Fleen: The Awkward Christmas Dinner Of Our Obligation To Existence

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Regarding yesterday’s story about Dave ‘Shmorky’ Kelly gettin’ ripped off, we can add the following:

The webcomics community is not letting this one go; impressive set o’ links to stories in the first post over at SA
Kris Straub has perhaps the definitive comment (both artistically and textually) at Starslip Crisis today
As of press time, I have received no response from Goldman’s PR firm; I imagine they’re getting hammered pretty hard

More on this as it develops.

On Saturday, BC creator Johnny Hart died at his drawing board. As of right now, it’s not clear what will happen to his strip, but it’s hard to imagine anybody else being able to do justice to his batshit insane version of Pentacosalism. As Josh of The Comics Curmudgeon puts it:

Say what you will for good or for ill about Hartâ€™s work, but it has always struck me (despite that note about help from family members) as being indisputably his work. The best way to honor that would be for it to stand on its own, not to be continued by assistants cutting and pasting new dialogue into scans of old strips. Because of the way that comics publishing works, there will be a few weeks worth of Hart-authored strips still to run, but after that it should bow gracefully out.

We at Fleen wholeheartedly concur, and hope this means that newspapers can open a slot for a talented newcomer. I hear Todd Goldman may be looking for work soon.

I think Jon@goats has the right idea: “If your newspaper was carrying B.C., maybe think about writing the comics editor and asking them to replace it with some Diesel Sweeties? Believe it or not, a letter or two really does have an effect on these sorts of decisions.”

You’re darn tootin’ we’re not letting him get away with it. What’s to stop this from happening to any artist on the web?

A man just died, and all people can think about it filling his newspaper slot. Whether you liked the man’s work or not, it’s disrespectful.

I find it incredibly tacky.

Maybe we can wait until he’s buried before we start rummaging through his belongings?

Fucking webcomics vultures!!! ;)

Ryan, bigots like Hart don’t deserve my respect. This is a man who symbolically depicted the extermination of the Jews in his newspaper slot. You can excuse me if I’m dancing a little at the thought of replacing his hate and bile with something a bit more palatable.

And please, you write a comic strip that is 99% cock jokes. Don’t lecture me on what is tacky and what is not.

I’d normally agree that continuing B.C and Wizard of Id with templated strips would be dishonourable – if not for the fact that Mr. Hart pulled the old template trick a couple of times when he was alive. [Citation needed]

he symbolically depicted the extermination of the Jews? Er… Hart had MANY faults, and his pro-Christian comics tended to make me cringe, but he never advocated the extermination of anyone. Unless you’re referring to some other comic I’m unaware of, he made an extremely tacky (and staggeringly inaccurate in terms of theology) comparison between the Jewish Menorah and the Christian cross… ignorance of religious symbolism is not the same thing as “Holocaust supporter.”

That’s one way to interpret it, Christopher. is that how he explained it? You’ll excuse me if I’m a bit wary of his proferred explanation in light of his denial of the obvious anti-Islam interpretation of the Slam/Outhouse strip he did.

The strip we’re discussing shows the extinguishing of menorah lights, one by one, until a symbol of Christianity is the only thing remaining. If you cannot understand how one might interpret this as anti-semitic, then you are being willfully blind.

The man didn’t even have the guts to own up to his own racist bullshit, at least I would have had to give him some respect for being so bold in his beliefs, but Hart was just a coward that giggled to himself in the corner while denying everything.

If you cannot understand how one might interpret this as anti-semitic, then you are being willfully blind.

I can understand how someone who was Jewish (or at least well-versed in Judaism) could interpret it as being anti-Semitic. The question is, how reasonable is it to expect people who are NOT as well-versed in it to have the same interpretation?

Look at it from a different angle: when Serrano released Piss Christ, the standard reaction for most Christians was to assume that he was commenting on Christ, rather than on the institution of the Catholic Church (which was the explanation I heard). This difference in interpretation came from a different understanding of what the symbol was — some saw it as an important symbol to the Catholic Church, and so was a representation of that church, others saw “hey look! someone’s pissing on Jesus!”

When I originally saw that comic what I saw was Mr. Hart saying “Christianity has replaced Judaism” not “yay holocaust.” Would a Jew be offended by that statement? Well, yeah — just about as offended as any religious person would be when someone else says that their religion is better. What that has to do with extermination is beyond me.

