11/04/2021 - THE POZ SHOW - THE STATE OF COMICSGATE AND CROWDFUNDING 2021
And with that the host,
Smug Pug, opens the latest episode of the quickly popular (by small Comicsgate channel standards)
Poz Show. Smug Pug and the Poz Show, as a fringe Comicsgater even by "slumtown CG" standards, could be best explained as a splinter off of the Well Read Reviews show after an acrimonious split between him and the eponymous
Well Read User1 over creative direction. This followed when Well Read and Smug Pug together mutinied against the Oz Show in a most explosive manner over Amit Raina being gatekept in favor for DarkGift, a breaking point of the antagonism between Oz and his own show,
which played a critical role in the demise of Oz's call-in program. And The Oz Show itself of course was a legacy of the great Liamstreams of 2020, the
Urheimat of this rich lineage of violent, shortlived underground Comicsgate channels. The Poz Show, in its brief dozen or so channel history, distinguishes itself by being a step removed from even the remotely comic-related CG drama streams and being a more general discussion show discussing about and often with lolcows. Shows are packed with other obscure streamers like "dabbster mcdabberton", Ryzie Lee and Amit Raina, unrelated online friends like Spirit Jr, along with comparatively more recognizable core of regulars Vikki and DA Talks in what is a very chaotic, raucous series of fresh, open ended livestreams. So many of these are, early on.
But not today.
After a short and perfunctory introduction and acknowledgement of various chat participants, 'Smug Pug' says "today we'll be doing something different" as there are a few issues he would like to discuss, and he has brought a number of guests on to discuss them in depth in a series of 20 minute segments. First will be alternatives to comic book crowdfunding that independent comic creators are turning towards, like SubStack and NFTs. Contributing to this, M
ike S Miller and
Doug TenNapel will attend to discuss the latter. After this will be discussing alternatives to, paraphrasing, meta-Comicsgate content, with guests
VikkiVerse and
DA Talks, along with
Chris & Diana Tamulevich discussing going from Comicsgate critics, to commentators, to independent content creators. After this will be discussing the decline in small project promotion with the expulsion of Warcampaign; Ro, Gat and Pan were invited for this portion but of the three, only
Panboy agreed to attend. Nasser Rabadi and Jon del Arroz were slated for their own segment, presumably to provide counterpoint as to why they returned to Comicsgate, but they cancelled. Liam Gray was also scheduled, but will not be attending. To represent the pro-Comicsgate counterargument to what were sure to be some contravening stances,
Michael Bancroft, DarkGift Comics, Lord Finatra and
Lord Crackhead33 would have a chance to say their piece. Finally, to speak on behalf of the everyman customer of this ostensible consumer movement, Smug Pug's cohost
DShot,
Stupendous,
Amit Raina,
Colonel Morg and
Mecha McCheese would be there to give their critiques and their thoughts on Comicsgate, as customers, observers and spectators.
But before that is the framing of the current state of Comicsgate as perceived by Smug Pug. Citing CreatorGo, Comicsgate made $5.97M in 2020 and so far in 2021 has only grossed $4.25M. Barring a one and a half million dollars worth of campaigns in the following two months, something not really possibly in my estimation, Comicsgate is definitely on the economic decline. Contrasting the decline in funding is the growth in the number of creators - 140 campaigns were launched last year, 168 campaigns have been so far in the year of 2021. Smug Pug thinks overall the increase in competition for Comicsgate backing is a good thing, but given that only 67 of the 168 crowdfunds this year passed $10,000 this year, there is the question of how sustainable this all is if the majority of creators are operating at a loss.
And if waning creator enthusiasm is a concern, waning backer/viewer enthusiasm is just as much - Smug Pug went ahead and put a large swath of Comicsgate and related channels in a "dead subscriber calculator" and found most of the major existing channel to consist of a 80-90% dead subscriber base. Enterprising Comicsgaters in 2021, obeying the call to "build your platform" have a far harder time gaining any sort of traction or viewership under the CG banner than any of the early adopters had.
