Comic Book Shop Robbed and Vandalized – Owner Tries to Connect it to Diversity & Comics

By 
·May 11, 2018

Comic book shop Variant Edition located in Edmonton, Alberta was vandalized last night. The owner of the shop tried to connect the robbery to their public announcement that they would not stock Diversity & Comics aka Richard Meyer, Jon Malin, and Brett R. Smith’s Jawbreakers – Lost Souls graphic novel which will be published by Antarctic Press.

Variant Edition publicly made their announcement after a number of comic book retailers were exposed promising to boycott the book and publicly shame the publisher.

They said the book does not appeal to their demographic, and they will also “not actively support creators who have promoted harm to friends, colleagues and strangers.” However, they did say that “pre-paid orders will be accepted for those interested.” So, they weren’t fully boycotting the book and customers could order the book through the shop, they just had to pay for it beforehand.

They also posted their store policy which doesn’t really make any sense. I’m not sure how kicking someone out of your store for being intolerant makes you tolerant.

After they made this announcement yesterday, co-owner of Variant Edition Brandon Schatz posted a number of photos to Twitter showing his store had been broken into. Interestingly enough he included a 1 star review of his store which read “Don’t do business with bullies and twitter crusaders.” It’s unclear why exactly he included the review, but it appears he’s trying to make a connection between his public announcement about not carrying Jawbreakers and his store being vandalized and broken into.

In fact, Big Bang Comics’ Bruno Batista placed the blame squarely on people who follow Diversity & Comics saying, “PEOPLE, STOP MOLLYCODDLING THE DIVERSITY AND CMX GUYS, THEY ARE VIOLENT AND THEY WILL END UP HURTING SOMEONE!”

Schatz would retweet Batista’s accusation.

Batista would claim Diversity & Comics followers threatened violence against retailers. He provided this Tweet as evidence:

It appears Batista thinks “consequences” means advocating violence. It’s more than likely this person is using “consequences” to refer financial fallout as well as possible legal problems.

Comic book creator Ales Kot seemed to agree with Batista as he claims he reported the account to Twitter.

Schatz would later provide an update about the incident indicating the store was robbed.

As of right now, it does not appear there is any connection to the robbery and Variant Edition’s public announcement saying they would not carry Jawbreakers – Lost Souls. The only connection appears to be one made by Schatz by including the review, and then Batista explicitly insinuating the robbery was done by Diversity & Comics fans.

A number of folks did offer to pitch into a GoFundMe to repair the damage:

However, Schatz said the store would be able to cover the cost and they are not looking for any money.

It’s terrible that someone robbed their store, but it’s also terrible that Schatz and Batista are trying to insinuate that this crime is connected to Diversity & Comics in what appears to be a pure attempt to malign his character after the success of his IndieGoGo.

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