Assholes in Comics

Today's post is inspired by PW Comics World: More to Come #44. 

Our first asshole is comics is a legend.  It's Mr. Fredric Wertham, yes that Fredric Wertham!  The psychiatrist who in 1954 published Seduction of the Innocent which associated comic book reading with juvenile delinquency.  As a result of Seduction of the Innocent an inquiry was launched into the entire comic book industry and the Comics Code Authority was established.  So guess what?  Library and information science professor Carol Tilley started researching and discovered that Fredric Wertham totally used a whole bunch of unverified research, which he then claimed as his own.  Yeah.  Asshole.  Carol Tilley, on the other hand, is awesome and does the library community proud.  Three cheers for librarians!

Our next asshole is an old favorite, Orson Scott Card.  Ever since I heard Orson Scott Card speak at a conference, I have thought he was an asshole.  He's just kind of pretentious prick who thinks he knows everything about everything and that everyone should listen to his every word and agree with him.  Because he's Orson Scott Card.  Except he's just so wrong about everything.  Before, I was OK with thinking, "Oh Orson Scott Card, you giant prick.  Please shut up and just write good books," and that was fine.  But then that was not enough.  After hearing his absolutely disgusting and despicable views on homosexual people, I will not spend money on ANYTHING he's involved in.  I will not give him money that he then uses to support his terrible organizations.  And then, Orson Scott Card got named to write a story in DC's new "Adventures of Superman" anthology.  Odd choice, DC.  There was a HUGE backlash not just from the comic book community.  It's actual went mainstream. NPR did a piece.  Give a listen.    Chris Sprouse, the artist on the project, left.  Because of Sprouse leaving, Orson Scott Card's story will not be appearing in the scheduled anthology.   

Our last, and probably biggest asshole, is Edward Kramer.  Ed Kramer was an editor of science fiction, fantasy, and horror works, and co-founder of the Dragon Con convention.  He also was arrested and charged with several cases of child molestation.  However, he claimed he was too sick to stand trial and has been under house arrest for a number of years.  It seems though he was not too sick to be found in Connecticut, without his respirator, with a 14 year old boy.  Not long after Kramer being back in the news, it was discovered that he still makes money off Dragon Con, despite having been removed from the board.  There are now calls to boycott the convention.

Assholes all, but the biggest asshole?  PW Comics and I both agree that it has to go to Kramer.  It doesn't get much more horrible than child molestation.