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

[Fleetwood]

One had Japanese Twitter as well as the Japanese equivalent of Webtoons to promote One Punch Man before it got picked up by a company, The idea of using an internet platform to promote your brand is still the idea, but a webtoons-like platform removes any ability to drama farm. If i had known that was an effective way to build my brand, I definitely would have commited to it early on.

Furaffinity is the site for you.

 

[SargonF00t]

Can someone please give me an update on EVS's current unfulfilled campaigns?

I am presuming that Cyber-Frog 2 finally got delivered?

So how late is Reignbow the Brute and when is Cyber-Frog 3 due, or has there been no timeline for delivery attached to it?

 

[GPRIMACADO]

I am presuming that Cyber-Frog 2 finally got delivered?

Nope, some people are missing their Honeycomb boxes.

 

[SaidNoOneEver]

Can someone please give me an update on EVS's current unfulfilled campaigns?

I am presuming that Cyber-Frog 2 finally got delivered?

So how late is Reignbow the Brute and when is Cyber-Frog 3 due, or has there been no timeline for delivery attached to it?

Last I heard many people are sill waiting for CF2 headsketches.

Here's a breakdown of all his campaigns and best-guess tally I did about a month ago based on IGG comments: https://kiwifarms.st/threads/comicsgate.38138/page-2269#post-17915705

I guess Fearsome is officially late now so that would make it 9 late campaigns.

 

[SargonF00t]

Last I heard many people are sill waiting for CF2 headsketches.

Here's a breakdown of all his campaigns and best-guess tally I did about a month ago based on IGG comments: https://kiwifarms.st/threads/comicsgate.38138/page-2269#post-17915705

I guess Fearsome is officially late now so that would make it 9 late campaigns.

Thanks for the updates, things are much worse than I had thought.

How could he have promised Reignbow the Brute, 7 to 8 months after CF2, insane!!!!!!

 

[SaidNoOneEver]

How could he have promised Reignbow the Brute, 7 to 8 months after CF2, insane!!!!!!

I think he originally expected that to be a collab effort with all his famous CG artist friends pitching in to do all the work while he kept the money. I'm pretty sure that's how it was originally pitched but I might be wrong.

 

[Midwit]

	Copies Sold	"Backers"	Earnings
ISOM #1	62,670	42,926	$3,737,920
ISOM #2	32,540 (-48%)	20,337 (-53%)	$2,351,589 (-37%)
ALPHACORE	22,331 (-31%)	13,252 (-35%)	$1,300,694 (-45%)
Yaira	16,339 (-27%)	9,521 (-28%)	$1,307,191 (+0.5%)
Cyberfrog #1	I'm not counting all this shit.	19,527	$1,272,348
Cyberfrog #2		14,813 (-24%)	$1,474,525 (+16%)
Cyberfrog #3		7,712 (-48%)	$914,464 (-38%)

You know, I think that Eric might get more traction if he sold his books at a more reasonable price point:

• Isom #1: 96 pages, $20 (21c/page)
• Isom #2: 112 pages, $35 (31c/page)
• Alphacore #1: 96 pages, $28 (29c/page)
• Yaira #1: 90 pages, $25 (28c/page)
• Naruto Vol 1: 192 pages, $10 (5c/page)

When you compare ISOM #1 to an equivalent number of floppies it's pretty much par for the course in terms of cost per page but a good deal of the problem with modern comics is that they're ridiculously overpriced to begin with, and whilst I have no idea how much these things cost per unit I can't believe that it's anywhere near high enough to justify the prices he's asking for, especially when all he's actually making is mediocre capeshit in style that went out of fashion two decades ago. Even just cutting a quarter off the current prices would make them much better propositions in terms of value for money, but for ISOM #2 even that's too little for what you're getting.

 

[Captain Manning]

You know, I think that Eric might get more traction if he sold his books at a more reasonable price point:

• Isom #1: 96 pages, $20 (21c/page)
• Isom #2: 112 pages, $35 (31c/page)
• Alphacore #1: 96 pages, $28 (29c/page)
• Yaira #1: 90 pages, $25 (28c/page)
• Naruto Vol 1: 192 pages, $10 (5c/page)

I don't know how fair it is to compare any of these books to a manga. Manga is usually printed on lower quality paper stock, in B&W, and in way higher quantities. The savings in manufacturing costs are passed onto the consumer.

