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

[SaidNoOneEver]

So your IGG backers give you money to make your frog books, but the Breitweisers' IGG backers didn't give them money to make their chicken books. Is that correct?

I'm a bit surprised by the response to my posts. The most likely explanation for not producing that IGG book after three years is the IGG money being tied up elsewhere. I suspected it was used as front-money for the Walmart product. Frog disagrees and says Mitch didn't have to put up any money for the Walmart thing, which makes the IGG non-fulfillment even more baffling.

So I spent 5 minutes googling a few things.

First, Allegiance Art's "co-founder" is a guy named David Martin. He's the CEO of Allegiance Arts. He runs a "reputation rehabilitation" consultancy. Crisis-management, etc. It's named Allegiance. That Arkansas Times article might have a touch of crisis-management/reputation-rehab hokery to it, right? Just a coincidence I'm sure.

https://armoneyandpolitics.com/allegiance-ceo-david-martin-reputation-everything/

Martin-Wilbourn Partners rebrands as Allegiance - Talk Business & Politics

Market research firm Martin-Wilbourn Partners said it will rebrand and rename itself as Allegiance, a reputation management, crisis communications and business development services agency. The Little Rock-based company works with...

talkbusiness.net

According to Martin's LinkedIn, they founded Allegiance Arts to acquire comics characters and license them to Hollywood, not to sell comic books. That seems important.

David is also a co-founder of Allegiance Arts & Entertainment (AAE). ... [acquisition] of character based intellectual property for licensing to the entertainment industry.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmartinmwp

According to the Arkansas Times article that started this drama the big-money investor they found is Hunter Haynes, a commercial real estate guy in Arkansas. Commercial real estate is not a business I'd want to be in right now or the foseeable future but that's only relevant if they need more money from him. Perhaps that ArkTimes piece is meant to attract more investors?

Mitch and Elizabeth Breitweiser launch Allegiance Arts comics - Arkansas Times

For a pandemic moment, the duo's startup was the only comic book distributor in the U.S.

arktimes.com

Allegiance Arts has four IP's currently according to their web site, of which Red Rooster is one. Norah's Saga, Bass Reeves and the Futurists. Bass Reeves is public domain so no value there.

Allegiance Arts corp filings are confidential so we can't say for sure what Mitch's ownership stake is but we do know that the company carries Martin's business name and Haynes' money. What exactly does Mitch bring to the table? Did he pledge Red Rooster as his stake? If so he doesn't own it any more, the LLC does. Even that doesn't seem like enough to back the whole Walmart venture. Was handing over the Red Rooster IP enough to earn Mitch an equal share of Allegiance Arts without any cash? Would his partners accept the Red Rooster IP alone and let Mitch keep that IGG money totally separate? Not unless Mitch's ownership stake in the company is pretty small would be my guess. As I posted originally, using Walmart to establish characters for Hollywood to license is a HUGE gamble, worse than a blackjack table.

 

[FROG]

I'm a bit surprised by the response to my posts. The most likely explanation for not producing that IGG book after three years is the IGG money being tied up elsewhere. I suspected it was used as front-money for the Walmart product. Frog disagrees and says Mitch didn't have to put up any money for the Walmart thing, which makes the IGG non-fulfillment even more baffling.

So I spent 5 minutes googling a few things.

First, Allegiance Art's "co-founder" is a guy named David Martin. He's the CEO of Allegiance Arts. He runs a "reputation rehabilitation" consultancy. Crisis-management, etc. It's named Allegiance. That Arkansas Times article might have a touch of crisis-management hokery to it, right? Just a coincidence I'm sure.

https://armoneyandpolitics.com/allegiance-ceo-david-martin-reputation-everything/

Martin-Wilbourn Partners rebrands as Allegiance - Talk Business & Politics

Market research firm Martin-Wilbourn Partners said it will rebrand and rename itself as Allegiance, a reputation management, crisis communications and business development services agency. The Little Rock-based company works with...

talkbusiness.net

According to Martin's LinkedIn, they founded Allegiance Arts to acquire comics characters and license them to Hollywood, not to sell comic books. That seems important.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmartinmwp

According to the Arkansas Times article that started this drama the big-money investor they found is Hunter Haynes, a commercial real estate guy in Arkansas. Commercial real estate is not a business I'd want to be in right now or the foseeable future but that's only relevant if they need more money from him. Perhaps that ArkTimes piece is meant to attract more investors?

