[...] again — given history, I will not be able to follow up with Valerie Gallaher to ask about the status of the records, but [...]

[...] has announced that as of Jan. 1 she’ll no longer be president of Friends of Lulu, the troubled comics-advocacy group that’s in danger of losing its tax-exempt status. She was elected [...]

[...] president Valerie D’Orazio (who took the role in October 2007 and has held it ever since) attacked me for asking a question about the organization. (To be fair, I’ve been tough on her before, so [...]

[...] rules changed in 2006, so according to the New York Times, some organizations were in danger of losing their tax-exempt status.) Both the CBLDF and the Hero Initiative have now confirmed that they have no [...]

About the time that I noticed that the only things that each of these instances had in common was Valerie D’Orazio is when I stopped reading her.

You don’t often see that kind of craziness distilled into its purest form. It made me nostalgic for those heady days.

I’m just sad to see so much anger flying around my favorite little world in the whole wide world, you know?

I always hope that when people are gonna fight comics, they’re gonna be fighting about comics, instead of hating on each other. But every world has its politics and its conflicts, whether you like it or not.

Whoever it was that said that Johanna is acting like a thoughtful, mature adult in this, whether she’s right or wrong, I agree with that. You put your anger and bitterness aside when you’re representing an organization, if you want to do so responsibly, unless that type of behavior would somehow actually be in service to your mission, which in this case is obviously not true.

I’ve dug up an old reference to a “Gail Simone Hates Women” post written by one of our old misogynistic trolls. Ah, the fond memories of that guy and his constant attempts for attention. Maybe that’s where we’re thinking of it from.

http://womenincomics.blogspot.com/2007/11/november-28th-2007.html

Please note, this guy was such an attention-starved asshole I’m not linking him directly, or even checking to see if his blog’s still there. I don’t have the energy. But the post did exist, and it was about Simone.

I don’t know what the real story is with this accusation but I don’t think Valerie made up that article title ‘Valerie D’Orazio Hates Women’; I’m pretty sure I have seen that title sometime in the last year in my RSS. Doubt I read it because I don’t recall any details and besides, it’s not a topic that shouts to me, ‘This is consequential and you must read it.’ But it’s an unusual title so it stuck in my mind.

Whether or not Johanna is right or wrong, she has comported herself reasonably well and without rancour or vindictiveness. Anyone can be wrong; it isn’t a moral failing.

It seems obvious to me on which side of this issue the right lies (having read as many background articles on both blogs as I can find), and if it isn’t with Johanna, then I must say Valerie has done just a terrible job representing herself, both in her email response and on her blog. She compares Johanna to Mrs. Kravitz but doesn’t bother to point out any resemblances between the two; it is just supposed to be so because it is so. Because it’s funny, I guess. Maybe Johanna *is* like Mrs. Kravitz; I would be curious to find out why, but Valerie doesn’t think I need to know — big mistake. And I find the same lack of rigour flows throughout her defence. Maybe she is a good writer, but in this she has failed.

The only thing that gives me pause is Johanna’s failure to address the ‘Valeria D’Orazio Hates Women’ article (re: being accused of writing same). She was asked about it above and her answer seemed like a dodge. So I’d like to ask it again. Johanna did you write that article, and if so what happened to it? Why isn’t it online anymore? And if you didn’t write that article then who did? I do have some recollection of seeing an article with that title in my RSS feeds at one point, though I don’t think I read it and have no idea where it came from.

Thanks.

Then again, I like most people. I even like Val, to be honest. I thought her memoir was an incredible read, and I envy the fact that she’s been able to break into Marvel at a time when that’s a very hard thing to do.

I don’t even mind the fact that, after Tweeting about this, her boyfriend tried to save the day, all white knight-ish, on my Twitter feed. His heart’s in the right place, although I still got no answer on the tax-exempt thing.

A response to a request for comment is not a private email.

Gail Simone hates women.

Which isn’t aimed at you, Johanna – if I were in your position, I probably wouldn’t even have addressed it on the blog at all, fearing that I was playing into the person’s hands, but that’s just me. For the most part you have conducted yourself in a very professional manner in this situation in which someone made a fairly cut and dry news story into a personal issue that it didn’t have to be. Congrats to you for taking the high road.

Keep up the great work!