Are July's books overpriced? Maybe, but I also think it's unrealistic to expect him to be at the same price point as Naruto Vol 1. I'd say the same thing for anybody in CG too.

 

[Devlish Flow]

I think he originally expected that to be a collab effort with all his famous CG artist friends pitching in to do all the work while he kept the money. I'm pretty sure that's how it was originally pitched but I might be wrong.

That was the Cool Story Bro perk on the RtB campaign, a "leatherbound" storybook of classic fairytales with an "own the Libs twist" .

There are tales of Rocafort finishing a John Wick version of the Gingerbread Man already. Malin's abortion aka Black Riding Hood was also intended to be in Cool Story Bro.

Unfortunately, Malin in an attempt to capture street-lingo verisimilitude insists on saying 'nigger' in it multiple times and EVS, being the paragon of virtue and decorum that he is, didn't want such callous racism in his fairytale anthology.

So they grifted the "uncensored Malin cut" to the JayObamaFans of the world and Malin was able to stave off bankruptcy/getting a real job for another few months.

Edit: for clarity

 

[Olórin of Hype]

You know, I think that Eric might get more traction if he sold his books at a more reasonable price point:

• Isom #1: 96 pages, $20 (21c/page)
• Isom #2: 112 pages, $35 (31c/page)
• Alphacore #1: 96 pages, $28 (29c/page)
• Yaira #1: 90 pages, $25 (28c/page)
• Naruto Vol 1: 192 pages, $10 (5c/page)

When you compare ISOM #1 to an equivalent number of floppies it's pretty much par for the course in terms of cost per page but a good deal of the problem with modern comics is that they're ridiculously overpriced to begin with, and whilst I have no idea how much these things cost per unit I can't believe that it's anywhere near high enough to justify the prices he's asking for, especially when all he's actually making is mediocre capeshit in style that went out of fashion two decades ago. Even just cutting a quarter off the current prices would make them much better propositions in terms of value for money, but for ISOM #2 even that's too little for what you're getting.

When it comes to production costs, most artists that are Yaira's level and Alphacore's level are around $150 to $200 a page. Even foreigners charge around $120 for pages like what's seen in those two books. This is just for line art, no colors. Colors are around $15per-page (weak colors, wet looking shadows, hyperfixation on yellows and browns) to $45per-page (Glossy colors below Alex Ross, above floppy coloring). Most letterers are $120 to $160 for a 24page book. This includes sound effect lettering and design. It breaks down to roughly $200 per page before printing and shipping.

However, the next qualifer is quantity of buyers.
Manga has shown it can sell Demon Slayer to over a billion people in a single sales quarter.
So let's drop back to lame-o American comics. Those prices have gone up, not to EJ's level, but up quite a bit. Consider that, like any business before him, as Eric expands, his prices will go down. He's suggested moving away from the campaign style of pre-orders, which suggests that he's going to push a storefront model as opposed to a "GET IT WHILE IT'S HOT" model. This is more successful in the long run as you end up fatiguing an audience on continued rollercoasters. (See: Brian Pulido's model via Lady Death kickstarters vs Coffin Comics store front.)
I would expect Eric to start lowering his prices after the store model.

tl;dr: Indie comics are expensive because the indie supply and demand chain doesn't currently house enough customers to make $10 for 194 page book feasible for even dudes with 500,000 subscribers.

 

[Kela de Thaym]

I think he originally expected that to be a collab effort with all his famous CG artist friends pitching in to do all the work while he kept the money. I'm pretty sure that's how it was originally pitched but I might be wrong.

How many friends does EVS have at this point? Like, genuine friends and not people either bullied/Stockholm Syndromed into submission or bottom feeder-tier grifters hoping to gain clout over what little he has left? Even the people who would be semi-aligned politically (like Chuck Dixon or Billy Tucci) seem to have quietly disavowed him and/or realized they'd be better off not having that millstone around their necks.

 

[Strix454]

How many friends does EVS have at this point?

I don't think EVS has ever been big on friends in a comic or youtube sense. His remaining closer than arms length associates are Malin and Shane Davis. He has a tactical alliance with Dick Masterson and his zoo animals against Eric July, but I don't think he likes any of them. He has a money-making alliance with Camelot, but I don't think Camelot means anything to him other than a means to sell toy cars.

At one time pre-comicsgate, he was friends with Gail Simone. But her perspective was that Ethan changed his politics depending on who he was in front of. That Ethan was a different person in front of people like her than he was in front of his own audience.

