All this boring talk about Warren Ellis joining ComicsGate when we could have a real voice for the cancelled come over. Maybe Antonio Brice could take his winning Comicbook formula of using someone with a large platform for their clout and "influence" to do a self insert story where they get superpowers. DSP's already got some concept art and 191k YouTube Subs. The indiegogo sells itself!
Not to be cynical, but Ellis joining Comicsgate would be a disaster in so far as being a classic case of a bully being excommunicated from the popular crowd, being forced to go crawling to the people he bullied and tormented for years for support and help recovering, only to hijack said group (IE Comicsgate) from within and destroying the outsiders/losers from within to a degree that they'll never recover by turning their group into something that only exists to service him and that it either ends with the outsiders forcing the bullies to take their member back to free them from his tyranny, or the bully destroys the outsiders/losers and is REWARDED by his fellow bullies, who forgive him his crimes and welcome him back into the fold with open arms and shit for destroying the people they hate and even stealthily imply that that was their plan all along in order to save face for hypocritically forgiving Ellis and PR spin forgiving him after painting him as Rapist Hitler. .
DSP has plateaued to viewership numbers where it's mainly his die hard fans. He basically hasn't seen growth in ages, but has a comfortable enough viewership/number of paypigs that so long as he keeps putting out content on a regular basis he's well off.... or should be well off, if he wasn't constantly getting into debt.
Twitch kicked him out of their partner program about a month ago and he's trying to start over again on Youtube. To say its going poorly is a bit of an understatement. We're finally nearing the end of his story.
None of the people defending Ellis give a shit about him and none of the people canceling Ellis really give a shit that he traded clout for poon more than a decade ago.
I don't know, I think it's consistent to both not like Warren Ellis and not like the unelected, unaccountable whisper network (that he helped create) that unilaterally decided to cancel him. And Jon Malin was fairly up front about that, saying:
I've never been Warren Ellis's friend. Never pretended to be Warren Ellis' friend. Never even read a Warren Ellis book. I don't really care for Warren Ellis,. And he's fat.
Wait, hold up a second. Jon Malin you never even read a comic by Warren Ellis in his career of nearly 30 years? Are you fuckin kidding me? This is almost as bad as when Simple Zack said he never read Alan Moore's Swamp Thing because as a kid he thought a cover where flowers were growing out Swamp Thing's arms "looked gay".
I sincerely doubt it'll ever happen. Ellis has spent the majority of his adult life spitting on the affectionately named "capeshit fans" that consist the population of Comicsgate and doing everything in his power to distance himself away from superheroes and their fans. Having to go on public livestreams and appeal to these same people to make his living would no doubt be far more humiliating than someone of Ellis' ego could possibly endure. To go wihin one year of being a mainstream comic book celebrity to getting checked by "Cecil" mid-story on a livestream is a fall difficult to overstate.
And even these are minor issues compared to the greater challenges Ellis faces. 20-25 years ago he was certainly able to, and did, run an online cult of personality. Nowadays though the man is just too exposed; not just his limitations as a person but his limitations as a writer as well. Yet worse is how badly the core aspects of Ellis' brand, like "sex positive male feminist" and "I Fucking Love Science", bugman affectations have aged in the current zeitgeist. They've not just become cliches, but they've become heavily mocked cliches. His "gonzo futurism genre with a bastard protagonist" niche has not only been done better by the far more known Rick and Morty, but Dan Harmon has elevated Ellis' niche into an over-the-top parody of itself. His cult of personality is dead and are new readers going to be taken in by a version of Rick and Morty written by some out of touch old guy that takes himself and itself super-seriously?
I see Ellis having very few options on where to go for here, and I don't see him having either the force of will or humility to see any of those options through. All that said, CG should by all means try to "recruit" Warren Ellis because of the following:
It's funny
It costs nothing and is an issue that people outside Comicsgate might be interested in
Ellis' story is an abject lesson of what happens when you surrender to the woke mob; yesterday's "Love Swami" can be today's head on the chopping block.
The only person who gets hurt from Warren being unfairly associated with CG is Warren, and fuck him.
The remote chance of Ellis being on a livestream and getting "checked" by Cecil with Ellis' inevitable chaotic exit from CG would be unbelievably entertaining.
I don't have a opinion on Ellis, really. He might be the biggest SOB in the universe, for all I know.
I just wanna point out that it's rather disturbing that Image will cancel him, but they didn't bat an eye when Michelle Perez expressed disappointment that Meyer wasn't blown up by an IED in Iraq. IIRC, the head honcho at Image even saw the tweet, read people's concerns about it, and more or less said he didn't give a shit.
So, in this brave new world:
Sexual allegations = Canceled
Expressing a desire for somebody to be violently killed = No problem (if the person expressing that desire is LGBTQXYZ+, I guess).
Doesn't matter what I, or anybody else, thinks about Meyer either. That's just fucked up.
I don't have a opinion on Ellis, really. He might be the biggest SOB in the universe, for all I know.
I just wanna point out that it's rather disturbing that Image will cancel him, but they didn't bat an eye when Michelle Perez expressed disappointment that Meyer wasn't blown up by an IED in Iraq. IIRC, the head honcho at Image even saw the tweet, read people's concerns about it, and more or less said he didn't give a shit.
