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

[Sex Cannon Lupa]

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I can't help but like someone who looks like he cuts his own hair. Maybe that's why I like Witten so much, too.

There was a video where he talked about his morning routine of eating breakfast and the mall and then just loitering around the mall after. And him talking about how if he loiters around the one side of the mall, he eventually gets rousted by the mall cops.

Mall cops are no joke. Once they zero in on you they won't stop until you're gone. They'll follow you from store to store and even bring in real cops to give you shit.

 

[Strix454]

Preston is working on a new anime-themed IP, best described as an 80s Robotech pastiche starring the White Lily lesbians. Now, why he's going to Anime Matsuri specifically is anyone's guess. Maybe he'll throw himself in front of Nick Rekeita's golf cart? Who knows? Also Cecil will be going as well, which of course he is since That Star Wars Girl is going, Maybe Preston will be treated to a live version of his Mike Oxmaul character?

I don't know if its been covered before, but Preston created a whole new channel on youtube back in May called Lords of Iron. He claims its about discussing Mecha in general, but his content has mostly been related to either Robotech or old-school battletech gaming. Preston is mostly really old school and relates more to things from decades ago. I don't think he really even knows anything modern.

There is nothing in particular unusual about him going to Anime Matsuri because the show is in Houston and he can drive there from Dallas. He has also shown up a variety of shows in the past (including RPG and gaming related shows) setting up his booth and trying to sell his comics. Him going there is also probably related to there still being far less shows to go to that there used to be due to covid economic after-affects.

Him doing Robotech with lesbians makes a degree of sense. And with Preston, the lesbian element of the story is always a self-insert of cucked Preston as a lesbian and his former wife Auby. The big question is which character from Robotech is Preston going to self-insert into: lynn minmay or lisa hayes. I tend to think Preston is going to see himself as Minmay and Auby as Lisa with Rick Hunter cucking him. Same old Preston......

 

[Starscreams Cape]

Dropping out backgrounds is okay, once the location has been set in a few establishing shots, during action scenes and close ups. Sometimes they can slow down the movement.

This artist for KNIFEHAND knows what he's doing.

The talent is never the problem with his books.

Put that coffee down, Zach.

Coffee is for closers.

 

[Strix454]

A bit of tinfoil hat, but is he doing his stuff full time?
Is there a chance he is doing some part time work from home that he is hush-hush about to avoid the stalkers going after it and dropped the lawsuit and cleaned his act to get? His video output is running slower and slower, he barely gets anything done with his splatto books so it is either him having a job on the side or him suffering some sort of intense burnout and spasming around to get out of.
Or he has some sort of hush-hush deal taking out of his time. He said he has to travel a lot after all.
The more I read about the Splatto books the more I get the impression YBZ is hiding something important and if he revealed it, half the stuff going on would be explained.

Sometimes listening to Richard's videos, I wonder if he even leaves the house much these days. I don't think that working exclusively out of the house in comics has been a particuarly mentally healthy thing for him to be doing and sometimes he just says things that sound batshit crazy. There was a video where he talked about his morning routine of eating breakfast and the mall and then just loitering around the mall after. And him talking about how if he loiters around the one side of the mall, he eventually gets rousted by the mall cops. There was also a weird statement to the effect that going out to ship things was stressful for him.

I tend to think that he is suffering the effects of living too much in his own head and having a lack of normal social interactions. Its like retirement. Some people can handle being retired. But some people can't and go kind of crazy once they start spending every day in the home with only the TV to talk to.

He could be hiding having a real job. And it would obviously be to his benefit not to talk about that. The other serious thing he has going on is that half the year 2021 is done and he has done few campaigns for not that much money. He hasn't had a really big campaign since the last jawbreakers and his backer numbers don't go about 2000 generally now. And the trend is toward a 1000 backer audience for his work. That isn't good for him for a number of reasons.

 

[Twinkletard]

Sometimes listening to Richard's videos, I wonder if he even leaves the house much these days. I don't think that working exclusively out of the house in comics has been a particuarly mentally healthy thing for him to be doing and sometimes he just says things that sound batshit crazy. There was a video where he talked about his morning routine of eating breakfast and the mall and then just loitering around the mall after. And him talking about how if he loiters around the one side of the mall, he eventually gets rousted by the mall cops. There was also a weird statement to the effect that going out to ship things was stressful for him.

I tend to think that he is suffering the effects of living too much in his own head and having a lack of normal social interactions. Its like retirement. Some people can handle being retired. But some people can't and go kind of crazy once they start spending every day in the home with only the TV to talk to.

