Why does Shane Davis have to get over 4,000 backers to show growth? If he got 1700 backers for
Starlight Cats, 1701 backers for
Imperious Rex should be all that's needed to show his customer base is growing. As for using sales metrics to calculate how many people are active in Comicsgate, the problem is that there are multiple observable categories:
- 11,000: The number of backers behind Cyberfrog: Rekt Planet, the flagship franchise in Comicsgate
- 4000: ±500, the number of CG backers behind non-flagship Cyberfrog properties, as well as Graveyard Shift and Cash Grab,
- 1500: The number of people willing to back anything supported by ALL CAPS, including Snowman and Creed,
- 1000: Amount of people willing to back comics by less prominent comicsgaters like Aaron Lopresti, Graham Nolan, Michael Bancroft, Adam Friended, or Richard C. Meyer's non-Jawbreakers properties
I've said it before, it looks to me as if the concept of a "common Comicsgate customer pool" is a thing of the past - especially as ~90 campaigns launched within the first 3 months of 2021. Unable to back
every campaign, along with a less naive customer base, has pushed the average customer to be less interested in backing unproven creators who wave the Comicsgate flag and more inclined to back those with a track record of fulfillment. Either way, Davis' personal business looks to be doing very well. What meaning that has for the rest of 'Comicsgate', if any, has yet to be determined.
Zack's business was screwed with twice by Kickstarter and Mark Waid. People like me paid to help support him and it was and still is a big topic of discussion.
Yet when my business is screwed with I'm told to just move on? I don't understand why people say that.
You see young Nasser, you were operating under the understanding that Meyer's problem was with "protected" people screwing with other people businesses with impunity. It turns out Meyer's problem was
his business being interfered with. His problem with gatekeeping in the comic book industry was that
he was kept from making comics. Those problems are solved now so,
as Meyer put it himself, he left the "culture war hill" and all the people he rallied behind his problem to move on to another hill and you're just going to have to solve
your problems on your own, I guess.
In other news, Frog streamed twice yesterday.
The first was a half celebration stream of Comicsgate hitting 10 million in sales since Jan 1st 2020 according to CreatorGo and half talking about Shang-Chi with Narwhal, with Frog trying to massage the concept of entertaining an audience to the owner of the "Narwhal Brand". While that was as exciting as it sounds, the second stream was more interesting, as recurring CG small stream foil Darth Lunga, normally seen on shows like Well Read, Finatra and Nasser's doggedly arguing, got into an argument with Frog on twitter about ditching labels like 'Comicsgate' and boycotts against platforms like Kickstarter, and just promoting everyone based on merit. Frog found this objectionable on the basis of the active hostility towards Comicsgate, which Lunga dismissed the complaints as hyperbolic in nature. Frog extended an invitation on to his show to debate this, which Lunga accepted.
09/06/2021 - COMICARTISTPRO SECRETS - COMICSGATE KINGS. GODLIKE AND INGLORIOUS
After an hour or so of shilling, discussion on Gay Superman and a Grace Randolph video with some lukewarm banter, Lunga is brought before the Comicsgate Kings in all their bald glory. Graham Nolan for whatever reason is extremely orange, almost as if Liam Gray's spirit passed on to the
Birds of Prey creator. Lunga introduces himself by explaining that he was too busy taking a dump to show on the first stream and Frog has a bit about Labor Day, but after that short preamble, Lunga starts laying out his position quickly:
- The "culture war" is nonsense; both extremes of the left and right are bad and Lunga is taking the position of rational moderate
- The importance of cancel culture in day to day society is overexaggerated and hyperbolic compared to other societal issues, many cases of "cancel culture" could be attributed to other causes if examined on a case-by-case basis
Smoking a cigar in a suit in affectation of a Jersey mobster, the Sopranos-appreciating Frog asks if the attacks on his and others' on the panel's livelihood and inability to make a living with his profession in the mainstream is "silly" and "nonsense"? Lunga says he doesn't know of the circumstances of how Frog lost employment, saying that he is not against CG but instead supports every creator's right to create and contends that there an orthodoxy held on both sides. Dan Fraga interjects to ask if there has ever been a comic book creator cancelled for expressing leftist political opinions. Lunga asks Dan Fraga to show some data backing this claim that liberal and conservative creators aren't cancelled from comics in equal measure, which is met with exasperated disbelief from both panelists and audience. Graham Nolan asks if Lunga thinks there is a blacklist going on in mainstream comics; Lunga answers no. Nolan says he can say first hand that a blacklist exists - when he requested to work with Chuck Dixon at Marvel, he was told in no uncertain terms that as long as Axel Alonso was there, Chuck Dixon would never work at Marvel. Lunga counters that people don't get hired for work due to personal differences all the time. The chat jeers and demands Lunga, referred to as "Mundane Matt" and, less flattering(?) "Toilet Goblin", be kicked.