Doug Ernst,
Captain Cummings and Micah Curtis to this day dwarf "big CG youtubers" like Cecil and Jon Malin in terms of subscriber count. It just seems like there was far more interest in 2017 and 2018 than there is 2021. Smug Pug has a theory though, that if Comicsgate actually reached outward instead of existing converts for an audience that this decline may be averted. But if looking within for an audience is the easier option and nowadays streamers are struggling to succeed even with that, it does not look promising for any prospective outreach. Perhaps the guests will have something to add to any of these problems troubling Smug Pug's mind.
Part 1: VikkiVerse, DA Talks and Chris & Diana Tamulevich on Comicsgate Critique
With that, the first segment is brought on with a double date between the HeroShack creative team (right now working on the extremely modestly funded
Cluster Fudge 2), wholesome Christian married couple Chris and Diana, and opposite them are the
D&V Investigations team consisting of VikkiVerse and DA Talks, aka Dean. And, uh, yeah. Interesting choice. Smug Pug asks Chris T, aka HeroShack, how he went from inveterate Comicsgate detractor to putting aside his grievances and minding his own business. The actual answer is nobody really gave a shit if he stayed or left any of the pro or anti-CG factions. But Chris explains nonetheless: as a staunch Christian boomer with a traditional family, he really didn't like what he was hearing about vulnerable kids being exposed to sexual material that he as a Christian found genuinely upsetting. But then people started beating a drum about Comicsgate books being late, constantly late. This set Chris on a journey which somehow led the devout Christian to hanging around in Preston's infamous coomer discord before belatedly coming to his senses and reconciling that making edgelord comics isn't tantamount to destroying children, by making his own edgelord comic
Cluster Fudge, which I believe is the first CG or CG adjacent comic to feature violent geriatric sex and that the Well Read Review show was legitimately disturbed by as they believed it to contain a scene where the protagonist engages in necrophilia. Truly, it is the stories of the lesser known figures like Chris that are the real gems of Comicsgate.
Chris's wife Diana, a folksy 50 year old church lady who looks like she just finished baking a tray of cookies, interjects to add something of her own. She's been looking into some of this Comicsgate stuff herself, and a couple of weeks ago she just figured out that "EVS" and "Ethan van Sciver" are in fact the same guy doncha know? And she learned that he has his own show, and she was really impressed by what she saw there when she looked it up, even though she can't approve of the times he "gets fresh". Diana relates how, after watching this, she looked over to Chris and said HeroShack Comics should maybe model his own social media approach after what this Ethan guy's doing, instead of what Chris has done in the past with Preston and the Trash Compactor show. Bashfully, Chris nods to his wife's wisdom on these matters, adding that eventually he realized that other people's late books aren't his problem and the fulfillment he gets from making his own stories has left him unconcerned what Marvel was doing with their own properties.
Next is VikkiVerse and DA Talks. VikkiVerse's explanation is simple enough: her primary animosity was towards Warcampaign and their behavior; with them gone she is still a critic, just a no longer as furious critic. DA Talks also explains that he was never invested in any pro- or anti-Comicsgate stance in the first place, he's always been up front that he has never been interested in comics; his only motivation was and is exposing bad behavior on the internet. Somewhat contrary to HeroShack's apathetic stance on the matter, Vikki has her own opinion of alll the late books out there, which is expressed by playing a two minute music video listing of the dozens of overdue projects set to exhilarating techno-thriller music with more hype in it then most CG trailers. Get fucking mad, people. The point being, around a third of Comicsgate projects are late and it's no surprise that people are hesitant to continue backing comics where there's a one in three chance that they'll be left holding the bag indefinitely, until all interest and enthusiasm in receiving what was paid for years later. For every dollar invested in campaigns that are in progress, there is 79 cents locked in overdue projects. Dean agrees; there's no way around that this behavior can lend confidence to any market where this is allowed to happen. Smug Pug thanks both teams for their time and ushers in
Part Two: Mike S Miller and Doug TenNapel on Creator Alternatives to Crowdfunding with NFTs
This part begins, after a genial introducing of the reinvented crypto guru Mike S Miller and his youtube jannydodging offscreen friend "Jim", a request by Smug Pug to explain the concept of NFTs to himself and the rest of the degenerate Oz Show-refugee masses. Mike has never been the most effective communicator, but at this point his NFT explanation speech is practiced enough and polished enough to deliver it semi-successfully within two minutes, seven seconds: NFTs are a receipt of the digital art's
provenance stored within the Etherium blockchain, not the image itself. It's this objective, immutable and unalterable provenance that has perceived value, not the image itself. He digresses a bit about Purple Rain and molecules, and gets sidetracked about "sushi swapping" before managing to correct himself. The point being: as long as this quality of NFTs has perceived value, it does.
