I wrote the below out in an email, talking about the DAVE SIM PETITION, and I thought that I'd post it here publicly on the blog as well. It bugs me that less than 200 people (at the time I write this, only 157 people to be exact) have been willing to sign the online petition in support of CEREBUS creator and small-press/self-publishing great Dave Sim. The following is what I wrote:
Dave had been doing a blog (altho his entries sent snail-mail to someone who had internet access, who then posted them online) a couple years ago which I'd read every now & then. (Currently I get my blog fix by reading Steve Bissette's blog at http://srbissette.com a few times per week, since Dave's blog hasn't been updated much in almost 2 years.)
So, back in 2007, I'd been working on my GOFAR column for Gene Kehoe -- I'd send Gene an updated version of the column every 6 months or so, so the version that saw print in IAF #50 would be fresh -- and I'd thought that Gene should send IAF to Dave Sim and maybe Dave could plug it on his blog. (Like I said, this was back around 2 years ago.) So, when I started up Ditkomania, it was natural for me to take my own advice and send Dave a copy of DM. (I didn't have home access to the internet from July 2007 to Nov 2008, so I was not really aware then that Dave's blog was not being updated much anymore. Still, I probably would have sent him a copy anyway because of his vocal support of small-press publications.)
Around this same time, Dave sent out a form letter to all his correspondents asking them to sign a petition affirming that they do not believe him to be a misogynist, if they wished to keep in contact with him. After all, if they really felt he was a misogynist, they wouldn't want to be associated with him anyway. This was a way for Dave to weed out the people who weren't worth spending his time answering their letters, helping their efforts, etc. This sounded fair enough to me, and I believe that the "misogynist" label, and labels like it, are often used to shut down debate against certain people without having to address their points. I signed the petition, not really expecting that I'd be getting anything in return, since I learned that Dave's blogging days were over. Although I don't agree with all of Dave's views on gender, I believe that he is a serious and thoughtful person (not a nut, like some apparently think) who deserves to be taken seriously and treated with the respect and consideration that any other comics great deserves.
You can sign the Dave Sim petition (and view the singatures)at
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/davesim/
After I signed the petition, I received my first of several letters in the mail from Dave, as well as the pin-ups for Ditkomania, etc. some of them emailed to me by Sandeep Atwal who has been working with him on the technical side on his current series "glamourpuss." It was Sandeep I believe who first showed Dave a copy of one of the Snyder-Ditko packages a few years ago, which got Dave interested in the Ditko-Snyder stuff. Every month or so, I usually send Dave a couple items I've seen on the web, since he doesn't have internet access, and usually receive a reply in return. I got a 2-page letter from him in the mail yesterday, in fact.
So far it looks like only 157 people have signed Dave's online petition, which is around 10 more people than the amount of people that I sent copies of the new issue of DM to yesterday. It's a privilege to be in contact with him and I'm glad that I signed the petition in support of Dave when the chance was offered to me. Like Dave said in his review of Blake's Ditko book, sometimes people will cry a river of tears when someone passes away, but where were they when the person was alive and could have used their support? I'm glad I had the opportunity to give my support (to both Dave and Ditko), what little it may be worth.