So, in this brave new world:
Sexual allegations = Canceled
Expressing a desire for somebody to be violently killed = No problem (if the person expressing that desire is LGBTQXYZ+, I guess).
Doesn't matter what I, or anybody else, thinks about Meyer either. That's just fucked up.
But for some added context, I would not be shocked if Ellis privately was going "You Go Girl" to Michelle Perez when she wished horrific death on Richard Meyer. Similarly, would not be shocked if he gave Mark Waid money for his legal defense under the table.
Hell, remember that Ellis already publicly proclaimed that bitch from the Guardian (Leigh Alexander) "the real life Spider Jerusalem" when she got outed spreading lies about Gamergate, to the point of basically getting editorial at the Guardian to ban reporters from actually doing research on it and making them instead attend a meeting where Leigh was allowed point blank to tell lies and force them to use her lies as the basis for all coverage on Gamergate. He probably already believes the lies about Richard Meyer and most likely would be mortified that one of the few people defending him is Meyers.
Richard Meyers probably has sympathy for Ellis and all, but at the end of the day? Ellis doesn't fucking deserve Meyer's empathy and sympathy. Ellis likely was HAPPY that Richard got fucked over by Waid and at the same time, fumed like mad, that all of the attempts that Rich Johnston and his cronies (Glass, Terror) to deplatform Richard failed.
The remote chance of Ellis being on a livestream and getting "checked" by Cecil with Ellis' inevitable chaotic exit from CG would be unbelievably entertaining.
Ellis would never do live streams since part of his power was that you never heard him talk and only had vague pictures of what he looked like. Part of his appeal was the mental image of a Malcolm McDowell or Malcolm Tucker era Peter Capaldi type voice reading out his only screeds. Hearing his voice would just make you turn off the volume/close the video if you heard it.
If he did join and did try and collaborate in good faith, it would be him on Substack or Medium writing pieces defending Comicsgate if not also the Kickstarter/Indie-Gogo model of making comics. Or going full salt the earth (which I'm shocked he hasn't done) and release all of the shit that he knows about a lot of major SJW types that he's been sitting on. Ellis probably knows where a lot of bodies are buried if he actually gave a shit about getting revenge on everyone.
But for some added context, I would not be shocked if Ellis privately was going "You Go Girl" to Michelle Perez when she wished horrific death on Richard Meyer. Similarly, would not be shocked if he gave Mark Waid money for his legal defense under the table.
Hell, remember that Ellis already publicly proclaimed that bitch from the Guardian (Leigh Alexander) "the real life Spider Jerusalem" when she got outed spreading lies about Gamergate, to the point of basically getting editorial at the Guardian to ban reporters from actually doing research on it and making them instead attend a meeting where Leigh was allowed point blank to tell lies and force them to use her lies as the basis for all coverage on Gamergate. He probably already believes the lies about Richard Meyer and most likely would be mortified that one of the few people defending him is Meyers.
Richard Meyers probably has sympathy for Ellis and all, but at the end of the day? Ellis doesn't fucking deserve Meyer's empathy and sympathy. Ellis likely was HAPPY that Richard got fucked over by Waid and at the same time, fumed like mad, that all of the attempts that Rich Johnston and his cronies (Glass, Terror) to deplatform Richard failed.
Ellis would never do live streams since part of his power was that you never heard him talk and only had vague pictures of what he looked like. Part of his appeal was the mental image of a Malcolm McDowell or Malcolm Tucker era Peter Capaldi type voice reading out his only screeds. Hearing his voice would just make you turn off the volume/close the video if you heard it.
If he did join and did try and collaborate in good faith, it would be him on Substack or Medium writing pieces defending Comicsgate if not also the Kickstarter/Indie-Gogo model of making comics. Or going full salt the earth (which I'm shocked he hasn't done) and release all of the shit that he knows about a lot of major SJW types that he's been sitting on. Ellis probably knows where a lot of bodies are buried if he actually gave a shit about getting revenge on everyone.
I can see Templesmith joining CG, if he gets really mad at the "fans" but not Ellis. He lost a few good paydays because Ellis couldn't hold it in his pants and the loonies were outraged about it, despite knowing it on day one.
Ellis is still bargaining. He believes he can appease the crowd. He may be in the backstage blackmailing people with dirt on them so he can be back into the club.
If, at some point, he gets blackpilled and start releasing the dirt it will be so much fun.
There have been a few. I normally don't cover it but:
Jon Malin had, perhaps surprisingly, the most substantive take so far with this one and a half hour livestream with no guests and no product promotion, starting on this very upbeat and positive preamble.
The video could be broken down into about three core themes: the first is Malin putting voice to deepset, personal disillusionment and resentment towards his former coworkers and employers at Image Comics; the peers who he at first looked up to as creators who broke free of the yoke of the greedy corporate publisher overlords that live off the subjugation of artists along with their bureaucrat servants living off the scraps that serve only to further degrade and force actual creators into further obscurity and servitude. But getting a closer view as a low-ranking Image artist, Jon Malin describes his witnessing comic creators themselves engage in office politics and intranecine backstabibing along with watching corporate apparatchiks like Eric Stephenson climb the ladder to the position of lofty, idle publisher every bit as detached from the welfare of the artists in his employ as anyone at Marvel or DC.