Unless there is a power-relationship involved or some sort of grift, I don't think people mean much of anything to Ethan. The only thing I've ever really seen him be passionate about in the past six years is Atlantic City Blackjack.

 

[aguywatchingitallburn]

View attachment 5866542View attachment 5866543

Analytics provided by Yellowflash (with approval to post by him). He states that there is no crossover with EVS anymore with his audience. That since he never talks about him, that his audience basically isn't suggested to EVS anymore.

This is absolutely hilarious. Thank you

 

[robo6]

I think he originally expected that to be a collab effort with all his famous CG artist friends pitching in to do all the work while he kept the money. I'm pretty sure that's how it was originally pitched but I might be wrong.

I was lined up to do the girthy stallions pages…that ain’t happening. I don’t work with people that support the sexual exploitation of autistic people. Don’t care how much pie is offered…. Or pizza. When I was going to do it, it was already late as fuck with no script.
No clue who’s going to do it now. He’ll own it all and it’ll be late before the first page is drawn, so why even fuck with it. Plus, it’ll be a pickle because 99% of CG can’t draw a horse for shit.

 

[GPRIMACADO]

 

[Date Rape Psychosis]

Saw Ethan saying Ed Piskor posted a suicide note and thought it was a fucked up joke, but apparently it's real.

From Fandom Pulse:

Spoiler: Ed Piskor's alleged suicide note.

I’m so sorry for being so stupid. I definitely should never have talked with Molly D. The language and optics look real dumb at best but I promise my innocence. Especially out of context it looks terrible. It was the height of Covid with no end in sight and I was alone through most of it . I was just happy to have the internet to talk to people with common interests. The way that I noticed her was when she would like a bunch of my picture at once. I wasn’t trolling Instagram randomly but I definitely shouldn’t have chatted with her when I found out how young she was. Seeing someone younger representing r crumb and GG Allin gave me hope for the next generations and made me curious. Curiosity killed the cartoonist. There was no way I’d have a 17 yr old stay at my place. Maybe not 18 even. I was forward projecting to some unknown future where Covid lockdowns were finished and we could see people again. And it wasn’t even with sex in mind but simply saying that there’s a bed here to crash like the kindness that was given to me a bunch of times when I was starting out. “Zine fair in town? Come crash”. Ask Liana Finck or anyone else who’s come to visit. It doesn’t mean sex. When I asked if she could keep a secret it was because I was sharing some red room pages before announcing the book and was just trying to sound cool. Tone is missing. When I said “naughty girl” it was sarcastic after she told me some simple crime or infraction she committed. The whole pile of my dms she collected to show is just awful to look at. I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to offer professional favors to anybody or use my “position” (what a joke) to get into anyone’s pants. We’re all in the art game so why not introduce new friends to old friends? When I was bringing up any professional stuff to anybody it was just common ground conversation.

Then seeing these dms even further out of context on other news outlets and media sites. Matt P at the Pgh city paper, you know what you did to skew your narrative. Fuck you. But they surely gave themselves their own plausible deniability by asking me for comments right as I’m trying not to jump off a bridge or something.

Molly Wright is a conundrum to me and her actions border criminal. He said/ she said never looks good but none of what she said happened and I can’t believe she’d be so malicious and pile on like this. Now that I’m officially checked out I think my family has a civil lawsuit and she should be held accountable. She pushed this over the edge into “multiple women” territory. It’s so corny. I absolutely never asked for a blowjob in trade for anything ever. She successfully made me look stupid and everybody accepted her word as fact. Citizens of the internet are playing such dangerous games with people’s lives. I never had anyone lined up for an open relationship with her. I never was interested in a relationship with her. We had sex twice and she initiated both times. The first time was a surprise. When we were done watching a movie or just hanging out (I don’t exactly remember the circumstances 4 years ago) she jumped on me and started kissing me, telling me how comfy I made her feel. We quit hanging out during Covid lockdown but kept in touch here and there and I thought things ended naturally. Thankfully her post including the piece about me dissing Jim Rugg , super emotional “fuck Ed Piskor” type language, and the Red Room sales stuff portray she’s a petty woman scorned. Punitive and false. My house was burning and she threw gasoline on it. There needs to be recourse for my loved ones. I’m dead. I don’t have a reason to lie. Hold Molly Wright accountable, please. Reputation destruction is her form of aggression and there were very real consequences. My lawyer is Harris Miller. Is it possible to subpoena all texts and dms I had with her?

