FAST AND GOOD

Rare in any biz

You can have it fast or you can have it good. We’ve all heard it and it’s true. Especially with custom designers, carpenters, or any kind of artisan work. Expecially comic artists. Jack Kirby was fast and good but he was a freak of nature. Jack could pencil four pages a day. He created his own style, a sort of anatomical shorthand that was vivid and pleaseing to the eye. Many of the classic comic book illustrators were fast and good. They had to be to put food on the table. Comics didn’t pay that much until the nineties. And now the Big Two are are cutting rates and using overseas talent, due, in part, to declining circulation.

There are many reasons for this, but the main reason is seldom discussed. The rise of video games. A generation raised on video games doesn’t read comics. They don’t read books. And why should they? The average corporate four or five dollar comic isn’t entertaining. They have forgotten their mission. To entertain. They hector. They lecture. They proseletyze the writer’s pet peeves and narcissism. A five dollar comic can’t compete with a good video game in bang for your buck. Grand Theft Auto. Call of Duty.

Another reason is the shrinking number of comic shops. It may be a temporary phenemenon. I hope so. All those comic based movies and the publishers and theater managers STILL can’t get it together to sell comics in the lobby.

Book stores are on the wane. Thanks to the internet, we live in a post literate world where peole spend much of their leisure time cruising. Tik Tok. Only Fans. Sniping at one another in forums. This is especially egregious in comic book forums where petty feuds go on for months.

I have five rules. One: no sarcasm. Two: no ad hominem attacks. Three: be brief. Four: keep your sense of humor. Five and most important: know when to quit.

The failure of corporate comics and an increasingly partisan editorial staff has forced many accomplished creators into the world of crowdfunding.

Back to fast and good. I’m not sure where I first leanred of Richard Bonk, whose resume includes Teen Titans, Superman, How I Survived the Zombie Apocalypse, The Gift (Image,) Zenescope, The Red Queen, Shadowline, Top Cow. Richard is that guy. Give him a script and he goes to work. At least a page a day. For all I know, he pencils and inks a page a day. Private American was our first collaboration.

I created Private American to show where the Punisher should be. Down on the border interdicting child rapists, human traaffickers, drug smugglers, and terrorists. He doesn’t bother those who come in good faith looking for a better life. There are more than enough criminals to occupy him. Thousands. Tens of thousands. More each day.

When word got out that it was about the southern border, the left attacked. Far left hate site The Daily Kos published an article headline, “Mike Baron Releases Another Racist AF Comic,” written by a woman who has never read anyting I’ve written. The lovely Starr Mignon was running her own project on Kickstarter while calling on her mignons to writeKickstarter to have me deplatformed. She succeeded. No one had read the book which had not yet shipped. We made a digital copy available to the Daily Kos, but as of now, two years later, they still haven’t looked at it.

We askeed Ron Coleman to write a letter for the record, knowing the Daily Kos would not respond. They have deep pockets. Possibly George Soros. Here’s the letter:

Re: Cease and Desist False and Defamatory Statements Regarding Mike Baron

Dear Mr. Moulitsas and Kos Media Counsel,

I am representing Mike Baron and Chris Braly and their publishing hourse BIG Comics ("BIG"). I am writing in reference to false and defamatory statements you published on December 8th in your article titled Punisher creator Mike Baron releases another Racist AF comic book. The article falsely states that the protagonist in his latest graphic novel, PRIVATE AMERICAN, is “brutally murders migrant workers and families fleeing fascism abroad. The article has no surrounding context for this baseless assertion, and the author made this determination without having read the book in question, as the book was only released this month.

The article also falsely states that Baron’s previous graphic novel, THIN BLUE LINE “is about vigilante police officers who ‘have to’ go on a killing spree in black communities.” In fact, the opposite is true, as the protagonist and her partner are both minorities and neither officer kills anyone in the story. You would have been able to verify this had you accepted the free digital copy of the book that Chris Braly generously offered you in an email sent to you and your legal team on December 9, 2022 at 2:59PM pacific time.

These were reckless and defamatory statements that negatively impacted my client’s efforts to promote the book, and we demand that you issue a retraction immediately.

Under California law, as defined by case law and statute (see Cal. Civ. Code §§ 44, 45a, and 46), defamation is a publication of a statement of fact that is false, unprivileged, and has "a natural tendency to injure or which causes “special damage,” and the defendant’s fault in publishing the statement amounted to at least negligence.”

My client needs not even show special damages. The very title of the article is defamation per se because it defames Mike Baron on its face, without the need for extrinsic evidence to explain the statement's defamatory nature.  (See Cal. Civ. Code § 45a; Yow v. National Enquirer, Inc. 550 F.Supp.2d 1179, 1183 (E.D. Cal. 2008).

Throughout the entire article, your author implies that my client is a white supremacist, a racist, bigoted, and engaged in an act of terrorism for writing a book that your author didn’t even bother to read. The fact that your author then engaged in online harassment designed to shut down my client’s fundraising efforts is particularly egregious given the fact that she is also an independent comic book publisher and the cancellation of those fundraising efforts resulted in significant financial loss for him.

These false allegations were unquestionably harmful to Baron's reputation and brings my client into disrepute with the public, potential customers, and current and future business partners, posing a significant financial loss to my client. Further, while you may claim that the statements are merely a personal opinion, however you are not insulated from liability for defamation because your statement can be proven objectively false.

BIG demands that you immediately cease and desist further unlawfully defaming my clients and publicly retract the defamatory statements. We also demand that such retraction be issued no later than May 26, 2023. If we are not made aware of the retraction by this date, we are prepared to promptly take all steps necessary to protect our rights, including pursuing all available legal remedies, seeking monetary and non-monetary damages, injunctive relief, and attorneys' fees and costs.

This letter is without prejudice to any and all rights, remedies, and claims of BIG, all of which are expressly reserved. Please take immediate attention to this matter.

Regards,

Ron Coleman, Counsel for Mike Baron (or BIG Comics)

People don’t like bullies. Private American was successful. We’re working on a sequel. In the interim, I wrote Sherlock Holmes vs. Captain Nemo and gave it to Rich. Rich exploded. It looks like he’d been waiting all his life to draw steam punk. The book is complete. We hope to launch this fall.

That’s not putting food on Richard’s table until after the campaign. Bobby Naklicki, chief cook and bottlewasher at Red Neck Nation and Red Neck Nation Records, commissioned me to write a graphic novel based on his outline. Battleground Suburbia is about a zombie invasion onthe southern border. Bobby conceived it before the present administration. That sticker of Joe Biden grinning and pointing to the gas pump meter “I did that”? Bobby did that.

Richard is illustrating Battleground. It’s only 66 pages so I’d better come up with something for Richard when he finishes in about a week. We’ll have some exciting news to share about Private American by the end of the year.