Gamely, Smug Pug throws out another question to his guests asking if it's true that all them far left SJWs really hate crypto. As an interviewer, this was a great choice of a question as the dopamine immediately floods through Mike and Doug's bodies at the thought of triggering liberals while making hundreds of thousands of dollars, with blinding levels of smugness radiating from a Smiller who, if his riches were corporeal, would no doubt be swimming in his lucre at this moment like so much Scrooge McDuck. Truly this australian shitposter with a dog avatar has made two friends for life with this question. As a subject for discussion for an audience, it was an unmitigated disaster as for the next three minutes Mike happily discusses how the security of the crypto blockchain makes processing an extremely energy intensive job, conveying such thing as the unavoidable matter of impedance in high speed processors and percentages of cryptocurency mining rigs using renewable energy source. The drunk retard audience, here for Comicsgate drama, has had enough of the TED Talk shit over if NFT rigs can be powered by solar and begins to bay for Smiller blood for making them listen to this. Fights break out in the chat out of boredom, as is the Comicsgate way, and quickly Smug Pug asks Mike if he heard correctly that the
Lonestar creator has made more money with NFTs then he has with all his crowdfunded comics put together.
"Yes," Mike answers, cutting off Pug's congratulations to add "
in a couple of rough months". Doug, the more socially aware of the two, makes a few gestures towards humility, talking about the overhead of employing writers to give special backstories to accompany each
Eternal Klay NFT and how he finds the completely digital aspect of it liberating as it allows him to fulfill his true desire of being an artist without spending precious money or more precious time with matters like filling envelopes or physical fulfillment. Smug Pug relays a question from disillusioned Comicsgater 'WendyB' if, with all this NFT success, will there be any plans to crowdfund more comics in the future? "Hell no!" exclaims an ebullient Mike. "So there won't be a Lonestar 4 in the future?" asks the Pug showhost. "Nah!". Cold stuff from the
Lonestar creator to his few remaining true believers.
Smug Pug moves on to Doug, asking him about his upcoming
Earthboy Jacobus omnibus. The gallant to Mike's goofus, Doug talks about how the NFT profit allowed him to pay his colorist up front for the work and how he'll be selling it on IndieGogo after a charming personal letter from an IndieGogo executive promising that
Earthboy Jacobus will be promoted by Indiegogo themselves as a flagship campaign for the platform and that made all the difference in his mind. But given the pandemic-related supply chain disruptions and skyrocketing costs of shipment and supplies, NFTs just make the most business sense for him at the moment, but he doesn't rule out making comics in the future if conditions improve. Either way, the NFTs sold during this pleasant break from comics will make creating any comics in the future easier. Of course, whether there's any real difference between two on whether they'll return to comics, or if Doug is simply far more apt at coaching the news, remains to be seen.
His question answered from both guests, Smug Pug follows this by asking what advice they might have for a down on their luck colleague who might be interested transitioning from crowdfunding comics to making NFTs. Doug advises that said person take a candid assessment of their strengths and weaknesses and gauge which field they'd be best suited for. NFTs aren't for everyone just like comics aren't for everyone, and good people will unavoidably struggle and fail at both all the same. There is no guarantee of success in anything. This segues into Pug commenting that crowdfunding seems more prone to failure lately given the exploding costs of shipping in Australia and elsewhere, which leads into a tangent of Mike and Doug griping about their least favorite places to ship to, which goes on for a few minutes until the host says how happy he is for the both of them.
