- Joined
- Jul 10, 2017
The problem is we can clearly see that the next step will be whatever printer he contracts will start receiving Death threats. That’s the thing with anti competitive practices. You can’t say “well he has other options” you can’t even look at how much money he got on Indiegogo as anything that would reduce the legal liability or criminality. Because the purpose was not just to block the one publisher, but to terrorize and therefore intimidate others. I know we toss around a lot of legal nonsense and Holt Grail BS. But that Facebook group really does brush more than a bit not just into Sherman Act stuff, but into RICO. I don’t think any Fed would be bothered over a bunch of comic books. But if you piss the Feds off they certainly can pencil that one in. Then your life is FUCKED. With a capital F.
“The Villain is always the Hero in their own story”
There are some major core differences between Comicsgate and Gamergate. Mainly surrounding the relationships between the warring parties.
Gamergate had a deep pool of participants. There are several million hardcore gamers out there. Enough to support a $10 billion industry. Gamergate probably had close to 20% participation of them, which meant GG had around 500,000 participants vs maybe 20-40k opponents at best. Gamergate was largely between Gamers and the Press. There was no direct financial tie between the participants. The Game developers and publishers largely stayed out of it. Those few that went full in have almost universally been driven out of the industry by consumer rejection (how’s life treating you Cliffy B?) . So GG was a lot of shitflinging and narrative wars, largely trying to indirectly impact financials. It was a fight the Gamers were always going to win, simply as they are the Alpha consumers. The point where money enters the industry. But the indirect nature meant time, effort and a lot of autism would be involved.
Comicsgate is different. There is a much small pool of hardcore comic buying fans. Probably a couple of hundred thousand at this point. It is not unreasonable to assume that D&C and his fellow Youtubers have achieved capture of the top or most active 20% of that community. The biggest difference between GG and CG is in Comicsgate the battle is directly between the consumers and the content producers. There is a direct and one sided financial relationship. If you piss off a reader of your book, they stop buying your book. In a niche industry such as comics 80% of your profits come from the top 20% of your customers. The “whales” if you will. D&C has captured the attention and interest of a tremendous portion of those “whales”. The nature of Whales is they will continue their spending habits until something brings them to a decision point. They may dismiss their own concerns about Iceman or Squirrel Girl in the hopes of an improvement. But suddenly there is this public discussion where they see their concerns are not alone. That others also feel it is a shit product. Decision point reached, purchases stopped. The comics creators are getting alarmed at how quickly this can swing now. The Aubrey Sitterson G I Joe incidents rattled them. As did the sudden cancellation of the core virtue signaling books. This isn’t covered in Alinsky. The sheep aren’t supposed to talk and fight back. And they certainly aren’t supposed to stop spending money! So they are going full in defamation to try and drive the messengers out.
Zach is a decorated military veteran. Ex Marine and Army. Waid is a fat neck bearded shrieking communist with anger management issues. Which do you think the Mouses PR department will think is the better choice?
That’s really what this is all about. D&C crossed the Trans Mafia. But the normies aren’t following the script. Even when they scream “bigot” at them.
Rumor from leaking insiders is once his current writing arcs are done, he is gone with a capital G. And it’s not even a matter of blacklisting. He has burned so many bridges over the years that he has no place else left to go. He’s a mean assed bully. DC washed their hands of him years ago. I don’t think his creator owned Image stuff sells enough to make Diamonds minimum threshold to solicit. IDW certainly can’t afford him and can’t afford the baggage and blowback that comes with him. So where’s he gonna go? Black Mask? It’s not like he carries an embedded fan base. Morrison he is not.
