With all the big news lately surrounding Zack and his
relaunch of Rock N Roll Ninja, Martina Markota and
her legal woes over Lady Alchemy, we may not have noticed a general sense of malaise beginning to brew within certain corners of Comicsgate. Murmurs of discontentment, followed by moments of self realization and introspection have began to trickle it's way into my feed. Slowly at first but over the past week the topic of Comicsgate and this general sense of unease has begun to get louder within the current CG zeitgeist. I had planned on addressing the underlying sense of dread spreading throughout Comicsgate like a contagion, however something else always popped up. Now feels like a good time given
@Mister Dongs recent writeup on the Mandy v Piper catfight, so in the following post I will do my best to explain the situation and give an assessment on what could be causing it.
Late Night with Comicsgate (4th String): CG Burnout, is it real?
Our story begins in late January CG2021 on an obscure corner of Comicsgate known as Leroi/4th String, Leroi, our host, poses a question in his title
"CG Burnout, is it real?" leaving the audience to decide. This title is what first caught my eye since most CG streams involve the drama of the week or book promotion and rarely ask the viewer such an introspective question. Leroi begins the stream and is joined by his two co-hosts Vanessa, Lord Crackhead and special guest
Eric Weathers, the latter of which needing no introduction as nearly every Comicsgate book features lettering by Eric and he has crowdfunded his own two books
Flying Fortress and
Battle Brick Road.
The stream begins with the typical small talk and shilling of Eric's projects when todays topic is finally broached at the
14 minute mark where Leroi states that he knows certain creators come and go, but now he is noticing people slowly start to disappear from the chat due to
"burnout." Both the co-hosts chime in and explain their thoughts, with Vanessa explaining that the streams consume too much time and she has her own bills to pay and would prefer to avoid drama. Leroi then goes on to praise Eric's channel as being drama free and a place to avoid it
"especially as all that shit with Warcampaign went down" which Eric agrees with. The topic then reverts back to shilling and the upcoming collaboration between Eric and
Von Klaus on a sequel to
Monster MD upcoming in future, before a question from
The Lucent creator
Michael Bancroft gets the panel back on topic at the
33 minute mark.
Leroi answers that with so many creators and so many streams, it's near impossible to watch them all and perhaps some people are getting burnt out by trying to. Leroi admits that sometimes he'll go to a certain creators stream, mute it and give it a thumbs up before going to watch tv or do something else entirely. Users from the chat agree with him stating
"there's only so much time in a day",
"excitement has a shelf life" and
"there's very little awesome to be had. imo" showing that this topic is resonating with elements of the CG audience. Leroi goes on to ask Vanessa how she feels and she answers that she feels burnt out after backing too many campaigns and has limited herself to two a month and that
"FOMO" (fear of missing out) no longer plays apart in her decision to back as many projects as she can. The second co-host Lord Crackhead agrees with her and states that he has only purchased three books this year and is already feeling the need to
"unplug" and go do something else like watch a movie.
The rest of the stream becomes less thrilling and more shilling but offers the first course of what is becoming a trend of serious streams discussing some issues appearing within Comicsgate lately. Of course the comment section offers yet another window into the mind of the everyday CG citizen.
Again coming from Leroi's channel several weeks later would be another discussion on Comicsgate with another
introspective clickbait titled question to the viewer. The host is again joined by his two co-hosts from the previous stream, a woman called Amanda and resident Comicsgate maestro
Lord Finatra as they go over a series of campaigns that just launched. The entries include
Wart the Wizard 2,
The Ace Volume One,
Shotgun Samurai,
Hybrids: The Killing Field,
Supervillains Anonymous and
Rock N Roll Ninja, the last two being the only books to currently break the five digit threshold and all having launched in January or February of this year.
The stream opens with the panel dunking on Zack and his recent clusterfuck with his Rock N Roll Ninja campaign, something that would have been considered Comicsgate heresy only mere months ago. Most of the criticism seems to stem from Zack's comments on the debacle in addition to several of his comics being overdue while launching multiple new campaigns. The panel then moves on to if there's a correct way for a creator to enter the Comicsgate sphere agreeing that
"if someone just shows up with a comic to sell without engaging with the audience first it's a massive turn off." Who the panel is talking about is left ambiguous but appears to stem from the glut of new CG books that have oversaturated the space over the past two months as
@Mister Dongs mentioned above.