Mitch and Elizabeth Breitweiser launch Allegiance Arts comics - Arkansas Times

For a pandemic moment, the duo's startup was the only comic book distributor in the U.S.

arktimes.com

Allegiance Arts has four IP's currently according to their web site, of which Red Rooster is one. Norah's Saga, Bass Reeves and the Futurists. Bass Reeves is public domain so no value there.

Allegiance Arts corp filings are confidential so we can't say for sure what Mitch's ownership stake is but we do know that the company carries Martin's business name and Haynes' money. What exactly does Mitch bring to the table? Did he pledge Red Rooster as his stake? If so he doesn't own it any more, the LLC does. Even that doesn't seem like enough to back the whole Walmart venture. Was handing over the Red Rooster IP enough to earn Mitch an equal share of Allegiance Arts without any cash? Would his partners accept the Red Rooster IP alone and let Mitch keep that IGG money totally separate? Not unless Mitch's ownership stake in the company is pretty small would be my guess. As I posted originally, using Walmart to establish characters for Hollywood to license is a HUGE gamble, worse than a blackjack table.

Ah, now you're getting it.

Answering questions:

1. It's not at all baffling that the IGG didn't get finished, if you understand that drawing comics is a fucking headache and a grind, and once you're out of it, you don't really want to get back into it. Mitch Breitweiser is a slow artist even at his peak condition. He's a faster colorist or sketch artist. Storytelling is a pain in the ass.

So Mitch spent the last two years contributing to coloring for mainstream projects with his wife to keep the household bills paid, while also working on production aspects of the other three titles that Allegiance publishes, while also working on getting the 20 page installments of RED ROOSTER out.

It's not that the money wasn't there to do the IGG, it's that his focus was scattered. Not to mention the stress of being in and around ComicsGate.

2. Mitch doesn't own Red Rooster anymore. The company does. Correct.

3. They tried to get CYBERFROG from me, and that's when I was out. The company needs to own all of the IPs in order to function as an IP farm.

4. BASS REEVES may be public domain, but their treatment of the story is theirs to sell. Just like any version of Robin Hood or Dracula.

 

[SaidNoOneEver]

Ah, now you're getting it.

I'm pretty sure I've gotten it from the get-go.

8. To make matters worse, the Breitweisers don't make money on YouTube like I do, so all of their household expenses were being paid by doing coloring work for the mainstream. That took most of their creative time and energy that should have gone towards ONE CHICKEN BOOK.

That's what the IGG money was for. Where is it?

I'm not accusing you of lying about that by the way, I'm just thinking you were probably misled too. They already did that once while trying to take your Cyberfrog IP didn't they? Would he have told you if he put up that IGG money for AAE?

He's being disingenuous about being upset by that ArkTimes piece too. That has planted written all over it. That's what crisis mgmt / reputation-rehab firms do.

 

[NasserRabadi13]

Mitch put up zero dollars? Those would be the most generous investors I've ever heard of. Mitch must be the luckiest guy around, all these risk-free deals.

That's how any loan works. You get a loan from the bank or from an investor, you aren't required to match them or anything. Most likely, you've already sunk some cost into your business. The point of an investor is to give you the money you need to do X/Y/Z.

I don't know the details of Mitch's situation, but if he can approach investors and say "We grossed $200,000 on our first book, here are some additional numbers, our expect profits, our other IPs" and the investor thinks it's all legit, they'll give him money to spend.

A lot of these deals work different ways. Some investors agree to the deal, then expect a dollar per book (or maybe even $0.50) for life. A lot of them want to hold a stake in the company, to be guaranteed a certain amount of control or. Some even want a mix of both. I guess the best way to put it is the range of deals on Shark Tank. Which might make it look a little easy on the surface to get such a loan, but I'm sure it's a little harder than the show.

