Operation AIRlift

August 28

If you follow Standard Attrition, you may remember the loooong thread in Brian Azzarello’s forum about new ways to keep monthly comics viable. I thought a lot about what people observed and suggested, particularly in regard to mainstream bookstore/media exposure. I thought about getting my first monthly out of the gate in a crashing economy. And I hatched a scheme.

I call it Operation AIRlift. And just like Uncle Sam and Smokey Bear, I need YOU.

Here’s how it works:

1. Buy a copy of AIR #1 from your local comics retailer.

2. Read it.

3. When you’re done with it, get a no-bleed pen or marker. Turn to the first page. (The one with the title and the picture of Blythe and Zayn falling to their presumable deaths.) In some of that empty sky, write something clever, like “Curious? Buy the issue at:” followed by the NAME and ADDRESS of your local comics retailer.

4. Take your newly defaced issue to a nearby Barnes and Noble, Borders or locally-owned bookstore. Go to a section with books people who might like AIR would read. (Fantasy, literature, travel.) Stick the issue on one of the shelves, between two books. Make sure it sticks out a little so people see it. (It’s taller than most paperbacks, so that shouldn’t be hard.)

5. Snap a picture of your guerilla handiwork. Send the pic to info [at] gwillowwilson [dot] com, along with your mailing address. I will send you a SIGNED copy of AIR #1 to replace the one you’ve left to posterity. I’ll also post your pic here at StatAt.

Good luck, comrades. Let’s see if we can’t get more book-reading butts into comic shops.

Sherry Jones Has The Right To Offend Me

August 14

By now those of you with your ears to the ground will have heard the following: publication of The Jewel of Medina, a historical novel by Sherry Jones, has been indefinitely postponed by its publisher, Random House. The reason? The novel, which chronicles the life of Aisha, a wife of the Prophet Muhammad, could provoke violent backlash from conservative Muslims. One excerpt, in which Aisha recalls her first sexual encounter with Muhammad, has been making its way around the internet, and has become the subject of much debate.

There is a fundamental misunderstanding between secular people and people of faith about religious figures. It boils down to this: to a person of faith, reading about the private lives of religious figures is like reading about the private lives of your parents. Even if there’s only one sex scene, done in the most tasteful manner imaginable, it’s still a sex scene about your parents. No one in their right mind wants to see that. True to form, I read the excerpt and wanted to call my therapist. Faith is irrational. That is part of its beauty, but also part of what makes it dangerous.

Yes, I was offended. By a single paragraph of an unpublished book. Even though it was clear the author did not intend to be offensive, and had in fact attempted to handle the subject in a delicate manner. (Albeit with some rather purple language.) But that doesn’t matter. Sherry Jones has the right to speak her mind whether I am offended or not. She has the right to be published whether I am offended or not. The true measure of our moral courage is whether we defend the art we can’t stand with the same vigor with which we defend the art we love. So I am willing to go to bat for this.

There is another reason I feel this particular book is worth fighting for: The Jewel might be purple, but it is not hate speech. That much is also immediately clear. During the Danish cartoon fiasco I said I refused to defend hate speech as free speech, even though I realize the two cannot be uncoupled. I said I wished someone would write a provocative but genuinely exploratory book about the life of the Prophet Muhammad, so we could at least have a conversation about real ideas. Well, here we are.

The refusal to publish The Jewel of Medina cedes valuable ground to the fundamentalists. Is there a danger of violence if it is published? Yes, I’m afraid there probably is. But Sherry Jones wants her rights back, and I want my religion back. We’ve all got skin in the game now. At some point, we’re going to have to act like it.

I’m Really Still Here, Honest

July 12

I’m pretty swamped with Butterfly Mosque edits, AIR and Another DCU Project, so by the end of the day I cannot bear to look at my keyboard anymore. If I owe you an email, this is why you haven’t gotten it. It’s also why I’ve been updating the blog so infrequently. But I am still here, and I hope--I keep saying this--that things will calm down soon.

Quick updates: I’ll be at the San Diego ComicCon starting the afternoon of July 24. I have signings at the Vertigo booth every day, so if you’re coming to the Con and you’d like to say hi, stop on by. Bring your copy of CAIRO, OUTSIDERS, COMIC BOOK TATTOO or whatever else you’d like me to sign. I’ll probably be at the Image booth for the COMIC BOOK TATTOO group signing as well.

Though I’m not blogging a lot, I am still very much On The Internet, so if you’re looking for casual intellectual chit-chat, go to TalkIslam. I participate in the discussions there most every day.

Speaking of COMIC BOOK TATTOO, COMIC BOOK TATTOO! Order your copy now! It’ll also be in big music stores and comic shops. I like my story less now than I did when I wrote it, but it’s a fantastic book, Neil Gaiman writes the intro, and if you like Tori Amos, you’ll never have another chance to experience her music this way. I got my first Tori album at thirteen (fyi, this is too young to be listening to Tori Amos), so I was really excited to participate in this anthology.

That’s about it. More soon. Promise.