We can all weigh on why
Rokit was a bad idea, but the fact that Frog could only generate a fifth of the support from his customer base for this that
Damegang got speaks for itself in terms of commercial appeal. Personally, I feel the growth of the web led to the decline of professional journalism as a whole, or at least as a profession that could afford to employ competent professionals instead of fuckups, retards and wackjobs, and the blame for this largely rests on the consumers who foolishly felt any information was as good as any other and chose to fill their heads with the lowest-cost option. Watching publications like
The Comics Journal get phased out and replaced by
Newsarama,
The Beat and modern-day
The Comics Journal was a particularly sharp loss. While I think there could be a fringe market for a Comicsgate magazine (since it's a customer pool of people who already buy print media) as a professionally formatted high level celebration/discussion of the goings on in an underground subculture, a magazine larping as the defunct
Wizard to peddle superfluous promotional material of creators for a $25 entry fee is not it.
Speaking of, here's a listing of all active CG campaigns going on at the moment (for free):
1:
GODLIKE, a Jack Kirby's Fourth World-meets-Rob Liefield cosmic thriller by
Jon Malin is. due to Ya Boi Zack's ruinous fulfillment problems and Frog's multiple projects launched in 2020, is poised to be the largest CG comic of 2021 (but will be lucky to crack the top 10 of comics launched since 2020), boasting a full supplemental by Von Klaus and
NINETY FOUR creator Shelby Robertson. This being Malin's debut as both artist and writer on a book, this could be either be a creative failure of an untested writer or a creative success as an undiluted expression of Malin's 90s-infused, extremist aesthetic. Either way, closing in at
Graveyard Shift 3's take with the debut issue it's definitely a financial success and reassuring towards this new total creative ownership path of Malin's, as he's clearly lost interest in
Graveyard Shift.
2:
Inglorious Rex. Following the successful realization and fulfillment of the "gay catbook", as it's affectionately called,
Shane Davis decided to make his next project something his fans might actually want to read and that he might actually want to make; a fight comic about heroes that jack into giant grotesque bioborgs to fight in an MMA cage. Passing the year-long campaign for the gay catbook within two months, either the change in making less gay material not meant for little girls in dresses or establishing himself as someone who fulfills on time has appeared to resonate with backers' pocketbooks.
3.
Cyberfrog: Bloodhoney Box: A third-fourth-who-knows chance campaign of 2018's
Cyberfrog: Bloodhoney by Frog, complete in a
Rekt Planet-style collectors' box with some new variant covers. It's still the third largest campaign in CG right now, but what portion of the 1300 backers are new customers Frog has picked up since 2018 vs diehard completionists is a mystery.
4.
Wraith of God - The decision of
Aaron Lopresti to go from struggling and failing to meet a $10,000 funding goal on Smiller streams for
Garbage Man to join Frog's circle of Comicsgate to launch a graphic novel of Western hero fighting vampires, werewolves and other movie monsters has worked out well for him, his nearing in on $100,000 within the active phase passing the CG inaugural campaings of Graham Nolan's
Chenoo and Shane Davis'
Starlight Cats (the SJWs rallying against him on twitter did a lot to lionize his cause)
. That said, Lopresti's clear discomfort with the seemier side of Frog's streams is palpable at times, and it's doubtful he'll stick around for the full IGG campaign before retiring to the peaceful climes of the "Brofessionals" circuit.
5.
Black and White 2 by long time Comicsgater
Art Thibert is notable for a number of reason. For one, its the first project by Thibert to cross the $52,500 barrier that places him in the "short head" of the CG crowdfund economy. For another, it's also got the latest fulfillment of any project currently in Comicsgate, which isn't grounds for enthusiasm. And finally, it also boasts a variant cover by recently blacklisted creator
Joe Bennett, who I'm to understand is a colleague of Thibert's from a while back. However the wind of that last bit was taken from Thibert's sails when it was revealed that Bennett will be making two comics under the
Arkhaven Comics imprint by Vox Day, a move regarded by SJWs to be "even worse than joining Comicsgate".
6.