 

[SaidNoOneEver]

That's how any loan works. You get a loan from the bank or from an investor, you aren't required to match them or anything. Most likely, you've already sunk some cost into your business. The point of an investor is to give you the money you need to do X/Y/Z.

No, this wasn't a loan. This is a business partnership and a high-risk one at that. Unless he found some gullible investors I don't believe his Red Rooster IP alone was worth a full share of the company considering the capital required to deliver the product to Walmart, especially with those partners knowing he was sitting on $200k cash. My theory, obvously.

 

[The Bovinian Derivative]

The SWC one?

Part 1 - https://www.bitchute.com/video/Y6muqTLjBT4e/

Part 2 - https://www.bitchute.com/video/LbKD08u4xTZU/

Part 3- https://www.bitchute.com/video/yHiupjhP3wid/

This was an actually informative and constructive 40 minute comic book review... and an hour and a half of shitting relentlessly on everyone and everything CG related. I am not deep into the SWC lore but they might have wanted to open with the review and then derail that into the dumpster fire, the first part has three whole sentences about the book. Still was an enjoyable watch as a fence sitter but I was unironically looking for a review of a comic book.

Edit: and flagging is gay.

 

[Mister Dongs]

No, this wasn't a loan. This is a business partnership and a high-risk one at that. Unless he found some gullible investors I don't believe his Red Rooster IP alone was worth a full share of the company considering the capital required to deliver the product to Walmart, especially with those partners knowing he was sitting on $200k cash. My theory, obvously.

The Breitweisers' motives were let out of the bag at this part of the interview:

https://arktimes.com/news/2020/08/27/mitch-and-elizabeth-breitweiser-launch-allegiance-arts-comics

Third: They crowdfunded almost $200,000 to prove an audience existed for a title called “Red Rooster,” a title Mitch likens to Batman in a barn. They connected with Little Rock lawyer and businessman David Martin, whose Rolodex led them to a corporate recruiter in Bentonville named Cameron Smith, who knows approximately everyone in Northwest Arkansas.

So no, Mitch didn't find some gullible investors. He partnered with a lawyer who knew someone who professionally specializes in finding gullible investors.

That real-life tall tale convinced Hunter Haynes, a Fayetteville commercial real estate maven, to invest in Allegiance Arts. “The right hand of the guy dealing out this justice is this badass Black guy?” Haynes says now. “He’s ‘Django Unchained’? This is awesome.”

 

[Analog Devolved]

1. IGG backers gave them money to make ONE CHICKEN BOOK.

2. They showed very wealthy people, private investors, that IGG backers gave them money to make ONE CHICKEN BOOK, and convinced very wealthy people to give them LOTS MORE MONEY to start an entire CHICKEN BOOK BUSINESS that would be distributed in WalMart.

3. These investors were gambling on the success of the CHICKEN BOOK BUSINESS, the Breitweisers were NOT gambling with IGG backers money or their own.

4. The IGG backers money was still intended to pay for ONE CHICKEN BOOK, but the ONE CHICKEN BOOK got lost in the shuffle of creating the entire CHICKEN BOOK BUSINESS that investors gave them money to create.

5. They used the investors money to rent office space, and hire creative teams to draw and write THREE OTHER BOOKS for their CHICKEN BOOK BUSINESS called ALLEGIANCE ARTS.

6. All of this happened while ONE CHICKEN BOOK didn't get finished, because Mitch was very busy running the CHICKEN BOOK BUSINESS that was paid for by private investors who gave them money on the strength of the money they showed that IGG backers contributed in that first campaign.

7. Mitch's plan was THE CHICKEN BOOK BUSINESS. He forgot how hard it is to make a single comic book. It takes ALL of your attention.

8. To make matters worse, the Breitweisers don't make money on YouTube like I do, so all of their household expenses were being paid by doing coloring work for the mainstream. That took most of their creative time and energy that should have gone towards ONE CHICKEN BOOK.

