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COMICS: The big news of the past week or so in comics has been the admission by writer Micah Ian Wright that he’s been lying for years about his past as an Army Ranger. As someone who hung out quite regularly in Micah’s forum and talked with him more than a few times, this surprised the hell out of me at first but I’m not going to go as far as some others have in condemning him.
I, as is the case with most people talking about this “scandal,” only knew Micah online and maybe from con and signing appearances. This really does mean we didn’t know him in the sense we usually use that word. We knew the persona he chose to project for his working life. It’s unfortunate that he chose to play up this lie to the extent that he did and I’m really not sure why he chose to do so. Maybe he thought his political views would only be accepted if he had some former standing or experience to build on, I don’ t know. He’s the only one who can answer that and I hope he figures it out for himself.
The real thing that gets me about this is people’s attitude about his truthfulness in his life and how that affects his work. The answer to that is that it doesn’t affect his work one little bit. He’s a fiction writer and in a very real way, a professional liar. He didn’t write any memoirs about his life. He’s not in the business of selling his personal story as the truth. He’s a fiction writer. What he says about his personal life cannot affect his work at all. It’s unfortunate that this will undoubtedly damage his burgening career but really the two aspects of his life are totally unrelated. I enjoyed his Stormwatch: TA at first and although the character of the Vigilante (or whatever his forthcoming Superman-universe book is called) does not appeal to me, his name is on my list of writers to look out for. I hope DC does the right thing and keeps him on the book and I hope he gets other work. If he decides to stay in comics and take the abuse that the gruge-holding comics fandom will heap on him, I hope he gets work. I hope he takes the advice of fellow creator Kurt Busiek and puts his head down, keeps on working and moves past this whole thing. This will of course be a black mark on his people’s rememberance of his career but I certainly hope he doesn’t allow it to overshadow everything else he’s done and is capable of.
And I really hope people will just stop harping on it. Move on, there are other things to talk about.
I, as is the case with most people talking about this “scandal,” only knew Micah online and maybe from con and signing appearances. This really does mean we didn’t know him in the sense we usually use that word. We knew the persona he chose to project for his working life. It’s unfortunate that he chose to play up this lie to the extent that he did and I’m really not sure why he chose to do so. Maybe he thought his political views would only be accepted if he had some former standing or experience to build on, I don’ t know. He’s the only one who can answer that and I hope he figures it out for himself.
The real thing that gets me about this is people’s attitude about his truthfulness in his life and how that affects his work. The answer to that is that it doesn’t affect his work one little bit. He’s a fiction writer and in a very real way, a professional liar. He didn’t write any memoirs about his life. He’s not in the business of selling his personal story as the truth. He’s a fiction writer. What he says about his personal life cannot affect his work at all. It’s unfortunate that this will undoubtedly damage his burgening career but really the two aspects of his life are totally unrelated. I enjoyed his Stormwatch: TA at first and although the character of the Vigilante (or whatever his forthcoming Superman-universe book is called) does not appeal to me, his name is on my list of writers to look out for. I hope DC does the right thing and keeps him on the book and I hope he gets other work. If he decides to stay in comics and take the abuse that the gruge-holding comics fandom will heap on him, I hope he gets work. I hope he takes the advice of fellow creator Kurt Busiek and puts his head down, keeps on working and moves past this whole thing. This will of course be a black mark on his people’s rememberance of his career but I certainly hope he doesn’t allow it to overshadow everything else he’s done and is capable of.
And I really hope people will just stop harping on it. Move on, there are other things to talk about.