You’re drifting into a VERY different discussion re: destroying confederate statues. You can still learn from history without actively celebrating awful people by displaying statues of them. I’ve not been to the Netherlands, but I’m going to guess you all don’t study history exclusively through statues, right?
And none of this has anything to do with comics or Ellis. Ellis is certainly not a historical person, for a start.
Separating art from the artist is up to each individual, this I agree with. In the internet age it’s tougher, because we learn much more about people, including artists, and oftentimes, the more we learn about artists, the more we learn about how awful they are! But there’s also a difference between Michael Jackson and what is happening with Ellis. Jackson is dead, so he isn’t actively profiting off of sales of his music. With Ellis, since he’s still alive, sales of his work can be seen as actively supporting him, and
that’s where it gets dicey. And companies don’t want to be seen as profiting off of these people either (for bad the PR as much as any true moral stance) hence them canceling the work themselves. If someone still wants to enjoy his work, I get it, and if someone feels uncomfortable putting money in his pocket, I get that too.
EDIT - if any of this is drifting into too dangerous territory, feel free to delete!