9. My entire business is just fulfilling my IGG campaigns while talking on YouTube. So I'm not looking for more investors to grow into a bigger business, I'm just making comics and selling those comics on the internet. My household bills are paid via YouTube superchats and ad revenue, so I'm actually being paid to promote my own business. For now this is working great. There's no risk, and I've made more money in the last 3 years than I would have in 12 years at DC Comics.

It won't last forever, so I'll have to adapt when YouTube stops paying me enough, or people lose interest in CyberFrog, but that's a lonnnnng way down. I'll probably be able to retire before then.

I'm guessing you're not the only person to turn down Mitch's idea to hand over your IP to his company.
The fact of the matter is you were at the Wal Mart meetings and knew all about the Breitweisers hairbrained idea to lie to comicsgate customers and use IGG numbers to inflate the value of their company and scam wealthy investors.
Mitch fucked comicsgate and there's no excuse for not delivering on a crowdfund in three years because he's chasing Hollywood dreams.

He has blamed everyone but himself for his failures as a comic creator and a businessman. The fact he hasn't dedicated his time to creating the ONE book people paid him over 200k to make is his fault alone.
Allegiance Arts has always been a scam and luckily you and other creators were wise enough not to sign on to it. Otherwise it would be your PR nightmare instead of Mitch's while he enriches himself off of your work.
He only wants to drag comicsgate now because his business is failing. Anyone with any intelligence in Hollywood is going to see how bad he fucked up his crowdfund and not option anything from the clown.
The Walmart book deal is tanking and he's getting mass refunds due to his own idiotic sloth pace at doing any real work.
While every other CG creator was working night and day on their comics or promoting them on YouTube Mitch was renting office space, hiring industry friends and selling a shell of a company to investors based off of a chicken book that doesn't exist.
All he had to do was make the book and thats the one thing he didn't do. Fuck Mitch Breitweiser. Let that faggot throw a pity party and cry on Facebook to whatever fans he has left.
The investor money is no doubt drying up and any future "proof of concept" campaigns are doomed because he betrayed everyone who funded RR.
I hope when he tells "the true story of allegiance arts" that he talks about how he used Ethan as a prop, his RR backers as paypigs to launch a shell company and how his own stupidity was the big black dick that fucked him in his own ass.

 

[Smug Freiza]

I got my refund from Mitch today. I was an early backer, #32, but I'd rather have my money back at this point. Plus they completely butchered Mark's script. This was the first and only campaign I ever asked for a refund from.

I occasionally check in on the comments section of the Red Rooster campaign to keep track of the refunds and noticed you had requested one. Mitch did get quite a number of refunds recently since the article was discovered but I doubt it was thousands of dollars worth like he claimed or Ethans fault.

I'm a bit surprised by the response to my posts. The most likely explanation for not producing that IGG book after three years is the IGG money being tied up elsewhere. I suspected it was used as front-money for the Walmart product. Frog disagrees and says Mitch didn't have to put up any money for the Walmart thing, which makes the IGG non-fulfillment even more baffling.

So I spent 5 minutes googling a few things.

First, Allegiance Art's "co-founder" is a guy named David Martin. He's the CEO of Allegiance Arts. He runs a "reputation rehabilitation" consultancy. Crisis-management, etc. It's named Allegiance. That Arkansas Times article might have a touch of crisis-management/reputation-rehab hokery to it, right? Just a coincidence I'm sure.

https://armoneyandpolitics.com/allegiance-ceo-david-martin-reputation-everything/

Martin-Wilbourn Partners rebrands as Allegiance - Talk Business & Politics

Market research firm Martin-Wilbourn Partners said it will rebrand and rename itself as Allegiance, a reputation management, crisis communications and business development services agency. The Little Rock-based company works with...

talkbusiness.net

According to Martin's LinkedIn, they founded Allegiance Arts to acquire comics characters and license them to Hollywood, not to sell comic books. That seems important.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmartinmwp

According to the Arkansas Times article that started this drama the big-money investor they found is Hunter Haynes, a commercial real estate guy in Arkansas. Commercial real estate is not a business I'd want to be in right now or the foseeable future but that's only relevant if they need more money from him. Perhaps that ArkTimes piece is meant to attract more investors?