He could be hiding having a real job. And it would obviously be to his benefit not to talk about that. The other serious thing he has going on is that half the year 2021 is done and he has done few campaigns for not that much money. He hasn't had a really big campaign since the last jawbreakers and his backer numbers don't go about 2000 generally now. And the trend is toward a 1000 backer audience for his work. That isn't good for him for a number of reasons.

He needs a woman to straighten him out.

 

[COMMI3 MARK]

Yes, but how many subs do you get for streams versus 10 minute videos.
At some point, it is a game of growth too.

I think streams are good for community building, for building your base or w/e. Nothing makes people sub faster than plonking their comment on the screen and reading out their name. We're all susceptible to narcissism like that.

But you're right still. My subs base has increased by 25 percent in the two months since switching focus to pre recorded content where getting to that first 1k took nearly 18 months. A large part of that jump came from this moment though:

Did the increase in video quality lead to that shout out. I think undoubtedly yes. Would that work for everyone? I'm less sure.

 

[The Coon]

It seems like he is trying to make his "masterpieces" and then get out of making comics completely. If he can make this hard break by pissing all his fans off, he can leave and never have to hear from old fans "Can you come back and make more comics". He may already have another job or be in the process of changing his name to find a different job. That way when a potential employer googles his new name, it won't be result after result of -ist and -phobe. I know this sounds crazy, but the whole situation is crazy considering the guy spent years telling creators what is ruining their business and then starts doing those same things to ruin his business.

 

[Starscreams Cape]

Sometimes listening to Richard's videos, I wonder if he even leaves the house much these days. I don't think that working exclusively out of the house in comics has been a particuarly mentally healthy thing for him to be doing and sometimes he just says things that sound batshit crazy. There was a video where he talked about his morning routine of eating breakfast and the mall and then just loitering around the mall after. And him talking about how if he loiters around the one side of the mall, he eventually gets rousted by the mall cops. There was also a weird statement to the effect that going out to ship things was stressful for him.

I tend to think that he is suffering the effects of living too much in his own head and having a lack of normal social interactions. Its like retirement. Some people can handle being retired. But some people can't and go kind of crazy once they start spending every day in the home with only the TV to talk to.

He could be hiding having a real job. And it would obviously be to his benefit not to talk about that. The other serious thing he has going on is that half the year 2021 is done and he has done few campaigns for not that much money. He hasn't had a really big campaign since the last jawbreakers and his backer numbers don't go about 2000 generally now. And the trend is toward a 1000 backer audience for his work. That isn't good for him for a number of reasons.

In all seriousness, he's a vet who has seen combat. I hope if some of these issues stem from that he gets the professional help he needs. I think most of the people disappointed in this latest project, including me, love the guy and only want to see him succeed.

He does seem...dont know if this will come out right... fragile at times. He's seen some shit and when he comes back from that his reward for having demonstrably correct opinions on the comic industry is to have a few thousand Twitter lunatics harass him nonstop. Who's to say any of us would handle things any differently. I think he's doing the best he can, he's not a scammer, he just needs to trust the people that have his back.

 

[Weeb Slinger]

I am hoping that Zack will have what he would describe as a "come to Jesus moment" where he acknowledges that the way he is going about managing both his business and his customers is counterproductive and unsustainable, and that he is haemorrhaging the goodwill that allows him to continue as a comic publisher.

The stress of having two very big projects languishing in development hell, where they seem to be impervious to any release timetable that is fostered upon them, is exacerbated every time that he begins a new campaign. It's an ongoing process of self-harm where the collateral damage is anyone who either backed a project expecting it to arrive on time, or anyone who threw their money behind an add-on or a variant only for it to be cancelled.

Attempting to alleviate a modicum of this cumulative stress by brushing off the legitimate concerns of customers with a perfunctory refund (as if the people who helped to fund a book are an inconvenience) will not grow the business. These customers have been insulted and they probably aren't coming back.

I was looking through Zack's unfulfilled campaigns and was astonished by the update for 'Rock 'N Roll Ninja' where he outlines the elements of the campaign that are to be refunded, but doesn't explain why these elements were cancelled, leading to confusion in the comments.

If Zack's career in comic publishing was made into a rise and fall style biopic, in the vein of Boogie Nights, then we would have reached the point where the protagonist appears to be riding high, even though their personality flaws are beginning to drag their life off kilter. What usually follows is a descent into addiction (I am guessing in Zack's case this will manifest as an unlikely triad of vitamins purchased in bulk over the internet, possibly from a fitness YouTuber, some kind of powdered protein made from Giant African Land Snails, and breakfast tacos).

