This has been a long time coming. As someone who was there for the very early days of #ComicsGate, this appears like it might be the reckoning so many of us have been waiting years for.
It was Ya Boi Zach who really set the foundations for ComicsGate, but it was Ethan who decided to cement it as a movement. He welcomed new creators at first, but quickly ditched us when he could get big industry names to join him. The birth of the ComicsGate Kings was the moment we realized that we’d been had.
Ethan has a small army of spies, snitches and enforcers to keep the people he has screwed in check. Whether he rewards them with money, signed comics or just his attention is anyone’s guess. What is certain is that he has toadies and goons everywhere because shady motherfuckers always just assume everyone else is just as shady and devoid of a moral compass as they are.
This is how it works: Ethan sees that you could be useful to him, so he invites you in and helps you sell you books. He’s great at creating a mask of benevolence to lure these folks in, but the problem with masks is that eventually they slip and you see the real person underneath. Ethan is a textbook case of malignant narcissism (a psychological disorder in which a person has an inflated sense of self-worth, a need for admiration, and a disregard for others).
A former member of his inner circle told me he backed away from Ethan quick when he realized that when EVS endorses you it's a Prison Favor: he’ll do you a solid, but after that he OWNS your ass, or at least that's how he behaves. This is why you see other industry professionals he brings in gradually distance themselves from him. At the same time they’re afraid to piss him off, because that’s how Ethan rules his little kingdom: FEAR.
As for we smaller creators, resentment has been building. Many us have fulfilled multiple campaigns, gotten our books to backers on-time or at least close to it. We love our fans and invest in them because they literally make our dream of making comics come true. But when big dogs like Ethan take three years to make one damn comic, that hurts us all. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve spoken to who used to follow CG and back books, but no longer do because three years is, understandably, too long to wait for a single book.
To put it bluntly, indie creators came to #ComicsGate because we were looking for a space where we didn't have to deal with blacklists, whisper networks and Cancel Culture... and now we find ourselves in a scene that has ALL of those things in abundance. And all this time we have had to sit here and keep our mouths shut because Ethan can just squish us with his thumb.
Honestly, what I just shared is just the tip of a much nastier iceberg. I could tell you stories all day, but I think you get the gist: #ComicsGate is a fraud. Ethan sold smaller creators a bill of goods and threw them under the bus first chance he got.
Now if you want to talk about #CancelPigs, Ethan has certainly cancelled his fair share of creators, but he has also UN-cancelled them when it was useful to him (the most egregious example was when he cancelled Micah Curtis, only to un-cancel him when he needed to use him to cancel Liam Sharp). People like Nasser were also un-cancelled when it suited his purposes.
But the biggest #CancelPig of them all is Jon Malin, who has cancelled several artists that I know of personally, and I’m guessing quite a few I don’t. The receipts are there and waiting for the light of day. And, hallelujah, that day appears to be drawing near.
That’s what all of us who have been personally screwed by Ethan and Malin have been waiting for: the day we can come forward with those receipts without fear of reprisal. Said day will only come when they have lost their power, and I think we’re beginning to see the start of that. When it comes, the floodgates will open Weinstein/Cosby-style.
