M. Sundberg's "Lovely People" comic

[yuuago]

So. A webcomic artist I used to like just dropped a cult-flavoured short comic with an attached screed that boils down to "You're all sinners".*

I've been unimpressed with Minna Sundberg for a good while now. This has now been adjusted to a state of "extremely unimpressed".

As she states in the notes, this is a relatively recent development, and... yes, that tracks.

The above is unlikely to change much for me fandom-wise, since I haven't been writing much in Stand Still Stay Silent fandom lately and have mainly been keeping up with the comic out of inertia. I started to lose interest in the story after the timeskip in adventure 1/after the end of book 2, and from there it's been... well. You know.

I'm usually able to manage separating art from artist. But let's just say that I'm once again very glad that I decided not to order book 3 of SSSS. I didn't want to give this person any more of my money at that time, and I certainly don't want to now.

Comments

[muccamukk]

Wow. that's the longest Chick Tract I've ever seen. I'm sorry someone you liked went off the edge like that. It always sucks.

[yuuago]

I hadn't thought to liken it to a Chick Tract, but now that you mention it, it's apt.

If someone had told me five years ago that this was a direction this author would go, I'd have thought they were putting me on.

[hokuton_punch]

Oof. I'm so sorry. D:

[yuuago]

Cheers, mate.

I'm still processing things, but... to say I'm both disappointed and unsurprised would be accurate.

[eggsbenedict]

Whoa, that is... quite a thing. It's always a pity when this happens with a creator whose work you like :(

[yuuago]

No kidding! In some ways, it feels doubly disappointing for me when the creator is a small independent creator, because everything is much more direct than it would have been if it came from someone with a big publishing deal or the like.

[torachan]

Yowch. Like, social credit is a terrible idea. But not because of Jesus. Those bunnies are way too cute to be used for these purposes!

[yuuago]

Yeah, definitely. It's kind of messing with my head, because like - yes, social credit systems a la China are terrible, and Instagram-esque culture is also awful too, but then - Jesus???? WHAT.

When some adorable preview panels were released a few months ago, I was hoping this would be something cute, nnnot... whatever this is.

[straightforwardly]

Holy hell. That... that was a disturbing read—both the comic and especially the accompanying screed. It's been a long while since I last kept up with SSSS, so I am pretty shocked by this—not necessarily by her turning out to be awful, because there was at least one warning sign of that, but specifically the form it took, e.g. the conservative cult-like Christian aspects. That's... wow. I'm still trying to sort through my feelings about this, but I'm definitely disturbed and disappointed.

I am glad you posted about it, because I'm so divorced from any Sundberg-related updates that I don't know when or even if I would've found out about this otherwise.

[yuuago]

I know what you mean.

Yeah, there were definitely warning signs (and sometimes things more blatant than warning signs) but this particular aspect of it is something that I think a lot of people weren't really expecting.

Still trying to sort out how I feel about it too. "Disturbed and disappointed" is a good summing up, though.

[seerofrage]

Wow, that's really... Something. ):

I haven't really seen much of her takes outside of just comic updates, this is kind of a shock; the comic is disturbing and her 'message' upsetting. Oof. :\

[yuuago]

There have been race-related wanks in the comments before that were later scrubbed/edited, but I don't remember if you were around for that. I don't think so. The more recent incidents happened on platforms that I don't follow (her streams), so I'm still not exactly sure what went on there.

So on my end, it's not a shock that there's something like this, but the religious flavour of it is surprising, because that's something new.

[seerofrage]

Yeah, I didn't see those comments and don't follow her streams or anything, I just kinda check out the new SSSS updates and don't really engage much elsewhere. Man, I suppose bc I didn't have much of an idea as to who she is outside of SSSS, it doesn't hit as hard as it might've otherwise, but it's still incredibly disappointing. :\

[kanadka]

OOOF. Damn, Yuu, that's rough. I'm so sorry this happened, I know it's always a disappointment when someone whose work you admire and enjoy goes off the deep end, and in such a ?????? kind of way.

(sidenote: reading it now, and the art is cute as always but woooow. Woooooow. This was a really distressing read. Hope you're doing okay /hugs if you want them)

[yuuago]

I'm okay. Thanks for asking, though. <3

I had such good times in this fandom, and wrote things that I'm pleased with, and talked to lots of nice people. But with the direction things have gone - not just this particular incident - it's been hard to get any joy from it for a while. I think I'll still be able to enjoy aRTD, because that canon was 100% complete long before the author got weird, but as for the rest... I think what I need is to just be sad about it for a while, and that's that.

[dhampyresa]

That was certainly a published comic.

The message... That's a yikes from me.

[yuuago]

Yikes indeed. This sure is a thing that was published.

[(Anonymous)]

Outch ! I've been far from SSSS these last... weeks ? months ? Less interest for the chapter being told right now, busy days, other things to think about, you know... So I missed everything and I am pretty astonished right now.
But I'll balance this with gratitude : SSSS made me meet some marvelous persons who changed my life. I'll keep the good memories anyway. I know that I'm far away and not really active on internet, but hey, you're one of the marvelous persons Yuu and I still hope that, in better times, we'll get to meet somewhere (probably in Scandinavia ;)

Mélusine

[yuuago]

Oh Melu. <3 Everything has been so... much.

I'm not surprised you fell out of it a bit; the pacing of recent chapters has been pretty mediocre. Anyway.

<3 <3 Not going to lie, SSSS/aRTD did bring me close to many wonderful people - including yourself - so I feel really grateful for the time I spent in this fandom. Lots of good memories.

(There's one other thing, but I'll contact you privately for that)

It was good to hear from you. <3 <3