If the movies are accurate, then matters will culminate in a late-night phone call to Ethan, where Zack will admit that he is fucked up and ask to be brought back into the fold. Ethan will dutifully drive the Frogmobile to whatever parking lot Ya Boi has staked out as his personal territory. He pull up alongside Zack who will be furious that someone has parked in the space right next to him. He will request that Ethan waits until the moon has ceased casting a distracting glare on his dashboard, before they talk.

I like Zack, in spite of his eccentricities, his appalling taste in movies, and the occasional hints of a monumental temper held in check just beneath the surface. He is funny. His criticism of comics, when he can be bothered to do it, can be insightful. He has an interesting take on page composition. I read comics differently because of his reviews. I notice things that I didn't notice before. I can't think of a higher compliment than telling someone that they have enriched your appreciation of life.

I have followed him from the early days. Of all the creators who are broadly referenced under the umbrella term of ComicsGate, he is the one who I want to succeed the most. After standing up to so much abuse and succeeding in spite of it, it has become painful to watch him undoing everything he has achieved through sheer bloody mindedness. I click on his videos less often these days. A big part of participation on these boards is laughing at failure, but this has all the hallmarks of a tragedy in the making.

 

[A nameless trool]

In all seriousness, he's a vet who has seen combat. I hope if some of these issues stem from that he gets the professional help he needs. I think most of the people disappointed in this latest project, including me, love the guy and only want to see him succeed.

He does seem...dont know if this will come out right... fragile at times. He's seen some shit and when he comes back from that his reward for having demonstrably correct opinions on the comic industry is to have a few thousand Twitter lunatics harass him nonstop. Who's to say any of us would handle things any differently. I think he's doing the best he can, he's not a scammer, he just needs to trust the people that have his back.

You make it sound YBZ is the John Rambo of the comicbook industry.

 

[Newman's Own]

Dropping out backgrounds is okay, once the location has been set in a few establishing shots, during action scenes and close ups. Sometimes they can slow down the movement.

This artist for KNIFEHAND knows what he's doing.

Bullshit.

Dropping out backgrounds can be okay when it's not pure laziness or rushing like Byrne in the 80's. I don't know if this artist knows what he's doing but looking at the roughness of the art and colors this book looks rushed. Those water colors are sloppy and what the Hell is this supposed to be?

No one wants to pay top dollar for a silent book. (takes 3 minutes to read) If it looks like it took 3 days to write and draw. That's a rip off.


Dude even looks like he's wearing a Cobra uniform.

From what I can see this is a good artist who sent over his unfinished layouts and Richard decided to use what he learned from a YouTube water color tutorial to color them himself.

Is this going to be $25 for 22 pages? (just checked, yes it is)

I love that he admits this was "inspired" by GI-Joe #21. No fuckin' kidding. 'Ninja infiltrates fortress' is exactly what happened in the Snake-Eyes solo story. I wonder if he's there to save his red head girlfriend/team mate (just checked, he's there to rescue his boyfriends/team mates) from an evil terrorist organization... This is about as "inspired" as Robo-Toad or Nasser's Gremlins "homage".

The evil chick is even labeled "BARONESS" in the layouts along with a "Cobra Cyborg". This is like when Greg Land was "inspired by" his own traceable porn collection, only Meyer beats it to old Larry Hama ninja comics. I get that GI-Joe inspired Jawbreakers but this is just swiping. It's lazy and it's stupid.

No wonder it took just over twenty minutes to write this.

 

[Starscreams Cape]

You make it sound YBZ is the John Rambo of the comicbook industry.

What you call hell Richard calls home.

 

[Strix454]

In all seriousness, he's a vet who has seen combat. I hope if some of these issues stem from that he gets the professional help he needs. I think most of the people disappointed in this latest project, including me, love the guy and only want to see him succeed.

He does seem...dont know if this will come out right... fragile at times. He's seen some shit and when he comes back from that his reward for having demonstrably correct opinions on the comic industry is to have a few thousand Twitter lunatics harass him nonstop. Who's to say any of us would handle things any differently. I think he's doing the best he can, he's not a scammer, he just needs to trust the people that have his back.

He is a vet and he served overseas. But how much combat he saw and how much it affected him are open questions. The guy was mentally fucked up before he served. He went into the marines because (a) none of the other services would touch him due to pending assault charges and (b) he was looking for an easy exit from a whole lot of problems in civilian life. His comments and observations in his book about his service in Iraq are as weird as everything else about him. His career is equally weird. He talks in the book about getting a "95" on an ASVAB test which is really good - especially for the marines. But somehow he didn't get a technical MOS (job) and ended up as a machine gunner. In his book about Iraq "Four in the Corps", he seemed to have a low opinion of most of the people he served under and served with. He was always complaining about someone in the book. He went into the military with this weird idea that it was going to be like the GI Joe comics and reading his book, I don't think he was ever happy with the reality of military life.

