Recently, in Comicsgate:
Gabe Eltraeb, the latest addition to Frog's inner circle, was the generous recipient of a lengthy article by Bleeding Cool EIC
Rich Johnston.
https://archive.md/wip/Io0fC
https://bleedingcool.com/comics/gabe-eltaeb-not-coloring-superman-son-of-kal-el-5-after-dc-comments/
Gabe Eltaeb Not Coloring Superman: Son Of Kal-El #5 After DC Comments?
Posted on October 18, 2021 by Rich Johnston
Next week sees the publication of
Superman: Son Of Kal-El #4 written by
Tom Taylor, drawn by
John Timms, and coloured by
Gabe Eltaeb.
Superman: Son Of Kal-El #5 will see the kiss between Jon Kent, the new Superman of Earth, and his new boyfriend, the journalist Jay Nakamura, as the comic reveals that Jon Kent is a bisexual young Kryptonian/human hybrid.
There has naturally been a lot of mocking of this storyline and accompanying imagery by the Comicsgate crew on social media. Comicsgate is… how should I say this? Let's just cut and paste from Wikipedia.
Comicsgate is a campaign in opposition to diversity and progressivism in the North American superhero comic book industry, targeting the creators hired, the characters depicted, and the stories told, which proponents allege has led to a decline in both quality and sales. Its members present it as a consumer protest, primarily advocating their views on social media; some have produced books intended to reflect the group's values. It is part of the alt-right movement, and has been described by commentators as a harassment campaign which "targets women, people of color, and LGBT folk in the comic book industry". It has also been blamed by critics for the vandalism of one store and threats of violence.
And one supporter of Comicsgate and contributor to Comicsgate titles is the colourist Gabe Eltaeb
. And he went on a recent four-and-a-half-hour Livestream with other prominent Comicsgate-related creators who were castigating the bisexual Superman move, spending much of those hours making… well… gay jokes.
Dan Fraga asked that after having gay characters had run their course, what was next?
Jon Malin predicted that they would make them pedophiles next, "mark my words Batman will be f-cking Robin."
Art Thibert even decided to announce that I was gay as part of the discussion, though to paraphrase
Charlie Chaplin, I don't have that honour. There was also the observation made that an increase in gay superheroes was to "reprogram readers" and "ultimately win elections".
But as part of it, Gabe Eltaeb, colourist on the very comic they were discussing, criticised DC Comics and the work of his fellow creators on the book, stating,
"I'm finishing out my contract with DC. I'm tired of this sh-t, I'm tired of them ruining these characters; they don't have a right to do this. At Comic-Con in 2009, I was pushing Jerry Robinson's wheelchair around. That's the man who invented the Joker. I would work the DC booth back then. I remember bending down to his face and telling him, thank you for creating these characters, so people like me can waltz in and get a job. It's not about gay or anything else. What really pissed me off was saying truth, justice, and a better world, f-ck that it was Truth, Justice, and the American way. My Grandpa almost died in World War II; we don't have a right to destroy sh-t that people died for to give us. It's a bunch of f-cking nonsense. They call us bigots and racist and sh-t, I would ask them, find me in the f-cking mainstream, not on the fringes, one f-cking book, one f-cking t-shirt, one movie that says that leftism is bad, and conservatism is good, find it for me, they f-cking won't they're not letting people have a voice, they're the f-cking bigots. Sorry, that's been bottled up for five years."
This statement does seem to be at odds with Gabe's previous support for the series, saying "This book could not be more relevant to the current epoch. The importance of Fathers and sons, the issue of our times. @theartofjohntimms @tomtaylormade @DCComics". And Gabe's line about truth and justice refers to an earlier scene from the series that Eltaeb coloured, with Jon Kent talking about his frustrations about the expected role of Superman, defining his role as fighting for "truth, justice, and a better world". At the time, I thought that rang true — Clark Kent, as the illegal immigrant refugee, would be so grateful to the country that took him in that he would support and defend it, despite any flaws. While Jon Kent, American-born and what is colloquially known as a "young adult," may have different, less grateful, and more rebellious views. Which also may have consequences to come, taking a more interventionist approach with the danger he may present to the world. Indeed, the Comicsgate live stream brought up the issue that introducing characters to provide representation gives them "plot armour," making them untouchable in terms of danger, grief, or bad things happening to them.
