Artist Chris Sprouse leaves Card Superman Project

Well, looks like the Orson Scott Card controversy has reached a 'to be continued...'. Card's views on gay marriage and his advocacy of overthrowing a government that allows it have caused lots and lots of news outlets to report that some people won't buy or sell a Superman story that he wrote. Then, all of a sudden, the artist of the story, Chris Sprouse, decides he doesn't want to be involved. Sprouse released this statement:

It took a lot of thought to come to this conclusion, but I've decided to step back as the artist on this story. The media surrounding this story reached the point where it took away from the actual work, and that's something I wasn't comfortable with. My relationship with DC Comics remains as strong as ever and I look forward to my next project with them.

 DC Comics reports that they're looking for a new artist, and in the interim they've removed the book from publication. They apparently have no problem with Sprouse's exit.

The links above all lead to news stories on sites that remain objective about the whole situation. There are others, however, who are less objective.

We kind of wish Sprouse had said it was Card’s bigotry that was taking away from the work, not “the media surrounding this story.” But if this get’s DC closer to canning the Ender’s Game scribe, so much the better.

 Wired, tipping their hat a bit, includes the line, "The now non-homophobic Adventures of Superman no. 1 will be launched digitally on April 29, with the print edition following on May 29."

That makes me wonder if a homophobic writer can ever write a non-homophobic story.

Anyway, the whole thing may just be quietly forgotten by DC now that they have an out. How hard will they look for a new artist? To be continued...

I don't think I ever linked to the petition to get DC to remove Card from the project. Here it is, 16,500 signatures strong.

It reads, in part:

We need to let DC Comics know they can't support Orson Scott Card or his work to keep LGBT people as second-class citizens. They know they're accountable to their fans, so if enough of us speak out now, they'll hear us loud and clear.