Frog asks Lunga what does he think would happen if an editor there wanted to work with him. Lunga concedes that there may be some personal history in that case, at which point the case of Terry Dodson cancelling his cover for Lopresti's
Wraith of God out of fear for his career is brought up. Lunga does not contest that SJWs do exist, but wants to distinguish if people are discussing "twitter wackos" or industry professionals. Frog argues for a holistic definition - that is, all of them - and that the phenomenon of 'cancel culture' has a far wider impact then a few isolated incidents; the publicly blacklisted are the tip of the iceberg of other creative professionals in the industry who've been successfully intimidated into silence.
Lunga's old friends from more obscure CG begin to pile in to wish him well on his debut on the big Comicsgate stage, as Lunga states he has consistently stood against all forms of cancel culture. Frog welcomes Lunga to Comicsgate and he is glad to gotten through to him, but Lunga rigorously rejects wearing any label. Frog argues that labels will be applied upon Lunga by people who wish to group their opponents together, whether he agrees to it or not. Lunga says he has nothing against the label; his only criticisms for CG was Frog enabling Warcampaign and something else that wasn't gone into before Frog defensively begins explains his history of supporting WC as them exploiting Comicsgate's pedestalling of the customer to exert power and pursue agendas. This subject is cut short with a brief digression on the merits of previous cancel culture enthusiast Sen. Joseph McCarthy, which Lunga ties in to Fredrick Werthan's
Seduction of the Innocent. This for some reason gets Graham Nolan's ire about how that was HUAC and not McCarthy. Lunga closes his argument by saying people have labelled him things like "anti-CG", "Mundane Matt 2.0" and "argumentative pervert" in the past, but all those labels were false in nature and in truth all he wants people to be appreciated on the basis of their comics without the involvement of any labels whatsoever.
Frog in turn closes with a boilerplate monologue about how Comicsgate is about acknowledging and standing against cancel culture and the far-left idealogues that have barred them from practicing their profession and damaged the industry on itself, but Lunga interrupts to reiterate that that's not anything he associates with, and that he's okay with working anyone who treats him respectfully. Graham Nolan questions how that has any relevance beyond dealings with Darth Daddy Lunga - he assures with first-hand experience that the people in positions of power have completely different stances to Lunga's
laissez faire personal philosophy. Fraga speaks up next about how his pet issue is the "misappropriation of language" by SJWs and their use of it to infer crimes that never happened upon their targets, like the media cycle on how Warren Ellis was "grooming women". Lunga declines on taking up the opposing position on Ellis' cancellation due to a lack of knowledge on the subject. Some common ground is formed as Ellis' cancellation was discussed, but Lunga gives another dismissal of opposition to cancel culture, saying vaguely "you guys, all this needs is a change of leadership and this all goes away". Fraga brings it back around to the misuse of language, to which Lunga compares to people (
me) unfairly labelling him as a Preston Poulter associate because he was in the pegged publisher's discord; people get fired from jobs for sexual misconduct in the work world. Fraga retorts that that may be so, but the regular work world doesn't go out of their way to take out media campaigns labelling the fired things like 'nazi' and 'rapist' in the attempt to ensure they'll never get work anywhere like in Ellis' case; and social media these days is effectively a billboard.
Lunga says "in the end it's all about the money" with all these editors and publishers blacklisting "problematic creators". Frog dismisses that out of hand, saying these people clearly have ideological inclinations that surpass making money and proper business practices.
"But at the corporate level, it's all about the money",
"Yeah, because they want to get these activists to shut the hell up"
"And you know who the worst offender is of this? Disney."
"Wait, why the hell are we arguing Lunga?"
At this point the debate fizzles out and Lunga reiterates himself as a rationalist moderate. Frog says that everyone sees themselves as that. Before he leaves, Lunga asks if he can promote his comic
Isidora and The Immortal Chains #2? Frog says no, they are blacklisting him, calling him a Nazi, running articles through the Daily Beast calling him a racist bigot, tell everyone on twitter that his campaigns are grifts and that any success he has is due to a money laundering scheme and with that Lunga takes his leave.
There's another three hours, which includes other "CG Kings" aside from Lunga, like Jon Malin, Camel Moon, That Star Wars Girl and Billy Tucci are brought out. Camel Moon's latest cartoon, now starring himself as a character, as well as Cecil's ancient
Cash Grab animated trailer are shared. I could go over this but not a lot happened.
CONCLUSION: Was it wise for Darth Lunga to go on a panel of cancelled comic creators in front of their fans and argue that cancel culture isn't real? Probably not. But I for one was entertained, and really, isn't that what matters?
![:\](/styles/custom/emotes/svg/chris-confused.svg "Confused :\")