Mitch and Elizabeth Breitweiser launch Allegiance Arts comics - Arkansas Times

For a pandemic moment, the duo's startup was the only comic book distributor in the U.S.

arktimes.com

Allegiance Arts has four IP's currently according to their web site, of which Red Rooster is one. Norah's Saga, Bass Reeves and the Futurists. Bass Reeves is public domain so no value there.

Allegiance Arts corp filings are confidential so we can't say for sure what Mitch's ownership stake is but we do know that the company carries Martin's business name and Haynes' money. What exactly does Mitch bring to the table? Did he pledge Red Rooster as his stake? If so he doesn't own it any more, the LLC does. Even that doesn't seem like enough to back the whole Walmart venture. Was handing over the Red Rooster IP enough to earn Mitch an equal share of Allegiance Arts without any cash? Would his partners accept the Red Rooster IP alone and let Mitch keep that IGG money totally separate? Not unless Mitch's ownership stake in the company is pretty small would be my guess. As I posted originally, using Walmart to establish characters for Hollywood to license is a HUGE gamble, worse than a blackjack table.

I've been hearing for a while that a crisis management firm was behind Allegiance Arts but never looked into it, great job on digging that up!

As for the whole Breitweiser Walmart deal here's how I understand it.

1. Mitch didn't use backer money for the company, he used the potential value of his Red Rooster comic ($200K x 4) to secure local investors to get interested in the idea. I would wager that these investors received a large stake in the company, profits and the IPs themselves as collateral.

2. I can't remember where I read it, possibly that article, but Mitch claims that 400,000 units of comic books have been sold. Whether that's from Allegiance to Walmart, similar to the direct market or from Walmart to customers I don't know. At $5 selling 400K units would equal $2 million USD. Which compared to the amount Ethan has raised on IGG is quite similar, if Mitch had put out Red Rooster in a timely fashion perhaps his second crowdfunder would have been more successful and any subsequent RR books might have also raised more.

3. The Crisis Management rumor, which was confirmed by @SaidNoOneEver looks shady as shit to me. I'd say Mitch is under a lot of pressure to deliver profits to his investors to justify their investment and having dozens, possibly hundreds of people demanding refunds from the initial campaign coupled with the poor performance of the Allegiance Arts Bundle IGG has some of them spooked. It probably doesn't help the situation that multiple youtubers like The Comicbook Hut and others are producing videos damaging the brands reputation in google search results. The Covid viruses effect on the economy is probably exacerbating the issue and Walmart themselves might see Allegiance as something that is non essential to consumers so the deal might be in danger of not being renewed.

TLDR: Mitch fucked up and he fucked up badly. He should have just completed Red Rooster and got it into the hands of backers and then pursued his Walmart deal. He and his investors gambled on something in 2019 but couldn't have predicted the backer backlash or Covid virus being as bad as they are to his business.

Also while I didn't watch @FROG's stream on the issue, the Comic Book Hut recently did a short video playing a clip with Ethan's opinion on it. I'll link it below if anyone is interested but doesn't wish to watch a multi-hour livestream searching for timestamps.

 

[SaidNoOneEver]

I occasionally check in on the comments section of the Red Rooster campaign to keep track of the refunds and noticed you had requested one. Mitch did get quite a number of refunds recently since the article was discovered but I doubt it was thousands of dollars worth like he claimed or Ethans fault.

I've been hearing for a while that a crisis management firm was behind Allegiance Arts but never looked into it, great job on digging that up!

As for the whole Breitweiser Walmart deal here's how I understand it.

1. Mitch didn't use backer money for the company, he used the potential value of his Red Rooster comic ($200K x 4) to secure local investors to get interested in the idea. I would wager that these investors received a large stake in the company, profits and the IPs themselves as collateral.

2. I can't remember where I read it, possibly that article, but Mitch claims that 400,000 units of comic books have been sold. Whether that's from Allegiance to Walmart, similar to the direct market or from Walmart to customers I don't know. At $5 selling 400K units would equal $2 million USD. Which compared to the amount Ethan has raised on IGG is quite similar, if Mitch had put out Red Rooster in a timely fashion perhaps his second crowdfunder would have been more successful and any subsequent RR books might have also raised more.