And if he’d really wanted it to be an effective parallel he would have used Passover instead of friggin’ Hannukkah, but that just underscores his cluelessness on the subject at hand.

So, wait, because I’m jewish we have to discount my interpretation? Screw the everyman, Hart knew exactly the sentiment he was trying to communicate, and you are an apologist for him.

Let me come put a fiery cross on your lawn and we can discuss how maybe the symbolic flames symbolize the symbolic warmth of God’s symbolic love.

Jon, I was actually aiming for a clean 100% penis jokes, and I’m a little dissapointed that didn’t get through.

I never took Hart’s comics as anti-semetic. I’m a comic writer, I’ll take pot shots at anything on a whim, doesn’t mean I have an evil agenda.

My only point here was that the guy is not even buried yet, his family has only begun the mourning process, and here are people already looting his corpse.

Even if you hated the guy’s work, I don’t think that’s right.

For the record, I’m jewish, did 12 years of private jewish school growing up, and I didn’t find it anti-semetic.

Pisschrist is a good song.

So, wait, because Iâ€™m jewish we have to discount my interpretation?

Nnnnno, rather, because Hart is not Jewish we have to keep in mind that it’s very likely that he had no idea what the fuck he was talking about.

Do you know how many people think the Menorah is “the Jewish Cross?”

Let me come put a fiery cross on your lawn and we can discuss how maybe the symbolic flames symbolize the symbolic warmth of Godâ€™s symbolic love.

That would be an interesting discussion.

Ryan, you had that “the ass is where poop comes from” strip a few days back, I think that brought your average down a bit. But that’s nothing to be ashamed of, it was educational and cleared up a few things for me.

Usually I do like to wait a few days before cleaning out a corpse’s pockets but I make an exception for bigots, racists and such.

Christopher, are you saying that someone who regularly quoted scripture in his comic strip likely has no familiarity with the Old Testament? It’s not like we’re talking about the Koran, here. This book is part of the Christian Bible as well, if I’m not mistaken.

Ignorance and malice are good buddies, but it would be a mistake to assume that they are interchangeable.

The creation of the Menorah is mentioned in Exodus (I think) but the story of the Menorah as it pertains to the miracle of the oil and such isn’t contained in the Christian Old Testament, Jon. It might be in the Apocrypha, but I don’t know, because I haven’t read it.

That ever-reliable font of knowledge known as Wikipedia says it’s in the Book of Maccabees, which I think might be in the Catholic Bible. I don’t know, I’m not Catholic. It’s not a book in any of the Protestant Bibles I’ve read.

Chris, if I’m wrong about that then I apologize, but I still can’t imagine that someone as interested in religion as Hart was had not at some point heard the story of Hannukah, arguably the best-known Jewish holiday outside Judaism. It’s possible that you’re correct and the average Christian might be woefully ignorant about the practices of other religions, but Hart does not strike me as someone who would use a symbol like the Menorah without understanding something about it.

And if he did use it in ignorance, that’s not a whole lot better.

The anal sex storyline was mostly for my street cred, my true passion still lies with the penis jokes.

All this talk about semen is making me itchy.

I thought that’s what was stuck to the ceiling.

The idea to write editors with the suggestion of replacing a B.C. with Diesel Sweeties (or even a dark-horse self-syndicated strip is a very good one — whether it had been mentioned today or tomorrow or a week from now.

However, Creators Syndicate has already announced their decision to run the strip in perpetuity, which means it’s going to be an uphill battle all the way.

Oh, religion, is there anything you can’t turn to pure hate?

Hey – interesting development on the Goldman thing; I contacted Juxtapoz Magazine, which is big in the “lowbrow” art world that most of us can identify with, and they’re investigating this now, too. It really looks like they’re gonna call Goldman on his bullshit, and with a publication like that covering this story, it could really hurt the bastard.

Now Juxtapoz has the article up on their front page.

http://www.juxtapoz.com

[…] Gary As he said he would here, Sean Conchieri got in touch with Juxtapoz magazine, which is all about the art. They took an interest in the Goldman theft story, and hours later: front page. […]

Jon, you are a hero among internet arguers. I agree with every single statement you make!

I wonder if Shmorky will get some art shows outta this? I wonder if Mr. Goldman will lose a lot of wholesale clients? I wish I knew an MBA type who could help bring webcomics shirts to a larger audience.

Rich, your check is in the mail.

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