Vegan Artbook

{{italic title}}[[File:Vegan artbook.png|thumb|right|250px|This has so much straw, it's banned in [[California]].{{nofact}}]]
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'''''Vegan Artbook''''' is a webcomic that was created by a [[Netherlands|Dutch]] artist named '''Priya Cynthia Kishna''', who also goes under a number of other names like "Yerdian" and "PupaVegan". Starting out as a comic intended to educate people about the supposed benefits of [[veganism]], over the years the comic has shifted to mostly just being a vehicle to attack Kishna's critics. The comic's content can basically be summarized as "[[PETA]]: the comic", as the comic consists of attacking anyone who eats meat ([[Jonanism|and even vegans who don't agree with everything Kishna says]]) while promoting any form of [[pseudoscience]] that can make veganism look better. The comic is frequently considered to be the vegan equivalent of [[Chick tracts]], with even most vegans not liking it,<ref>[https://www.reddit.com/r/vegan/comments/nmnbh0/has_anyone_ever_heard_of_vegan_artbook/ Has anyone ever heard of “Vegan Artbook”?], SkeeterYosh, ''Reddit''</ref> although Kishna does maintain a small, [[cult]]like fanbase.

'''Warning''': Despite ''Vegan Artbook'' looking like a cute anime-influenced comic on the surface, Kishna will often use extreme imagery in an attempt to shock readers into agreeing with her ideology. Some of these links are [[NSFW]] and may even be NSFL. You have been warned.

==The war on straw==
{{main|Straw man}}
{{cquote|'''Straw character''': I would go vegan, but I am disabled, so my carer decides what I eat, since she's the one cooking. I have nothing to say about it.|||According to this comic, this is a completely unreasonable excuse to not be vegan.<ref name=ableism>[https://www.deviantart.com/pupaveg/art/244-Disabled-715846895 Disabled], Priya Cynthia Kishna, ''Vegan Artbook''</ref>}}
''Vegan Artbook'' doesn't really have an overarching story, and most strips can be summarized thusly:

* Straw character makes argument that Kishna disagrees with.
* Vegan character makes "witty" comeback,<ref name=poverty>[https://archive.ph/IHGz0 The poor people's excuse], Priya Cynthia Kishna, ''Vegan Artbook''</ref> beats up the straw character,<ref>[https://archive.ph/nG3Ri Humane slaughter oxymoron], Priya Cynthia Kishna, ''Vegan Artbook''</ref> or if all else fails, just tells them to shut up.<ref>[https://archive.ph/3TkZi Where do you draw the line?], Priya Cynthia Kishna, ''Vegan Artbook''</ref>
* Either way, the straw character is stunned into silence, and the [[moral]] superiority of vegans is proved for the day.

It has a large cast of characters, but most of them fall into four groups:

* '''Author self-inserts''': The closest thing to "main" characters that the strip has, these are the ones who always push Kishna's viewpoints in the comics. The most prominent one is Plausibell (formerly [[irony|ironically]] named Brie), with others including Legua and Dolly. Character-wise, they are all pretty much identical.
* '''[[Tokenism|Tokens]]''': Other vegan characters that were created by Kishna to try to appeal to various demographics, such as Mike (a "plus size" vegan), Azusa (a [[gay]] vegan), Dazz Ling (an East Asian vegan), and Lulu (a black vegan). They may have one or two [[stereotype|stereotypical]] character traits, such as Mike's love of food, but otherwise just exist to back up the points made by the author self-inserts.
* '''Edgy characters''': Distressingly popular among Kishna's small fandom, these characters are used when Kishna requires them to do something that would contradict the supposedly "peaceful" main vegan characters and have only become more prominent in the recent years of the comic. These characters are very violent towards the non-vegans, up to and including outright murder.<ref>[https://archive.ph/ISSXK Farmers love their animals 3], Priya Cynthia Kishna, ''Vegan Artbook''</ref>
* '''Strawmen''': Basically applies to every non-vegan in the comic (or, as Kishna calls them, "carnists"), though later has expanded to include vegans that Kishna disagrees with.<ref>[https://www.deviantart.com/pupaveg/art/403-Apologists-summarized-799590530 Apologists summarized], Priya Cynthia Kishna, ''Vegan Artbook''</ref> The two main ones are Shawn, whom the narrative portrays as a stupid, selfish, loser, and Diva (subtle name there) who is portrayed as a diva. However, these characters tend to be so ganged up upon by the narrative and the vegan characters that most people root for them. There are a bunch of others, including caricatures of some of Priya's real-life critics.<ref name=pets>[https://archive.fo/Acrts#selection-381.6-381.21 Vegan pets], Priya Cynthia Kishna, ''Vegan Artbook''</ref>

The comic has a very black-and-white view towards veganism, portraying any reason why people avoid veganism as nothing more than a lame excuse, whether it be [[poverty]],<ref name=poverty /> difficulty processing nonheme [[iron]],<ref>[https://www.deviantart.com/pupaveg/art/VV3-I-tried-being-vegan-but-576315247 I tried being vegan, but…], Priya Cynthia Kishna, ''Vegan Artbook''</ref><ref>[https://archive.ph/2P1fQ Vegan iron deficiency myth], Priya Cynthia Kishna, ''Vegan Artbook''</ref> allergies to vegan staples, or even [[disability|disabilities]] that require specialized diets.<ref name=ableism /> Her caricatures of disabled people and denial of their disabilities can get quite [[ableism|ableist]]. Kishna's also one of those people who [[Nazi analogies|compares]] non-vegans to [[Adolf Hitler]]. She also frequently compares eating meat to the [[Holocaust]] and even mocks people who are offended by such comparisons.<ref>[https://archive.li/cBfij Comparing animals to humans], Priya Cynthia Kishna, ''Vegan Artbook''</ref> And that's not even getting into numerous allegations of [[plagiarism|tracing and art theft]].<ref>[http://images.shoutwiki.com/badwebcomicswiki/4/45/Vearblsk.jpg For instance]</ref> So yeah, she's overall a pretty unpleasant person.

