Whatever?  Ha.

Leroy, I guess we'll have to agree to disagree.

Ian, your dislike of rap doesn't make you racist any more than my dislike of country music makes me racist.

Oops.  "Whatever" came out wrong.  I meant "Whatever Will and Em.  Just have a baby together already."

BTW.  I love (older) country music.  Pre-80's maybe?  When Waylon Jennings starts singing to me, I swoon.

We sometimes like to kid ourselves, don't we, that it is only in the brains of the ignorant and uneducated that racism can find purchase.

John Byrne: Scallywag or Ne'er-do-well?

John Byrne:  Bon Vivant or Cad?

I saw a lot of this stuff first-hand, unfortunately, when John and I were working together on Action.  Virtually no (honestly, I can't remember a one) pro friends wrote and said, "Hey, congratulations on getting to work with one of the all-time great Superman artists."

Nope. What they all asked, and I mean, even pros I'd never even spoken to, was what working with John was REALLY like. They were dying for me to tell them what a repulsive, racist homophobe he was. I mean, it was downright creepy.  It offended my truth-o-meter.  And when I told them the truth, that in fact, John was anything BUT racist, was in fact avidly ANTI-racist (AND one of the most outspoken creators regarding the crappy treatment of female characters...lots of male creators talk about it, John wanted to FIX it), I could actually hear the disappointment in their voices. In short, they like the ogre, they want the ogre.

Some went a good deal farther than that. It was ridiculous. I still get it to this day.

It got so bad that pros and readers who ought to know better began to cast a jaundiced eye at me, and assumed I, too, must be racist, despite my (often times to the point of absurdity) extreme beliefs about trying to show more diversity in comics on a real and committed level. Sort of a weird McCarthy-esque thing, I kid you not.

It bugs me, and (I'm sure this will just give more fodder for those who view me as biased) I've seen stuff John's said here deliberately twisted and repeated to outrage time and again. It's wrong, it's offensive, and the people doing it should be ashamed.  Yet, when John says something against racism, that never leaves this board. Of course not, doesn't fit the myth.

For the record, I didn't care for the latinas with blonde hair  comment, but I'm a hairdresser and obviously have some pretty strong thoughts in that regard. While I absolutely believe people have a right to like what they like in regards to someone's appearance, I felt that comment was (I'm sorry, John) unfair and thoughtless. Oh! And I almost forgot to add that John was a great sport when I asked him about including a gorgeous latin woman with blonde hair in Action. I'm not sure we ever got around to it, but John couldn't have been more behind the idea, so I suspect that even this has a bit of tempest-laden teapot in it.

 But the rest of that stuff they keep quoting is strictly deliberately twisted nonsense pandering to the types of people who adore that shit.

Anyway, that's my two cents, which today, is worth about no cents at all.

Gail

Wait, I take back a bit of my first statement. IF I remember correctly, Kurt Busiek actually had nice things to say about John returning to Action.

But Kurt is always the classy one!

Gail