I apologize for not being able to find a high resolution version; they did a pretty good job of scrubbing it from the internet. I wouldn't want to post a high-res version anyway, since it's not my work to redistribute. I can't read all the words, but here's a transcription of what I can get:
Panel 1:"What's the big damn deal, (anyway)? The (issue) is handled."Basically, the punch line makes fun of trans people. Now, you could argue that it’s just that one character who’s transphobic, and it doesn’t reflect the views of the writers, but I don’t buy it. I think you would have to be transphobic to think of the so-called “joke” in the first place, or to find it funny.
"You have no idea what you've done, do you?"
Panel 2:"Enlighten me, Frodo."
"You Bizarro'd us. You demanded no 'Emo Church Girls' and now, through the law of Bizarro we will get just that. Emo church chicks forever."
"What are you boys talking about?"
Panel 3:"Hey pops. Count Chuckula here thinks the Bizzarro law is crap."
"It's true. I once specified 'no trannies' (? ? ?) for new players. Someone answered the ad and the following week... I opened the door and Bam! Tranny. And I don't care what they say, a good looking tranny is still a tranny."
Panel 4:A good looking tranny is still a tranny.
A Public Service Announcement from d20Monkey.com
When that comic was first posted in 2010, it had only been a few years since I realized I was trans. I was brittle at the time, evangelical about LGBT issues, and ready to be offended by everything. I also should mention that trans issues weren’t in the news back then the way they are now. Trans people were acceptable targets, a group you could mock without as much fear of retribution.
I was also fairly new into D&D. I learned about d20 Monkey from an RPG forum, and enjoyed the first few strips. Then I came to that one. I tried to laugh it off, but it just bugged me. I posted a reply to the comic, complaining. I checked back for a response or apology, but never saw one, and eventually they took the comic down. But I could no longer enjoy the comic any more, and soon stopped reading it. I didn’t think about d20 Monkey again for years, and honestly forgot they existed.
Until one of my favorite webcomics, Dork Tower, let d20 Monkey do guest strips for a week. During Pride month, no less. Now, I have no idea how involved d20 Monkey has been with trans issues in the years since I stopped reading. For all I know, their comic now features a gay main character and they contribute thousands of dollars to trans charities. All I can tell you is that seeing them temporarily take over a beloved webcomic was a bit like seeing the White House taken over by transphobic white supremacists. A flood of emotions came over me. Memories of the severe depression I fought through when I first realized I was trans. Remembering when I first noticed just how much anti-trans “humor” permeated our society.
It's a fine line. When actors or writers turn out to be bad people, it can taint their work to a such a degree that it’s completely unenjoyable. Sometimes I have to remember that it takes hundreds of people to make a movie, and I shouldn’t let one actor bring it down for me. But then, if the movie hinges on that actor’s performance, it’s hard to enjoy watching them. Books and comic strips always hinge on the writer’s performance, so they’re right out.
For example, I still enjoy older Mel Gibson movies, even though they’re not quite as fun as they were before I disliked the actor. Same goes for Johnny Depp. I have no pull to see any new Mel Gibson or Johnny Depp movies, but I would still see a movie if they were in it but not the main star (Crimes of Grindelwald, for example, which sucked for entirely different reasons). At least I know my money is being divided among hundreds of people.
However, I can’t enjoy Orson Scott Card’s books any more. Books are too intimate a medium, like you’re walking through the author’s mind to explore their imagination. If I don’t like an author as a person, it’s almost impossible for me to enjoy reading their work. I’ve also stopped reading Dilbert, and I sold all the Dilbert books I had in my house. I just haven’t found them funny since Scott Adams went off the deep end.
In the case of d20 Monkey, I only found it sporadically funny in the first place. I enjoyed it because it was a D&D themed comic at a time when D&D comics weren’t quite as common as they are now, but I only really laughed at maybe one out of five comics. So it’s not a big loss for me. I have no idea how progressive the comic is now. I have no idea if they ever posted a public apology anywhere, or just quietly removed the offending comic hoping nobody would remember it. I don’t know if the author’s opinion of trans issues has changed in the past nine years. They’re allowed to have mistakes in their past, as long as they learned from them. I know I’ve got plenty of regrets of my own. I don’t expect other people to stop reading the comic just because I personally found one of their older strips offensive, and I’m not pushing to get the comic taken off the internet.
But it did bother me enough to write a blog about it.
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