The stream meanders on and touches on the antics of creators within Comicsgate, honorable mentions to Warcampaign and Liam Gray whom Vanessa admits she refused to back due to their behavior, before a new guest called Hocky states he refuses to back any campaign which doesn't include interior art on the campaign page. The panel then segues into drama and whether or not it is a vehicle that can be utilized to drive views and sales, while all the panelists agree they aren't interested in drama, Amanda points out that the quickest growing channels are usually the ones focusing on it. The entire second half of the livestream turns into a discussion on chat etiquette and can be skipped.
Perhaps the most interesting and passionate video collected comes from
Inch High Comic Guy, who comes across as an angrier and more energetic
Comic Book Hut. IHCG who is mostly known for his
five part series putting Zack on blast for his book
Pandemic, once again doesn't fail to deliver in an explosive tirade. He begins the stream by throwing down three unopened Comicsgate packages and a copy of
USAssassin, the latter of which was opened but remains unread. IHCG immediately goes into his reasoning for losing interest in Comicsgate:
2:18 - Mark Waid and the cuckery of Zack in regards to the lawsuit, stating that he joined Comicsgate because he heard about the lawsuit and it was his entry into the movement. He argues that now that the lawsuit is over
"Comicsgate will now have to stand on it's merits" rather than blindly receiving support for fighting a culture war.
4:04 - From standing on it's merits, he then goes into his second issue with Comicsgate, which is comparing it to Image Comics when they were first founded. He extrapolates by stating
"Cool artwork bro comes first and story isn't even on the agenda" explaining that the artwork in Comicsgate is great, much like early Image, but will fail to have any longevity due to poor writing. He further goes on to criticize the lateness of the books, stating that the creators often fail to deliver on their own self-imposed deadlines.
7:15 - Comicsgate has no characters, at least no memorable characters other than pre-existing legacy characters like Cyberfrog and Shi. He follows up by stating the characters from Graveyard Shift are completely forgettable and over half the Jawbreakers team is dead so why be invested in them.
He then goes on to explain that the best Comicsgate books he has received in terms of writing and story telling haven't come from the Comicsgate Pros, but rather three of the smaller creators namely
Stump,
Kyrie and
Elysian Fields which between the three of them struggled to collectively raise over 25K (not including spin-offs and sequels). IHCG attributes this to getting
"no attention or play in the Comicsgate industry because good characters and story comes in a distant last place for the Comicsgate leadership." He claims that Kyrie is the best book in Comicsgate with Elysian Fields coming in a close second place with the two being praised for their story and writing, while Stump is praised for the main protagonist.
The comment section is 50/50 of people agreeing with him and others politely disagreeing with his points and the entire video was efapped by
War Party creator
Professor Murf on his channel
here. What's interesting is previous Comicsgate dissidents were often exiled and purged for their criticisms, normally by Warcampaign, however now there appears to be more understanding when dealing with such individuals. Murf claims that if many backers begin feeling like IHCG then the movement should be concerned at what could become a potential problem moving forward.
After 2 Years, What are My Thoughts on CG?
Our next video comes from
Roadwarrior Drake creator
Alazmat Films, a regular guest on
The Trash Compactor Show along with
@TESTEFY-HD and offers an unique opinion from a creator rather than simply the fans from our previous videos. Alazmat begins by updating his backers on the status of his book and announcing that the book will also be launching on Kickstarter, possibly being the first Comicsgate book to utilize both platforms. Alazmat goes into his history of joining CG and rather somberly mentions a list of people he used to enjoy watching who are no longer affiliated with it including;
Englentine,
Unranked Chevron,
Nerdette's NewsStand,
Doug TenNapel and
Mike S Miller and comments how so much has changed in two years. He continues to explain that CG felt like a bigger circle back then, than it does now even referencing former customers like Bean from PA, Lorenzo Sleestak and Rumble Terrier. Alazmat goes on to claim that
"Comicsgate will live and die with Ethan VanSciver and this wasn't true two years ago" he goes onto explain that
"this is neither a good or bad thing, just an observation." He compares Ethan to the
"life support system of Comicsgate" and the moment he leaves it will probably die, which honestly is an assessment I agree with. Alazmat goes on to say he has many criticisms of CG but one criticism that is false is that it's a hate group, his valid criticisms include:
8:30 - creators that don't update their backers when they're late on their books. Alazmat also claims that it is against Indiegogo's Terms of Service to not update your backers at least once a month.