Jack the Ripper: Vampire Hunter by the creative partnership of
Mandy Summers and
Peter Gilmore, this looks to be the project where it's Gilmore's turn to choose what the project is - an imaginary world where all those real life women that Jack the Ripper slaughtered were all vampires and Jack the Ripper is actually a hero. Despite, or perhaps because of the profuse amounts of large breasted hookers, murder, and a herefore-unseen resevoir of effort from Gilmore - now freed from having to redo Mandy's
Wart the WIzard to draw all the hookermurder he wants
- this has turned out to be the most successful venture yet from the duo. Fellow CGUK member "
Lucifer Storm" is already developing "
Ed Gein: Demon Hunter", hoping to catch some of the momentum from the "real life serial killer being a secret hero fighting the supernatural" thing that I guess is a
genre now and overall continuing the proud CG UK tradition of shitposts in comic book form.
7.
Arc Athena Vol 1 - The debut indie release of Marvel/DC professional
Eric Canete, this hyperstylized, vibrant story about a glossy superhero team that is the face of the powers that be confronting the wetworking dark side of the ruling hegemon also stands out because of the co-collaboration between
Iconic Comics and multiple Comicsgate creators involved in its creation (and presumably have been for who knows how long). As with the rest of the Iconic Comics imprint,
Arc Athena promises an absolute minimum wait time for a substantial body of work (64 pages) within 3 months of campaign end. Canete claims to have 4 more 64-pages volumes of the series already in the can, which is quite mindblowing by Comicsgate standards. Definitely something to watch if the following campaigns prove to have growth on the level of
Kamen America. Or not.
8.
USAssassin III: Graveyard Shift by
Mark Poulton offers the only crossover between CG properties this side of Mike S Miller's
Monster Hunt with his USAssassin superhero team and the
Graveyard Shift team, also written by Poulton. As an incentive, it also offers reprints of
Graveyard Shift 1 and 2 for those that missed the original campaigns. While Poulton may be emerging as one the most prolific creators in CG (this being his 3rd campaign in 2021 alone), I've never heard anything good said about his work. "Wiggle Wiggle", an Etsy most known for wearing a pink purple ape suit that once jacked off a rainbow dildo for the amusement of his brothers in Warcampaign, who gave rave reviews for
Asstro, said "Seadog and Killswitch" was 'the dumbest thing I ever read'. When someone like Wiggle Wiggle tells you something like that, you listen.
9:
DEATH DEATH DEATH by
Joe Ball - A long time Comicsgater who's distinctive scratchy hyper-rendered art is in
Super Harem, the upcoming
Bulletmaker by Gat Hanzo
, The Lost Pages and
The Case of the Littlest Umbrella ashcan, as well as being shortlisted for work on Yellowflash's mythical crowdfunded comic, Ball felt the time was right to launch his own magnum opus,
DEATH DEATH DEATH, which is from what I'm able to gather from interviews a sprawling 300+ page epic encompassing Genesis and women breeding with demons and Atlantis and shit and overall being an unhinged psychotic fever dream of Ball's mind he was not quite able to properly express when prodded by Michael Bancroft on his launch stream. However this has proven not to be the case, as while the $13,078 USD it's taken in is above average for most crowdfunded comic campaigns, it is still nowhere near enough to break even on producing a 300 page comic book.
10:
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by
Patrick Thomas Parnell is the latest in Parnell's ongoing experiment to see what is the absolute minimum he can get away with delivering to Comicsgaters while still charging a $20-25 price point. Following the 40-page
Ultra Star: Hayvard S.A.I.N.T.S 8, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow promises
32 pages of material adapting the public domain short story in comic form.
Or more accurately 16 pages of drawn material and 16 pages of public domain prose. Sitting at $8100, this looks to be a steep dropoff from Parnell's other problems. But will he stop here? Can he sell a comic with 10 pages of original art? 8? I'm at the edge of my seat.
12:
ROK!T - 'Nuff Said. This is at the point where news on CG projects struggle to go beyond "teaching lessons" for a clearly dysfunctional understanding of economics
13.
Kayas: A Story of Blood & Stone - A comicsgater named Ryan Cardinal wanted to make a western shonen manga like
Wonder Island, except not gay. I don't know much about shonen manga, but I thought the trailer looked pretty cool for an amateur production. And making almost as much as Nasser for being some no-name Comicsgater in youtube chats is kinda good, I guess.
