Dirk Deppey links to (and rightfully dismisses) this nonsense, an article ostensibly responding to the entitlement issues of the online comics community, but which is instead the journalistic equivalent of a blow job. A sloppy, adolescent one, at that.

The offenses here are legion, among them the fact that Meeley (the author) desperately needs an editor--or at the very least a sound beating with a grammar book. Teach him how to use a comma. Teach him how to recognize sentence fragments. For God's sake, have somebody teach this man the difference between its and it's.

Even forgiving the torturous use of English, the argument itself makes little sense. This isn't about entitlement in general, it's about trying to argue that CGE's recently-publicized financial troubles are no one's business but CGE's: "The issue with CGE and the freelancers was private business, that should have remained so." Why, sure, because the financial status of a company that's made a recognizable name for itself isn't news anywhere outside of the childish comics community, right? I mean, you can't find news about businesses or financials out in the more grown-up real world.

I'm suspicious of Meeley's assertion that Bob Kane (creator of Batman) became "rich" off the Dark Knight, as by and large very few of the Golden Age (or Silver Age, for that matter) creators even managed "comfortably secure" as a result of their various work-for-hire properties, though I'll let it go without more information either way. Whether Kane was rich or not, the financial distribution of monies made on a property the size of Batman is, again, more than enough to make it newsworthy; so, too, is the attribution--or lack thereof--of creator's credit (to Bill Finger) for the same reason.

If I'm suspicious of Kane's untold millions, I'm downright flummoxed by how Meeley can say:

And to you 'newshounds' out there, quit with the doomsaying. Saying CGE is 'going under' isn't going to do anything, save make some who might actually TRY the work pass on it because they think it's not worth their time.

I don't know what sites Meeley's reading, but I've never seen a single article (on Newsarama, Pulse, ICv2, or even Journalista! for that matter) claiming CGE was going under. Each site reported information on the financial details which have never been disputed by any of the parties involved. Freelancers say CGE isn't paying; CGE says they're not paying. Maybe I missed it, but can someone point me to the "CrossGen Going Under" headline?

Bear witness, too, to great and powerful non-sequiturs like:

Do you want them thinking all those stupid cliche's [sic] about comic fans are true, or do you want to show them that comics are not only a great source of entertainment but something that people of all ages and races can be a part of?

Cliches like the fact that comics fans are childish? Myths that might be dispelled by having comics news sources cover grown-up topics like, say, financial news? And what does any of this have to do with "all ages and races"?

I should concede that, somewhere in the middle of the essay, Meeley actually has an example that supports his initial thesis (he points to the long-running debate about who is "the real Green Lantern"), but it's one paragraph in the midst of a lengthy and repetitive diatribe against "doomsaying" CGE, and as such his only truly persuasive example reads as little more than a distraction. Well it might be, as this and the above-mentioned Kane example seem shoehorned in the middle of the essay as a means of proving Meeley's not just ranting about a single news story.

He's ranting about a single news story. He's got about three points to make on the matter, though he seems to think that making one's point is the same thing as continually restating said point. No, that's what we call redundant.

In the end, Meeley suggests that the end of company-sponsored message boards might fix the problem. Personally, I think maybe getting rid of message board posts masquerading as journalism might be a more inspired choice.

Tags: comics, commentary