The personal nature of this perceived betrayal is evident from the deeply personal insults mixed liberally in Malin's tirade, asking if Image co-founder Jim Lee should have been cancelled for having have sex with his employee's wife while married himself, and describing Image Comics Chief Creative Officer Eric Stephenson in terms that make Richard C Meyer's legendary "Dark Roast" seem like a Charlie's London superchat in comparison:
The second third of the video is Malin going through the cited transgressions on the somanyofus.com website and the absurdity of trying to frame things like "self-deprecation" and regular social contact as proof of predatory behavior. There's a secondary point in here about how meeting men and women online is the social norm of modern times and how it's a bad idea if a is being framed as proof of being a sexual predator, closing by asking if the professional comic book industry wants to officially endorse this as a matter of public policy and the consequences for society if this becomes an accepted practice.
The final third is Malin calling out to any creators who might be listening, that if you're going to let this slide, you're essentially ceding power to other people like Snyder or Tynion specifically, or any creator placed higher up in the comic industry hierarchy to have power to dictate what you can or cannot do in your personal life on threat of terminating your career. Even Snyder and Sean Gordon Murphy better hope that none of their "lovebombing" of Mags Visaggio could be interpreted as sexual predation under these rules, and if you find the idea of that objectionable, better take a stand now.
Certainly one of Malin's best videos, as it unveiled a level of crude demagoguery I did not think was within the man.
Jon Malin is really fired up, yet he fails to get the main thing about Image:
They don't care from getting what, 3 $2500 shares for Fell.
Their business is getting $2500 per SJW abortion of a Netflix pitch turned into a comic. If Comicbook Karen Heidi McDonnald says Ellis Bad they are the ones most affected because it costs them sales.
DC and/or Marvel could tell her to fuck off.
My guess is someone like Boom or Dynamite could take over Fell and re-release it in GN format and have a good payday out of it. Image has no reason to court controvercy since either 3 issues of a successful comic and 3 issues of an unsuccesful one are about the same money.
I just wanna point out that it's rather disturbing that Image will cancel him, but they didn't bat an eye when Michelle Perez expressed disappointment that Meyer wasn't blown up by an IED in Iraq.
Holding progressives to the same standard they hold others is a lose lose proposition and a failure to understand the game they play.
Progressives work out of Saul Alinsky's play book Rules for Radicals (RULE 4: "Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.") which promotes the idea of holding others to rules and standards while ignoring them and refusing to acknowledge the hypocrisy. Weaponizing a lack of integrity. Being disturbed by this behavior is like being disturbed that a rabbit abandons it's young when confronted by a predator.
It's in their nature.
The reason post-modernists, communists and progressives raise Hell when they see an enemy breaking the rules but do nothing when they see their own doing the same is because they don't see the rules as a means to maintain order but as a weapon to be used only against an enemy.
The only reason that fellow progressives like Ellis get held to account for breaking orthodoxy is because they are seen as enemies by other progressives or have lost their value in advancing the agenda and are thus only useful as food to be cannibalized. They don't care if Ellis hurt anyone any more than they care if Zach hurt anyone. What they care about is if what Zach or Ellis did can be used. If Ellis was seen as useful as a member of the cause again he'd be forgiven and welcomed back but he's more useful as a pariah.
Forgiveness also depends on utility. Is James Gunn's prestige as a director usefull? Yes=forgiveness. No=Mel Gibson. Gina is evil but Pedro is a saint. Trump said "they'll let you grab em by the pussy" and he's Satan. Hillary called black boys "super-predators" fit for mass incarceration and destroyed Bill's rape victims and she's a champion of minority and women's rights.
They don't believe in the rules. They believe in the directed exercise of power. Integrity and consistency are seen as weaknesses to be exploited. This is why they wait so long when one of their own is caught in their own actions. They are doing a calculus to see if protecting them is worthwhile or a lost cause. The "crime" committed is never considered seriously. Only the utility of that person as a member of the in group versus the PR consequences of keeping them.
As outsiders to the group Sciver or Miller or Tennapel are thrown out of the club for the pettiest of excuses while people with genuine utility to the cause like the Weinstein, Ellis or Perez are protected until their utility runs out or protecting them is more expensive than eating them.
The "rules" only apply when they can be used as a cudgel and the reason is rarely because the target broke them.
Forgiveness also depends on utility. Is James Gunn's prestige as a director usefull? Yes=forgiveness. No=Mel Gibson. Gina is evil but Pedro is a saint. Trump said "they'll let you grab em by the pussy" and he's Satan. Hillary called black boys "super-predators" fit for mass incarceration and destroyed Bill's rape victims and she's a champion of minority and women's rights.
As outsiders to the group Sciver or Miller or Tennapel are thrown out of the club for the pettiest of excuses while people with genuine utility to the cause like the Weinstein, Ellis or Perez are protected until their utility runs out or protecting them is more expensive than eating them.
The "rules" only apply when they can be used as a cudgel and the reason is rarely because the target broke them.
FROM CREATORGO
It was a slow week for new Comicsgate crowdfunders with the total campaigns increasing from 103 to 104 from our previous update last week, not including the removed failures below. The new books achieved funding so will not be listed below, in addition three of our previous to watch campaigns also were spared the CG graveyard. The lucky books were Angels Awakening, Tribulation Taskforce and Super Fantasy Girls, which have been removed from our watchlist.
