Perhaps when this COVID-19 pandemic is over, unprofessional comic book creators will begin treating customers better. For example, take a look at the following Twitter exchange:
Newsarama tweeted a link to an article about a Summer cross-over event where all of the X-Men have swords.
Aspiring comic artist Nate Niles responds to the tweet by posting a meme of Stanley from The Office rolling his eyes. I’m assuming because the cross-over event sounds… stupid.
Gerry Duggan then jumped into the thread. He sarcastically wished Nate Niles success outside of comics. The implication is that Nate Niles will never work in comics:
Nate Niles commented outside the thread that he felt Gerry Duggan was implying he would get him blacklisted from working in mainstream comics. Considering just how much blacklisting goes on in comics, it’s hard to say Nate Niles is just being paranoid:
Back to the original thread. Someone pointed out how unprofessional Gerry Duggan’s response was. He responded by claiming “you dingdongs” don’t get to show up in his mentions and keep your “civilian status.”
A customer called Gerry Duggan an asshole. He responded by telling the customer to “eat a bag of pre-fucked dicks.”
Everyone who engages in discussions online about comics is a customer
I can’t stress this enough: If someone goes online and participates in a conversation about comics, they are a customer. Non-comics customers don’t search out and participate in discussions about comic books. They don’t follow comics-related accounts on Twitter. They may be a lapsed customer, but they are a customer none the less.
Imagine having a job where you told a customer “eat a bag of pre-fucked dicks”? It doesn’t matter what the customer said to Gerry Duggan. The customer called Duggan an asshole in response to something he said. Big deal. Back when I worked as an e-commerce tech support agent, I was called all sorts of vulgar names. Do you know how many times I responded in kind?
Zero. That’s because I acted like a professional. Sometimes it was hard, but that’s what I did. If the comics industry is still around in six months, comic pros ought to try acting professionally. Who knows, they might even enjoy it. Maybe they’ll take pride in acting professionally. I know I did, and I’m just another dingdong civilian.
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