That really doesn't seem what Superman: Son of Kal-El as a comic book is heading towards; they are setting up all sorts of consequences for the character's activist actions and interventionist approach. This feels like the story Tom Taylor, John Timm, and Gabe Eltaeb were telling, but maybe Gabe may not have been all-in on that. As for conservatism, pretty much every superhero story is about one man doing the right thing out of duty, not waiting for some big nanny state to intervene, or becoming part of some collective response, just doing what is right, preserving the status quo, and punching the bad guys, which is all pretty conservative right there. There may be occasional twists and turns for narrative purposes, but it always goes back to its core. At DC Fandome, DC Comics' publisher Jim Lee stated that Superman's new motto would be "Truth, Justice And A Better Tomorrow," but that's just as much an ideal — there is no guarantee that a better tomorrow is coming for anyone. Still, it's a good thing to strive for. Even if it really annoys proponents of the Oxford Comma.
Comicsgaters were also the first to prominently claim that Jon Kent would be gay. Though it was Bleeding Cool, who stated that was false, that he would be bisexual or pansexual instead and that the corporate reasons given for the move didn't stack up with the reality of the situation. Gabe continued on the live stream, saying of DC Comics, "I'm CG, I've got to finish my contract, got to be a gentleman, and I'm with you guys. Catch me, don't let me fall."
A few days after this live stream, Shelly Lopresti, wife of well-known comic creator Aaron Lopresti and recent friend of Comicsgate, tweeted out the following observation. "As if we needed another reason to boycott DC Comics…..they are now threatening their freelancers that if they do any work for anyone associated with ComicsGate that they will never work for DC again. They are not on contract, and DC should have no say. Woke business model". She then added, "It's amazing how they resort to name-calling and attack and call CG a hate group. How can they judge a colorist work and say it does not meet the values? They should be hired by merit, nor whether they are SJW's or not. If they dictate terms, creators should be on contract." Before adding that regarding this supposed policy, that she was "Just saying what I have heard."
And that's the thing. The best way to get blacklisted from a publisher, no matter what your politics, is to criticise the company, the characters, and the work of your fellow creators. Whether that's Chris Roberson fired by DC from Fairest, Dwayne McDuffie, fired by DC from Justice League Of America, or Al Milgrom, fired from Earth X for adding an insulting note about Bob Harras, it's rarely to do with your politics. Colourist Gabe Eltaeb has expressed all manner of conservative views online without causing an issue for the publisher, as well as working on a number of Comicsgate projects while continuing to work on DC, Image, and Valiant titles such as Aquaman, Green Lantern, Red Lanterns, Star Wars, Green Arrow, Young Justice, Invincible Universe, Batman: Arkham Unhinged, Martian Manhunter, Quantum And Woody, Green Lantern Corps. Justice League, Harley Quinn, and much more. But now, he has criticised DC Comics, its employee's work, says that they are all destroying the characters, and announces that he is leaving DC anyway. Superman: Son Of Kal-El #4 is in stores for sale this Tuesday. But it's possible he won't be colouring Superman: Son Of Kal-El #5 anymore. We reached out to Gabe earlier today without response, we are happy to update if we hear from him.
DC Comics doesn't really care if its creators are conservatives or not — as the return of Bill Willingham to Batman and Fables shows. It may not even care if you are Comicsgate or not – though individual creators who might be working with you may have a different opinion. But what DC Comics really cares about is if you insult and embarrass the company, its work, and its staffers publicly. That seems to really… colour their view of you.
As far as comicsgate livestream writeups go, in my expert opinion this wasn't the greatest work by Johnston, but Art Thibert's getting a comic book journalist to write an article mentioning how he called him a faggot earns my kudos, and may even approach 'based' status. It's difficult to decide which is funnier: the poorly disguised seething anger from Rich Johnston (good job Art), from phrasing his demands to cancel Gabe with a question mark down to his pedantry like "ackshually supermans's bi, not gay', versus Shelly Lopresti's outrage that leaking DC's biggest media stunts to Frog and openly defecting to Comicsgate like Gabe Eltraeb did would not result in getting blacklisted from DC comics.
https://mobile.twitter.com/Ron_Christian55/status/1448821577538326532
In other news, obscure "CG adjacent" indie comic creator HeroGeek apparently requested to go on a number of large youtube channels and, when rebuffed, tweeted a list of other outrage peddlers parasitically leeching a living off of reacting to the mainstream posing as promoters of counterculture. However this tweet with ones of likes at the time did not go unnoticed...