3. The Crisis Management rumor, which was confirmed by @SaidNoOneEver looks shady as shit to me. I'd say Mitch is under a lot of pressure to deliver profits to his investors to justify their investment and having dozens, possibly hundreds of people demanding refunds from the initial campaign coupled with the poor performance of the Allegiance Arts Bundle IGG has some of them spooked. It probably doesn't help the situation that multiple youtubers like The Comicbook Hut and others are producing videos damaging the brands reputation in google search results. The Covid viruses effect on the economy is probably exacerbating the issue and Walmart themselves might see Allegiance as something that is non essential to consumers so the deal might be in danger of not being renewed.

TLDR: Mitch fucked up and he fucked up badly. He should have just completed Red Rooster and got it into the hands of backers and then pursued his Walmart deal. He and his investors gambled on something in 2019 but couldn't have predicted the backer backlash or Covid virus being as bad as they are to his business.

Also while I didn't watch @FROG's stream on the issue, the Comic Book Hut recently did a short video playing a clip with Ethan's opinion on it. I'll link it below if anyone is interested but doesn't wish to watch a multi-hour livestream searching for timestamps.

I'm on mobile so the formatting won't be great.

The ArkTimes piece says theyve printed 140k total books across all titles and only sold 100k so far. The numbers don't add up to me but I can't put my finger on it. That doesn't seem great for 3,500 stores in what, 6 months? That's 9.5 books per store. I read somewhere in the very beginning that only 10 copies of each of that first issue were being shipped to each store so I have a feeling that's the number they're calling "total sold".

The Martin crisis mgmt / reputation rehab guy has a YouTube interview out there that I almost included but it wasn't anything about comic books, just what to do after you ruin your life. Basically, pay him. The big thing with him is the admission that Allegiance exists to license characters to Hollywood, not sell books.

If Mitch is unable to handle the current workload of 3 titles written/created by others then his investors must be wondering how he can ever run it if it grows. His crowdfund book and the Walmart series are the same thing, remember, he's not creating multiple stories.


EDIT:

they’re printing and distributing 140,000 combined copies of the books across the four titles, says Patrick Stiles, Allegiance Arts’ COO and an art department classmate of Mitch’s at Harding. They pushed it on Facebook and YouTube and held their breath. To date, about 100,000 copies have been sold at Walmart at $4.98 per comic.

... from the planted ArkTimes story, plus a new name to dig into.


EDIT2:

Allegiance CEO David Martin interviewed by Ancil Lea - Allegiance Consulting Group

It all comes back to your reputation. Does your audience trust you? What happens when a crisis hits? Let Allegiance Consulting Group help you be prepared.

allegianceus.com

 

[Francis York Morgan]

After months of posturing and denial, it looks like it's finally done. Bendis is confirmed done with Superman come December. It probably has less to do with Bendis being garbage and more DC wanting to not pay that sweetheart deal I'm sure Didio got him but I'll take anything at this point. Maybe if they bring back the Rebirth team, I'll give it a look. Until then, DC can continue collapsing in on itself pushing Snyder's lazy, stupid action figure line and whatever the fuck they are doing to Wonder Woman.

You may return to sperging about the various faggots in this autistic shitflinging contest.

 

[SaidNoOneEver]

The Martin crisis mgmt / reputation rehab guy has a YouTube interview out there that I almost included but it wasn't anything about comic books, just what to do after you ruin your life. Basically, pay him. The big thing with him is the admission that Allegiance exists to license characters to Hollywood, not sell books.

He apparently expanded again with Allegiance Wellcare! Selling Chinese masks and medical supplies to hospitals for COVID! 100% shyster confirmed.