The brief spurt of 9 new campaigns last week appears to have been an isolated event and it is doubtful Comicsgate will return to the trend of flooding Indiegogo with the amount of new campaigns as seen at the start of this year.
FROM INDIEGOGO AND KICKSTARTER Dead Beats 2: London Calling, the sequel book to the SJW filled anthology of last year, is experiencing some trouble on Kickstarter. The first book generated a lot of buzz online since it featured a story from Comicsgate and Weeb Wars boogeyman Renfamous. The sequel book currently sits at $12.609 from 348 backers with just over 50% funding of its $25,000 goal, there are 65 hours remaining on the campaign. I would recommend all Comicsgate Youtube personalities to hold off on their victory laps until after the book fails to fund and not repeat the spectacle of Simple Zack celebrating prematurely the failure of Joe Glass's latest crowdfunded book in a video, which was then used as a rallying call to get Glass funded.
From Indiegogo there is an absence of campaigns worth talking about or updates, however perusing the "Coming Soon" section reveals a number of sign up pages for sequel books including:
There were signup pages for several other CG campaigns but they have already been featured in our news updates or aren't worth talking about it.
FROM THE TWITTERVERSE
The twitter account for Comicsgate.org, the sister site of CreatorGo recently promoted a Yellowflash video talking about the backlash to the casting of Simu Liu in upcoming Marvel movie Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. The tweet thread was graced by Shang-Chi actor himself Simu Liu and even a rare sighting in the CG twitterverse of Renfamous herself.
The brief period of peace between our very own FROG and his former industry co-worker Mike S Miller has appeared to have deteriorated in a lengthy back and forth over twitter. During the exchange was the same old points argued about endlessly about work ethic, business, youtubing and logistics, why FROG and Smiller chose to repeat this tired old song and dance is beyond anyones guess, but it happened nonetheless.
FROM YOUTUBE
The review team from F Off Well Read recently reviewed Kyle Ritter's STARBLADES from ALLCAPS comics. The verdict wasn't too positive with the art, coloring and production quality being praised but the story, dialogue and characters being described as terrible.
Comicsgate cheerleader Leroi echoed the points from the Well Read livestream in his own STARBLADES review video below. Once again the story, characters, dialogue and panel layout were criticized while the art, coloring and production quality were praised. The comment section is full of backers agreeing with Leroi's review, signaling that this isn't just a few isolated opinions.
VIKKVERSE and DA Talks continued with their weekly The Dumping Grounds stream, this time focusing on the current scandal involving Warren Ellis and the allegations levelled against him which resulted in his recent cancellation.
VIKKIVERSE and DA Talks would also do a creator interview with ROCK N ROLL NINJA artist Matt Bahr. The interview focused on Matt's history as an artist and promoted the Richard C Meyer book in a further warming of relations between the two former Comicsgate critics and the comic crowdfunding movement.
FROG did a stream without his usual boring guests and talked about his thoughts on Warren Ellis while promoting the upcoming BLOODHONEY BOX campaign. The second printing of Bloodhoney will feature gold covers, re-lettered dialogue and fix some minor errors of the first printing.
In legal news Nick Rekieta did another stream which briefly covered the change in lawyers to the Poulter case and spoke about the Go Fund Me that Preston has launched to cover legal expenses. The topic is covered at [1:28:55] of the stream.
However the #1 news source for the current Comicsgate case isn't Nick Rekieta but rather the peoples champion, the freshly named Patriot Hut. Hut continues to cover the lawsuit and recently streamed about some old Preston video and put out a video efapping the above Nick Rekieta stream.
Well that's our Comicsgate News Update for this week, a rather lackluster week in terms of content and campaigns. The biggest news dominating the headlines is the cancellation of Warren Ellis and the various reactions to it which have already been documented in this thread. The Poulter lawsuit comes in at a close second with sporadic updates as the case moves ahead with a new legal team. The reviews for Starblades are probably the only other item of note, which appears to have been poorly received by even pro-CG review channels. If any kiwis purchased Starblades and have read it, perhaps they too could share their thoughts on the book.
This update was kept brief to escape the wave of DoS attacks currently plaguing the site from demented troons.
This is almost as bad as when Simple Zack said he never read Alan Moore's Swamp Thing because as a kid he thought a cover where flowers were growing out Swamp Thing's arms "looked gay".
Wait, did he really say this? Richard Meyer is legitimately retarded. Didn't he volunteer to shave his head and go live with men in the desert?
Yeah Zack, one of the most highly praised and influential runs in comics is gay but your steady stream of G.I. Joe fanfic with muscular soldier boys bonding in the barracks showers isn't.
I don't know, I think it's consistent to both not like Warren Ellis and not like the unelected, unaccountable whisper network (that he helped create) that unilaterally decided to cancel him. And Jon Malin was fairly up front about that, saying:
Wait, hold up a second. Jon Malin you never even read a comic by Warren Ellis in his career of nearly 30 years? Are you fuckin kidding me? This is almost as bad as when Simple Zack said he never read Alan Moore's Swamp Thing because as a kid he thought a cover where flowers were growing out Swamp Thing's arms "looked gay".
