BOOM! Studios: An Open Letter to Concerned Pagans
(The following is from our latest blog posting
here: http://www.boom-
Since announcing SALEM, a five-issue series
written by Chris Morgan and Kevin Walsh shipping
this November, we here at BOOM! Studios have been
inundated with a tremendous positive responseÅ for
the most part. Unfortunately, we have also
received a number of alarmed reactions from the
Pagan community. To address their concerns, Chris
and Kevin have written the following letter:
To All Concerned Parties,
We agree that a comic book that asserts Pagans
are evil and destructive might well be considered
insensitive, offensive and even slanderous.
However, SALEM: QUEEN OF THORNS is not that book.
We appreciate your criticisms, but feel they are
based on a mistaken understanding of the true
content of our story.
In SALEM, the religious authorities are an evil
force that persecutes innocents in the witch
trials. They aren’t celebrated in any way and
are, in fact, major villains.
Our protagonist, Elias Hooke, is a reformed
member of the Church who carries a heavy burden
of guilt for the evil he performed for them in
ignorance. And his quest to redeem himself is
one of his main motivations.
More importantly, one of our chief characters,
Hannah Foster, is a healer accused of witchcraft.
She is in no way the “demonized” villain of the
piece. Rather, she is one of the key heroes on a
noble journey to combat evil and save the world.
We welcome your opinions and realize that when
all is said and done, you may still disagree with
what we feel to be a positive depiction of Pagans
and a strong pro-tolerance theme in SALEM. But
we respectfully request that you base such
judgment on the content of the work itself,
rather than incorrect assumptions and incomplete
information.
Because you are correct about one thing –
prejudice in all forms is an ugly thing.
Sincerely,
Kevin Walsh and Chris Morgan
Creators, SALEM: QUEEN OF THORNS
Ambrosia, a concerned Pagan, was kind enough to
let us reprint her letter to us. Here it is in
full:
Date: Sep 3, 2007 9:40 PM
Subject: Religious intolerance
Body:
I am an avid comic reader and I am also a pagan.
I have been on this path for many years and my
family and I have fought off hate, bigotry and
verbal abuse due to the large quantity of
misinformation about the craft. To think I would
be safe from this sort of thing in my own genre
of pop culture. I guess I was wrong because
apparently you are publishing a comic named Salem
Queens of Thorns which demonizes witchs and adds
further justification for their torturing and
death. Did you know that in the dark ages 9
million people (mostly women and some children)
were accused, tortured and killed because of lies
and misinformation spread by the church? These
women were midwives, healers and herbalogists.
All of these people were tortured into saying
things that were not true. They were told what to
say by witch hunters. Ever heard of the witch’s
hammer? It was a book comprised of methods to
identify, interigate, torture, prosecute and
finally kill a witch for in the bible it says
“Though not suffer a witch to live” I mean you
all have a least a little sensitivity right?
Would you write a comic putting the jews of the
holocaust in a negative light? What about the
slaves of the south? They practiced voudoun
rituals to scare away slave traders from
abducting them. But no of course everyone has
enough compassion to not cause further distress
to those who have suffered. I and other Pagans
alike are trying to dispell ignorance and create
a more tolerant world to accept our beliefs and
right now you are creating an obstacle to that. I
would look out for more pagan activists and
lobbyists to get involved and speak out against
this assault to our faith. This project was
written in poor taste and is offensive to my
brothers and sisters of the craft. Please take
this into consideration when making such a
decision…
Regretfully yours,
Ambrosia
Hopefully, in printing this, we have put a
preemptive end to this controversy. Thank you for
reading.
