Comments on: What Went Wrong With Friends of Lulu? A Postmortem Interview

By: Double Decker Linkspam « GWOG

Double Decker Linkspam « GWOG — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 16:38:14 +0000

[...] of Lulu is officially finished as a group. Here’s an enlightening interview with interim director Kynn Bartlett about what went [...]

By: Johanna

Johanna — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 20:12:44 +0000

Note: Richard was contacted for a follow-up interview but declined to answer any questions.

By: Kynn Bartlett

Kynn Bartlett — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 22:43:14 +0000

I don’t know what happened to the previous board members either. If there’s a story to tell there, it’s Val’s to tell, not mine. I can only report what I witnessed.

And I seem to be the only one willing to talk on the record to anyone about Friends of Lulu.

By: Richard

Richard — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 22:37:55 +0000

Valerie was the ONLY thing that kept the group alive last year. The other persons who were SUPPOSED to be on the board all drifted away from any communication, which prompted the SOS. If any party is to be blamed for the dissolution of FoL, it was the M.I.A. board members. Not Val.
But I think it is evident there were problems beyond anyone’s control running further back in time, a malaise that only grew and grew, and that had she not been prez the group would have disappeared much much much earlier.
Period.

If anything, this has been a sad testament to the short-lived nature of Passion itself.

By: Johanna

Johanna — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 10:12:09 +0000

It’s hard to know what Val has mentioned in the past, Cindy, since Valerie removed the blog where so much was discussed from public view. Makes it difficult to do research. Personally, the first time I recall seeing Randi Mason’s name in full regarding the financial records was in a response to this interview on Kynn’s Google+ page. Regardless, if there are other questions that should have been asked — probably, there are, and I hope Valerie goes on the record about her perspective on the events someday. Ideally, in a format she can’t later erase when she changes her mind.

By: Kynn Bartlett

Kynn Bartlett — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 09:18:36 +0000

Cindy, how exactly is it scapegoating?

By: Cindy

Cindy — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 06:50:58 +0000

Laura Kim is exactly right.

Val has mentioned Randi having the financial records repeatedly. So I find it more than a little telling that Kynn fails to mention that. And I also find it very telling that Johanna failed to ask Kynn about it. Kynn not being able to answer any of Johanna’s questions without scapegoating Val would be comical if it wasn’t so disgraceful.

I think this interview is ludicrous.

By: John Mundt, Esq.

John Mundt, Esq. — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 21:47:59 +0000

Thanks for the info, Johanna. If I could, I’d like to add a “thank you” to the post mortem. Back in the day, when I and Friends of Lulu were young and eager, I – a male comics creator – submitted my comic (The Adventures of Monkey) to the Friends, seeking their endorsement…and I got it! I had always tried to make a comic that appealed to readers of all ages and both sexes, but that nod from FoL refocused my attempts to include, depict, and entertain women and girls with “active positivity.” For me, Friends of Lulu was not just about women comics creators. It was also, in an era of unrealistic superbabes and grimacing musclemen, an advocate for the few comics that a wider female audience might appreciate. I know nothing of how or why it has all now ended, but I will always consider it an honor to have once been a Friend of Lulu.

By: Richard

Richard — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 20:11:30 +0000

Go right ahead, Johanna. And feel free to email should you require any follow ups.
captainhowdy023@gmail.com

But as FoL has been closed since the start of the year, I don’t see a body of members who could elect new leadership. If anybody wants to continue it would really be more of a matter of picking up the mantle themselves. Except for the former Treasurer, nobody, from Val on down to my fellow eleventh hour pinch hitters, has any desire to bar any information whatsoever. Understand it would be far far more sensible to just start fresh with something entirely new and free of the hang-ups, in-fighting, and lethargy of the past membership body. Val did send out the SOS earlier last year, and aside from the interim board of directors responses have been limited to rock throwing.

By: Johanna

Johanna — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 19:02:42 +0000

Richard, if you would like me to include your comments in this piece as well, I would be happy to (or any other board member). Kynn was the only interim board member I had full name and contact information for at the time.

Heidi, I saw that — I’m thinking of taking her up on the appointment, assuming that it’s valid for her to just declare me President. If only to get the awards and archives to a suitable location.

By: Richard

Richard — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 18:30:54 +0000

There have been talks this year among the interim board members, hoping to find a way to keep the group alive. However, due to massive quantities of baggage Lulu is most assuredly dead and buried. David and I especially were the most eager in continuing the group, despite the backlash we’d received just for being male board members (and this from many female creators and FoL members who themselves were completely unwilling to do anything for Lulu but cast stones).
Comics need diversity to survive, not the petty melodrama and backstabbing.
I do applaud Renae De Liz for her efforts regarding Womanthology, which will, in a fashion, fill a bit of the void left behind by FoL.
http://womanthology.blogspot.com/

Now, let’s all move on, shall we?

By: Heidi M.

Heidi M. — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 18:26:22 +0000

For those following at home, Val responded here:

http://valerieinc.blogspot.com/2011/07/new-hope-for-friends-of-lulu.html

I’ll have my own thoughts over the weekend perhaps.

By: Kynn Bartlett

Kynn Bartlett — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 18:01:37 +0000

Laura, I can only speak to what happened after I and the others volunteered to help. And that’s what I did.

It will be up to someone else to write the definitive history of Friends of Lulu in the future. I’m just a bit player in the drama.

By: Laura Kim

Laura Kim — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 12:26:46 +0000

Friends of Lulu is a volunteer organization that was plagued with scandal and bad vibes way before Valerie D’Orazio took over. The Taki Soma fund is just one example, of the bad will the organization generated under other leadership. This ‘article’ really doesn’t convey the full picture. It was a shambles when she got there. There was never a ‘tidy succession process.’ There wasn’t when Tasha Lowe was president.

That said, the position is not a staff job – nobody gets paid to file the taxes, run the conventions, collect money or what have you.

As I understand it, Valerie ran the organization well for the first year with the help of Heidi MacDonald, Marion Vitus, and Nicole Boose. I attended the Lulu Awards the first year she was president and outside of the lack of AC, the event was fantastic.

I was on the mailing list when Valerie stepped down — you’d think one of the other board members would step up to the plate. Charles Boatner, Trina Robbins, or whomever.

Laura Kim