Talkin' Square, Square Biz

The other day I linked to a review I wrote of a gay erotic comic for a non-profit LGBT comic website, Prism Comics.

The next day I was alerted to an angry Facebook rant from one of the creators, Robert Fraser, where he pretty much personally attacked me, quoting my Facebook profile out of context. The president of Prism Comics, Zan Christensen, then "apologized," essentially for letting my work even be published on their website, stating it was basically against everything their organization stood for.

Oh, and the "followers" of Robert Fraser also took the liberty of saying I was "probably fat and ugly, anyway."

Basically, it's all over now. I defended myself and my work when honestly, I probably shouldn't have, because nothing is going to change and I gave them the satisfaction of thinking it affected me personally when it didn't. Go ahead and call me fat and ugly, misquote me, and whatever you need to do to make me the bad guy. Fat, ugly guys can still type and be intelligent, succesful writers. And that doesn't even matter because I'm cute and I know it.

What bothers me is the hypocrisy of a website asking me to write a review and then getting all up in arms when it's negative. The ridiculousness of having a feature called "Color Commentary" and then telling me that I was misinformed, that the website isn't for "news and reviews," that apparently it's only for the sunshine-and-rainbows-and-unicorns kind of stories about LGBT comics.

It amazes me that I was attacked for being negative and not supporting the LGBT comics community by being called "fat" and "ugly" and saying that I just like "shitting" on everything. The very people who bitched about there being no place in the community for my divisive and negative review spit even worse vitriol when they don't like what they hear or see and that is unacceptable as far as I'm concerned and also a major problem with gay culture at large.

This is the last you'll hear from me about this particular situation and I don't know if I'll ever write for Prism Comics again, despite a great e-mail of support from their editors. I won't keep quiet about my opinion, though, you can be quite sure of that, and I won't hide my disappointment that people can't be mature and agree to disagree, either.

In other news, I shaved my beard into mutton chops today. Reactions thus far:

My boss at work looked at me and said, "Whoooaaaa! It's fancy beard day!" and then said I looked like I should be drinking bourbon.
A co-worker said, "Hey, Martin van Buren, shouldn't you be hitting the campaign trail?"
My boyfriend said, via text, "Very cute, babe!" because that's his job and he's amazing and wonderful.

We'll see if it lasts because, honestly, part of the reason I have a beard is because I absolutely LOATHE shaving and that includes any shaping on my face. Generally, I shave my neck like twice a week and that's it. So, dependent upon my feelings about mutton chop maintenance, I may or may not be keeping them.

That is all.