I sincerely doubt it'll ever happen. Ellis has spent the majority of his adult life spitting on the affectionately named "capeshit fans" that consist the population of Comicsgate and doing everything in his power to distance himself away from superheroes and their fans. Having to go on public livestreams and appeal to these same people to make his living would no doubt be far more humiliating than someone of Ellis' ego could possibly endure. To go wihin one year of being a mainstream comic book celebrity to getting checked by "Cecil" mid-story on a livestream is a fall difficult to overstate.
And even these are minor issues compared to the greater challenges Ellis faces. 20-25 years ago he was certainly able to, and did, run an online cult of personality. Nowadays though the man is just too exposed; not just his limitations as a person but his limitations as a writer as well. Yet worse is how badly the core aspects of Ellis' brand, like "sex positive male feminist" and "I Fucking Love Science", bugman affectations have aged in the current zeitgeist. They've not just become cliches, but they've become heavily mocked cliches. His "gonzo futurism genre with a bastard protagonist" niche has not only been done better by the far more known Rick and Morty, but Dan Harmon has elevated Ellis' niche into an over-the-top parody of itself. His cult of personality is dead and are new readers going to be taken in by a version of Rick and Morty written by some out of touch old guy that takes himself and itself super-seriously?
I see Ellis having very few options on where to go for here, and I don't see him having either the force of will or humility to see any of those options through. All that said, CG should by all means try to "recruit" Warren Ellis because of the following:
It's funny
It costs nothing and is an issue that people outside Comicsgate might be interested in
Ellis' story is an abject lesson of what happens when you surrender to the woke mob; yesterday's "Love Swami" can be today's head on the chopping block.
The only person who gets hurt from Warren being unfairly associated with CG is Warren, and fuck him.
The remote chance of Ellis being on a livestream and getting "checked" by Cecil with Ellis' inevitable chaotic exit from CG would be unbelievably entertaining.
Ellis bullied beta cucks and sleezed over mentally ill women. He'd be in his element in CG.
I've found myself disappointed by CG's reaction.
CG's consensus on Ellis seems to be 'bearded Brit didndonuffin'
But that's not true. He did prey on people. He abused access and power for sexual favors. It wasn't criminal, but it was disgusting and along the lines of Harvey Weinstein. The worst part in all of this is that there were legitimate pigs in mainstream comics; Eddie Bergenza, Eric Esquaval, and Warren Ellis in the last decade.
The mainstream's reaction is no less disgusting. Everyone seems to know about these people and stayed silent. What made them break their silence? Being silent bought clout then, being woke and speaking out brings clout now. Does anyone think Scott Snyder wouldn't have shut his mouth about Berganza? Even Ellis' real victims. No, not the adult women who he didn't coerce but who regretted their choices. The women who he genuinely abused. They spoke out when it was convenient.
CG's reaction is perplexing as well. It's a situation where a bad man is being punished by equally bad people. Yet, everyone wants to frame this with a narrative. Jon Malin describes this as harmless stuff teenagers do. Any teenager coercing a girl into kink play would be grounded and get his phone taken away.
Holding progressives to the same standard they hold others is a lose lose proposition and a failure to understand the game they play.
Progressives work out of Saul Alinsky's play book Rules for Radicals (RULE 4: "Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.") which promotes the idea of holding others to rules and standards while ignoring them and refusing to acknowledge the hypocrisy. Weaponizing a lack of integrity. Being disturbed by this behavior is like being disturbed that a rabbit abandons it's young when confronted by a predator.
It's in their nature.
The reason post-modernists, communists and progressives raise Hell when they see an enemy breaking the rules but do nothing when they see their own doing the same is because they don't see the rules as a means to maintain order but as a weapon to be used only against an enemy.
The only reason that fellow progressives like Ellis get held to account for breaking orthodoxy is because they are seen as enemies by other progressives or have lost their value in advancing the agenda and are thus only useful as food to be cannibalized. They don't care if Ellis hurt anyone any more than they care if Zach hurt anyone. What they care about is if what Zach or Ellis did can be used. If Ellis was seen as useful as a member of the cause again he'd be forgiven and welcomed back but he's more useful as a pariah.
Forgiveness also depends on utility. Is James Gunn's prestige as a director usefull? Yes=forgiveness. No=Mel Gibson. Gina is evil but Pedro is a saint. Trump said "they'll let you grab em by the pussy" and he's Satan. Hillary called black boys "super-predators" fit for mass incarceration and destroyed Bill's rape victims and she's a champion of minority and women's rights.
They don't believe in the rules. They believe in the directed exercise of power. Integrity and consistency are seen as weaknesses to be exploited. This is why they wait so long when one of their own is caught in their own actions. They are doing a calculus to see if protecting them is worthwhile or a lost cause. The "crime" committed is never considered seriously. Only the utility of that person as a member of the in group versus the PR consequences of keeping them.
As outsiders to the group Sciver or Miller or Tennapel are thrown out of the club for the pettiest of excuses while people with genuine utility to the cause like the Weinstein, Ellis or Perez are protected until their utility runs out or protecting them is more expensive than eating them.
The "rules" only apply when they can be used as a cudgel and the reason is rarely because the target broke them.
