Diseased #Comicsgate - The Culture Wars Hit The Funny Books!

[Absurdity]

Manga is more like a fusion of western comics and that back section of an old 90s video rental store complete with tons of schlocky C movies and pornos. Main difference being that the power still lies with the creators instead of the movie studios... and there is more of a cultural reverence for the kind of line art in Manga than the West has for our own comics over here. Over here, Comic Books are only a half step away from comic strips. If you want to get serious, get into live-action and video games. Of course this means most success stories must be commissioned by big corporations who can put up the money first. But the creative well has shrunken to the point of gender-swapping everyone into the Mary Sue Powerpuff Girls.

 

[A nameless trool]

Ideas Man has an Big Ideas. That's great and all, but I'll believe it when I see it. This has been a lot of hype and talk from/about a guy (that to my knowledge hasn't done much of anything other than be black and give an opinion) talking about what his all-powerful IP / fictional universe is going to be.
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Did I miss something even remotely close that he's done before? Previous comic? Anything narrative-related? Maybe I'm deficient in my Eric July lore but apart from having political opinions that make center-right white people swoon and swell with hope for mankind, he's done nothing other than be a based black guy with a YT channel and a rock band (I'm noticing a pattern here). Has he even made a concept album? Do his songs have plots? Cool artwork even? I've heard his music and it's pretty unremarkable hardcore that was all the rage 20 years ago. Not saying that his "universe" won't be great or shouldn't be great or that creative people shouldn't have ideas (obviously) and dreams and plans, but goddamn it stop talking about them ahead of time before you've proven you can actually pull it off and if you're a fan, stop putting pressure on this guy to be the savior of genre fiction. FFS is everyone trying to jinx him? Is he trying to jinx himself?


Rule #1 of starting a fictional universe is never announce you're about to start a fictional universe. Just do it and let the fans figure it out organically (assuming you actually earn fans). Did no one learn anything from the entirely-preventable blunder that was the Dark Universe? Looks like this dark man has a universe of his own to peddle. Who the fuck goes around telling people they're about to launch a comic book franchise named after themselves when they've never done anything like that before? Answer: people who've been told one too many times that they're important and "good for America" and everything they make is really amazing.

Somebody correct me and inform me that I'm wrong and he in fact has a respectable track record for producing related content that he is just now synthesizing into a greater project so I can believe that this reasonably presumably talented and ambitious man is not in fact a deluded fool surrounded by sycophants cheering him to soar higher towards the sun.

The most impressive thing about Eric July is that he was in a super woke, super white music scene and he is a based black dude.

I get what you're saying here, but I want to offer a modest counterpoint.

If Ethan surrounded himself with 10 Nassers, CG (and therefore Ethan) would benefit immensely from it because Nasser possesses the one quality that is sorely lacking in CG: Work ethic. Nasser gets his books out of time. And I don't think that can be attributed to Ethan, because so many other people in his court can't seem to manage this.

To be sure, many of the chucklefucks Ethan surrounds himself with make CG look bad, but I would respectfully disagree Nasser is in the same exact category because he doesn't contribute to CG's biggest fail of all. His general weirdness and caterpillar eyebrows is not what I first think of when I think of reasons why CG is gay and why I can barely feign interest in it anymore.

Nasser should have been the production manager at ALLCAPS comics. If EVS published some of his comics as part of a Horror line it would have been a match made in Heaven.
But I doubt ALLCAPs has the volume to justify him getting employed.

Oh, and about Manga: The Walking Dead and Saga cover the same market segment as manga: Serialized stories with a clear begining, middle and end sold as periodicals then collected into volumes for bookstores.

 

[Gar For Archer]

While I would not consider myself a mangafile by any means, I do know that many if not most if not all manga are created and owned by their creators, and when the story is done, or the creator dies, the property just stops and makes room for new blood. Something like that. They didn't continue Astroboy after Osamu Tezuka died (BTW, Astroboy first published in 1952, not long after comics were popularized in America), or Giant Robo (1967) when Mitsuteru Yokoyama died, or Lone Wolf and Cub (1970), etc. etc. etc.

They had their time, they live in history and are still read today, but they haven't been milked repeatedly generation after generation and bastardized by writers who have no true love for the original stories and characters.

It's kind of like if someone tried to turn 'a Christmas Carol' into a regular monthly series. 'the Continuing Adventures of Ebenezer Scrooge' sounds ridiculous, but it's essentially what we do with comics in America.

Yeah, properties that are difficult to get into due to their dense continuities (like Dragon Ball or Gundam) are the exception, not the rule. Even sequel series are relatively uncommon, though not unheard of. Spin-offs that may or may not be set in the main canon (almost always written/drawn by a different mangaka) are fairly common but are always “bonus material” for dedicated fans, not required reading for the main story.