Big titty Taff? Yeah, I would draw you naked all day and never apologize for wanting to. I like drawing tits and tattoos when I’m not drawing comics.

I’m a solitary guy and I’ve put every ounce of my time and life into my work for around the past 20 years. I never felt satisfied with my skill so I constantly worked really hard and tied it all to my identity and self worth. Every waking moment was spent working and ideally I thought it would be best to have all friends who share the same passion. It’s why I offered to introduce them to my friends. It’s like my cherished Japan trips introducing Koenji Shawn to Bryan Moss and Moss to Skeme and Skeme to Danika. I was the only person who knew everybody on the trip and by the end of it, we were all friends.

Social media was how I met people. My greatest relationship began at the end of Covid thanks to meeting on Instagram. A rocky but amazing 3 year relationship with someone who taught me true love. That said, I’m so glad we broke things off when we did so that she doesn’t get any slack. She’s way better off. Hope you’re well, Clam. I never stopped loving you. This all happened before I knew you.

Now it’s all gone. Art show evaporated. Was about to sign a $75k deal for Switchblade Shorties with Abrams, Cartoonist Kayfabe ends with Jimmy’s “shocking revelations” statement (those words hurt). I have no friends in this life any longer. I’m a disappointment to everybody who liked me. I’m a pariah. News organizations at my door and hassling my elderly parents. It’s too much. Putting our addresses on tv and the internet. How could I ever go back to my small town where everyone knows me?

Some good people reached out and tried to help me through this whole thing but I’m just not strong enough. The instinctual part of my brain knows that I’m no longer part of the tribe. I’m exiled and banished. I’m giving into my instincts and fighting them at the same time. Self preservation has lost out. From the sound in everybodies voice I think we all knew this was the conclusion. Jim Rugg came to my house unsolicited and gave me a hug and told me he loves me. If you know Jimmy, you know how huge that is!

I’m sorry to my family for making such a mess (no pun intended) and for creating this hassle. I wasn’t trying to be a creep. I’m also sorry to everyone who got this note and the baggage that may or may not come with it depending on how well we knew each other.

I knew I wasn’t going to be able to survive this. Comics is beyond a profession to me. It’s everything. That might sounds sad and pathetic to some, but this culture and medium gave me the greatest joy in life.

No public statements would do. Nobody against me would be convinced. Maybe this drastic move will convince a few? Maybe it will get a couple more people to consider not joining online lynch mobs over gossip? Doubt it will have much of a blip. I’m not doing this out of guilt though, once again, it was super dumb chatting with Molly D. My intentions were never nefarious with her or anybody. Im doing it out of intense shame. We’re not built to have hundreds (maybe a few thousand?) people judging and/or harassing us at once. A private and solitary mind can’t take it.

There were so many out there waiting in the wings for something like this to emerge. Daryl Ayo Braithwait called it a kill shot. You all got your wish. You were waiting for something to blow out of proportion and it got served to you on a silver platter. Ramon Villalobos, Cam Del Rosario, JB Roe, Molly Wright, congratulations. You got your pound of flesh. Evan Dorkin, I hope skeletons from your closet get revealed someday. Alex DeCampi, may you continue to have zero success no matter how hard you continuously leverage other people’s business from your bully pulpit.

The very next morning after Molly D posted the screencaps I put my last will in testament together. Freewill.com. Great service in a pinch. These are the papers I was trying to hide from you, Jimmy, when you came by with soup. I actually found a nice lady and witnesses who notarized it and made it official on a Sunday morning. How’s that for efficiency? It’s sitting on my brown desk in the corner.

Mom, Dad, Bob, JP, and Bri, I’m sorry. Mom, dad, get this will of mine straight and move into a nice home that doesn’t have many stairs. Leave whatever you don’t use the rest of your lives to my siblings. Daddy hit me up this morning and wanted me to come home but it’s just too far gone. It was great hearing your voice today also, mama.

The shame will never go away. Please make good use of what I’ve built up and take comfort for the rest of your years. This will give my life and this tragedy of events some positive meaning.