10:14 - anytime a creator is criticized, sometimes rightly so, they double down and label their critics
"anti-CG" despite them expressing pro-CG ideals and beliefs. Alazmat admits this is something he also did previously, but admits he was wrong for doing so.
11:08 - being in it for the money, when looking at creators who set high funding goals and who abuse the backers trust like Mitch Breitweiser and the creators of
Galactic Rodents of Mayhem.
Alazmat continues by stating no one has a problem with criticizing Marvel or DC but when it comes to criticizing other Comicsgaters when it comes to doxing, grifting and false flagging channels much of the community remains silent. Alazmat also expresses that criticism of art within CG is to high and he believes that underground, raw indie art styles have a place in Comicsgate as opposed to the Jim Lee and Robert Liefeld homages of the big pros. He cites his own work and the
recent drama surrounding
@Wenger with Dragoon Knight Aldrake and
the fallout afterwards.
Alazmat finishes by saying he
"is not done with Comicsgate, but a lot of the criticism is valid." The comment section is graced by
@FROG himself in what could've been an interesting conversation if it weren't derailed by some Fandom Reject retard called
Sno Dub Entertainment.
Our final video of the evening (thank God) comes from
The Lucent creator
Michael Bancroft who hosts
"The 4th String" members from our first example, bringing on Leroi, George, Amanda and Lord Crackhead to talk about the issues they had previously brought up. Bancroft opens that he receives DMs constantly from people with criticisms of Comicsgate, most recently someone complaining about subpar writing after just receiving a book in the mail and decrying the lack of editors. The panel agrees that if you are charging $25, plus shipping, with months long waits for it to arrive you better be releasing a quality book. They also discuss how nearly every campaign now is $25 and question whether these books can charge the same amount as Ethan VanSciver and Jon Malin.
The second grumbling Bancroft hears is of certain creators desiring promotion but not
"grabbing an oar" to help promote others and the lack of tracking numbers for campaign packages. The panel also shouts out
Professor Murf and his recent efap of Inch High Comics Guy's video as another example of growing criticism within Comicsgate, as opposed to outside of it. Bancroft also agrees that if more backers begin to feel like Inch High Comics Guy then the movement might be
"in real trouble." A possible remedy the panel suggests is having at least half of the book complete before launching the crowdfunding campaign, to cut down on waiting times.
The stream meanders on for a while until George addresses the elephant in the room of
"so many unfulfilled books and launching more" obviously referencing Zack's recent "flood the shelves" strategy without naming him. The panel unanimously agrees that ever having more than two active unfulfilled campaigns is completely unacceptable. Bancroft very insighfully claims at the
38:00 mark that
"as we move away from that crazy wild west era of 2018, it does seem like people will be putting up with less" referencing what the backers are willing to tolerate from creators.
It would appear not even deaf, sex perverts are exempt from criticism these days.
This is most most internal criticism and introspection I've ever witnessed in Comicsgate, aside from possibly late 2018 and during the Fall of Rome saga in 2019. This time without self-appointed larping legionaires to police the Comicsgate community for wrong think, problems are now being openly discussed along with possible solutions. The current sense of impending doom seems to stem from what I believe to be a sense of weariness from a significant portion of the Comicsgate fanbase, enough to warrant discussion across several channels from both fans and creators alike. Key issues seem to include:
Unfulfilled books and long wait times, sometimes even years in the case of high profile books like Red Rooster, Brand and Brutas The Badass.
The launching of multiple campaigns before the previous campaigns have fulfilled.
The story and characters are subpar for $25 plus shipping for comic books which are marketed as boutique items.
A sense of fatigue with the "culture war" aspect after Zack cucked out on the lawsuit.
Couple this with what so far has been a lackluster beginning to CG 2021 in terms of crowdfunding revenue, this might explain some of the friction we previously witnessed between Piper and Mandy Summers as the latter is struggling to explain why Wart the Wizard 2 isn't performing as well as she initially hoped. Of course as
@Mister Dongs previously pointed out launching 28 Comicsgate books within the space of two months right after Christmas when credit cards are still probably being paid off surely had nothing to do with it at all.
