When news broke that C.B. Cebulski was Marvel’s new Editor-in-Chief, many lauded his history of bringing fresh, diverse voices and perspectives into the company. But the news also rekindled longstanding rumours that Cebulski had been spent months writing for Marvel as “Akira Yoshida”, a Japanese man. Cebulski is not Japanese.
Image: Getty Images
This week Cebulski, a white man, finally acknowledged the rumours about “Akira Yoshida” and admitted that he had, in fact, pretended to be someone that he is not. In a statement provided to Bleeding Cool‘s Rich Johnston – who’d been following the story for some time – Cebulski explained that he created Yoshida out of a desire to pivot away from editing, a job he once held at Marvel, to writing full time. Said Cebulski:
I stopped writing under the pseudonym Akira Yoshida after about a year. It wasn’t transparent, but it taught me a lot about writing, communication and pressure. I was young and naïve and had a lot to learn back then. But this is all old news that has been dealt with, and now as Marvel’s new Editor-in-Chief, I’m turning a new page and am excited to start sharing all my Marvel experiences with up and coming talent around the globe.
The admission comes after multiple insistences from people within Marvel that Yoshida was a real person who was not Cebulski. As Johnston points out, Cebulski himself went so far as to insist that he’d “seen” Yoshida within Marvel’s offices and at various conventions, but at no point did he make an effort to explain that he was speaking about himself.
“Akira Yoshida” is listed on Marvel’s site as having begun writing for Marvel back in 2004 with credits such as Thor: Son of Asgard. The last issue of X-Men: Kitty Pride – Shadow & Flame was published in 2005.
“Yoshida” also gave interviews as early as 2005 about his work and life, describing how he’d supposedly grown up in Japan reading manga, and how he first learned English from the American comic books that his businessman father would bring home from trips.
According to Cebulski, he initially devised the plan to submit writing work under an assumed name because, at the time, Marvel staff were not allowed to write for the publisher out of a desire to prevent unfair reciprocity between various departments. Were a staffer interested in writing or illustrating, a request would have to be approved, and said request would only have been approved with the provision that the employee in question’s overall pay wouldn’t exceed their base salary.
Cebulski says that he ultimately came clean about the entire charade to Marvel earlier this year, stating that his plan was to use Yoshida’s name for pitches to other companies such as Dark Horse, where he wrote Conan, and Dreamwave, where he wrote Darkstalkers. That last writing gig brought Yoshida to the attention of a Marvel editor who enjoyed his work, and prompted him to hire Yoshida to write for them months after Cebulski’s employment had already began.
Because Cebulski came to Marvel and admitted to what he’d done, the publisher allegedly decided that it was still a good decision to appoint him as Editor-in-Chief, but it can’t be stressed enough how objectively bad a look this is for Marvel. While it’s bad enough that Cebulski broke then-company policy in order to achieve his goals, it’s particularly troubling that he was more than comfortable inhabiting an identity that is not his own. While Cebulski’s lived in Japan in the past and is a self-identified fan of Japanese culture, that doesn’t at all make it appropriate for him to present himself as a Japanese writer whose voice would be regarded with a higher degree of respect for its authenticity when writing about Japanese culture and characters.
Looking back on Cebulski’s writing as Yoshida now with the knowledge that he’s a white man who’s really into Japan makes some of his work seem borderline racist:
Every single Akira Yoshida comic was a barrage of ninja and samurai shit where every character was obsessed with “honor.” From what I can tell, “honor” means anything from baking to murder. pic.twitter.com/n1RFxlQ1QU
— Seanbaby (@Seanbabydotcom) November 27, 2017
Even more concerning, though, is contemplating the logic that had to have gone through Marvel’s Powers-That-Be’s minds in coming to the decision to promote Cebulski. Had he not been promoted to EIC, there’s more than a good chance that no one would ever have bothered to follow up on the allegations against him. In putting the spotlight on Cebulski, Marvel’s also shining a rather bright light on itself at a time when it’s been criticised more than once for its overwhelming lack of creators of colour.
From the outside looking in, it appears as if Marvel would prefer to hire white people masquerading as minorities, rather than making an earnest effort to tap into the vast community of creatives of colour trying to break into the industry.
We reached out to Marvel for an official statement about the Cebulski’s admission but had not heard back at time of writing.
Comments
10 responses to “Marvel’s New Editor-In-Chief Just Admitted That He Used A Pseudonym Years Ago To Pretend To Be Japanese”
Um… uh….. going to need some time to process this.
What?
It’s not really that big a deal. Using a nom de plume has been de rigueur for writers for centuries.
And if everyone who ever makes a mistake is then held to be unemployable then there’s going to be a lot of people out of work. He didn’t murder anyone. He didn’t rape anyone. He didn’t steal anything.
But OUTRAGE!
A white dude wrote a bunch of weird weeaboo shit that was accepted because the author claimed to be Japanese. Then when he was caught out, he was promoted.
That’s… idk. Fucked? Weird? Racist?
Even if you don’t think it’s a big deal, a hell of a lot of people do. So this seems like a comically (heh) stupid move on the part of Marvel. The Battlefront 2 thing shows that Disney is not going to stand for its subsidiaries making it look bad. This is going to make it look bad.
Marvel had racist hiring policies, so what?
a) dude tries to diversify his interests using a fake name without the baggage and criticisms that come with using his real name. (Writers do that a lot when they want to write outside their usual genre)
b) Chose a minority name
c) Gets submitted to the “What to be outraged about this week” newsletter…
Yeah. Really can’t see what there is to be outraged about.
I don’t buy that because he’s a white guy writing under a Japanese pseudonym that somehow makes his work racist. Lacking in authenticity, sure, but not racist.
Consider the reverse of a Japanese man using a western pseudonym writing a comic that contains overweight people and gun violence. Is he being racist or just writing his interpretation of the culture?
So what……?
Not a single Japanese person would care one single bit about this. I dare you to find one (that wasn’t raised in the west).
Stop trying to be offended on someone elses behalf.
a) What other people said about pseudonyms being extremely common
b) Japanese people love that they have cultural exports and would probably see no issue here (e.g. “He thought taking a Japanese name would get him noticed? Awesome!”)