Discussion over an unverified rumor - and I want to emphasize that part - leads to a completely different discussion over on The Comic Journal boards:
As if the recent news about Daniel Clowes’s heart operation (Jesus Christ!) wasn’t bad enough, I just read on www.criterionforum.org that Tomine is losing his eyesight… no further details were given by the poster, so I have no idea if it’s true or if the comment was made in jest, etc. But if true I would have thought it might’ve already been mentioned around here? Now, I realize Tomine’s entire career has more or less been achieved by poorly copying clowes, but this is ridiculous. Going blind is not something I’d wish on my worst enemy (and Tomine is only my second worst enemy) so I sincerely hope it’s not true and someone somewhere is having a lugh at my expense.
Response starts as expected, and then… begins to become more unexpected:
“ggod god, how ghastly. i hope it’s all some tasteless gag.”
“I’ve read the ‘Criterion’ messboard post that initiated this thread, and all there is there is unsubstantiated gossip. Rumours of an artist’s progressive blindness can ruin his career. I think this thread qualifies for shutdown on that basis alone, absent any confirmation of this handicap.”
“No one (Who’s sane) would blame Tomine for bad vision, and if it’s not true it’s easily disproven. This is a message board for a comics news magazine, so it’s totally valid to seek clarification on comics related news stories. It’s not like Drawn and Quarterly are going to stop publishing Optic Nerve over a rumour.”
” Read F. Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘The Last Tycoon’. In one sub-plot, a top cameraman’s career is ruined by creeps who deliberately spread the rumor that he’s going blind. The same can be done for an illustrator. I find your comments to be disingenuous in the extreme. It was irresponsible to start this thread, relaying the vague gossip of some airhead to the detriment of a fine cartoonist.”
” Um…Alex? ‘Tycoon’ is fiction.”
” With incidents based, as in much fiction, in reality. In fact, over the years, in much reading about the backstage workings of the movie industry and showbiz in general, I’ve run across many incidents* where the talent involved either covered up their serious health problems (or drug habits), or hastened to disprove rumors of those problems, lest their prospective employers decide they wouldn’t be able to adequately follow-through on work they’d committed to do. Indeed, some have had studio doctors check them out beforehand to make sure they were up to doing the job… ”
“Aside from the fact the Last Tychoon is fictional, it’s worth keeping in mind that this isn’t Hollywood either. I sincerely doubt Drawn & Quarterly is going to sever their longstanding relationship with Tomine over a message board rumour. To point a real life case, John Totleben experienced a much discussed and very real case of vision loss. How did people react? With a great deal of sympathy and support. He still gets about as much mainstream work as he can handle, and was once credited by Alan Moore as ‘Jaunty’ John’, the blind ‘inker without fear’. And to make it clear, I like Tomine’s work and wouldn’t want to see his career damaged. I just don’t think the inquiry that started this thread is likely to do that.”
“An art director who hears that Tomine (or any artist) is going blind will sigh, shake his head– and cross him of the list. Your mention of Totleben is dishonest. Totleben has been quite open about his affliction, as have various other artists with vision troubles (C.C.Beck, GeneColan…) I’d like you, Hogan, to find any indication by Tomine that he’s going blind. Failing which, acknowledge that you are in favor of disseminating a vicious and damaging rumor.”
“This is bullshit: An art director who hears an artist is going blind will call the artist to confrim or deny the rumor.”
“I was thinking the same thing; Alex’s hypothetical art director must be the laziest, most disinterested A.D. in the illustration industry. If I had a contractor that I liked and I heard a rumor about, I would contact the person to ask if his or her services were still available, end of story.”
Steve Hogan offers some perspective:
Rather than debate this further, here’s an idea for whoever is interested: write Adrian and ask him:
http://www.drawnandquarterly.com/artContact.php?artist=a3dff7dd5641ba
Or if you prefer email, try his publisher:
http://www.drawnandquarterly.com/aboutHome.php
Hoax? Cosmic coincidence? It just occured to me that we’re debating the potential vision loss of the artist who draws Optic Nerve.
October 23rd, 2006 at 1:38 pm
Silly Goose, everyone knows Tomine’s been ripping off Clowes AND that Abandon the Old in Tokyo guy.
October 23rd, 2006 at 3:09 pm
Man, do I hope this isn’t true. And so does everyone else with a soul. Adrian does fantastic work. I hope like he doesn’t wind up like poor Joe Shuster.
The Bay Area needs its comic superstars (although we do have Gene Yang), and Adrian needs his eyesight.
October 23rd, 2006 at 3:19 pm
I hope it’s not true, too. Of that subsection of “artsy-fartsy” comic artists, his is the stuff I actually enjoy.
October 23rd, 2006 at 5:32 pm
I saw the same thread and it astounded me that so many people would get so worked up about this without one of them actually trying to verify the rumor.
It’s stuff like this that keeps me away from the TCJ board most of the time.
October 23rd, 2006 at 6:21 pm
Just read a comment on the TCJ board from Kim Thompson seemingly claiming that anyone who says these rumor posts can have a negative impact is very wrong. (or am i just rumor-mongering?)
I’m not in the industry, but my common sense is that posting any type of health rumor is a very serious issue in most any line of endeavor.
October 24th, 2006 at 6:46 am
I’m not in the industry, but my common sense is that posting any type of health rumor is a very serious issue in most any line of endeavor.
Perhaps, but continuing to post about a rumour of a person’s supposed failing health is even worse. It spreads the rumour. The large amounts of post about whether the rumour should or should not be posted is the reason why it’s now appeared here. And why it might appear elsewhere.
One of the best ways to kill a rumour is to stop discussing it.
October 24th, 2006 at 8:19 am
Nah, the only way to kill a rumor is to get to the source and verify or invalidate it. The light of truth and all. . . If people stopped talking about it right now, some are always going to have that question in the backs of their minds. And then people will wonder what’s being hidden from then. It’ll only get worse.
October 24th, 2006 at 11:32 am
Nah, the only way to kill a rumor is to get to the source and verify or invalidate it.
Sometimes that does the trick. But if the rumour has gathered enough momentum even something final like the source verifying or dismissing it might not be enough. Heck, I’m sure some folk would even argue once the ‘truth’ has been confirmed. It’s happened before.
And that fact that it’s been discussed to death across the blogosphere or internet or world-wide blogonet prior to it’s invalidation can mean that it lodges in the mind. Some people tend to remember the discussion/argument rather than the final outcome and this might colour their decisions.