A Great Disturbance in the Fandom

As if a great crowd of “fans” suddenly started singing a different tune all at once….

JesterBell returns, readers, and boy does she have news. There are calls being made to boycott Disney – calls being made by the very “fans” who attacked the original fanbase for Star Wars, Marvel, and many other franchises for not going along with the promoted political beliefs which these “fans” held so dear:

This call for a boycott was always going to happen, readers. The method of arriving at this juncture is one no sane individual desired, but it was inevitable that the very “fans” courted for political reasons by these companies would abandon them once they no longer needed said companies for their purposes. Disney, Marvel, DC, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, et al, were only a means to an end. The “fans” calling for more politics in these franchises were never truly fans of the characters or the stories.

Very often, the writers and editors hired by these companies were never interested in the franchises, either:

These writers, editors, and “fans” have an agenda and they used these companies as a means to transmit said agenda to the masses. As a result, great characters and tales were twisted out of shape to abuse those who loved the stories therein. Not only were audiences treated to this abuse, so were the actors and the actresses the studios cast. In order to appease these new political “fans,” the companies burned their own “seed corn,” as the saying goes, to party while the sun shone.

Well, the party is over, and now they are waking up from the hangover in a wrecked house with Mom unlocking the front door. Perhaps the properties are salvageable but that discussion will need to wait. Right now what needs to be done is that the companies must – as JesterBell puts it in her video on Kimmel – sleep in the bed they made. They have sown the whirlwind and now must reap it:

In the case of this video, I will disagree a little – a very little – with JesterBell. She is right to do her best to stop supporting DC, and I recommend doing that as far as new material and merchandise is concerned. However, if you can, try to buy what they previously published in their extensive backlog that you believe is worth preserving. Secondhand purchases are preferable, but if you cannot buy the older (1990s and older) comics or TV series any way except directly from the company via Amazon or some other entity, do it.

Yes, you should buy the hard copy. Look no further than this post here for a reason why the hard copy is preferable to surfing the high seas. Digital is convenient, certainly, but also easily removed, rewritten, or scrubbed. The return of this well-known and beloved blog is something of a minor miracle, as others can tell you of blogs, articles, or archives that were “disappeared.” Or, in online colloquialism, “memory-holed.”

Get the hard copies. ALL the hard copies you either can purchase or wish to have. You do not need to fill a wall of shelves with them, but if you can find a few to put on your coffee table or window alcove, get them. Now.

Let us be clear: this is not a call to backdoor support DC or any other company that has abused its fans for the last decade and change. It is a recognition of reality; as others have noted, there is a market correction coming. Market corrections hit hard and fast, and they tend to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

We do not want to lose these babies with the bathwater, since if we do, we will never get them back. Yes, all the big franchises have been so thoroughly showered in horse manure that they need an industrial power washer sprayed over them twenty times before you want to get within five feet of them. But understand that buying previously published material from them – material from the 1960s, ‘70s, ‘80s, and perhaps even the ‘90s and ‘00s – does not mean your money is going to help them stay afloat.

Look closely at how the market is shifting. There are many factors converging to bring these and other companies to their knees, if not to obsolescence. Those factors are going to multiply quickly. If you have to drop twenty dollars on the original Winter Soldier run in a comic store, or can only pick up copies of the Thrawn trilogy with the “Legends” banner from Barnes & Noble, or you cannot get the Muppet Show on DVD anywhere but via Disney through Amazon, do it.

Do it.

The “fans” now turning on Disney, DC, and the rest do not care about what made these franchises great, beloved icons of Americana. They have never cared about what made them great, only about using them for social credit. Some of these “fans” also actively want Disney and the franchises the company absorbed to be destroyed, so refusing to buy what was done in the past by artists at these companies means you are letting these so-called “fans” win. While it is good not to give money to people who hate you, keep in mind that you also do not want these “fans” to obliterate all that was good in these “skin-suited” franchises.

You do not want to let them have that satisfaction. If you can, buy copies of original works such as the Scrooge McDuck comics and like material from secondhand stores. But if you can’t get this material secondhand? Yes, Disney will have your twenty dollars. For a single collection. Much good may it do them when the taxman cometh, or more lawsuits arrive on their doorstep, or the shareholders revolt, or they end up in some other trouble. Kimmel’s firing is just the beginning. There will be more, much more, and sooner than you may realize.

Market corrections are messy. They take the innocent with the guilty, and you need to be able to save what was worthwhile. If you can only buy what is worth saving straight from the company now, then do it. Should you discover copies of what you may want to buy secondhand, buy them secondhand. Search through ebay, Abe Books, and other online stores for these collections, DVDs, and books. If you can, check out your local secondhand shops to purchase older movies, or older comics, or even older novels.

For those who, in these tight times, have neither the money nor the space to put another book or movie on your personal shelf, put your tax dollars to work instead. Ask your local library to pick up reprints of a great comic collection, novel, or even a non-fiction work. We here at Upstream have a lot of lists for a reason: scan through one of the lists, pick a book (or books) you find of interest, then make your request to your local library. If they refuse to pick up one of your requests, then try another, and another, and another.

Keep asking the library to stock your favorite indies while you do this. Make your tax dollars work for you. Show the library that you have a vested interest in what they make available on their shelves. Make your voice heard by promoting indies who are doing what the big companies have not done for decades and now must either relearn quickly or sink. It may be beneficial, in the long run, both for the older tales you loved and the indies you want to promote.

You are the constituency of these libraries even if you do not actively patronize them for safety reasons. I understand several libraries have become de facto homeless shelters and that parents are rightfully worried about going to them with their children or even on their own. That may change. The point still stands that you need to tell these publicly funded enterprises that you are not going to take it anymore, and if you can only do that by requesting books, you can always do that online.

You need to make yourself heard. We too often say “Someone should do something” without realizing, “That someone is me.” Keep at it. Make request after request after request. Not all of your requests will get through, but some might. Even if all you can do is “nibble around the edges,” remember the widow’s mite. What is small to you may be very big to Someone Else – or even to someone who lives in your location some time in the future.

For too long we were quiet. We either did not have the stamina for the fight or we just didn’t want trouble. Right now we have an opportunity to break into the battle and make a difference. If we do not take it now, while we can, others will do it. Others who may prove to be the same “fans” as before, just wearing different costumes than they did previously.

Ask yourself if this is the world you want. Do you want the same tribal mindset shoved down your throat in a new outfit? Do you want those who have set up their own tribe to take on the other one at your expense and the expense of that thing you love? Think about whether or not you want a world where tribes rule, readers. A tribe cares more about the unit than the individual, which we have seen writ large since The Last Jedi hit theaters, though it began long before that film came out.

It is also usually better for things not to change over night. Cascade preferences, however, wait for no man. Neither will tribes. Do your best to repair the culture where you are and with the resources you have available – including libraries. Keep seeking ways to shore up civilization in your area. Maybe you cannot do big things, like they do in the movies…

...but the One Who sees in secret will repay you all the same. Forth, Eorlingas! Stand, Men of the West! Sauron’s armies waver! Hold, pray, and do your best!