THATSTARWARSGIRL - 10/18/2021 - "YOUTUBERS NOT PROMOTING ME REEEEEEE" LET'S LAUGH AT THIS PUBLIC MELTDOWN
Searching for her name, Anna Mello found the tweet and invited us all to enjoy a laugh at the ensuing public meltdown. By this I suspect she means Herogeek, but it's hard to tell. After fourteen minutes of preamble, That Star Wars Girl begins to lay out her counterargument to Herogeek - that his 'tirade' was nothing more than a oblique method of gaining her notice after asking nicely didn't work, but
for that reason to protect the person in question, she has scrubbed the name and twitter account of the person in question as she rants in question. First to be defended was fellow youtuber, obese alopecia victim and toy collector Az, aka HeelsVsBabyface. Herogeek points out he claims to be some sort of anti-cancel culture champion, but in practice does little beyond but chortle stupidly at episodes of the live action Batwoman on CW for three seasons now. Anna points out how, when he was just starting out and his channel was much smaller, he would go on much larger Comicsgate streams and even interviewed Richard C Meyer once to give his growing channel much needed legitimacy and exposure. Another time, Az interviewed Martina Markota, who Anna calls "Markita" out of an genuine inability to remember her name. Of course, now that he's hooked into the algorithm and has subscribers in the six digits, this practice, or that of paying this help forward has ended in lieu of more Batwoman hatewatching and reading superchats from George Molho. These two interviews prove Az's sincerity and deep integrity, Anna argues.
Next is an earnest plea from Anna that the reason she doesn't promote is because she makes for a poor shill. Summarized, she doesn't like anything that isn't attention directed at herself and has a poor ability to disguise it, making weird faces at things she doesn't like. She relates an anecdote about the last time she promoted someone that wasn't a personal friend of hers', way back in 2019 she went on Jon Malin's "Comicsgate Presents" for some reason for Von Klaus's Monster MD and proceeded to act like she was a panelist at Dragon's Den. Anna has a high standard she says, which is why she reserves her endorsements for things like Cash Grab and really grilled creators like Von Klaus and Monster MD. For some reason however, she was told she was being a bitch, nobody appreciated her behavior and she has not been seen on the show in the two years since. Or the book "Paraguin" ( I think she mans
Peregrine: Wings of the Falcon), which also met with Anna's approval
Anna then goes on to argues that she's promoted all her personal friends' crowdfunds at one point or another, specifically citing her endorsement of
Dynamite Comics' Billy Tucci's' Miss Fury (so far delayed by over a year when the artist Maria quit due to anti-Comicsgate pressure with no end in sight, not that Anna knows this). Yet HeroGeek says she's just part of the "bitch and moan" crowd and totally failing to appreciate her nepotistic advocacy, which appears to leave Anna genuinely hurt at the injustice of it all. It's a thankless job Anna points out; talking about how Cyberfrog: Bloodhoney sucked certainly didn't do her any favors, going on to describe the planetary invasion of the alien wasp species as "a supervillain named Vyzpyzz", demonstrating her deep interest in and thorough reading of her friend's comic. But because Frog is her friend, she plugged it anyway. Now, she asks, imagine what you're asking of her when you ask her to promote your wares and you're not even her friend.
Next is felllow youtuber ClownfishTV. Do they promote indie comics? No. But they do promote their indie comic. But they're 'very busy' and it's their platform, they can do whatever they like with it. Sort of like how Star Wars is the private property of LucasFilm and they have the right to do whatever they want with it, but different... somehow. Anna goes on to spend the next twenty minutes ranting about some conspiracy to set her against Geeky of ClownfishTV.
Building your own platform is hard work and you need a thick skin if you intend to be a self-promoting artist Anna says. This is followed by her complaining that the hidden genius of her Vampirella cover went unnoticed and everyone just laughed at it as a shitty Bratz doll cover. It wasn't a Bratz doll cover, Anna argues - their heads are way rounder, and the cover was a tribute to her dead sister and her own tastes. Maybe if the customer was her dead sister, they would be able to appreciate what she was going for her crude bisexual lighting offbrand-Bratz monstrosity? Maybe she should start talking honestly about what she thinks of some of the "shit art" sent her way?
It's at this point that Frog and Cecil start rushing in to the stream to tardwrangle Anna by any means necessary. Cecil floods the stream with boring small talk about his upcoming vacation with Yellowflash instead of finishing Cash Grab while Frog played TikToks of an obese midget dancing to lull the womanchild into docility and after an hour and a half of excruciating nothing, the stream is allowed to finally, mercifully die.
Finally, I close with this clip of former Warcampaign member
TJ Dopeness/TJ Swan regaling Finatra and his panel of the wondrous story of how Ro Kabir got his dickpic.
