Suicide is the end-game of cancel culture mobs. This time they succeeded, sadly.

He left a five page note outlining some of the reasons. Comics was his entire life. His art show was already cancelled, and he was likely to lose the 75k book deal he was about to sign. Rugg had ended his professional association with him, meaning no more Cartoonist Kayfabe. He felt like his peers would about to disown him. Basically, everything he built up over the past five years was about to be ripped away from him. It was all so sudden. A few days ago, they were amped about their interview with Mike Mignola going through the Batman Year One artist edition and a week later this happens. He had plans to come over here again for another Manga Quest in May. It's crazy. I will say that he antagonized a lot of people and happily participated in cancel culture himself. There were people waiting to take him down. He called out some of these people in his note. 

I agree with all of this.  I didn't mean to say it was the INTENDED end-game, but should be EXPECTED or at least POTENTIAL... What do people expect to happen when they take away a person's good name, their friends, their collaborators, and their career?  All based on screenshots and unproven allegations.  

Greg Burgas, at Atomic Junkpile, has a pretty even-handed take on this, here.

I know nothing of the guys work, nor did I listen to the podcast. I have no dog in the hunt. Some of his accused behavior, which he did not deny, is at best, questionable. What seems clear, from what Greg noted about issue related to COVID lockdown is that he was suffering from clinical depression. Suicide seems a rather extreme response, on the face of allegations; but, if the clinical depression statements are true, then there is more likely a lot more behind this and this event was the final trigger. Having lived for 15 years with someone who suffered from clinical depression, it is not something that suddenly comes on. It simmers for a while, then boils up; and, if you are lucky, cools down. Medication and therapy can help, but doesn't always manage the issue, as in Barb's case, where she built up tolerances to the medication and they stopped working. In many cases, the problem is not treated by professionals and the individual tries to deal in other methods (drugs, alcohol, etc).

My intuition was that a lot of things had been going on, for a long time. I also think that social media probably helped and added to his issues, as I have seen both effects. I also suspect that the truth of the allegations and persecution lie somewhere in a fuzzy middle. As Joe Straczynski wrote, in Babylon 5, "Understanding is a 3-edged sword: your side, their side, and the truth." I doubt we will ever know the full truth, as everything is caught up in extremes, like too many things on the internet.

...that's Junk Shop.

The term "Innocent until proven guilty" is only meaningful when it's used to refer to the criminal legal system.  It almost never works there either, but at least there it's supposed to work.  It simply isn't a thing when dealing with public opinion.  It never has been.  It never will be.  

While we're at it, "Cancel culture" (and I know you didn't invoke it) is a term that is utterly meaningless.  It almost universally boils down to "I don't like what people are doing to/saying about this individual, institution, corporation, because I don't want them to do it.  But if I do exactly the same thing it's not "canceling" because...reasons."