He isn't really a scammer, but he tends to be one of those guys who tends to fuck up everything he does. People tend not to remember just how long he has been doing comics or that he did his first crowdfund for Jawbreakers back in 2015. He was over three years late on that version of Jawbreakers and he was no more honest about updates then than he is now.

I liked him originally when he was just a goofy average guy who had a dream to make comics. But I lost most of my respect for him over his stupid behavior during COVID in 2020. In my opinion, he was running around like a total asshole cheering a whole lot of people getting put out of work due to a virus. He kept acting like the virus-related slowdowns, shutdowns and changes in comics were somehow due to what he claimed were bad business practices. He really seemed to think that COVID had proved him right somehow about everything to do with comics.

Then it got to a point where he erased all his old videos like he was ashamed both of comicsgate and having critical opinions of people's work in comics. He also started talking about awful people in comics who hated him as if they were victims. He became a guy who symbolically went on his knees to those people he was critical of and as good as admitted he was wrong about everything..

I don't really hate him. But at this point, I would say that he hates people like me and doesn't want us as customers. He has kind of expressed the opinion that you either accept whatever work he chooses to make on whatever schedule he chooses to deliver it on.....or you probably need to go away.

He doesn't want his 2018 audience. He wants to do weird books like 499 and be buddies with his fellow industry "professionals" like MAGS and Nick Spencer. And honestly, he is welcome to do that if that is what he really believes in. But the consequences of that are going to be an exit by him from comics as his comics audience falls to the set of people who want that stuff.

 

[Miniluv]

From what I can see this is a good artist who sent over his unfinished layouts and Richard decided to use what he learned from a YouTube water color tutorial to color them himself.

I'll bet real money Zack colored this shit himself. He probably looked at a bunch of MGS art and copied the color palette in PS like he did for 499 with Jim Rugg's Octobriana book.

Is this going to be $25 for 22 pages? (just checked, yes it is)

I love that he admits this was "inspired" by GI-Joe #21. No fuckin' kidding. 'Ninja infiltrates fortress' is exactly what happened in the Snake-Eyes solo story. I wonder if he's there to save his red head girlfriend/team mate (just checked, he's there to rescue his boyfriends/team mates) from an evil terrorist organization... This is about as "inspired" as Robo-Toad or Nasser's Gremlins "homage".

The evil chick is even labeled "BARONESS" in the layouts along with a "Cobra Cyborg". This is like when Greg Land was "inspired by" his own traceable porn collection, only Meyer beats it to old Larry Hama ninja comics. I get that GI-Joe inspired Jawbreakers but this is just swiping. It's lazy and it's stupid.
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No wonder it took just over twenty minutes to write this.

Don't forget his gripping plot synopsis for the bigger-than-the-lead backup story, Garrison:

What if G.I.JOE and COBRA teamed up to stop a terror attack by Al-Qaeda?

WOW, WHAT IF THAT HAPPENED?!

Gee, Zack I'm not sure what would happen in that scenario...I guess they'd kick the shit out of Al-Qaeda?

Wait, what if G.I. JOE and COBRA teamed up with JAWBREAKERS, TRANSFORMERS, and the entire cast of HULK HOGAN'S ROCK N WRESTLING to stop LARRY HAMA from reading a comic book written by RICHARD C MEYER and killing himself in a fit of depression?

Surely we're witnessing the peak of a true talent in comic storytelling.

 

[TESTEFY-HD]

Wouldn't it be nice?

 

[Strix454]

Wouldn't it be nice?

You have the wrong video for this forum:

 

[Newman's Own]

What if G.I.JOE and COBRA teamed up to stop a terror attack by Al-Qaeda?

WOW, WHAT IF THAT HAPPENED?!

Gee, Zack I'm not sure what would happen in that scenario...I guess they'd kick the shit out of Al-Qaeda?

This is the basic plot of Gi-Joe's first two issue story in Vol 1 issues 6&7 only the Joe's first fight then team up with the Ruskies (October Guard) and its the future Al-Quaeda (Afghani rebels) who are on the Joe's side from the start.

So far this campaign is ripping off GI-Joe issues 6, 7 & 21.

