Despite DC Comics And Sci-Fi Publishing Canceling Him, Orson Scott Card Draws Massive Lines At DragonCon And Woke Authors Are Furious

Orson Scott Card is one of our greatest science fiction minds, but he all but left the public discourse a little over a decade ago. What many don’t know is that Card was one of the first victims of identity politics cancel culture in comic book and science fiction publishing. Despite the mainstream’s best efforts to destroy him personally and memory-hole his work, readers and fans still adore Card to the point where he had wildly long lines at DragonCon to get a chance to see him.

Ender’s Game is hailed by many as at least one of the top ten seminal works of science fiction, if not the greatest of all time. The book is a master class on writing, from its worldbuilding to its prose, character work, and the art of the twist. It’s sold over ten million copies and continues to be read to this day despite very little promotion from publishers over the last decade.

Beyond Ender’s Game, Card has done incredible work in science fiction. The sequel, Speaker For The Dead, stands alone as an insanely innovative work of science fiction that was so wildly different than the Battle School original book that it jarred many fans. Though Card would eventually return to writing many more battle school adventures that are more in line with Ender’s Game, his work with Speaker For The Dead and then Xenocide proves his high quality of sci-fi storytelling beyond any doubt.

Other great works of his include Treason, a standalone novel that packs a hard punch, and Empire, which might be fairly prophetic given the current American political climate. His Orson Scott Card’s Traveling Medince Show produced some of the best short science fiction in the industry for decades. He had a great run at Marvel Comics with an Ender’s Game adaptation and worked on Ultimate Iron Man. Many don’t know that he also penned a series of books on Women in the Bible to give in-depth looks at the important women God blessed in His divine, holy Scripture.

As a devout Mormon and an active conservative in the 2000s, Card was at odds with a rapidly changing mainstream publishing industry. Science fiction and comic book publishing were taken over by the radical leftists who had no tolerance for the religious or conservatives, despite using the terms diversity, equity, and inclusion at length. In reality, the powers in this industry want a monoculture that excludes anyone or anything that seems different from their political agenda. 

We’ve seen in the last couple of decades how bad the political climate in entertainment has gotten, but Orson Scott Card was an unusual early test run of cancel culture by these extremists, which doesn’t often get recognized because Card met the situation with dignified silence, focusing on his work. 

In 2011, DC Comics was set to publish a Superman miniseries by Card, which they abruptly canceled after some loud bad actors online tried to shout him down because of an op-ed he wrote supporting California’s Proposition 8 bill in 2008. This bill banned gay marriage by vote, and the voters of California, a liberal state, voted for it. Card wrote a thoughtful article with valid points that should have been listened to, as we’ve seen the destructive results of our culture from the courts forcing gay marriage upon the populace. There was nothing about the article that was anything but rational discourse, which is something the left cannot tolerate.

The LGBTQ+ lobby was starting in earnest at this point, realizing that they could wield political power like a bludgeon as they were gaining roots in Hollywood and New York publishing. With comic books being easier to rile up an outrage mob, the cancelation of Orson Scott Card for being a Mormon and conservative began in earnest. 

After a small online furor from outraged leftists in comics on Twitter and various message boards, DC Comics was the first to announce they would not publish Card’s Superman work. This came after artist Chris Sprouse left the project due to pressure from the mob, saying, It took a lot of thought to come to this conclusion. 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."

The Superman book was canceled by DC Comics, and Card was ostracized from the comic book industry, much like we’ve seen many conservatives and Christians in recent years. At the time, however, there was no organized resistance to this kind of thing happening in publishing, and so Card’s career in prose books mysteriously evaporated around the same time. 

Access media outlets like Wired were gleeful to cancel a conservative, branding Card a “homophobe,” while LGBTQ activists like Geeks OUT lambasted Card for “very public bigotry.”

Ironically, the diversity and inclusivity crowd was trying to take someone’s livelihood away and get him shunned by society for his religious beliefs. Many more cases like this would come in future years, but Card stood virtually alone at this point.

In science fiction publishing, the Ender’s Game empire was far too profitable for them to pull Card’s prose work from the stands. Fans and readers adored him and still do, which presented a conundrum for the publishing giants. From this point forward, Orson Scott Card received very little marketing support. He was completely shut out from any recognition by groups like Worldcon and SFWA, who had also been co-opted by radical leftists. 

It was the first major canceling in science fiction and fantasy, while comic publishing was also quietly blacklisting Chuck Dixon from work at the time for also being a conservative Christian.

Fast forward eleven years, Orson Scott Card has disappeared from the public eye. He’s inactive on social media, quietly producing novels devoured by fans when released while his publishers like Tor Books and Blackstone pretend he doesn’t exist while collecting large checks off of his work.

At this year’s DragonCon, Orson Scott Card made a rare public appearance. Fans swarmed, and lines were incredibly long to get an autograph or a chance to speak with him, as, despite the publishing industry trying to memory-hole him, his works stand the test of time. Even though he’s been mischaracterized by the media, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a nicer man in science fiction publishing. 

According to sources at DragonCon, Orson Scott Card, who showed up for just two days, was a bigger draw than any other author. His lines looped around the dealer hall, and he was not promoted as being there by the convention as he was a last-minute addition brought in by Writers of the Future. The enthusiasm of readers and fans far surpassed that of Guest of Honor Nancy Kress, who reportedly has lines of around fifty people. In contrast, eventual Dragon Award Winner John Scalzi perhaps had a couple of dozen at most points. 

Publishing insiders have told Fandom Pulse that many authors were furious about this, seething in jealousy about Orson Scott Card having the love of so many science fiction readers despite them branding him a pariah. Cancel culture may work within traditional publishing power structures, but people are fed up with being force-fed leftism in their comics and science fiction, and they crave great stories from good people. The control of sci-fi by vocal minorities is a house of Cards, and it only takes one Card to knock it all down.

What do you think of Orson Scott Card, author of Ender’s Game, getting huge lines at DragonCon? Leave a comment and let us know.

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