For the last few weeks a common question have been asked of me as if I were a priest, what will it take to forgive Marcel Dupree. Add Dirk to that now and I was left pondering what would forgiveness of these two looks like from my vantage point. Before we work towards how, let us be honest, neither one has done what is required of them to be given forgiveness for all they have done.

We all have played a villain in the story over our lifetimes to someone. We have all fucked up and have all done something shity if not many shity things. Life is messy and complicated and so are we as humans. Show me a person who says they have never done wrong and I will show you a liar of narcissist unable to admit their impact on others. What I am saying is we Can all,

“DO-BETTER”

and should do better towards each other and support our fellow humans more. Far to often we close doors on people for silly things based on ego more than the ability to accept individuality and the human spirit.

I should also add I am not good with forgiveness, too many things in my past have soured me to forgiveness. I am trying to work on that and have learned a lot of that stems from not forgiving my self for the things I allowed to happen to me to even those that weren’t a choice. I write this as a person trying to be fair but as someone who is also very cynical. However, I will try to be honest and open to the idea of forgiveness for this.

Let us start with Marcel Dupree::

His list of Crimes against indie include Stealing IP’s, Not Paying Creators, Not giving rewards to BACKERS, Spreading lies about creators to make himself seem like a victim, Lying about anything he can to pass blame, Miss use of Kickstarter Funds, rumored to be using unethical if not illegal emails lists and selling his email lists, Catfishing on fake profiles, and being a shity person in general.

Now truthfully most of this steems from greed and ego.

How can Marcel Earn Forgiveness

from the INDIE

COMICS COMMUNITY?

Well to be honest its rather simple, Live up to his commitments, pay people who are owed money, admit he lied about people to save face and get rewards out. If he did all that with an apologetic and genuine tone I believe he would find his way to possible good standing. Most of what Marcel has done has been about being a bad operator and a horrible business person. While many Creators and Backers may never trust or support him again, making up for all he has done is possible and room for this should be made. And to his credit he is talented at bringing teams together and creating great looking comics. they would be High quality if he paid an editor to fix the glaring issues in some of the stories and art pacing. So I can see there is a road to redemption for Marcel with in the INDIE COMICS COMMUNITY.

How can Marcel Earn Forgiveness

from the INDIE DEVIL?

There was a time that Marcel was someone I considered a friend but I was one of the first people to stand with after the bleeding cool article. I had trouble seeing what others saw in him. Now I feel like how Obi-Wan must have felt watching Anakin go to the Dark side. Now to me, the DARK SIDE was a metaphor for ego and how quickly egos can become Toxic. I watched Marcel become worried about money over ethics and has confused what he has done with success. Success can not live on stealing on IP’s along with the other things he has done in a social media age. If he had done this in the 90’s or early he may have just succeeded.

So can I forgive greed? Yes. I can.

I would never work for him in life but I could see a time where I worked with him. You cannot say he does not have skills and abilities. Again look at the books he has helped create, the knowledge that as a writer he isn’t as good as other writers, who could do more with his ideas is impressive, and the quality of books he could make if he only got an editor. So that is marketability skill set. Of course, his ego would always be something to watch for as he sees himself as Stan Lee right now and yet can not fulfill campaigns and promises. Say what you will about Stan but he got people paid and books out.

Truthfully he needs a boss over him or at least a person in control to make sure he is being ethical and running an honest business. His skill as of writing this does not extend to being able to run and create a non-hostile work environment. He has a lot of personal growth to go through, but I can say for him there is a tunnel with a light at the end of it but only if he begins to make changes immediately and start becoming honest not just with the people around him but more importantly himself and begin to take ownership of his mistakes.

Now on to Dirk Manning::

Here is the Truth, what Dirk had done is just UGLY, he has used and abused trust, manipulated and emotionally abused women which he admitted to in a half-ass apology, and is accused of telling women he would help their careers as a reward for an emotional relationship, Blackballed Women, and Men, to protect his public image, being an Indie Bully and Not Being Cool.