==Pseudoscience and misinformation==
If that wasn't bad enough, Kishna will frequently promote pseudoscientific claims in order to make a vegan diet look as good as possible. She seems to believe that a vegan diet is a miracle ''[[panacea]]'', capable of curing anything from allergies to [[autism]] (yes, seriously).<ref name=ableism /> She also promotes the [[humans are herbivores]] myth, basically arguing that because humans use tools to hunt meat, that means we didn't eat meat before the invention of tools. This is ridiculous for many reasons, first, there is a lot of meat such as carrion and smaller animals like insects that can be eaten without having to be able to tear apart a large prey animal, so her premise immediately falls apart. Secondly, she tries to claim that meat wasn't responsible for the [[evolution]] of human [[brain]] growth, but starch was instead.<ref name=brains>[https://archive.ph/kJ1Xm Meat made the brain bigger], Priya Cynthia Kishna, ''Vegan Artbook''</ref> Needless to say, pretty much no mainstream [[anthropologist]] agrees with that assessment.<ref>[https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fat-not-meat-may-have-led-to-bigger-hominin-brains/ Fat, Not Meat, May Have Led to Bigger Hominin Brains], Richard Kemeny, ''Scientific American'' 31 March 2019</ref> She also thinks that it's a good idea to feed meat-eating pets like fennec foxes vegan diets, which is something that can ''kill'' them.<ref>[https://themindcircle.com/fennec-fox-vegan-diet-animal-abuse/ What Happens If A Vegan Puts Her Fennec Fox On A Vegan Diet?], ''The Mind Circle''</ref> Any studies that disagree with her are [[handwave]]d away as [[conspiracy theory|the work of the dairy industry]].<ref name=brains /> She is also not above using misleading gory images to shock her audience, for example trying to pass off a stillborn malformed fetus as something killed in a slaughterhouse.<ref>[https://archive.ph/SRjA8 Slaughterhouse workers], Priya Cynthia Kishna, ''Vegan Artbook'' (WARNING: Gore)</ref><ref>[http://roadstotravel.blogspot.com/2006_09_01_archive.html Where she actually got the image from (warning: gore).] Ctrl+F "schistosoma reflexus calf" to find it.</ref> At the very least, she does have one [[stopped clock]] moment when she made fun of the myth that [[Soy boy|soy feminizes men]], but it doesn't nearly make up for all the dangerous medical misinformation she has promoted to her followers.

==Flirting with extremism==
{{main|Hard green}}
{{cquote|To all hunters: If you think that overpopulated animals should be shot, you should start by shooting ''yourselves'' first, because humans are ''the most [[overpopulation|overpopulated]]'' and destructive species OF ALL.|||Yeesh.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20170914110705/http://www.veganartbook.com/comics/52/ Hunting hypocrisy], Priya Cynthia Kishna, ''Vegan Artbook''</ref>}}
Although most of the comic's focus is on militant vegan advocacy, Kishna does occasionally leave hints of her radical sympathies. In one comic, she endorses {{wpl|Gary Yourofsky||,}}<ref>[https://archive.ph/yrOy3/6492c10314e7a5202e5fb50b735c85c0288159cd.jpg Wrong victim], Priya Cynthia Kishna, ''Vegan Artbook''</ref> someone who has advocated for violence and even [[rape]] against non-vegans.<ref>[https://archive.ph/StNLj Empathy, Education, and Violence: A Time for Everything], Gary Yourofsky, ''ADAPTT''</ref> Her comics often depict non-vegans being killed, with the narrative not doing anything to call out the murderers,<ref name=pets /> and if anything, this problem has gotten even worse as the comic has gone on.<ref>[https://archive.fo/cHiHH Bad hunter], Priya Cynthia Kishna, ''Vegan Artbook''</ref> This, combined with the comic's overall misanthropic tone and bashing of vegans and [[animal rights]] activists that aren't as extreme as Kishna, paints a pretty scary picture.

==See also==
*[[Vegan Gains]] — Another vegan that gives other vegans a bad name.

==References==
{{reflist|2|80%}}

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[[Category:Ableism]]
[[Category:Alternative medicine promoters]]
[[Category:Animal rights]]
[[Category:Autism woo]]
[[Category:Denialists]]
[[Category:Food woo promoters]]
[[Category:Hard green]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Plagiarists]]
[[Category:Propaganda]]
[[Category:Pseudoscience promoters]]
[[Category:Webcomics]]
[[Category:Webshites]]

Categories: Ableism, Alternative medicine promoters, Animal rights, Autism woo, Denialists, Food woo promoters, Hard green, Living people, Plagiarists, Propaganda, Pseudoscience promoters, Webcomics, Webshites