For the vast majority of manga, the main story comprises of a single continuous series, and when it’s done it’s done.

 

[Miniluv]

Oh, and about Manga: The Walking Dead and Saga cover the same market segment as manga: Serialized stories with a clear begining, middle and end sold as periodicals then collected into volumes for bookstores.

The difference is that those comics appeal mostly to adult males and manga has stories for various demographics. Tween girls and younger boys aren't interested in TWD or Saga, but I bet they can each find a manga specifically tailored to appeal to both of those groups.

 

[Mister Dongs]

Manga has options available to it thanks to volume shipping and a booming market overseas that western comics simply don't have. Marvel tried to do the cheap newsprint option with its decades of back issues 20 years ago with its Essentials line, but the lack of demand for new editions just meant a lot of the collections had a limited print run and ironically became hard-to-find marked up collectibles in their own right.

 

[Captain Manning]

Nasser should have been the production manager at ALLCAPS comics. If EVS published some of his comics as part of a Horror line it would have been a match made in Heaven.
But I doubt ALLCAPs has the volume to justify him getting employed.

Agreed.

I can see @9th legion centurion 002's point on how Nasser's lower level of charisma might make Ethan look good by comparison, but Nasser's penchant for putting his nose to the grindstone and getting shit done is a genuine rarity within CG. The guys watching skanks pee on livestreams, instead of working on their books, might also make Ethan look good by comparison, but that's also a big chunk of CG you're cringing at. Unlike Nasser, they drag down the reputation of CG into the gutter, and Ethan is all about the CG brand.

If I were trying to rebuild CG into something less of a joke, I'd take Nasser over a LOT of other people.

It seemed like a fair enough point to make in Nasser's favor. I genuinely think he's got a few things going for him.

Yeah, properties that are difficult to get into due to their dense continuities (like Dragon Ball or Gundam) are the exception, not the rule.

Gundam is actually super easy because most Gundam installments are set in different continuities. Just pick one, and start from volume one. This is true for both the anime and manga. It's more of a thematic franchise than a narrative-driven one.

 

[Mecha II]

While I would not consider myself a mangafile by any means, I do know that many if not most if not all manga are created and owned by their creators, and when the story is done, or the creator dies

How could you bring this up and not mention Berserk? Arguably the greatest Manga of all time.

@jspit2.0 "Dragon Ball as not being confusing...by all means. GT or Super?"

GT never got a Manga adaptation. The ongoing Super Manga is very different from the TV show, but it is continuing where the show ended. And it Skipped the Broly movie, but still considers it as something that happened.

Eric July has a lot of confidence going into his first book. It sounds like he's hired Writers for his "Universe" and yeah, that's more than one. Image launched with how many different guys making their own books? And July is going to drive all that creatively in a narratively connected universe? Also he doesn't like that IGG takes 5% so fuck all that he's not only going to come up with Book(s) but also establish a store front, a way to charge you for the books, package and ship them.

All without anything to show for it prior to launch and after the first book has been sent to the printers. You're just going to be able to wake up one day, click a few buttons on your PC and have an Eric July comic book delivered to your doorstep. You will have no idea what these comics are about, but theyre all related to each other, and yes you will gatekeep the fiction and want more than one title in the (self insert?) "RippaVerse"

Is he that talented? Or may I propose somewhat Retarded? The only other answer is he has an established platform with a lot of people who give him a lot of money already. People like hearing anti woke talking points. So much so that there's already a "RippaVerse Fandom" lmao.

Oh yeah and apparently his Comic Book Company has already launched

Comics Lead Magnet - Writer, Content Creator, Musician | Eric July

archived 24 Jan 2022 00:16:56 UTC

archive.fo

Anything that is explicitly “anti-woke” is honestly way more likely to be fucking god-awful

I can hear the Marvel writer's room crying out in anguish that they didn't give a SuperLatinX woman the name "Truth"

 

[The Bovinian Derivative]

While I would not consider myself a mangafile by any means, I do know that many if not most if not all manga are created and owned by their creators, and when the story is done, or the creator dies, the property just stops and makes room for new blood.

Most manga IPs, even the fuckhuge ones like Jojo or Naruto, are co-owned by the publisher, but they are generally better* at respecting creator wishes then American publisher's are. Hunter x Hunter is one big exception that's 100% owned by Togashi, here's an image that usually gets passed around in some threads:

*Edit: okay better might be an oversimplification. Mangaka have to deal with a different set of bullshit, but publishers will not kick you off from your own work to put someone else in charge of it or something like that.

 

[Newman's Lovechild]

I don't know if this is an indication of Marvel's popularity or people who simply enjoy tabletop gaming.

