1. Forget Marvel, their back and forth policies, and their gay characters created solely to be cannon fodder! This is the kind of gay comic book I want to be reading: intelligent, subversive pornography! (Not at all work safe!)
I wonder how many fans of Rader’s Catwoman are coming along for this ride.
2. Harlan Ellison is suing Gary Groth and Fantagraphics. That feud has been going on for so long that this is almost like one big yawn, except for two things that hit me when I first read the news.
First, the timing of the suit seems funny to me, given the long history of the feud and Ellison's willingness to sue seemingly at the drop of a hat. A commenter at Comics Worth Reading came to the same conclusion I did: Thanks to Peanuts, Fantagraphics finally has some money to sue for!
Second, the way the Groth-Thompson relationship ("shared house" "secret vacation") is described in the complaint (3 mb PDF file), it sounds more like they are lovers than business associates. A commenter at Journalista! picked up on that too. The cynic in me is wondering if it this is a deliberate wording choice.
In another place in the complaint, there's a reference to Groth having a "hell hath no fury like a woman scorned" routine. It looks to me like they are trying to paint Groth as being somehow "less masculine" than Ellison, between that statement and the subtle gay implications (using the old stereotype here that gay = feminine).
It's like they're trying to hook into the line of thinking that says a man who isn't sufficiently "manly" really shouldn't be trusted, because, after all, who knows that someone "like that" will do.
I'm not saying it's deliberate, because I have no way of knowing, but when I read the complaint, I see a veiled attempt to play to stereotype and homophobia. It's distasteful and if the suit really does have merit (which I am in no position to judge), totally unnecessary.
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