I dont think we should take Liam as the norm, the man is completely unhinged. Dannphan did a negative review recently of Pandemic and Zack's response was "well, shit." And if you listen to the SWC review more than half of it is relentlessly shitting on CG instead of talking about the book (you can shit on whatever you want, but don't call it something else), flagging is gay but it's somewhat understandable that Liam got mad.
Liam is the best embodiment of comicsgate right now. He:
- makes bad comics
- makes bad youtube videos
- delivers his product late if at all
- scams people out of their money
- is an impulsive narcissist and a liar
- uses flimsy excuses for shitty things he does
- is involved in harassment and gay ops
- is addicted to internet drama, to the point he can't stop himself from getting involved in discussions after his name is mentioned
- tries to silence and deplatform his critics
- threatens people with lawsuits
- doxes others (or at least tries to)
- is a fat wimp
Majority of people involved in comicsgate show most of these traits, but rarely every single one. Liam exhibits all of the above.
Zack is most honest out of the comicsgate aligned people, and a good sport about criticism of his work. At least from what I have seen. For example, he got a lot of shit after putting out his first draft of Jawbreakers. Instead of crying, sperging out, and trying to silence his critics, Zack tried to make use of the feedback he got. With mixed results, unfortunately. He seems to genuinely care about comics too, unlike greedy egoists like Ethan.
Here's what it really boils down to: No one has any new ideas in comics. The Big Two tried to put milkshakes in their gastanks and in response, what we call "CG" decided to revive the 80s-90s era of comics, using recycled versions of TMNT & GiJoe with content so compelling that they must rely on their YouTube charisma to wrangle the paypiggy per capita income. It's been said in different ways before, but as cool as Image was when it first hit the shelves, the only enduring properties to come out of that era was Savage Dragon and Spawn. It's not enough to be a gifted artist. If you're going to do it yourself, you have to be a gifted creator and a gifted writer too. Lacking 2 of those three requirements, Van Shekels is content with fusing his YT presence (which he does have a gift/grift for) to get it to sell. This has worked, but the comic is such an overproduced & overpriced bowl of Styrofoam airplane peanuts that it can't be used to form a solid foundation for a napkin holder let alone the last white hope of comic books.
American comics is an incestuous industry through and through, including people's ideas and influences. Most individuals involved are superhero fanboys. Capeshit is all they were ever exposed to as far as comics go. You can't expect people like that to have a proper understanding of the medium or storytelling. American comic book pros have very few actual interests and little life experience outside of american comics and mainstream entertainment. That leads to very little fresh influences to draw upon when crafting stories. Due to of all of this, most American comic book stories are bad, generic, predictable rehashes. Problems are solved by punching antagonists. Conflicts revolve around saving people or capturing criminals. Biggest departure you will see are comics emulating bad TV dramas. Almost everything is about superheroes, other people with superpowers, or maybe crime and law enforcement.
If you look at what gets published in Europe and Japan, you will see a very wide variety of genres and stories. You have stories about parents' daily struggles, life as a student, space garbage collectors, medieval grain merchants, lives of scientists and other historical figures, old men making the most out of last years of their lives, chefs, cowboys, knights, gravediggers, cells within human body, and so on, and so on... When you ask foreign creators about their interests, you hear everything from ancient myths to mathematics to sailing. Their entertainment exposure is not limited to domestic comics and mainstream film/TV. They are inspired by foreign comics, literature, theater, history, and much more.
Funny thing is that American comics used to be like this too to a degree. One genre did not dominate everything. Great creators lived interesting lives and have varied interests and experiences to draw upon. For example, Kirby was a soldier in WW2, he was interested in theology, and used both to inspire his wok. Then capeshit fanboys took over. They were only interested in making superhero stories, even at the expense of their long term profits and other genres. That's a big reason why american comics are a wasteland today. The few competent comic book creators in America have either diverse interests and/or lives outside of comics and internet.
Comicsgate is composed of people who know little outside of Marvel and DC as far as comics are concerned. Most people in comicsgate are interested in making money, being e-celebs, and satisfying their twitter addiction. Their life experience is limited to scamming, making videos, and streaming. Ethan is the most adventurous out of them, with his time working for DC and his hobby of sucking off men behind pizza parlors. That's why most comicgate books are dull drivel, no better than what mainstream American comic publishers are putting out.
I was one of those
fellows who thought something like Image Comics was going to happen and you'll see something new and unified emerge to rival the Big Two, but what we ended up with is a bit different. Also in an era when manga dominates everything and you have unsung markets like the Franco-Belgian what future is there to secure and protect for the American comics? A dying manga like attack on titan still sells millions of copies yearly, Demon Slayer which ran for four years just broke 100 million units sold in September. How would you rival that with the Nth relaunch of X-men which sold ~260K copies on it's first issue then never reached that number again or an Indiegogo campaign which at it's very best sells ~10K units?
Comicsgate books are just a different kind of e-celeb merch. Some e-celebs sell t-shirts or cups. Comicsgate people sell comics through crowdfunding platforms instead. Like all e-celebs, they are heavily reliant on constant shilling and their fanbase's fear of missing out. If people were buying comicsgate comics for content, funding would not be so dependent on constant streams.