Found the investor who got them the Walmart deal:

In October 2018, they found themselves pitching their venture to Cameron Smith of Cameron Smith & Associates, a consumer packaged goods recruiter in Bentonville.
...
Smith, who became an investor, assembled another meeting that included a former Disney executive and representatives for Readerlink Distribution Services LLC, which distributes most of the books found in Walmart.

https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2020/aug/03/drawing-on-experience/

(that same article says Mitch hired David Martin and that Mitch is the CEO. Martin says otherwise in his LinkedIn)

Here's Cameron Smith, Walmart matchmaker:

https://armoneyandpolitics.com/king-queen-vendorville/

Along with investor Hunter Haynes, the commercial real-estate guy putting arrow feathers on telephone poles:

https://www.nwaonline.com/news/2019/dec/28/50-feet-tall-arrows-stick-out-of-ground/

They hit the gold mine!

 

[5t3n0g0ph3r]

Chuck Dixon and Brett R Smith are going to be on with Rekieta:

 

[jspit]

I occasionally check in on the comments section of the Red Rooster campaign to keep track of the refunds and noticed you had requested one. Mitch did get quite a number of refunds recently since the article was discovered but I doubt it was thousands of dollars worth like he claimed or Ethans fault.

I've been hearing for a while that a crisis management firm was behind Allegiance Arts but never looked into it, great job on digging that up!

As for the whole Breitweiser Walmart deal here's how I understand it.

1. Mitch didn't use backer money for the company, he used the potential value of his Red Rooster comic ($200K x 4) to secure local investors to get interested in the idea. I would wager that these investors received a large stake in the company, profits and the IPs themselves as collateral.

2. I can't remember where I read it, possibly that article, but Mitch claims that 400,000 units of comic books have been sold. Whether that's from Allegiance to Walmart, similar to the direct market or from Walmart to customers I don't know. At $5 selling 400K units would equal $2 million USD. Which compared to the amount Ethan has raised on IGG is quite similar, if Mitch had put out Red Rooster in a timely fashion perhaps his second crowdfunder would have been more successful and any subsequent RR books might have also raised more.

3. The Crisis Management rumor, which was confirmed by @SaidNoOneEver looks shady as shit to me. I'd say Mitch is under a lot of pressure to deliver profits to his investors to justify their investment and having dozens, possibly hundreds of people demanding refunds from the initial campaign coupled with the poor performance of the Allegiance Arts Bundle IGG has some of them spooked. It probably doesn't help the situation that multiple youtubers like The Comicbook Hut and others are producing videos damaging the brands reputation in google search results. The Covid viruses effect on the economy is probably exacerbating the issue and Walmart themselves might see Allegiance as something that is non essential to consumers so the deal might be in danger of not being renewed.

TLDR: Mitch fucked up and he fucked up badly. He should have just completed Red Rooster and got it into the hands of backers and then pursued his Walmart deal. He and his investors gambled on something in 2019 but couldn't have predicted the backer backlash or Covid virus being as bad as they are to his business.

Also while I didn't watch @FROG's stream on the issue, the Comic Book Hut recently did a short video playing a clip with Ethan's opinion on it. I'll link it below if anyone is interested but doesn't wish to watch a multi-hour livestream searching for timestamps.

Thanks SF.

He apparently expanded again with Allegiance Wellcare! Selling Chinese masks and medical supplies to hospitals for COVID! 100% shyster confirmed.

Found the investor who got them the Walmart deal:

https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2020/aug/03/drawing-on-experience/

(that same article says Mitch hired David Martin and that Mitch is the CEO. Martin says otherwise in his LinkedIn)

Here's Cameron Smith, Walmart matchmaker:

https://armoneyandpolitics.com/king-queen-vendorville/

Along with investor Hunter Haynes, the commercial real-estate guy putting arrow feathers on telephone poles:

View attachment 1588761

https://www.nwaonline.com/news/2019/dec/28/50-feet-tall-arrows-stick-out-of-ground/

They hit the gold mine!

Chinese masks for a Chinese virus. Synergy people!

Chuck Dixon and Brett R Smith are going to be on with Rekieta:

What's the deal with Brett Smith?