Doug quips that sometime he hopes he gets cancer again, or that Mike loses his house and has to live on the street, so that Comicsgaters will have something to cheer about, adding "at least they can still have fun kicking Liam. Big man." "Liam was in my prayers just today" says Mike. Pug places the link to Doug's twitter in the chat and asks if there's any links to social media or whatever that Mike would like to share? "No," answers Mike "Keep this previous community the hell away from my new community", a response that definitely does not endear him to the audience. Doug laughs and says that at least he doesn't have to explain to his audience on how a 160 page hardcover book is more valuable than a 48 page comic printed on newsprint, it didn't really lend confidence about the comic market in his mind. And with that, the two crowdfunders-cum-NFT creators walk away hand-in-hand to the crypto bank (provided said bank owner hasn't pulled up stakes and run off with everything yet).
Interregnum - The JACK Show
As this very special Poz Show continues afoot, another episode of the interminable JACK Show grinds on. The campaign status of Anna TSWG's cosplay calendar is checked on for what feels like the thousandth time. Anna and Chrissy Mayr talk about what undergarments hide seams the best when wearing spandex while a stoned Dan Fraga (favors have been called to get quality guests like Frog and Fraga on to impress Chrissie Mayr) slurs into the camera. The campaign has jumped up $40 dollars (one $25 calendar + shipping). Only $500 more and Anna will take a shot of alcohol on stream and maybe do or say something funny or interesting. A drunk Cecil is slowly searching his memory for the name of some SNL cast member from years back to show off his encyclopedic knowledge of NYC standup comedians to Mayr. Jim? Jimmy? Jimmy Fallon? No... not jim... kat... kat... Chris Kattan? Frog stares into the monitor, dead to his surrounding panelists. Listlessly he gives a single nod. "yeah yeah" when Cecil decides he must be thinking about Chris Kattan. The topic of conversation drifts towards Witten. Witten wants to start an Onlyfans but she doesn't have a laptop so naturally Comicsgaters, if they have money left over from backing the cosplay calendar, should come together and buy her one. Cecil for one did his part by buying a signed buttplug from Witten, because that's the sort of guy he is. Fraga stares blankly into his lap while Frog looks off at nothing, simultaneously unresponsive to what's going on around him and agitated at the same time.
Something is wrong. Very wrong.
Part 4 - Panboy and Crowdfunds After Warcampaign
As mentioned before, the majority of Comicsgate campaigns in 2021 have grossed under $10,000 and Smug Pug recalls that Warcampaign was always very active in supporting the smaller campaigner. Cynics would argue that this was part of a protracted scheme of WC courting whales into membership, who would back at levels both collectively and individually to gain proportionately far greater leverage over smaller campaigns. For his part, Pug says that he recalls they were always fighting for the little guy. Gat declined to attend, and Ro ultimately went from wavering to also opting not to appear, the two no longer interested in even correcting the CG historical record, leaving Panboy as the sole WC representative on the Poz Show.
An unusually mellow and dysthemic Panboy opens the conversation with the host by saying that he's been watching the show since the beginning and doesn't follow all the NFT stuff, but is happy for Mike and Doug's success. Smug Pug relays the hails and cheers from the rest of the chat, which gets a mild reply back from Pan as Pug asks his first question, about how creators like Liam Gray, Micah Curtis, Rob Casey, Michael Derrick etc. could always count on promotion from Warcampaign in the past but nowadays, barring support from a handful of creators like Michael Bancroft, Darkgift Comics and Finatra, featured later, it just seems like they don't have a lot of places to go these days. Panboy waxes nostalgia about the glory days; back then nobody was more Comicsgate than he was. He lived and breathed it, trolling Vikki, memeing renfamous, buying books and other noble services to the community, adding that he's sad to hear that they're not doing so well these days.