 

[Absurdity]

Am I so off base thinking Comicsgate is done? Snapshot right now: EVS & (pro)friends rehashes and Zack in ashes. Most of the rest are indy crowdfunders that could easily have happened before World War Waid. We're back to people who can make comics about 100+ times slower and about 10+ times more expensive than the old industry average... And those are the same industry professionals that left/pushed out of said industry. On the plus side, all the drama that used to go on behind closed doors now gets repurposed for views which doubles as advertising and revenue.

I think this may prove that one generally cannot be a critical reviewer and a comic book creator at the same time. Everything that comes out of Ethan is always going to be oriented toward promoting his brand as a comic book creator. If that dovetails with a zeitgeist that can be exploited, great. Zack's niche was as a pop culture critic who used comic books as a humorous way to make his point about society in general. Zack actually had greater potential to be a bigger voice than Ethan in this way though Ethan for his part came closest to it with his Phantom Menace brand, but in the end it was just there to push product. That was the essential difference between the two.

Richard was the one who had more to say or so it seemed, but even in the early days there was a lot of talk about building his "brand" and that was okay and kind of funny coming from him. Maybe the signs were there the whole time. Somewhere between proving a point because the truth mattered to becoming a spinmaster in service of a quick buck on IG, something died. I've never seen an Army guy turn into a wannabe frogman so quickly. It's really a shame to seem him like this.

Ethan Van Sciver's integrity and honesty begins and ends with the comic books he makes. There's not a principle he won't go back on if it isn't at the service of selling his books and his brand. Richard C. Meyer had actual integrity, at least he seemed to at first. For a brief moment in time he was winning the Waid War and was still putting out funny videos and had a very successful comic book as a feather in his cap. YBZ was the real core of what the "movement" really represented back then and only he could have really killed it.

RIP.

 

[jspit2.0]

He needs a woman to straighten him out.

Don't wish that evil on someone else....

Am I so off base thinking Comicsgate is done? Snapshot right now: EVS & (pro)friends rehashes and Zack in ashes. Most of the rest are indy crowdfunders that could easily have happened before World War Waid. We're back to people who can make comics about 100+ times slower and about 10+ times more expensive than the old industry average... And those are the same industry professionals that left/pushed out of said industry. On the plus side, all the drama that used to go on behind closed doors now gets repurposed for views which doubles as advertising and revenue.

I think this may prove that one generally cannot be a critical reviewer and a comic book creator at the same time. Everything that comes out of Ethan is always going to be oriented toward promoting his brand as a comic book creator. If that dovetails with a zeitgeist that can be exploited, great. Zack's niche was as a pop culture critic who used comic books as a humorous way to make his point about society in general. Zack actually had greater potential to be a bigger voice than Ethan in this way though Ethan for his part came closest to it with his Phantom Menace brand, but in the end it was just there to push product. That was the essential difference between the two.

Richard was the one who had more to say or so it seemed, but even in the early days there was a lot of talk about building his "brand" and that was okay and kind of funny coming from him. Maybe the signs were there the whole time. Somewhere between proving a point because the truth mattered to becoming a spinmaster in service of a quick buck on IG, something died. I've never seen an Army guy turn into a wannabe frogman so quickly. It's really a shame to seem him like this.

Ethan Van Sciver's integrity and honesty begins and ends with the comic books he makes. There's not a principle he won't go back on if it isn't at the service of selling his books and his brand. Richard C. Meyer had actual integrity, at least he seemed to at first. For a brief moment in time he was winning the Waid War and was still putting out funny videos and had a very successful comic book as a feather in his cap. YBZ was the real core of what the "movement" really represented back then and only he could have really killed it.

RIP.

OG CG is buried and CG whatever edition this is begins and ends with making money on comics. The end. If your looking for something deeper you will be disappointed.

Which wouldn't be a problem if CG wasn't built on an internet Gate movement full of principles. It's not entirely reasonable to expect people to change their expectations after years of building them up.

This is the basic plot of Gi-Joe's first two issue story in Vol 1 issues 6&7 only the Joe's first fight then team up with the Ruskies (October Guard) and its the future Al-Quaeda (Afghani rebels) who are on the Joe's side from the start.

So far this campaign is ripping off GI-Joe issues 6, 7 & 21.

At some point, your going to take on classic stories you loved. The question is, how's it made? Alan Moore isn't the first person to write a What If final Superman story. He just so happened to make one with excellent craft that people still talk about.

What you call hell Richard calls home.

That's a bit much.

Also Hell isn't his home, it just looks that way because its Southern Texas.

 

[Absurdity]

And now even the fate of this very thread hangs in the balance. Everytime I see Ethan, Nasser, or JDA posting here I'm reminded that the Truman Show was right all along:

Notice the red rooster?