Back when I took notice, Zombicide was an instant hit and mushroomed from there. I'd be willing to bet that a lot of the backers throwing four mill at that boardgame didn't even know Marvel Zombies was a thing,

Oh yeah and apparently his Comic Book Company has already launched

Some said it was trivial... until the billion dollar movies.
And guess what... it still is.

I'm repeating myself from a page back, but I'm surprised at our junior ripper. I would have thought he had enough of a head on his shoulders to notice the movie success was divorced from the book success. He thinks he's going to be the one to have his comics ride the crest of a wave that's already broken? Or is it just slightly clumsy hustling?

Either way, good luck.

 

[Absurdity]

The most impressive thing about Eric July is that he was in a super woke, super white music scene and he is a based black dude.


Nasser should have been the production manager at ALLCAPS comics. If EVS published some of his comics as part of a Horror line it would have been a match made in Heaven.
But I doubt ALLCAPs has the volume to justify him getting employed.

Oh, and about Manga: The Walking Dead and Saga cover the same market segment as manga: Serialized stories with a clear begining, middle and end sold as periodicals then collected into volumes for bookstores.

Nasser may have a knack for timeliness, but this could also be attributed to being on his best behavior because he's still in the proving grounds. I would think he'd need more experience before that happens.

CG has proven without a shadow of doubt that once you remove the top-down pressure of a deadline, even veterans like Sciverfrog can unravel. It may be that some pros are used to letting a deadline cancel out more ambitious options because maintaining a decent career reputation among their employers is of primary concern. Remove those employers, and provide a series of fundraising successes that easily surpass all previous working efforts and there is zero pressure to maintain standards or to do better. There's no stick hovering above their head to whack them with and no carrot at the end of it to keep them moving forward. Ethan needs someone to light a fire under his cloaca and those of many of his compadres whether it be the quality or the timing because he likes to play the role of Good Ol' Uncle E until suddenly he realizes he must ghost or purge the unfavored ones. There hardly seems like much of a middle ground.

It's time to throw some decent money at managerial talent before hokey dopey tales of stuffing his face with pie throughout the night wear thin. China can't take the blame for all of it.

 

[Mister Dongs]

You'd think with all the professional artists' livestreams that Eric July is going on lately in preparation for his stepping into indie comics, he'd think of commissioning some non-shit art from one of them. It's not like they can't use the exposure either. The Daym Drops guy shouldn't be dumpstering Eric July's "RippaVerse" without even trying.

 

[Ike Aim]

First: You, sir, are a treasure.

@Mister Dongs does really good research in the CG space that gets noticed.

 

[Pilule Noire]

Combover? What's a combover? This isn't a combover you guys.

This photo could be useful to the Roiloups, for phrenological purposes - perhaps they will get to @FROG after their upcoming cranial survey of Jeremy from Geeks and Gamers:

 

[Doctor Placebo]

On the other hand, if you want to hold up Dragon Ball as not being confusing...by all means. GT or Super?

Yeah, properties that are difficult to get into due to their dense continuities (like Dragon Ball or Gundam) are the exception, not the rule.

GT never got a Manga adaptation. The ongoing Super Manga is very different from the TV show, but it is continuing where the show ended. And it Skipped the Broly movie, but still considers it as something that happened.

That the biggest example of "complicated" continuity in a manga series so far on this thread is Dragonball, which still starts at volume 1 and has maybe ONE branching choice of which sequel series to pick up after the original run (but not actually, because as people have said, GT doesn't have a manga adaptation), is just proving my point.

Meanwhile, Marvel and DC became obsessed with huge crossover events that span dozens of issues of half a dozen different series. "The main arc of the Onslaught storyline is 5 issues in X-Men, starting with issue 285, but you also need to read New Mutants 120 because it has a key plot point that comes back in X-Men 287. But to prep for the arc, you ALSO need to read Avengers 321-323 because some of the plot threads from that come back in the Onslaught arc. And if you really want the full experience you should also read Howard the Duck 87 because it wraps up some threads. So yeah, just look for all of those at your local comic shop, or see if they're on Ebay. There was a graphic novel with all of them except Howard the Duck, but it's out of print. Good luck!"

That's not even an exaggeration. This sort of thing started way back in the 90's as a way to milk the maximum amount of money out of the core comic book uber-nerd audience. It worked for a while, but it's kryptonite (pun intended) to new readers who aren't uber-geeks.

And those were the GOOD stories from the glory days. I know we're sticking to an "It's not wokeness" narrative here, but many of the newer books really are hampered by being kinda shitty. Many of them are superhero in name only because the diversity Twitter hires really just want to write LGBT drama books or whine about Republicans/Christians/Trump but the corporate higher ups will only pay them for familiar brand name capeshit.

