Image Comics Appears to Make Official Statement Regarding Michelle Perez

The Image Comics twitter account appeared to issue an official statement regarding Michelle Perez’s threats against military veteran and comic critic Diversity & Comics. While the account didn’t mention Perez or Diversity & Comics it does address the company’s stance when it comes to their freelancers.

It’s a pretty fair stance and echoes what Image Comics co-creator Erik Larsen had previously stated independently.

However, a number of fans said they would not support the publisher who is publishing Perez’s upcoming book, The Pervert. They also didn’t buy Image Comics’ reasoning that the creators do not speak for the company.

Others called out Image Comics for hypocrisy after they publicly apologized for Howard Chaykin’s Divided States of Hysteria.

Some fans also pointed out that creators are promoting themselves under the Image Comics brand and suggested Image Comics change their policy to make it crystal clear that freelancers are not employees of the company.

Diversity & Comics said he received a personal email from Image Comics Publisher Eric Stephenson about the threats of violence against him. He indicated Image Comics’ tweet and the email were “good signs of progress.”

While on the surface, I agree with what Image Comics is stating and that their freelancers are not employees of Image Comics and they act with their own free will, Image Comics is still associating themselves with Michelle Perez at this juncture. They still plan on publishing her book and are engaged in a business relationship with her. They also aim to reap whatever profits may come of Perez’s book The Pervert.

And as I’ve previously stated, I believe Perez’s entire attack against Diversity & Comics was to promote her book. It would allow her to claim a victim status and state she was being “harassed.” By being a victim she would draw defenders to her cause that would support her by purchasing her book. We’ve seen this strategy employed quite often in the political world. Planned Parenthood and the National Rifle Association are prominent proponents of this strategy.

Thus Image Comics could directly profit off of Perez’s antics. They have a vested interest in not disciplining her because the more she attacks Diversity & Comics the greater the chance of people flocking to Perez’s defense when Diversity & Comics counterpunches. It potentially boosts sales. In fact, in her first wave of attacks against Diversity & Comics, The Pervert was the #9 book from Image Comics and the #13 book in Educational & Nonfiction. It was also the #1 book in Amazon’s Gay & Lesbian category. Overall the book sat at 5,924.

Today, the book is #91 on Amazon’s Gay & Lesbian category. It’s #296 in Educational & Nonfiction and #499 in Biographies & History Graphic Novels. The book is not in the Top 100 from Image Comics anymore. Overall the book is now #416,267.

It appears the tactic might not have worked out for Michelle Perez and Image Comics and this could be why we are seeing Image Comics finally making a statement about their creators.

What do you think? Do the sales numbers have anything to do with why Image Comics is contacting Diversity & Comics and making public statements about their creators? What do you think about Image Comics’ statement?

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