I don't want to 'fight' with Frog by questioning his assertions, causing him to throw swears and sulk, so I won't @ him or quote-reply him, but I do just want to remind youngsters on here that he has no education, has never read a full page of a word-book his whole life, and therefore we must take his assertions with a pinch of salt.
Specifically I question his idea of a promotional co-operative creator network being the foundation of CG. I think the promotion aspect is important, not the co-operative aspect.
We've seen how enemies of CG (Tim Lim) have done just as well, if not better than co-operative CG stalwarts like Adam Post. What could the reason be?
I've not read either of them, but as far as I can tell, the reason for their respective numbers is that one creator is shit at comics and the other creator is good at comics.
I think as much as we like to attribute Cecil and Malin's numbers to Frog's promotion, it can't really be denied that their products look like good products, which no doubt helped their numbers along with Frog's energetic promotional drives.
Now let's say Wenger's Aldrake had gotten the same treatment, either the Adam Post 'kinda snuck in there' approach or the full-throated 'War on SJW' promo efforts that Frog made for Cecil and Malin on his show.
Would Aldrake be sitting at $100K right now?
(
Should Aldrake be sitting at $100K right now? I bet
@Wenger thinks so!)
A further example is Ya Boi Zack, who is raising great numbers on some (imo) pretty crap-looking comics, without participating in any 'co-operative network' activity. I mean, looking at his high-profile Expendables: Go To Hell project, he never even did one video with Chuck Dixon and Graham Nolan, his co-writer and artist, who are both on Youtube too. They never did one video together! Yet they still raised hundred of thousands.
Now it's certainly nice for the creators to have a big loving, hugbox network, blowing smoke up each other's butts about how great they are - but isn't that what Liam and Micah do?
Isn't that just exactly what Liam and Micah do?
I don't think that necessarily sells comics. I think only two things are needed:
- A good product
- People to know about the good product
If you lack either then you are more likely to fail. If you have both, then the whole thing becomes easy.
But this whole 'co-operative network' of creators all being nice to each other is pointless as far as I can tell.
Ironically that kind of networking would only have a purpose if they were planning to form a hated conglomerate entity, the Image-style Derrickcorp that they disgustedly condemned the other night.
In practice, that creator-networking is only good when there's real talent being showcased, good product. Anything less is just a waste of everyone's time. And lying about shit comics being good only damages your own credibility.
I'm not so sure about the style of promotion I see from Malin, Dillard, Simeti and others, where it's more like a formal interview. I think that can work, but it almost becomes too deferential (that means 'respectful' Frog, save you looking it up) leading to a more boring, unentertaining 'infomercial' style of content.
It would be better if we had more bold customers, to put these coddled creators in their place. A hard customer, a rough customer, like the Hut perhaps. Or even a little less rough, like velvety-voiced Well Read. Either way is good, as long as they aren't gay about it.
It's not happened in CG because Frog is more of a Big Gay Al than a Simon Cowell.
And that's also the big problem with the CG/anti-CG divide, it's just two rival sets of simps. I like what F Off Well Read is doing with his reviews because I want to see these creators really challenged, instead of being pimped out like ugly heifers at a backwater brothel. Well Read did a smart thing by looking at the books themselves, circumventing all the stupid social niceties involved in a 'creator network'.
Perhaps we'll see another proof of my point with the forthcoming RIPPAVERSE:
Eric July has done the build-your-platform bit, he's done the hone-your-craft bit, and he's about to do the launch-a-good-product bit. He likely won't need to get involved in any gay social network to succeed.
