Comic book writer and producer Marc Bernardin has posted on Blue Sky about the future of the comic book adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Anansi Boys. Bernadin adapted the series from Neil Gaiman’s original novel, drawn by Shaun Martinborough, and published by Dark Horse Comics. It is one of a number of such titles from the publisher that have adapted some of Neil Gaiman’s adult fantasy works, including American Gods and Norse Mythology.
The last page of Anansi Boys #7 advertised a new issue #8 for February, but this will no longer be published. In recent months, Tortoise Media, NY Magazine, and Vulture have reported detailed allegations of abuse by a number of women against Gaiman. Gaiman has denied anything non-consensual.
Bernadin wrote with the accompanying visual from above, “Last week, Anansi Boys 7 hit stands. It will be the last issue. Dark Horse will not release a trade. I am incredibly proud of the work we did on the book. @smartinbrough.bsky.social 's lines were fantastic, @sotocolor.bsky.social 's hues were extraordinary, @david-mack.bsky.social slayed the covers. But all of that pales. Anansi Boys is about two brothers, twins. One is meek, timid, like a flopsy, set-upon puppy. The other brother is narcissistic, hedonistic, governed by nothing other than his own pursuit of sensation and pleasure. They seem so different, but they are very much flip sides of the same coin. Literally. I never gave too much thought about that. Until now. My heart breaks for the survivors and any pain seeing these books on the shelves might have caused.”
Feel bad for the folks who adapted it and are now getting screwed cuz of Gaiman.
Goddammit, I gotta try and cancel my Kickstarter pledge for the Good Omens graphic novel
There’s £2.5m invested in that and cancelling isn’t an option and is going to harm Colleen Doran and the Pratchett estate.
However, people have been backing out and there have been no quibbles about it.
Pratchett wasnt an asshole too was he? Ive tried discworld but havent managed to get into it but i still want too.
Every new thing I hear about pratchett is how great of a person he was. Literally never heard anything negative about him.
When he heard that trans people were identifying with the dwarves in his novels, he was like “that wasn’t the intent but I’m happy all kinds of people are finding themselves in my characters”, so just generally great.
To put on one of his plays, you don’t pay his estate, you give a donation to a urangutan preservation society.
'To put on one of his plays, you don’t pay his estate, you give a donation to a urangutan preservation society. ’
I didn’t know that, and now I love the man even more.
Pratchett wasnt an asshole too was he?
Not as far as I’m aware. They wrote a book together in the late eighties and stayed in touch but Gaiman lived the rock and roll lifestyle while Pratchett lived in the countryside with his wife and daughter. Even people closer to Gaiman didn’t know, so it seems likely Sir Terry was completely unaware of what he was really like. The sad part is, Gaiman was a huge fan and drew on Pratchett’s work a lot, but he may have also cultivated the friendship and deployed it on every possible occasion as a kind of shield. So it would be tough on the Pratchett Estate to cancel this entirely. If Gaiman had any love for his mentor then he’d back away from this project too and do something like donate any money coming his way to charity.
And if you look up Colleen Doran’s history, she’s suffered sexual harassment and assaults in her time in the comic industry and has been vocal in calling this out. Yet she has worked with Gaiman for decades. If she has seen anything iffy she would have spoken up. She’s made a statement about the allegations on her Patreon, although she hasn’t gone into detail about the graphic novel because things are still up in the air. She has used some of the money from this for her cancer treatment.
Ive tried discworld but havent managed to get into it but i still want too.
I love them, snatched them up as they came out. Definitely give them a chance, they’re brilliant.
I wont comment on Pratchett since i dont really know much about him. But i do seriously want to get into discworld, ive only read the first guards guards book and i liked most of the characters. But the story seemed to bounce around and just came off as nonsensical. By the end i found i liked parts of the book but coulent feel connected nor cared about the story. Did i pick the wrong storyline to start with? I read guards guards was one of the better storylines
I would advise not starting with the early books. Going Postal may be a good place to start.
Yeah, I’d just start with The Colour of Magic, which is where I started because it was the only one. There are Reading guides and Terry Pratchett suggests starting on Sourcery but I’d just blast through The Colour of Magic -> The Light Fantastic -> Sourcery and if it still isn’t working for you, move on to something else.
Small gods is a good book, and fully self contained.
Pratchett sometimes struggles to tie things up nicely at the end, but you read his novels for the journey, not the destination.
Monstrous Regiment shows how DEI friendly he was.
I literally don’t care if he was, he created something amazing. I’m sure he was an arsehole to somebody at some point during his life?
Undoubtedly, but probably not while wearing his author’s hat.
The literal hat? I’m not sure he ever took that off.
Damn, he really thought of everything.
This cancelling of people, i can understand. The cancelling of art made by those people is beyond me. Will we destroy the Mona Lisa if we should find evidence that Leonardo was a sexual predator?
Canceling future stuff and destroying existing stuff are not the same, you can tell because they use different words.
I mean, if the story has a planned ending and you’ve destroyed any chance of that planned ending ever happening - you’ve effectively destroyed the existing media. I don’t really see the difference between the two in this instance.
So, are all the shows that are canceled without an ending also destroyed? Cuz I mean most of those aren’t even canceled for a reason, like this is (other than money).
Sure, they aren’t story-complete, but they aren’t gone, they are still available to consume, as are the first 7 releases of this series.
Just treat it like a cliffhanger. Lots of stories end that way on purpose.
Difference between art which already exists and art which is being created. No one is saying to destroy what Gaiman has already made. They simply said they aren’t supporting his creation of more art on account of him being an asshole.
Still: art in itself is just art. Either good or bad. Thats not depending on the morals of the maker
Of course you can decide not to buy/use/watch it. Thats up to you
Which is what Dark Horse just did.
Is he involved in it? Like Dead boy detectives is he involved? I guess at the very least he is getting money for it.
Bingo. Starve the beast.
Yah I don’t get it either.
