Right now I’m doing that thing of having a reaction that I feel guilty about. I believe the healthy thing is admit it, move on. Instead I’m going to write a blog post and if any of my friends read it possibly make them feel like I’m a self righteous little bitch. But then when don’t I?
In the mists of time, by which I’m pretty sure I mean at some point between June and September 2003 I wrote an article about how Neil Gaiman left me a bit cold because I read Alan Moore and found him much more visceral over similar ground than Gaiman. I don’t know exactly why I have them as comparative in my head but I do, the original blog article was probably vicious as shit, because though I love The Endless and indeed Lucifer and half a dozen other creations of the Sandman Universe I have mostly been disappointed by Gaiman. I suspect I compare them because I was reading comics by them at roughly the same time, often curled up in/on Cornish Bloke’s bed.
That’s not to say Moore may not turn out to be problematic but the thing is he already is, he’s openly problematic and has been as long as I’ve been reading him. Gaiman is a pretty boy and writes pretty little stories that make me feel like he’s not going far enough… gods know why I think that I mean he’s written some horrible shit, I’ve read Coraline and… I dunno… but I’m so relieved that Gaiman made me feel that way almost from the start because I absolutely death of the author his creations.
I am so so sorry for everyone who is feeling like they can’t love Delirium who was once Delight, or Destruction or, well any of them. I feel perfectly entitled to his creations because well, I don’t see them as his. Given my reaction to J K Rowling and visceral ugh to Harry Potter I do wonder if this is because he’s a comic book writer and so the creations do owe something to a whole team of artists?
Meanwhile Moore is over to the left openly writing about rape, violence, pedophilia and having to defend it. Do I think it’s going to come out that my favourite comic book author is a pedophile? Christ I hope not. I don’t though, because I don’t think he’d be writing the things he’s written if they were things he was trying to hide. I think he’s honest about them, he believes they’re artistically valid and he believes some problematic things about age gap relationships (I mean he practices what he preaches, he’s dated women a whole chunk older than him) and he’s got some un examined views that come off as racist.
Then there’s Gaiman, and despite the fact he was involved with the deeply problematic Amanda Palmer, he’s a missing stair to me because Pratchett liked him so I assumed he was probably all right. Moore gets accused, or used to get accused fairly regularly of victimising his women, but I found he gave them agency (or at least he wrote Promethea so I found agency in Watchmen and V for Vendetta) within that very real feeling victimisation whereas Gaiman’s women feel a little hollow and in need of rescue (even Coraline, annoyingly, needs a rescue). Moores women may make some deeply problematic decisions, but Christ those problematic decisions and reactions feel wholly formed. Yeah I’m talking about Watchmen.
Rowling has pointed out the pretty privilege that Gaiman is getting compared to Weinstein and much though I’d like her never to be right in a million years despite her complete blind spot on transwomen I think she’s bang on about this. I’m sorry your hero is probably serially abusive, let’s pretend he’s dead already and settle down with these stories eh? They aren’t as good as anything Alan Moore has written but they’re not bad.