Sunday Mailbag: Or, I Never Thought I’d Get SO MANY eMails About Jon Bolerjack’s Stupid Ass

It’s true: when the last entry of 2024 was posted, Four Color Sinners was firing on all cylinders and had tremendous traction. And no one was more surprised than yours truly, still the most gregarious and, yes, humble of writers.

In that time, we’ve received so many emails that I was initially overwhelmed to sift through them.

It may not surprise you that several of them are dismissive and insulting towards my apparent slander of Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, etc. There is never any serious thought about my habit of taking actual verified statements by these people and presenting them for an audience; it’s always that I am jealous somehow or have some sort of sinister agenda.

I won’t spend time responding to any of that since I don’t take those messages seriously; instead, we’ll touch base on a few topics that have come up quite a bit since August of 2024.

One thing I want to address at the start. I’ve received several emails, messages, and a couple of comments (which I didn’t approve) that both allude to and outright inform me that there is a general belief that the abrupt stop in posts on FCS stemmed from actual legal threats from Roy Thomas and/or John Cimino.

Let me clarify at the offset that this is irrefutably false. While some statements made in private groups (that have been shown to me via screenshots) suggest that people on “Team Roy” are nudging people into believing this, I have never, ever, never received any sort of legal injunction from anybody, anytime.

I suppose it’s possible that they have sent me a cease & desist (of, you know- sharing their actual statements), but the process server is so inept he just hasn’t found me yet.

But no, that didn’t happen.

The reason I haven’t written and posted is very easily explained: there have been more villainous people than Roy Thomas to focus my attention on, so my work as an activist has taken priority over calling out the many liars and enablers of the incestuous, pathetic comic industry.

While I’m still more concerned with White Nationalist Groups right now than Marvel Zombies and Real Frantic Ones, I will return to reporting and commenting on the prolific bullshit campaigns of these sleazy, fawning fuckheads and the arrested development culture of consumers that enable them.

With that out of the way, let’s get to some of the more frequent questions/topics we’ve been receiving…

“WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON JENNY BLAKE ISABELLA?”

Here’s my honest answer: good for her. And I mean that. I want people to be their authentic selves, and it isn’t for me to tell someone what they know they are. If someone came up to me and told me they identified as a pine tree, it would not occur to me to argue otherwise with them. And I do not mean that to make light of Isabella’s transitioning, I mean it more to get across my sincere lack of concern for what other people want to do. Life is short- make yours fulfilling and happy.

I still stand by comments in the past about Isabella being a hypocrite and rationalizing things, except now I’ll say SHE’S a hypocrite.

Jenny Isabella is still a frustrating conundrum of admirable traits that I respect, combined with truly corrupt and self-serving tendencies which allow her to literally post that all Republicans can burn in Hell while still admiring the very right-wing and Republican Roy Thomas in the same month. I don’t expect her to change that at least.

“WHAT ABOUT STEVE GEPPI/DIAMOND DISTRIBUTION?”

This is something I’m less interested in, but I’ll say quickly that I still believe this collapse, like so many other things in the comics industry, is a largely self-inflicted wound. It’s becoming of comic retailers especially to enable the thing for so long just to now complain and publicly suggest that someone like Todd McFarlane or Robert Kirkman come along to bail them out.

There’s a lot of very good comic stores that don’t deserve to inherit the bad business practices and greed of the companies they’re beholden to, so I do feel for them. I believe there needs to be some sort of “Comic Aid” national event for retailers. Not something like Free Comic Book Day (which the retailers still pay for, in case you didn’t know), but something that helps store owners raise money for their expenses and rent. The logistics of that will need to be figured out by someone else who cares more than I do.

“FINALLY… A JACK KIRBY DOCUMENTARY!”

I had about six emails and three private messages about this, and all of them had a certain degree of excitement for this. I don’t want to throw water on that, and I will take a ‘wait and see’ approach, because… well, when has anyone gotten it right in regard to Jack Kirby?

Multiple outlets are describing this as a “definitive” documentary which I take to mean, it’s solely focused on his perspective. While it’s not a bad thing that Rand Hoppe from the Jack Kirby Research Center is involved, it isn’t like Rand hasn’t had to compromise and tolerate bullshit and hold his tongue for the sake of the greater good before.

I’m concerned that Jon Morrow and Mark Evanier will make it a point to be involved… and, in Evanier’s case, if he isn’t involved, he might publicly imply that, without his association, how definitive could it be? Still, my best to director Ricki Stern in the meantime. And, speaking of documentaries…!

“NEW STAN DOC ABOUT HIS TRAGIC FINAL DAYS! WAIT, WHOS THAT DOUCHE?”

