Bleeding Fool published an article that exposed a secret “whisper network” on Facebook. It is dedicated to destroying the careers of male comic book professionals. Or something like that. The group is called Comic Book Women. If you search Facebook for the group, you will not find it. That’s because it’s an actual secret group.
The article on Bleeding Fool was written by a woman claiming to be a member of Comic Book Women. She has access to everything the group’s members have posted. She took a copious amount of screenshots from the group, showing everything that was discussed. This would seem to prove she is a member of the group.
What do the screenshots show?
Going solely off the screenshots taken from the group, the group’s activities amount to a whole lot of nothing. The only one worth noting is a screenshot from 2018. It shows comic book writer Alex De Campi saying she heard Simon & Schuster distribute Richard C. Meyer‘s Jawbreakers. She asked the group to let her know if anyone has information about the rumor. She wanted to contact folks she knows at Simon & Schuster to see if she can quash Meyer’s nonexistent deal.
In other words, she wanted to engage in the same type of unscrupulous, gatekeeping behavior comic book writer Mark Waid engaged in. Meyer is suing Waid. The reason? For doing the same thing, De Campi wanted to do. Not for contacting folks at Simon & Schuster, for contacting Antarctic Press folks and blowing up Meyer’s actual deal with them. Unlike Simon & Schuster, Antarctic Press had a deal with Meyer until Waid got involved.
Because Meyer could not find a publisher for Jawbreakers, he had to crowdfund the book on Indiegogo. It grossed over $404,913.
Does Alex De Campi even have folks at Simon & Schuster?
Surely if Alex De Campi has folks at Simon & Schuster, she would ask them about Meyer’s deal. Why waste the ladies of Comic Book Women valuable time? I think it’s because she was trying to flex to the rest of the group. Basically, I think De Campi wanted everyone to know she has folks at Simon & Schuster that can make or break a distribution deal.
Sure she does.
If a whisper network is on Facebook, it’s not a whisper network
If a whisper network exists online with documental proof of who said what about whom, it’s not a whisper network. A whisper network uses whispers. The whispers cannot be sourced or tracked back to who started them. If you can screenshot it, it’s not a whisper. At the same time, if it has a timestamp, it’s not a whisper.
For this reason, whatever this secret Facebook group is, it’s not a whisper network.
