I got no talent but I got a job" Antos and her ilk in the industry and why it was bringing it down. Comicsgate was born. It started a war that is still being carried out in a Federal Court in Austin, Texas. I've been in touch with Zack, he's a very nice guy and extremely helpful to anyone who asks for it. Sincerely, the man is ready to help. He isn't protecting his own position. He realizes that a rising tide raises all boats. His Jawbreakers comic book was outstanding. I cannot wait for the next one.
During all of this, my friends and I, and most fans have been called names you wouldn't call another person in front of your mother, and if you would, you're a pretty awful person and that's bad coming from me because my threshold is already too low. We've been branded as racist, sexist, homophoibic, islamophobic, haters, murderers, Nazis, Hitler, Worse Than Hitler. You name it, they have called us that name. They've called us everything but a decent human being. We're supposed to look up to their example of humanity? Right.
So, I watch the IDW Tent Pole fall. Next will come Image. Then DC, and finally Marvel because even The Mouse won't be able to save them as they are too busy inflicting wounds on themselves in their suicide attempt.
Twentieth Century Motors was the prop used to show nihilism in Atlas Shrugged. We're seeing it played out in the entertainment industry as we scroll through material online. I think about it as I watch comic books do the same thing.
They've taken gaming from me. Then comic books. Then they came for my knitting, believe it or not. I'm not allowed on Ravelry because I might knit a pro-Trump jumper? WTF?
Fuck them, because now they're going for my anime. They want to make us all as miserable as they are. If we have no hobbies then all we have to do it sit around listening to them whine about how they've fucked the world. It's like Baby Boomers on steroids. I despise millennials.
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