Forgiveness also depends on utility. Is James Gunn's prestige as a director usefull? Yes=forgiveness. No=Mel Gibson. Gina is evil but Pedro is a saint. Trump said "they'll let you grab em by the pussy" and he's Satan. Hillary called black boys "super-predators" fit for mass incarceration and destroyed Bill's rape victims and she's a champion of minority and women's rights.
As outsiders to the group Sciver or Miller or Tennapel are thrown out of the club for the pettiest of excuses while people with genuine utility to the cause like the Weinstein, Ellis or Perez are protected until their utility runs out or protecting them is more expensive than eating them.
The "rules" only apply when they can be used as a cudgel and the reason is rarely because the target broke them.
FROM CREATORGO
It was a slow week for new Comicsgate crowdfunders with the total campaigns increasing from 103 to 104 from our previous update last week, not including the removed failures below. The new books achieved funding so will not be listed below, in addition three of our previous to watch campaigns also were spared the CG graveyard. The lucky books were Angels Awakening, Tribulation Taskforce and Super Fantasy Girls, which have been removed from our watchlist.
The brief spurt of 9 new campaigns last week appears to have been an isolated event and it is doubtful Comicsgate will return to the trend of flooding Indiegogo with the amount of new campaigns as seen at the start of this year.
FROM INDIEGOGO AND KICKSTARTER Dead Beats 2: London Calling, the sequel book to the SJW filled anthology of last year, is experiencing some trouble on Kickstarter. The first book generated a lot of buzz online since it featured a story from Comicsgate and Weeb Wars boogeyman Renfamous. The sequel book currently sits at $12.609 from 348 backers with just over 50% funding of its $25,000 goal, there are 65 hours remaining on the campaign. I would recommend all Comicsgate Youtube personalities to hold off on their victory laps until after the book fails to fund and not repeat the spectacle of Simple Zack celebrating prematurely the failure of Joe Glass's latest crowdfunded book in a video, which was then used as a rallying call to get Glass funded.
From Indiegogo there is an absence of campaigns worth talking about or updates, however perusing the "Coming Soon" section reveals a number of sign up pages for sequel books including:
There were signup pages for several other CG campaigns but they have already been featured in our news updates or aren't worth talking about it.
FROM THE TWITTERVERSE
The twitter account for Comicsgate.org, the sister site of CreatorGo recently promoted a Yellowflash video talking about the backlash to the casting of Simu Liu in upcoming Marvel movie Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. The tweet thread was graced by Shang-Chi actor himself Simu Liu and even a rare sighting in the CG twitterverse of Renfamous herself.
The brief period of peace between our very own FROG and his former industry co-worker Mike S Miller has appeared to have deteriorated in a lengthy back and forth over twitter. During the exchange was the same old points argued about endlessly about work ethic, business, youtubing and logistics, why FROG and Smiller chose to repeat this tired old song and dance is beyond anyones guess, but it happened nonetheless.
FROM YOUTUBE
The review team from F Off Well Read recently reviewed Kyle Ritter's STARBLADES from ALLCAPS comics. The verdict wasn't too positive with the art, coloring and production quality being praised but the story, dialogue and characters being described as terrible.
Comicsgate cheerleader Leroi echoed the points from the Well Read livestream in his own STARBLADES review video below. Once again the story, characters, dialogue and panel layout were criticized while the art, coloring and production quality were praised. The comment section is full of backers agreeing with Leroi's review, signaling that this isn't just a few isolated opinions.
VIKKVERSE and DA Talks continued with their weekly The Dumping Grounds stream, this time focusing on the current scandal involving Warren Ellis and the allegations levelled against him which resulted in his recent cancellation.
VIKKIVERSE and DA Talks would also do a creator interview with ROCK N ROLL NINJA artist Matt Bahr. The interview focused on Matt's history as an artist and promoted the Richard C Meyer book in a further warming of relations between the two former Comicsgate critics and the comic crowdfunding movement.
FROG did a stream without his usual boring guests and talked about his thoughts on Warren Ellis while promoting the upcoming BLOODHONEY BOX campaign. The second printing of Bloodhoney will feature gold covers, re-lettered dialogue and fix some minor errors of the first printing.
In legal news Nick Rekieta did another stream which briefly covered the change in lawyers to the Poulter case and spoke about the Go Fund Me that Preston has launched to cover legal expenses. The topic is covered at [1:28:55] of the stream.
However the #1 news source for the current Comicsgate case isn't Nick Rekieta but rather the peoples champion, the freshly named Patriot Hut. Hut continues to cover the lawsuit and recently streamed about some old Preston video and put out a video efapping the above Nick Rekieta stream.
Well that's our Comicsgate News Update for this week, a rather lackluster week in terms of content and campaigns. The biggest news dominating the headlines is the cancellation of Warren Ellis and the various reactions to it which have already been documented in this thread. The Poulter lawsuit comes in at a close second with sporadic updates as the case moves ahead with a new legal team. The reviews for Starblades are probably the only other item of note, which appears to have been poorly received by even pro-CG review channels. If any kiwis purchased Starblades and have read it, perhaps they too could share their thoughts on the book.
This update was kept brief to escape the wave of DoS attacks currently plaguing the site from demented troons.