Smug Pug says that, on a high note, Joe Ball's art on
Bulletmaker looks great. But he points out that it's now running under the label "Black Dragon Comics" instead of Warcampaign and asks if Pan would care to explain. Panboy answers that
Bulletmaker and Black Dragon Comics is Ro and Gat's project - it has nothing to do with him. And given that Ro and Gat finally washed their hands of association with the remaining rank and file WC members a couple of months ago, simply tired of having to answer for their conduct, this sort of leaves Panboy on his own. "But not a lot has changed" as he sees it. He's still making shows twice a week with Gat and Ro, and has a lot more money now that he's no longer a "pretend customer" to spend on expanding his Ninja Turtles collection.
The Australian Pug, after remarking on how much Pan loves his Ninja Turtles, digresses on how Warcampaign moved on to the tabletop RPG community, what happened there? Pan answers in a muted tone that much of the same woke culture he saw in comics he saw infesting that fandom as well. And not just there. They're moving everywhere, even into scenes where you'd never seen soft, effete liberal sensibilities. Even the MMA community is woke and soy now. They're everywhere you turn it seems, and it's hard not to notice a sense of fatigue in Pan's voice. The two look over the preview art for
Bulletmaker, with Pan pointing out the piece of original art he plans to buy.
Pan thanks Smug Pug, for having him on, and for showing love for the little people, leaving with the parting words "People, they have mixed feelings, or a lot of hate for Warcampaign. But I'll tell you right now that no one was more Comicsgate, you know, you know, how, how are we gonna get cancelled from Comicsgate? That kind of makes us more Comicsgate than just about anybody, really? So, you know, we had a lot of fun. I wish everybody well, you know, good show man" and with that leaves for an unclear future.
PART 5 - Michael Bancroft, DarkGift Comics, Finatra and the Case for Comicsgate
Quickly, Smug Pug ushers in the quartet of Comicsgate creators and figures to make the case for Comicsgate in the face of the currently declining economic conditions, ranging from subscriptions, backers, funding, shipping, and the alternatives available for blacklisted professionals. Michael Bancroft, creator of the
Lucent, DarkGift Comics (Anthony Romano), who has been around for a few years as a superbacker before launching his own project with Preston Poulter's ex-wife,
Hunting Alice. Along with these two are Lord Finatra and Lord Crackhead33 (standing in for
@COMMI3 MARK ), two of the fourth-generation of Comicsgate figures to emerge post COVID and post WC. Smug Pug asks his guests what they think of the show so far.
Bancroft is the first to reply, saying that he finds it interesting though disagrees with many of the conclusions, specifically Pug's bleak look on the hundred or so strugging creators in the year of 2021. There were dozens of equally small creators back then as well, but they never left obscurity and thus were dimly remembered if at all. The only difference now is that there is software to help people be aware of them, and that there are more of them now. Either way, more creators should be interpreted as a sign of growth and as a good thing. DarkGift more or less reiterates these sentiments, adding some of these people just get 30 twitter followers and launch campaigns and what do they expect to happen?
Continuing, Bancroft goes on to describe what's happening as validation of Comicsgate credo to "vote with your wallets" in action. A lot of books are late, yes, and now they're getting funded less. People may not like it, and while it may not necessarily look great to heavy promoters of other people's works like himself when these people fall short, thanks to the invisible hand bad actors are being punished, expectations are rising and standards are tightening. As it should be. "The time of hate turning up and saying "I'm CG" and just jumping straight onto Ethan's channel, that ended two years ago." Comicsgate is still the best place for independent comic creators he contends, but it's not a magic word that will turn failed endeavors into success stories. At the end of the day you have to build an audience. You have to put the work in.
Smug Pug asks Finatra if he has anything he'd like to add. "Yeah." answers Finatra, phoning in while walking down some street in the middle of the night. Finatra's speech is a bit disjointed since he's swerving sketchy looking street people as he delivers it, and this colors his thinking as he describes how, until some of these people wanting promotion get a book out, they're sketchy as shit too. And if you aint got a book then you need to get yourself out there. You got to get your name out there, do them superchats, get on that grind and hustle. Because you got to put up or shut up and that's just how it gotta be. And you always gotta be open to your friends when they nudge you back in your lane. Make sure you come correct son, and that's how it's gotta be because greatness comes from adversity.