14.
PROJECT OLYMPUS: THE CRIMSON ORDER - The debut property of the
Ironclad Comics imprint about a generic team of superheroes (that bicker) who fight some bad guys. Clocking in at a $25 price point for a 30 page floppy, Ironclad Comics looks to be giving Patrick Thomas Parnell a run for his money and no less than two variant covers, including one by Canaan White. However, given that Ironclad Comics did not think to build a social media presence or build any kind of platform anywhere, his campaign has stalled out at a total of
33 backers. Yet, somewhat miraculous, has managed to fundraise over $100 backers per backer for this incredibly meager effort. This places him above...
15:
THE COLOSSALS by
Ciderhype of Ciderhype Entertainment. Ciderhype, also known as Thomas Burpee, and sometimes Cindy, has had a very tumultuous and memorable time in his journey from Warcampaigner to Liam Gray's disciple and now presently Etsy emeritus. Cider's thrice-pariah status within the Comicsgate community (and I'm sure many in this thread would argue ongoing association with Testefy) has undoubtedly led to problems getting traction outside the Etsy circuit of platforms like George Peter Gatsis and Alazmat Films. Yet, Cider's passion in wanting to tell this story about superheroine Star Sapphire, encompassing a widespanning vision of a whole superhero universe is undeniable. It also boasts the only video trailer where I'm mentioned in the campaign page.
16:
The VeilWalker #1 - This "guy who hunts the supernatural" thriller by some guy I never heard of is another 24-page floppy, which never seem to do well. On the other hand it does offer a $5 digital tier and $8 for a physical copy (more for foil variants), so I can't complain too much.
17.
The Devil from Talonflats - The second Western offering from Comicsgate (this one not supernatural), this second work by
Forrest Publishing has impressive covers from Preston Acevedo and Canaan White, clocks in at 50 pages with a $10 digital tier. Yet, after a push from Bancroft and a few other smaller channels like Tzvi Lebetkin and Critical Blast, the campaign has not found any real momentum.
18.
Shyft Issue 1: New Beginnings - Comicsgate's first gay furry comic (not counting werewolves). It sort of looks like it was drawn by Narwhal if Narwhal understood line weights, lighting, put more effort into his work and was a better colorist. $1439
19.
Agent Solo: City Under Siege #3 - I don't know
Raymond Leonard is actually Comicsgate or not or if he just figures it's where you go to sell badly drawn 90s comics. Whatever he's doing, he looks like he's having a blast doing it.

lol
20:
Dig Two Graves by
Jim Tanner - A rare CGer doubledipping into IGG after a Kickstarter campaign, Tanner's low profile no doubt helped him escape the watchful eye of the Malin Militia, ever alert for crowdfund platform deviancy. That aside this gritty modern day revenge thriller has probably the best art of any book in Comicsgate right now - and 84 pages of it to boot - but is another tragic example of a solid work consigned to obscurity due to a lack of consideration for marketing. That's why it's trailing the gay furry comic and whatever the fuck Agent Solo is.
Also you might want to dig two graves for this big boy lmao
21.
Coloring the Undead by
Rob Shaffer. Rob was a guy who tried to be a Comicsgater but nobody backed his comics so I guess he's trying the same with coloring books? Okay whatever.
22.
The Napalm Brothers:by
L. Lee Stewart. I think
@TheCosmicWarrior could tell us more about this guy since I think they had a falling out over JDA accepting peace with Comicsgate and Lee going to make $751 dollars. I could be thinking of someone else though.
23.
Nephilim Squadron Volume 1 by
Mel Allen. With a campaign page that resembles an excerpt from timecube.com, Mel can be seen guesting occasionally with DarkGift Comics and Rosetta Allen. However Mel "Hex" Allen did not come up with a distinctive name between "Nephilim Squadron Volume 1" and "Nephilim Squadron Issue 1", which was a pile of background art for a game he made with some bookmarks and cards thrown in there, and this might have scared backers. That said, I can think of nothing better to close this sumup then with Hex Allen's trailer, which I think perfectly captures the essence of lower-tier CG:
So there are your options, fellow kiwis. Choose wisely.