Manga series, by contrast, are whatever the writers want them to be. If a mangaka wants to write gay shit. he/she writes gay shit. There's none of this "I want to write a lesbian high school drama but I have to shoehorn it into the universe of Berserk because that's what my boss hired me to write, and my boss doesn't care enough about what I do to the Berserk setting to tell my not to make it a lesbian high school drama" bullshit.

 

[Captain Manning]

Most manga IPs, even the fuckhuge ones like Jojo or Naruto, are co-owned by the publisher, but they are generally better* at respecting creator wishes then American publisher's are. Hunter x Hunter is one big exception that's 100% owned by Togashi, here's an image that usually gets passed around in some threads:

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*Edit: okay better might be an oversimplification. Mangaka have to deal with a different set of bullshit, but publishers will not kick you off from your own work to put someone else in charge of it or something like that.

This is more anime than manga, but one of my favorite David vs. Goliath stories of all time is when Hayao Miyazaki stood up to Disney and Harvey Weinstein...

...and won.

Owning your own IP ensures absolutely nobody... no matter how powerful... can push you around. I imagine very few creative people are Marvel actually own anything, which means Disney can fuck things up whenever they feel like it.

 

[GranDuke]

Meanwhile, Marvel and DC became obsessed with huge crossover events that span dozens of issues of half a dozen different series. "The main arc of the Onslaught storyline is 5 issues in X-Men, starting with issue 285, but you also need to read New Mutants 120 because it has a key plot point that comes back in X-Men 287. But to prep for the arc, you ALSO need to read Avengers 321-323 because some of the plot threads from that come back in the Onslaught arc. And if you really want the full experience you should also read Howard the Duck 87 because it wraps up some threads. So yeah, just look for all of those at your local comic shop, or see if they're on Ebay. There was a graphic novel with all of them except Howard the Duck, but it's out of print. Good luck!"

That's not even an exaggeration. This sort of thing started way back in the 90's as a way to milk the maximum amount of money out of the core comic book uber-nerd audience. It worked for a while, but it's kryptonite (pun intended) to new readers who aren't uber-geeks.

To add to that there is another problem - writers jumping from title to title and continuing with certain plot points and themes. For example, if you love Johns' Green Lantern run then he does some relevant bits of GL lore in Forever Evil event, surrounding JL issues and I think some of it gets wrapped up in Darkseid War.

And it is one of the easier cases since both GL and JL runs were happening at around same time. Sometimes writers return to things that they wrote about 10 years ago in unrelated title.

 

[Sinner's Sandwich]

Eric July and his fans are delusional


Anti woke politics is still politics. Also he is arrogant. He doesn't even talk about entertaining his customers with fun & exiting stories. It's all crap about gatekeeping & fighting against wokists. He talks about "a book" that's being printed but not what it's about. Smells like a scam.


His fanboys are fucking naive.

 

[SaidNoOneEver]

Eric July and his fans are delusional

View attachment 2916203
Anti woke politics is still politics. Also he is arrogant. He doesn't even talk about entertaining his customers with fun & exiting stories. It's all crap about gatekeeping & fighting against wokists. He talks about "a book" that's being printed but not what it's about. Smells like a scam.

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His fanboys are fucking naive.

I watched a bit of his pitch on Frog's stream last week and it seems that this first book is going to be the jumping-off point for all the characters in the universe who will then branch off into their own storylines. Is that a mistake to have all of these character's first appearance be in this one small-printrun book?

 

[ShitInMyMouth]

Eric July and his fans are delusional

View attachment 2916203
Anti woke politics is still politics. Also he is arrogant. He doesn't even talk about entertaining his customers with fun & exiting stories. It's all crap about gatekeeping & fighting against wokists. He talks about "a book" that's being printed but not what it's about. Smells like a scam.

View attachment 2916202
His fanboys are fucking naive.

"Keep your politics out" has always meant "but keep my politics in," the people shouting it are usually too retardidly self-abosorbed to realise it.

Example I mentioned earlier in the thread, look at the Frog Molester and boomer friends pontificate about soy boys and snow flakes and look at them when Second Coming is mentioned and watch them roll about crying because someone was rude about their Jew Wizard.

Put your politics in your comics but make it a good story. Or did this guys read Garth Ennis and Warren "Top Shagger" Ellis and miss what they were saying? Or were the Comic Book Kings regular people back then and now they're just LARPing as the Trump Enslavement Squad for superchats?

 

[Sinner's Sandwich]

I watched a bit of his pitch on Frog's stream last week and it seems that this first book is going to be the jumping-off point for all the characters in the universe who will then branch off into their own storylines. Is that a mistake to have all of these character's first appearance be in this one small-printrun book?

Sounds like a dumb idea. But Eric is eager to build his fucking "Rippaverse" (which is such a r.etarded word). Seems like he is going to introduce way too many characters at once.