Finatra's got his lane, he says, and he counts his blessings that he's got a crew of friends to kick him in his ass and put him back in his place from time to time, because he's a victim to his own devices. You gotta have a crew, and if you want them to show you love you gotta show love first, otherwise aint nobody gonna love you and you're gonna have a rough time of it. A lot of people out there complaining just seem to be in denial of these facts, as Finatra sees it. "There's no gate." Finatra closes his speech with, "There is no gate in Comicsgate. It's a level playing field. It's fucking, it's a field of equity, like all the SJWs want. It's a level playing field and y'all you got to do is get the attention like Eddie Winkler, like Professor Murph. Like, um, Zaid Comics. Zaid Comics is everywhere. Sure, do what he does, and if you don't, get people to do it for you. Get people around you, but if you don't love anybody that don't nobody love you. Hey, that's all." Finatra's monologue could best described as equal parts motivational speech, healthy suspicion towards unproven creators and shout out to his homies, all delivered at triple speed.
"Okay, that was quite the speech." Smug Pug follows with. "The chats loving it. Except for Jabba who says 'Dude shut the fuck up you dumbass.'".
Bancroft and DarkGift close by exulting the recent success story of newcomer Irene Strychalski's
Fiendish, "Rene" successfully carrying out a charm offensive to sell her debut comic and delivering a quality book delivered on time. Back in the day, 20-18, a new person making $30-40,000 on their first campaign was big news and warranted their campaigns being followed for years, like Martina Markota or Antonio Brice. These days the success of a debuting creator like Irene is common place, and the unstated argument of Grift and Bancroft is that perhaps it's Smug Pug's perspective that has changed over the years, Meanwhile...
Still stuck in an online telethon for a crudely made $25 cosplay calendar, one that would stretch for a grueling 8 hours, Frog has a dour expression on his face as his cohosts Cecil (0 creations, 8 months overdue) and Dan Fraga (0 creations, 7 months overdue) talk about whatever.
Part 6: Stupendous, DShot, Colonel Morg, Amit Raina and Mecha McCheese - Comicsgate From the Customer Perspective
For the final word, five customers and sometimes streamers are brought on to share their thoughts on the state of Comicsgate. Stupendous is the first to speak, remarking how for something that parallels itself to the Image Comics revolution, he recalls how Image Comics' lost its momentum and fire due to the many delays and incomplete projects by "celebrity" artists. WildC.A.T.S, Youngblood, that's what happened to them. Stu says that CG names try to ape Image's success, but may well wind up aping its ultimate failure. Dshot agrees, pointing towards youtuber Literature Devil's two years late "Doc Alpha". Nobody in Comicsgate seems to say much about it. Creators and streams with smaller channeljust don't seem to care about backers if it means getting an in with someone with a larger platform. Dshot was an early backer of Comicsgate projects, but the comics he did receive (not even getting into the ones he didn't) were so underwhelming that he left them at his last place when he moved out. Mecha objects to the comparisons to Image - Image is a company, whereas "Comicsgate" is barely a category.
Amit Raina picks up the topic of creator behavior being steadily ignored, pointing out the silence when it was revealed
Replicator creator
Rob Arnold tried to poach Rob Willis while knowing he was working on
Seicho 66 by Matthew Fowler. For a "consumer movement", Amit says, it sure is weird that are certain creators getting a pass for actively sabotaging smaller creators and interfering with Comicsgate backers getting the comics they paid for. From the perspective of a consumer, the actions of someone like Rob Arnold and someone like Mark Waid are difficult to distinguish. Morg relates that it's been a long time since he accepted that the story of Comicsgate was much more interesting than the few stories any of the creators have managed to successfully produce. Smug Pug asks about the CG Fanzine
Rok!t, to which Amit asks how asking people to pay $50 for an ad magazine is pro-consumer. How is denying international backers like himself the option of digital instead of paying upwards of 25-30 USD for a comic pro consumer? You'd think a pro-consumer movement would have pro-consumer values, no? Dshot takes a moment to cite the pro-consumer ethos Doug Ernst showed when he spent $100 out of pocket to make sure he got his copy of
Soulfinder after forgetting to ship it.
