The Four Color Media Monitor

The CBC did an interview with Toronto artist Michael deForge, who won awards for works like Leaving Richard's Valley, and some of the stuff he talks about reeks of bad liberal politics. For example:

How has the current pandemic affected your career and life right now?

Thankfully, my work was from home to begin with, so my day-to-day has gone unobstructed. But, like a lot of people are experiencing, it's harder to write nowadays — it's hard to process everything and do that work at the same time.

There is some consolation in knowing that the feelings of despair and the feelings of outrage are being held collectively right now. It's frustrating because that doesn't always translate into getting us any closer to the world we want, even though it feels like we're all together on hating everything and being dissatisfied with how things are going right now.

But I'd say it's overall despair. There are certainly moments over the past year or so of intense optimism, seeing some of the mobilization that happened last year during the 2020 uprisings, and then, pre-COVID, there were the Canadian pipeline and railway protests. There were moments of intense hope and feeling like people are mobilizing towards building a different world.

But certainly right now, it's hard to feel particularly optimistic.

If he's alluding to the BLM/Antifa riots, that's pretty bad, seeing how the harm they've caused continues to take a toll on the USA. But if that's the kind of beliefs he upholds, why does he talk of wish for optimism, when examples in the most liberal bastions of the USA make it exceedingly difficult these days? If he realizes the Canadian health officials are posing a serious problem, ditto the authorities who've been persecuting a church pastor, I can understand how he feels about that if he does, but then, isn't that why he should be taking issue with the Trudeau government for mistakes made in the past year till now? And if he wants optimism, I'd recommend he give his backing to this newlywed couple in British Columbia. Love and weddings of this sort are something to represent the optimism deForge says he wants, and hope he actually does.

What's your take on the current comic book scene?

The fights to have comics be respected seem to be over. Comics are now everywhere. It does sometimes feel odd for comics to be so visible — and to see in advertising comics or the language of comics get used.

It doesn't always feel much easier to make a living drawing comics. People are making money off comics but it's not necessarily the cartoonists themselves.

I'm afraid the fight to have comics respected is far from over, when you now have entitled leftists running the scene, abusing now conglomerate-owned established creations beyond belief and demonizing their fanbases while not achieving any new or sustainable ones. One could probably ask why money should matter in all instances when it comes to making comics, if only because it's not like the pay's ever been the highest, and if you're going to get into the gig, it should be for the glory and what entertainment merit you can bring to the table. The interviewee talks about his latest graphic novel, Heaven No Hell, which is allegedly about utopias, and among the themes, there's this:

What themes does Heaven No Hell explore?

I didn't come from a religious background. My parents were both religious, but not heavily so. It wasn't that present and in my upbringing. But I would say it was more political texts which have informed my thinking, because that also informed my idea of what heaven should be like and what hell should be like.

I play around with the idea of hell and punishment. I do one story in the book that is explicitly like a murder mystery. I do try to write from an abolitionist perspective because that informs both my life and my work. I wanted to find roundabout ways to make those ideas, without it being too overt, at least have those be present just in the background. My ideas around them seep out, hopefully.

It's not really clear what he means by abolition, unless he means religion? But at the end, that's where he really says something eyebrow raising that could explain a bit more:

What is your general outlook on life? How does that shape your work?

I sometimes think about whether I'm optimistic or pessimistic overall. I have a certain set of political beliefs — I'm a socialist — which I think means that you have to be optimistic. You have a belief that people, if left to their own devices, can and are willing to take care of each other.

I think that's reflected in my work. But I've also had people tell me — because there are so many dystopian pieces and I write horror comics sometimes — that my work is pessimistic. That is why I'm interested in writing utopias — I'm trying to be a bit more explicit about saying, "Hey, this is what I believe, or here's what I think is possible."

It's hard to tell if my outlook in life is always reflected on the page. Again, obviously, both of those things get challenged a lot.

It's hard to feel particularly optimistic right now — but we'll see if we do another interview in three years, how we both feel about these things!

I'm not sure how he thinks socialism is something to represent optimism, and not capitalism. Especially considering he brought up the whole money matter. Nor do I understand why he must not think religion - depending which one or what interpretation - is something to inspire optimism. Worst, there's something wrong when somebody says he's influenced by politics, and not by a true desire to create escapist fare that could really inspire optimism, and make readers feel happy. If that's what he thinks, that's why I have to challenge his visions, because I don't think they're healthy or helpful ones.

What's sad about Mr. deForge's viewpoint is that, despite what he says, he's actually veering more towards pessimism, the kind the left regrettably wants to be the norm. And that's why the entertainment scene is such a mess today. How can you build a better world that way? Why, how can you even build better comics that way?

Labels: moonbat artists, msm propaganda, politics