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Gail Simone Switches From CBR To Bendis Boards

Gail Simone has moved her official message board from Comic Book Resources to the Jinxworld collection of creator forums headed up by Brian Bendis..

Formed at Comic Book Resources alongside her original You'll All Be Sorry column at the site, it's been a popular creator forum for a decade with a large membership and friendships that have lasted the length of its run, as Gail's comics career has grown from strength to strength. It's also notable for the long running threads collecting critiques of Rick Olney, a would-be publisher who owes thousands to comics creators. Naturally, as with any message board there have been a number of moments of crisis and criticism within the board. And I understand that it's a recent ruction that has caused Gail to move her presence from CBR over to Jinxworld, giving her moderators more control over the people who post there.

Many comic creators prefer to choose this kind of control, such as John Byrne and Warren Ellis, not only to create a more conducive online environment for themselves, but also their fans. Although there can be problems when such control end up putting off the very fans who once considered themselves the most devoted.

And one interesting wrinkle is that the Bendis boards are not exactly known for their tolerance of such control. And feature a number of posters who delight in their, shall we say, social divergence. Hell, we have a fair few at Bleeding Cool too. There's no guarantee that Gail will find what she seems to be searching for there. But she has had a prescence for a while and early ructions with Brian Bendis seem to have smoothed over of late into, if anything, good-natured mickey-taking.

There's also a popular thread of opinion that this may be part of Gail's attempt to diversify her publishing options in the future, aligning herself with a board that is full of Marvel or Marvel-identified comic creators. But if that's all it took to get on at Marvel then, well, Tony Lee would have wrangled a spot ten years ago.

Currently there's a delightful honeymoon period as the regulars and newcomers celebrate the arrival. The board's testing time are yet to come… what happens when a Bendis longtimer decides to post something that's seen as terribly offensive? Odds are Bleeding Cool will be back for a return visit…

UPDATE: Gail Simone has addressed this post on a Jinxworld thread saying;

He just went nuts on this. It's completely made up.

And I wrote him about it and he got very testy.

I fricking HATE when he tries to be a mind-reader.

I like Rich. I do, but man, I'm tired of that gossip nonsense.

Just to assure, I didn't go nuts on this, it's not completely made up, I'm not trying to be a mind-reader.

(UPDATE FURTHER)

One informed response chooses to put blame on CBR moderators, and the belief that they tolerate abuse of people identified as common YABS posters, and the banning of certain people from YABS. That Gail instituted a forum policy to not badmouth other CBR boards, taking the high road. And fights that continued as a result. And while Gail says she has no problems with CBR owner Jonah…. no one else is mentioned.

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