Wait, did he really say this? Richard Meyer is legitimately retarded. Didn't he volunteer to shave his head and go live with men in the desert?
Yeah Zack, one of the most highly praised and influential runs in comics is gay but your steady stream of G.I. Joe fanfic with muscular soldier boys bonding in the barracks showers isn't.
Well, the fun thing is; he wants to make meaningful, 'serious' comics. So you'd think he'd be talking about those kinds of books. Like Swamp Thing. But when he talks about them; he means Anne Nocenti shit.
Richard is the worst for this in some ways. He wants to be taken seriously as a creator. But he has the palette of a 12 year old. Huffing Big Macs and breakfast tacos.
It comes through in his reviews. He's a dumb guy that tries to sound smart. Allot like the Keyfabe faggots. The difference between them is Keyfabe are more comic socialized so they are sure to like the things you're supposed to like and hate the things you don't.
Wait, did he really say this? Richard Meyer is legitimately retarded. Didn't he volunteer to shave his head and go live with men in the desert?
Yeah Zack, one of the most highly praised and influential runs in comics is gay but your steady stream of G.I. Joe fanfic with muscular soldier boys bonding in the barracks showers isn't.
Could be worse; he could be like Geoff Johns who infamously resurrected Alec Holland from the dead as Swamp Thing purely to kill the version of Swamp Thing that Alan Moore "created" when he retconned all previous/future appearances of Swamp Thing a plant elemental clone of Alec via the Anatomy Lesson right down to explicitly writing the Moore version as a "corrupt perversion" of Swamp Thing.
A retcon/change that was so widely reviled and hated, that DC pulled a literal audible and used the New 52 Reboot to basically say Geoff's story/"restoration" of the Len Wein incarnation of Swamp Thing (who was a human turned into a plant) never fucking happened.
CG's consensus on Ellis seems to be 'bearded Brit didndonuffin'
But that's not true. He did prey on people. He abused access and power for sexual favors. It wasn't criminal, but it was disgusting and along the lines of Harvey Weinstein. The worst part in all of this is that there were legitimate pigs in mainstream comics; Eddie Bergenza, Eric Esquaval, and Warren Ellis in the last decade.
The mainstream's reaction is no less disgusting. Everyone seems to know about these people and stayed silent. What made them break their silence? Being silent bought clout then, being woke and speaking out brings clout now. Does anyone think Scott Snyder wouldn't have shut his mouth about Berganza? Even Ellis' real victims. No, not the adult women who he didn't coerce but who regretted their choices. The women who he genuinely abused. They spoke out when it was convenient.
There is one testimonial that really stood out to me: https://www.somanyofus.com/testimonials#sarah-2013
Basically, Ellis tried to pull his moves on a healthy, confident woman who told him to fuck off. The reason he "groomed" all those "young women" is because his shit would only work on insecure young women. Just read how many of them mention traumas and abusive relationships and you realize he was not targeting vulnerable women only, but only vulnerable women fell for it.
And comics has always been about praying on insecure nerds, mostly creators who got shafted.
There is one testimonial that really stood out to me: https://www.somanyofus.com/testimonials#sarah-2013
Basically, Ellis tried to pull his moves on a healthy, confident woman who told him to fuck off. The reason he "groomed" all those "young women" is because his shit would only work on insecure young women. Just read how many of them mention traumas and abusive relationships and you realize he was not targeting vulnerable women only, but only vulnerable women fell for it.
And comics has always been about praying on insecure nerds, mostly creators who got shafted.
It was some disgusting shit. Not criminal. No ones business. Except the companies whose employees allowed Ellis' to use them in his power plays.
Doesn't mean he never works for you again, but those editors? They gotta go. As for Ellis? Unless he brings home the bacon same with him. They owe him nothing. He's not a superstar. Why continue to deal with him and his drama?
Could be worse; he could be like Geoff Johns who infamously resurrected Alec Holland from the dead as Swamp Thing purely to kill the version of Swamp Thing that Alan Moore "created" when he retconned all previous/future appearances of Swamp Thing a plant elemental clone of Alec via the Anatomy Lesson right down to explicitly writing the Moore version as a "corrupt perversion" of Swamp Thing.
A retcon/change that was so widely reviled and hated, that DC pulled a literal audible and used the New 52 Reboot to basically say Geoff's story/"restoration" of the Len Wein incarnation of Swamp Thing (who was a human turned into a plant) never fucking happened.
Nu52 Swamp Thing was Alec Holland. The series was beautifully illustrated by Yannick Paquette and written by Snyder for 18 issues before Charles Soule finished the title to issue 40. After that, Swamp Thing fell off the map until Convergence when Len Wein and Kelly Jones did a two parter. That spun off into a mini-series and would have seen another except Wein sadly passed.
For what its worth, I prefer the Holland Swamp Thing in the present day. Moore's Swamp Thing is amazing. Wonderful artwork, beautiful dialogue and memorable stories. But for over twenty years, in the hands of anyone but Alan Moore, elemental Swamp Thing just didn't work for me.
It was just a little too preachy some times, a little too shallow others. Always struggling to deal with the insane power that Moore had imbued the character with toward the end of his time on the title.
I enjoyed Len Wein coming back, the emotional saga of a man trapped in a monster.
