I guess tonight is a “comics bloggers love” night for me.

First Warren, and now Val D’Orazio, better known as the Occasional Superheroine.

I love her blog, but what brings me to mention it tonight is something she wrote about for her column for Comixology, called Comics Op. She recently wrote a piece on rumors and the comics industry, called Rumors, Vicious Rumors. She opened up for submissions, and I gave my input, my two cents on the matter.

She included some insight from people far more influential than I in that article, but had some spillover of submissions, which she posted on her blog. Among them was what I had to say on the subject of gossip of a personal nature in the industry:

“Sure. I mean, I don’t care about most of it personally, I’m not big on gossip, but basically, if you want your name to be known publicly, you have to accept that you’re going to be under that kind of scrutiny, and for your life to be under the microscope. You ask for fame? Then expect everything that goes with it.

I mean, offhand, how much do I know about, oh, Neil Gaiman, for example? As someone who doesn’t really follow these things (but enjoys his work), I know he has multiple children (two? I think), at least one daughter. He lives in Minnesota, which I find odd for and Englishman. Imagine if someone cares to know more?

You’re putting yourself into the public sphere. Deal with it.

Even in a literary field, if your name is big (which includes publishers in the comic industry, sorry – you help make plot decisions, it makes you noteworthy), expect people to want to know about you. Expect the scrutiny that goes with being a “name”. If you want to look outside of comics? Think Steven King. Think Michael Crichton. Think Dan Brown. Think JK Rowling. Think whoeverthehell wrote “Twilight”. If people care enough, they’re going to know about these people’s lives. Enjoy it if people care. It means that you’re probably pretty big. What did PT Barnum say about publicity?”

You can read even more here: GOSSIP: Follow-Up on Occasional Superheroine

Val also wrote a great book, Memoirs of an Occasional Superheroine, which you can buy as an ebook from her website. I need to get a proper review of it written up, but I will say that its a worthwhile read if you want an insider’s view of the comics industry, and some of the less-nice things that happen to good people sometimes.