If [GamerGate] continues, the medium I love could go backward into its roots as a pastime for children. Instead of being a mainstream form of entertainment, it could end up being something like comic books, a medium that has never outgrown its reputation for power fantasies and is only very occasionally marked by transcendent work (“Maus,” or the books of Chris Ware) that demands that the rest of the culture pay attention to it.

You dunderhead, Chris Suellentrop! What have you said? A silly thing, you silly billy. I’m not entirely sure it’s not a joke, but these days you gotta chase that wolf from your door as a precautionary measure, be it in fact a luffly humorous doggie or something howly with big teeth.

It’s clear that you are a gamesman, Chris, and have “an awareness” of the comics. But son, be real: do you know as much about the one as you do the other? I’m feeling like you don’t. Chris Ware & Maus, ooh, hold on, far out. Hey, maybe you do. I don’t know you. Maybe it’s best practice to use the big names that everyone knows to illustrate a point in a big international publication. But I think you’ve lost perspective somewhere, dude, because … when did video games, in their lumped composite form, outgrow a reputation for power fantasies? Lol? Never?

Video games and comics; OK. It’s a mug’s game to try and quantify which industry is more grown-up. They’re both terrible on the surface, terrible where the money is, with strong available undercurrents of improvement to join. On the first hand, setting up this games/comics dichotomy makes enemies of us all: splits families, causes inner strife amongst the crossover demographic. Very sad, no good. On the second, it makes you sound like a big whiny baby, and reflects poorly on “your side.” And on the third hand (comics — like video games — will allow for such things), it belittles all the great stuff that’s swamped, drowning, amongst the crap that plays to the dominant social narrative of that’s like a baby’s toy. You personally in fact, right now, here, in this otherwise rather reasonable anti-GamerGate article, are contributing to the “reputation” of “comic books” as a “medium” given to “power fantasies” (and again: LOLOLOL VIDEO GAMES.) (Wow, hard to be the bigger person, right?).

Oh, and Chris? No mention of the big-name transcendence of Raina Telgemeier or Marjane Satrapi? Wow, these video gamers. They’re not so friendly to women, huh?

Claire Napier