My disgust has far less to do with what they're doing to Ellis (who I couldn't GAS about), but more than what they didn't do with Perez.
I get Meyer is regarded as a goofball in this sphere, but holy shit... wishing him to being violently torn apart by an IED? Come on now. This shows Image has no moral integrity. Pure SJW virtue signaling.
From what I understand Ellis basically made his bed. Now he's gotta lie in it. No sympathy for him. Don't care. He won't be the last.
However the #1 news source for the current Comicsgate case isn't Nick Rekieta but rather the peoples champion, the freshly named Patriot Hut. Hut continues to cover the lawsuit and recently streamed about some old Preston video and put out a video efapping the above Nick Rekieta stream.
I'm almost positive Rekieta's views of Dean and Vikki are largely driven by the likes of TUG and YF, and those are the "people" who have told him that "they fucking deserve it."
I frankly wouldn't have even mentioned what "other people" think of D&V. For the purposes of "legal analysis", I'd just say the lawsuit is an abortion and move on.
Again, nobody deserves to be sued by Lamont and/or Preston, and the lawsuit is objectively stupid.
I'm almost positive Rekieta's views of Dean and Vikki are largely driven by the likes of TUG and YF, and those are the "people" who have told him that "they fucking deserve it."
I frankly wouldn't have even mentioned what "other people" think of D&V. For the purposes of "legal analysis", I'd just say the lawsuit is an abortion and move on.
Again, nobody deserves to be sued by Lamont and/or Preston, and the lawsuit is objectively stupid.
Nick's legal coverage of the case on that more recent stream was just embarrassing. He didn't even appear familiar with the case. "Deserves" has nothing to do with law and Nick is supposed to be talking about the law. At one point Nick seemed more interested in providing helpful advice to loli authors about presentation of content than he did about the facts of the case.
The other thing that was really bad was the whole [people are saying bad things about Vikki and Dean but I'm not going to say what the bad things are because I'm against "drama"] was really sleazy. I would guess that this view of VIkki & Dean is driven mostly by old memories rather than anything current. He probably still believes they are big enemies of FROG in addition to the YF & TUG stuff.
VIKKIVERSE and DA Talks would also do a creator interview with ROCK N ROLL NINJA artist Matt Bahr. The interview focused on Matt's history as an artist and promoted the Richard C Meyer book in a further warming of relations between the two former Comicsgate critics and the comic crowdfunding movement.
Not sure if this was posted already, but there was a kind of 'CG without saying CG' moment on Tim Pool a few weeks ago, that I missed because Tim Pool is too dull to click on for the most part:
In it, Frog's soyboy nemesis George 'Pussianopolis' Alexopoulos lays the smackdown on the US comics, just like Shane Davis did with his video the other week, in which he showed Chad Manga running the US bookshelves.
And get this: Soy George even compared the 'Manga vs US comics' combat situation to MMA vs traditional Chinese martial arts! This is a huge insult to US comics Frog, if you aren't aware. He's saying they're getting humiliatingly, embarrassingly beaten down by Chad Manga.
Allow me to illustrate what George means, by picking out a video from the humorous and growing collection of such videos on Youtube, let's say this one:
Can you believe the nerve of that little Pussianopolis, @FROG!
He's saying American comics are like the guy in the shirt here, with the bad arm. And manga is the shirtless, violent chad!
It was some disgusting shit. Not criminal. No ones business. Except the companies whose employees allowed Ellis' to use them in his power plays.
Doesn't mean he never works for you again, but those editors? They gotta go. As for Ellis? Unless he brings home the bacon same with him. They owe him nothing. He's not a superstar. Why continue to deal with him and his drama?
That's not what happened.
Nu52 Swamp Thing was Alec Holland. The series was beautifully illustrated by Yannick Paquette and written by Snyder for 18 issues before Charles Soule finished the title to issue 40. After that, Swamp Thing fell off the map until Convergence when Len Wein and Kelly Jones did a two parter. That spun off into a mini-series and would have seen another except Wein sadly passed.
For what its worth, I prefer the Holland Swamp Thing in the present day. Moore's Swamp Thing is amazing. Wonderful artwork, beautiful dialogue and memorable stories. But for over twenty years, in the hands of anyone but Alan Moore, elemental Swamp Thing just didn't work for me.
It was just a little too preachy some times, a little too shallow others. Always struggling to deal with the insane power that Moore had imbued the character with toward the end of his time on the title.
I enjoyed Len Wein coming back, the emotional saga of a man trapped in a monster.
Moore's run was followed by the Veitch, Collins, and even the Millar run which was a lot better than the god-awful repetitiveness and whininess of the 70s Swamp Thing and Alec constantly trying and failing to turn himself human.
Also, Moore negative any major backlash from everyone but the Cereal King Geoff Johns, by pulling a Principal and the Pauper (Swamp Thing was never Alec but since he's basically a clone of him and has all of this memories, everyone in the title still calls him Alec and only dwell on the power upgrade thing and very little thought was given that ST and Alec was two different people).
It was super retarded AND the New 52 writers all basically declared that anything related to Swamp Thing in Brightest Day never happened, as far as the only thing about that book's ending that survived the Flashpoint reboot was that Deadman got resurrected, romanced Dove, and then rekilled by Captain Boomerang.