These are the files for Switchblade Shorties. Please download it and maybe a book deal can be made for my heirs. Bob Mecoy was my agent and we were supposed to sign a $75k contract with Abrams. Maybe in death, after I explain myself, it will be something they won’t balk at. Then again, the culture is sick enough that maybe a bidding war among publishers will push the price up even higher. Bob, can you try to get my folks a sweet deal? My family can use the money. Please download these files asap while my Google drive exists but they are also on the portable hard drive in my backpack that I had with me during my final act. Don’t let the cops keep it forever. I brought my data with me so that it would be easy to find.
(Redacted)

There’s a black hardcover sketchbook full of autobiographical comics on my brown desk, standing up, in the hutch next to drawing tablets, that I intended to see print when I passed away. I didn’t put anything in my will where that’s concerned but hopefully it can find a publisher and get released. It was what we were gonna do with Fantagraphics under the title “Mudfish”. I didn’t sign any paperwork on that with Fanta so Bob, maybe you can help my parents there too?

I realize that I didn’t make any notes in the will about my authored books and intellectual properties. Jim Rugg, can you maybe help make sure my people don’t get jacked by the publishers? I haven’t gotten my HHFT omnibus royalties so my family should be getting a good check soon. Can someone make sure to hold Fantagraphics accountable with my royalties and perhaps an audit of their accounting books is in order also, to see if I got all that was coming to me. Eric Reynolds gave me no benefits of doubt and I don’t know if fanta’d be tricky about my stuff in death. His suspicions of me make me suspicious of them. That’s the thing that sucks about going through this. You don’t know who your friends are.

Jimmy, can you also post our unlisted videos and make our private streams to Patreon live to the public. That’s the perception I wanna leave. A dude having fun talking comics with his brother. Please keep cartoonist Kayfabe up and monetized and share half the loot with my family each year. Maybe schedule the vids each day as we did for years until our roster is complete. Don’t dissolve the llc but split the take with my heirs.

Oh yeah, and I was avoiding the internet as much as possible, mostly relying on some friends who relayed me info here and there. I was not making/using burner sock puppet accounts to try to defend or attack. Hopefully those accounts will still tweet a bit so that you guys believe that, at least. Maybe someone can dig up ip addresses to confirm.

What a week. I wouldn’t wish this shit on my worst enemy. Leave it to me to get into trouble without ever leaving the house. I don’t have email addresses for any of my family. Please get this message to them. My phone is fully charged and it’s on so I’m sure it can be pinged and tracked by first responders. I have a battery pack case so the phone should be on for a few hours at the very least. My phone number: 412-915-4501, license plate: JFA8859
Im wearing a black hoodie. Maybe a black peacoat, black dickies, terrex continental boots.

Hey mom and dad. Liz’s rent is $675 and she just paid up through April. Let her move her man in with her if they take that step. Keep the house. It’s not too shabby and will bring in a trickle of income each month.

Anastasia James, please hook my parents up with that artwork from the show. I didn’t watch the news reports but I guess you can get their address right off the video. These represent some of my best pieces for hip hop family tree and if I salvaged my name at all they will be worth good loot on the market. Don’t sell the cover to volume 1 for anything less than $25,000

Once again, I’m guilty of being stupid. No doubt. But, that’s all. I never thought in a million years that I’d take this step but I also never in a million years thought that something so Orwellian would ever happen to me. Ya never know in this life.

I was murdered by Internet bullies. Massive amounts of them. Some of you out there absolutely contributed to my death as you were entertaining yourself with gossip. I wasn’t AI. I was a real human being. You chipped little bits of my self esteem away all week until I was vaporized. Maybe I’ll be able to haunt you dorks as a ghost. I come from Gypsy heritage and I’m definitely cursing a lot of you.

This is the calmest I’ve felt all week. It’s over for me. I’m sorry for the hurt it’ll cause my family and closest buds. I hope it makes people think twice when joining an internet feeding frenzy. There you have it. Control freak ‘til the last. Peace out.

Ps. There’s $852 in my wallet,
cash, in case the Jake’s get sticky fingers and steal my shit

Eddie P
1982-2024

Facebook note
Fandom Pulse article

 

[Negg]

Writing a giant fake suicide note is either the best or worst April Fool's prank I've seen.

 

[Absurdity]

Fake or real, the dude is going to need a new career field. If he went through with it, I'm pretty sure getting excited for exposing young people to R. Crumb and GG Allin isn't going to look great on the resume. Either way, mega ooof.

 

[Alazmat]

Ed Piskor's suicide note. Copying and paste it would be a nightmare to read so I screenshotted it.

 

[Kela de Thaym]

Either darkly hilarious or super scummy to post that on today of all days. It’s a ruse cruise so he can fake his death and reemerge under a new name later.