 

[SaidNoOneEver]

(that same article says Mitch hired David Martin and that Mitch is the CEO. Martin says otherwise in his LinkedIn)

Quick correction, I think I confused Martin describing himself as the CEO of his Allegiance Group or Consultancy (or just Allegiance whatever?) as him claiming to be CEO of Allegiance Arts Entertainment instead of Mitch. I can't find a specific reference of him claiming that anywhere now so I believe I was mistaken about that in the previous posts and rather than edit old posts I prefer owning it in a fresh one. I thought it was in his LinkedIn but I refuse to create a LinkedIn account and his page only opened for me the first time, now it goes to the signup page regardless of the internet connection, browser or PC used. Martin is listed all over the place as co-founder/officer/agent, etc, of AAE LLC, just not explicitly the CEO title (that I can find).

I'd love to browse AAE's Articles of Incorporation but those aren't readily available in Arkansas for LLC's. They used to be a couple years ago, such a shame.

Chinese masks for a Chinese virus. Synergy people!

So many red flags are flying around this cat he should be reselling them from China too. It doesn't look like he's bothered to incorporate Allegiance Wellness, probably had to rush it. The more I look the more impressive this man's body of work truly is.

In the first 10 seconds of that video he touts Allegiance Wellness' connection to a non-profit named First2Give. They have a nice web-site claiming to be a non-profit yet I can find no record of any such non-profit existing and those are pretty easy to look up (https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/search?utf8=✓&q=first2give&state[id]=&ntee[id]=&c_code[id]=). The first2give.org domain was registered Feb 11, 2020. It's donation page claims it's a "501(c)3 Non-Profit Organization (NPO)" which requires public registration with the IRS to be legal. Nope on that search too. (https://apps.irs.gov/app/eos/allSea...=orgName&isDescending=false&submitName=Search)

First2Give is a U.S. based, tax exempt non-profit organization (NPO), established to meet the urgent needs of frontline healthcare workers to protect themselves against the deadly COVID-19 virus.

https://www.first2give.org/about

EDIT!!!: Well, would ye looky here:

The [First2Give] organization’s founders include David Martin, president of Allegiance Consulting Group.

https://talkbusiness.net/2020/04/arkansas-non-profit-hopes-to-help-businesses-and-other-organizations-acquire-ppe/

Just shameless:

Sigh, EDIT2:

First2Give was registered as a corporation in Arkansas under the name John D. Martin using a different address in another Arkansas city on March 2, 2020. Same guy?

https://www.sos.arkansas.gov/corps/search_corps.php?DETAIL=549477&corp_type_id=&corp_name=first2give&agent_search=&agent_city=&agent_state=&filing_number=&cmd=

 

[Least Concern]

I don't know how useful it is to get angy about this Allegiance financier guy. Diversifying their investments is what smart money does. He's seeing potential money-making opportunities and he's giving them a try. At any rate, I don't know what relevance who he is or how he spends his money has with the chicken book being late.

 

[5t3n0g0ph3r]

What's the deal with Brett Smith?

Smith was the colorist for Clinton Cash, which got him canceled.
He's working with Dixon on their new book, Black Tide Rising:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/black-tide-rising-volume-1-graphic-novel/x/22076130#/

https://archive.vn/omwXU

 

[SaidNoOneEver]

Ah, now you're getting it.

If I would've known you were going to Tweet my binoculars sunbeam meme and then use it on your stream I would've spent more than 23 seconds slap-pasting that shit together in MS Paint.

 

[Odets]

Who gives a shit about the semantics if the CockBook still isn't out? You guys got dragged into an argument about how much IGG money used for himself when the book being this late is already good enough reason to say "fuck you Mitch" for anyone who isn't a braindead paypig.
And gotta love @FROG being a textbook fag by expecting a standing ovation for doing basic professional decency a year and a half after it was actually needed.

 

[SaidNoOneEver]

Who gives a shit about the semantics if the CockBook still isn't out? You guys got dragged into an argument about how much IGG money used for himself when the book being this late is already good enough reason to say "fuck you Mitch" for anyone who isn't a braindead paypig.
And gotta love @FROG being a textbook fag by expecting a standing ovation for doing basic professional decency a year and a half after it was actually needed.

The backstory for why the book never shipped is shaping up to be better than the book and it's free (for me at least).