The Curious Case of the (non) (Death) in the (non) Family
This is still being worked on so it's incomplete and not full of citations. Because of this, names will not be used.
Last weekend there was a comic book convention in San Francisco called Wondercon. I was unable to attend. Now I wish I had. First a little background:
Present at the convention was a Very Famous Big Named Comic Book Creator, who shall remain nameless and genderless. Said BNCC (Big Name Comic Creator) is a legend in the independent comic book field. However, the comic went south in a handbasket about twenty years ago due to outsourcing and "they just didn't care"itis. Much of the fandom turned away even when they created more original works. So, BNCC starts a whole new project in a whole different genre. Several genres mixed, as a matter of fact, many of them very popular and with crossover fan bases. Dark, gothy, bishie, that whole feel to it. Book one comes out and flops big time. Webcomic continues, but is not very popular-- in fact it gets less and less popular as time goes on. People still ask about the original work BNCC is famous for and BNCC just handwaves it off with a "I hardly remember it anymore, and besides, I'm doing something new now."
So: BNCC and crew show up for Wondercon, with a table. Table gets (according to 2 different pros with tables stationed near BNCC's) almost NO traffic. What traffic they get, is "so when is (original comic) going to start up again?" This goes down all Fri and Sat. (see ETA below)
On Sunday, Saturday, BNCC tweets that they have been informed of a "death* in the family" and bail on the convention. (ETA: sources correct me that it was Saturday morning when this went down, and BNCC cancelled appearance at Saturday afternoon panel.) Warm wishes and thoughts go to BNCC from what few lines of communication they have not yet burned. Much is made of "Family comes first."
Except for three things.
1) BNCC's family is either dead, or no longer communicating with BNCC. Mostly the first. Note that NO mention of who the person who has died is--most people will post at least a name when they make those kind of announcements.
2) Not 48 72 hours after that, BNCC accepts and attends a television season finale taping in Hollywood. No further mention of the loss is made.
3) A few days later BNCC posts not ONE but TWO completed episodes of the current project... in which one of the main characters, and the one BNCC has repeatedly announced is BNCC's expy, has committed suicide. In a pseudo-beautiful, wasteful, emo-gothy, "behold my grand exit, will you pay attention to me now?" gesture.
All signs point to this: BNCC was devastated at the bad showing at the convention, made up a "death* in the family" excuse, and then went on to put up this work to capitalize on the "parallels to real life tragedy" BNCC is experiencing.
How bad is BNCC's new work going? The traffic stats for their site are worse than my semi-functioning Pont-au-Change site. Yes, that bad. BNCC has fewer than 20 followers on Twitter. Twenty years ago people lined up in the streets for BNCC's work.
I don't know if this counts as faking an internet death or not. But seriously, I look at the evidence, and I cannot find a plausible alternate explanation.
There's more to the thing, but it's mostly classified stuff I can't repeat, based on certain other events. This is why I am not naming names. A little digging (and some understanding of the acronym I used) will uncover the identity, but that's not the point.
The point is I'm not the only one adding this stuff up and coming up with WTF.
This may get bigger. For now, we'll just call it a pending mystery. "The Case of the Tell Tale Art," perhaps?
___________________
*ETA 2: Have been informed that the exact wording is not "death" but "loss." So. "Loss in the family." Ambiguous claim is rendered even more ambiguous. on a blog BNCC says "death in the family". So original ambiguity remains, the added ambiguity does not. Have determined however that it was not the death of one of BNCC's tiny yapping dogs. That would have been blogged all over the map.
Last weekend there was a comic book convention in San Francisco called Wondercon. I was unable to attend. Now I wish I had. First a little background:
Present at the convention was a Very Famous Big Named Comic Book Creator, who shall remain nameless and genderless. Said BNCC (Big Name Comic Creator) is a legend in the independent comic book field. However, the comic went south in a handbasket about twenty years ago due to outsourcing and "they just didn't care"itis. Much of the fandom turned away even when they created more original works. So, BNCC starts a whole new project in a whole different genre. Several genres mixed, as a matter of fact, many of them very popular and with crossover fan bases. Dark, gothy, bishie, that whole feel to it. Book one comes out and flops big time. Webcomic continues, but is not very popular-- in fact it gets less and less popular as time goes on. People still ask about the original work BNCC is famous for and BNCC just handwaves it off with a "I hardly remember it anymore, and besides, I'm doing something new now."
So: BNCC and crew show up for Wondercon, with a table. Table gets (according to 2 different pros with tables stationed near BNCC's) almost NO traffic. What traffic they get, is "so when is (original comic) going to start up again?" This goes down all Fri and Sat. (see ETA below)
On Sunday, Saturday, BNCC tweets that they have been informed of a "death* in the family" and bail on the convention. (ETA: sources correct me that it was Saturday morning when this went down, and BNCC cancelled appearance at Saturday afternoon panel.) Warm wishes and thoughts go to BNCC from what few lines of communication they have not yet burned. Much is made of "Family comes first."
Except for three things.
1) BNCC's family is either dead, or no longer communicating with BNCC. Mostly the first. Note that NO mention of who the person who has died is--most people will post at least a name when they make those kind of announcements.
2) Not 48 72 hours after that, BNCC accepts and attends a television season finale taping in Hollywood. No further mention of the loss is made.
3) A few days later BNCC posts not ONE but TWO completed episodes of the current project... in which one of the main characters, and the one BNCC has repeatedly announced is BNCC's expy, has committed suicide. In a pseudo-beautiful, wasteful, emo-gothy, "behold my grand exit, will you pay attention to me now?" gesture.
All signs point to this: BNCC was devastated at the bad showing at the convention, made up a "death* in the family" excuse, and then went on to put up this work to capitalize on the "parallels to real life tragedy" BNCC is experiencing.
How bad is BNCC's new work going? The traffic stats for their site are worse than my semi-functioning Pont-au-Change site. Yes, that bad. BNCC has fewer than 20 followers on Twitter. Twenty years ago people lined up in the streets for BNCC's work.
I don't know if this counts as faking an internet death or not. But seriously, I look at the evidence, and I cannot find a plausible alternate explanation.
There's more to the thing, but it's mostly classified stuff I can't repeat, based on certain other events. This is why I am not naming names. A little digging (and some understanding of the acronym I used) will uncover the identity, but that's not the point.
The point is I'm not the only one adding this stuff up and coming up with WTF.
This may get bigger. For now, we'll just call it a pending mystery. "The Case of the Tell Tale Art," perhaps?
___________________
*ETA 2: Have been informed that the exact wording is not "death" but "loss." So. "Loss in the family." Ambiguous claim is rendered even more ambiguous. on a blog BNCC says "death in the family". So original ambiguity remains, the added ambiguity does not. Have determined however that it was not the death of one of BNCC's tiny yapping dogs. That would have been blogged all over the map.