How can Dirk Earn Forgiveness

from the INDIE

COMICS COMMUNITY?

Before the community can even contemplate forgiveness, we need an honest apology where he admits out loud to all he has done, so we are aware that he understands what he has done. Then it will be up to him to atone to his victims and for them to let us know if forgiveness should even be offered.

But sadly, and this is a soapbox moment, this has been made into a “he said” “she said” game. We still live in a time where men can hear these stories and look for fault in what a woman did to excuse him. As if a man stands up and says THIS IS WRONG it will come back and affect him somehow. As a man, I have made mistakes of all sorts but I have NEVER LIED to get LAID, I WOULD NEVER LIE ABOUT HAVING MY CHILD, and I would not BLACK BALL WOMEN or MEN to save face. If we cannot all admit those three things are wrong no matter what, well we have a bigger issue then just Dirk don’t we. And to not ADMIT that society isn’t, at part, responsible for Dirk is a lie. We glorified lying to women and playing emotional games to get laid as a culture. And Don’t clap too loud women as you have, as a gender, used sex as a tool for fair too long. This has brought us to a moment where we need to examine how we as a culture need to act and properly treat each other with respect and what we are teaching to the next generation.

In a Very Human moment and not meant as a defense but some honesty from me, usually people who act like Dirk have had some trauma in their life. And while it is up to Dirk to seek Help for whatever haunts him we have to be understanding that sometimes even predators could have been victims. And as such, we need to encourage treatment and part of that treatment must be an open door to some sort of forgiveness.

So can the INDIE COMICS COMMUNITY forgive Dirk? I honestly don’t know. This is a Very ugly moment. The fact his publishers have not made public statements means they believe he has a road forward. He will never be someone admired as he once was, and nor will he ever be someone unconditional trusted. However, he is a talented writer and creator, has the ability to inspire and teach people skills while bringing people together. Like him, hate him, or another emotion him you cannot take away his skills and magnetic draw. The truth is what happens next, and if this is the rock bottom for his deeds, or if something worse is still to come out will be the answer to if there is forgiveness ahead for Dirk, as of right now no one really knows.

It should be pointed out that nothing accused of Dirk was about “nonconsensual” behavior. We use quotes, of course, because manipulation of facts and emotions calls into question true consent. And it should be said his behaviors are no becoming illegal in some states and are up for federal review to whether or not actions like his should be made illegal. We merely want it to be known that as of writing this he has not been accused of Rape, drugging women or anything along those lines.

Again if this came out in the 80’s no one would have batted an eye and now we are talking about it. So we need to continue this conversation and spread a message that this behavior is no long excusable and that goes for all genders, hell lets just all it all Humans. we need to encourage people to seek help if they need it and establish an overall more honest and emotionally safe way to move forward for our generation and the ones ahead of us.

How can Dirk Earn Forgiveness

from the INDIE DEVIL?

I honestly do not know if he can. What he does next will say a lot. Understand I looked up to him and considered him a person worthy of aspiring to. I am hurt by his conduct and hurt by how the “He said” “She said” game is being played out. I also want to believe he will live up to the challenge of regaining some trust and be able to rebound. But, Ego, as we are learning today, is the quickest way to a fall and in truth, Dirk did this cause he knew people where allow him too. Many people have said they saw this behavior and were too scared to go against him due to retaliation, and other tired and got served papers or lies bout them s spread by more than just Dirk. Him getting caught and being called out wasn’t taken seriously for days. I have serious doubts honestly if his character has the ability to take on his sins and actually admit to himself and others the truth that, much like Marcel, he is in fact the bad guy.

But despite what they both did let’s be honest we will love redemption stories because let’s be honest those stories mean we can one day get forgiveness for all we have done one day too.

Views and the above words are from Mr. AnderSiN and in no way is a representation of INDIE ADVOCATES NETWORK. Mr. AnderSiN‘s Opininions and thoughts are his own and are not necessarily shared by the Indie Advocates Network.