This is especially the hot topic in the comics bubble right now, as evidenced by such leading sites such as comicsbeat doing what they ALWAYS do- be reactive instead of proactive and NOW display concern for elder abuse and other terrible practices within the convention circuit. It seems everyone has an opinion on this. Let me save any opinions and do what I always do and give you facts instead:

Jon Bolerjack is a longtime grifter.

Jon Bolerjack is offering an exclusive variant cover for a comic book if you donate to his Kickstarter.

Any person that witnesses or learns of elder abuse should practice what is called the Three Rs’- Recognize, Respond, and Refer.

I admit I haven’t seen this yet and it is entirely possible that Bolerjack will surprise us and use the attention to help other elderly people being exploited. I just don’t think he will. He wasn’t filming these things with the intent of “somehow, someday” helping Stan Lee. He was purposely trying to make a pitch for a documentary of Stan’s life on the convention circuit as a “spry 89-year-old“, etc.

It’s not that it’s easy to hate on this out of any bias, it’s just that it is so blatantly shady and in poor taste that it’s harder to defend it. I’ll have more to say in my upcoming piece about the final days of Stan Lee, which has been in the works since before the announcement of this travesty. One hint though: it’s less about Lee, JC Lee, Keya Morgan, Bolerjack, or Max Anderson.

It’s about the devotees. It’s about the frantic ones, the Marvelites, the “geek” culture. They are horrific and lack any compulsion except for consuming pop culture, even in clear sight of a clearly unwell man they profess to live for and love dearly. Fanboys ruin fuckin’ everything man.

“NEIL GAIMAN’S SEX SCANDAL! *SLOBBER*”

The image above is not to imply that I believe Gaiman is a poseur at being a predator; I’ve just always thought he was a poseur and was amazed in real time at the reverence his pretentious writing always elicited. I chalked it up to the comic reading audience desperately needing grandiose and acclaimed literary things to use in their ongoing campaign of “comic books are mature, adult storytelling and as valid as movies, ACCEPT US!” towards the elusive mainstream that didn’t give a fuck about comics.

I thought his stuff was okay, but there was only one story he wrote that I ever personally enjoyed, and I felt his image of a guy wearing sunglasses and leather jackets indoors was more crucial to the perception of him than his writing ability.

My actual thought about this story breaking is simple. It’s disgusting that this took so long to come to the surface. It’s shameful that Heidi at comicsbeat and other “comic journalists” were so long in calling out what was an open secret within the industry.

Let me put it this way. On New Year’s Eve, 2014 I am celebrating in the East Village apartment of an Eisner award nominated artist and his partner, herself someone reaching legend status. It is not yet 2015 as we converse in one of the rooms where this host showed me his original Kirby page, as I had never seen an original by Jack Kirby before at that point. Not up close.

Before the clock hit midnight, the subject of Gaiman came up- I don’t remember what spurred it. I am sitting near a French woman and explaining these things to her. That Gaiman is known for having “groupies” and they all fit a certain arch type of the much younger manic pixie girl sort. She asks how it could continue if even strangers are aware of his habits.

The point I want to make with this is simple: if I knew about this as far back as 2014, what does it say about the people “in the know” that were not talking about it?

I’m serious: I’m no insider, folks. I had a series of experiences during my cup of coffee in the industry and retained some relationships and was present at some specific incidents which fuel my authority on calling out certain people- but, compared to the Heidi MacDonalds of the world, I’m a peon. I do not get into SDCC, I do not rub elbows with as many people in the industry. (And certainly not now, with this beloved blog.)

So, if I knew… how could they NOT know?

And they said nothing. Until the mainstream media picked it up.

Fucking disgusting. Who else could they know about? Can’t rock boats. Can’t make encounters at conventions awkward. Can’t risk losing those press passes and potential panel moderator gigs.

The tier system of comic industry parasites makes these horrific behaviors even worse by ignoring them. Insiders and pros alike are in an ongoing circle jerk and dependent upon scratching each other’s backs, therefore ensuring there can be no proper “news” coverage while both sides fight to maintain their spot.

The image of the comics industry is dependent upon maintaining illusions. It will never change.

There were also two emails regarding Marvel artist Dustin Nguyen but I’m not informed about that specific story… guess I should’ve described to Bleeding Cool.

In the meantime, we’ll have much more JON BOLERJACK in our next installment… who says this isn’t the age of showing up late to the party?? Until next time, True Believers!

Every state has a form of Adult Protective Services (well, at least until Trump & Musk defund it). If you see an older person being harmed, please contact them immediately.