Absolutely true, but if Comicsgate was about taking away the power of gatekeepers that enforce their radical ideology, people being allowed to come back into the establishment comic industry after not only declaring themselves conservatives but
Comicsgate, cannot be taken as anything other than a win on CG's part. There'd be no way forward for social justice comics twitter except for having to say either say that the biggest employers are now "pro-Nazi" or walk back their rhetoric leveled against CG. But it's also a perfect example where the principles behind Comicsgate (at least as outlined by Zack) clashing with the community that has been built to help realize those principles. It's also a narrative that sounds suspiciously similar to the one levelled against Doug TenNapel, who's response was "that $25 you paid paid for a great comic, it didn't buy my political allegiance until the end of time".
Even in the closing months of 2020, the union between CG "activist" and CG "professional creator" is still rocky and filled with regular class conflict.
Taking the stance of "pro-Creator", Jon del Arroz/
@TheCosmicWarrior of
Flying Sparks begins a thorough deconstruction of the sad creature he labels "The Youtube Comic Complainer", embodied by the (alleged by JDA) conspiratorial gatekeeper that is the creator of
Soulfinder and "OGCG" emeritus, Douglas Ernst. It's become clear to Jon that the Youtube Comic Complainer has proven themselves to be little more than a subset of gamma male that attempts to get what he wants - the childish and pathetic fantasy of one day writing for spIdEyMaN - by whining and complaining in the futile effort to get Marvel and DC's notice - instead of doing the real work of raising the quality of his craft and honing it to a professional level.
Too beholden to the IPs of sprawling multinational corporation's IPs to truly be a culture warrior and not talented enough to be accepted by said mainstream corporations, Ernst and other Youtube Comic Complainers exist in a kind of limbo; men who can neither truly occupy a place within the culture
or counterculture. Such is the plight of the Eternal Gamma, met with righteous scorn from Del Arroz. Comics are past the point of reform and the only remedy is death (by fire) for the sickness infecting it. Jon knows these words won't be received well with everyone.
View attachment 1692924
And,
as his one time Peter Simeti co-investigator Captain Cummings here proved, they weren't.
Taking the (surprising) stance of pro-activist in CG, Matt Wenger /
@Wenger , author of
Super Harem and creator of
DRAGOON KNIGHT ALDRAKE, took to youtube to voice his complaints of gatekeeping at the hands of CG Creators such as
@FROG , Shane Davis and Cecil. Efapping a Frog snorestream picking apart some Joe Biden gaffes, Wenger opens his video at the timestamp where Frog shut down some of Wenger's bit about COVID-19 being harmless (99.8% survival rate) by telling the audience that even those that survive have permanently damaged lung tissue. Frog's motives for cutting off his fellow CGer are nebulous, perhaps Kyle Ritter's infection giving him a moment for pause. Wenger though suspects something sinister, only intensified when Frog's dumbass chat agrees with Wenger's dumbass take - the Comicsgate proletariat are gathering around their champion, and it is not Frog.
After a brief digression into Tom Hanks' complicity with Jeffrey Epstein and pedophilia by the intellectuals at ComicArtistPro Secrets, Wenger cuts to the heart of the matter - the CG gatekeepers (Frog and Cecil) have always felt insecure and threatened around Wenger and have heaped regular mockery and pressure against him since the beginning in an attempt to push him out. But the chat was behind Wenger then and they are behind Wenger now. People who presume to gatekeep on behalf of the chat are punished for their hubris, our auteur citing the downfalls of Edwin Boyette and Ro Kabir. Frog might think his case is different, but it's not. And Frog's pointed declining to endorse his latest crowdfund project,
DRAGOON KNIGHT ALDRAKE, is going against the pro-sentiment will of the CG Youtube proletariat.
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For context, it should be mentioned that
Aldrake has pulled in less then 1/7th the proceeds that
Super Harem's 2 has and Frog's
inexplicable hesitance to lend his name behind this crowdfund is costing it steeply, the dropoff in funding comparable to others who were forced from CG entirely. But even though the chat wants to see the sales pitch for Aldrake, Frog will not hear it out - going so far as to turn off his camera when Wenger forces the subject in an act of ultimate disrespect. Wenger has a small platform and wants to be everyone's friend, but this unwarranted treatment (to say nothing of the perceived YT counterprogramming done by Frog) aren't going to be suffered in silence. Perhaps most revealingly, Wenger closes by saying that
he has nothing to lose by doing this and that the gatekeepers can either apologize or risk going the way of all gatekeepers.
Frog had an hour and a half rebuttal to Wenger's 12 minute video, which could be described as a mixture of confusion and sadness that another friend and ally has turned on him. His turning the camera off was an unannounced urination break. This also forces Frog to broach the subject of quality control within Comicsgate, the reason for his silence on which works he feels merit patronage is a matter of professional discretion, and that an open, airing out of his frank opinions on comic quality may not work in Wenger's favor.