Mecha has his own issues with the values shown by Comicsgate in recent years - namely the inclusion of female protagonists in comics, which is a complete betrayal in the culture war in his estimation. If you think about, Mecha invites, placing yourself in the position of a woman in a text is just the first step to imaging yourself as a woman in real life and becoming a tranny. Just don't do it. Disserving soldiers and veterans like himself by writing comics about female soldiers, he would have never supported CG if he knew this would happen. VikkiVerse says something in the chat, to which Mecha tells her to "shut up" and reminds her "women didn't win World War II".
Lateness comes up again, the panel citing years late campaigns. Campaigns that have gone into InDemand while the creators has not put pen to paper even once. Customers who have died waiting for their comics. Amit argues that any crowdfund that goes on for over a year should just be summarily refunded by backers; it's money that could be put to actual use somewhere. He for one is enjoying the 3700 page, 14 volume hardcover box set of
Crisis on Infinite Earths he snagged for $290 dollars, around the price of one Bloodhoney Box when accounting for shipping. Dshot laughs, adding "they're just missing calendars".
Smug Pug asks for final thoughts. Stupendous (paraphrasing) cautions that Comicsgate will continue as long as people are engaged with it, and people are going to have trouble maintaining unbroken engagement between campaign launch and fulfillment if that's a span of years. Amit says that CG needs to decide if it is a fan movement or a fanclub of e-celebs, and Amit is getting the sense that it's become the latter. Colonel Morg plugs chat troll Jabba the Coach's "one page comic". And Mecha McCheese wants to reiterate that a man writing a female protagonist amounts to being a literary tranny, and CG should not support that. But on the whole he's done criticiizing CG. Comicsgate was founded in reaction to bad books from the mainstream, but it has yet to present a superior alternative in his eyes. He hopes it gets there some day though
.
Conclusion
The tabled discussion over, Smug Pug closes with the call in segment to bring on some Poz Show regulars on to discuss how they feel the State of Comicsgate went, as he seems to have mixed thoughts on the result. First is ex-WC member and walking stereotype TJ Dopeness as well as CG newcomer Hargrave. TJ missed the whole stream and asks Smug for a recap, then asks Smug if it went well. Nyobi Comics, aka Larry Higgins phones in from work, through his extremely poor reception talks about his own success on Kickstarter and how he's now publishing through Antarctic Press and starts making comparisons to himself and Brian Pulido. TJ isn't interested in Larry's frankly boilerplate self promotion though and starts talking over him to discuss his own feelings about how he feels a lot of what he sees going on was what CG was founded to get away from, then starts rambling about how he loves Star Wars as a kid as Larry's phone starts to die. Hargrave says from his perspective, Frog seems stretched thin and expectations seem unrealistically high, and perhaps instead of expanding and modeling oneselves after these publishers people should model themselves after successful independent creators. Nyobi agrees, pointing out through his hissing mic that he's been making comics since 2014 and a lot of these creators could learn a lot from him. Buy Exciting Comics 17, out now on comic shelves. And with that the 3 guests are shown their leave, with Smug Pug bringing on Testefy at the very end since nobody wants to interact with him. Testefy gloats that Smug Pug has shown everybody's hand tonight. Everybody. Nobody liked the boring NFT stuff, and everyone knows it's a pyramid scheme anyway. A bit of trashtalk is spared for Wascampaign, and with that the stream comes to a close.
Reactions were fairly wide.
Ryzie Lee, incoherent sort of-Comicsgate wastrel, was evidently inspired and brought out the last thing anyone expected on his show: a topic. Namely, about Mike and Doug crying about shipping when all the costs were passed down along to international backers like him.
Finally, Nasser Rabadi and Jon del Arroz, who cancelled their scheduled segment as returning Comicsgaters and their newfound positivity towards the movement, responded with launching their own livestreams the next day about how the two born again Comicsgaters wouldn't dare be seen on an Anti-CG stream with Panboy. JDA stretches this to two installments, adding how "Vikki's simps got me banned me from Kiwifarms" after his latest high quality post on this thread.
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