So you can take this to Howard, right? And you can shove this right up Howard's stupid f***ing ass, okay? What, you don't like Howard anymore? No, because Howard dumps on me all the time, and you know, it's just not fun when you have a thing like this, okay? And now you'll do this on a show and you'll all laugh and have a good time, but it's not fun, you know? Hi everyone, it's your boy Zach. So, I speak often, constantly, about despising nostalgia and despising people who just want to repeat 2018 talking points when it's not 2018 anymore, and those just aren't accurate. But I went to go check a quote that I've quoted a million times, and I was very disappointed to find out that it wasn't accurate.
It was that Billy Crystal, Howard Stern, or no, Stuttering John, and then he's like, it's not funny, it's not fun.But he actually just says it's not fun twice in a couple of sentences in between.I think the not funny, not fun was them, like, quoting him and, like, making it funnier.
But Eric July put out a second video calling black creators beggars, and yeah, it's getting kind of dark, no pun intended.Again, not really into nostalgia, but there was something funny and fun about Mags and Vita and Joe Glass and all those goofballs, because they were goofballs, they were cartoon characters.But this is just, like, there's a scene in Sinners where they open the juke joint, and despite some issues, I mean, this is before the vampires, they realize that no matter how good it's doing, it's not doing good enough.
So, with the proceeds from that night and their savings, I think they say something like, we can last, like, six weeks and then we gotta shut it down.So it's this very bittersweet thing of, we did all this stuff to start up a juke joint, and it did great, but it didn't do good enough, and we're gonna run out of cash, and then it's gonna be over.And I think Eric July, despite his massive ego, has finally realized, oh shit, it's over.
I've been playing a lot of War Thunder, I think I'm getting worse at it.There was a little while there where it was with, like, the World War I planes, I was doing pretty freaking good.I was doing dogfights, I could take out, like, you know, three or four enemy fighters, but once I went up just to the World War II propeller planes, everything moves too fast, I'm overshooting them, so I'm getting shot down all the time.
But you don't always explode, in fact, usually you don't explode.They'll shoot off your tail, one of your wings, and then, or they'll just take out the engine, the airframe is fine, and throttle at 0%, and you're like, okay, it's over, I just gotta find a place to land, or I gotta bail out.Because the engine is not gonna come back to life, I'm just, I'm cooked.
I'm cooked, but I'm not dead.So now it just becomes, not how many fighters do I shoot down, but how do I land without dying.And that's, as far as I can tell, the position that Eric has been in.
There is one way for Ripaverse to survive, but Eric is way too arrogant.The thing is, it would actually feed into his ego.So he had this ridiculous plan that getting a Hachette deal, international, as if he didn't ship internationally already, would save the company.
When he's spamming out two or three books every week or two, this is not him having two or three great ideas, this is cash flow, need cash flow, have payroll, need cash flow.Give me money now.And so that's one of those things that will keep you going for a while, but eventually you have to deliver on all this stuff, and you've been making a lot of promises, and you're going through all...There's a point where it's just not worth it.
But it's just a desperate need for cash flow.The thing is, what he needs to do is land the plane, which is shut down whatever the hell he thought this was.Whatever the hell he thought this was going to be, because it's not going to be that.
It's not going to be this multimedia juggernaut.He's not going to get on Shark Tank.He's not going to get a Netflix deal.
He's not going to get bought out by some AI company that needs a lot of content to adapt into webisodes.He's spammed out 75, probably closer to 100 books over the last few years, and it's just...The plane is going down.There's no recovering it.
He's got too many employees.He's got too much overhead.He's shrunk his customer base.
He's trying desperately a new tactic, which is to be like a...I don't even know what to call it.Anti-Blackhotep.He's really...He said the beggars thing, and it was said in kind of a flat way, the first video.
He was just kind of trying something out, but then he got a good reaction.And now he really, like, yeah, you're beggars, just begging the mainstream for attention.What is going on, Fox News?What is getting a Hachette deal that equals to nothing?That's trying to get the mainstream.
He used to talk about a parallel economy.Doesn't talk about that anymore.Now says mass appeal is not possible when we just had Sinners and Weapons last year.
Brand new franchises that can be franchises because they were so successful.Saying that he's focusing on a niche when really he just lost 99% of his customers.But the thing is, there's an escape.
And it's actually a really, really good one.It's kind of a type of a golden parachute.Oh, look.
The analogy of the bailing out of the plane.So, God, I forgot.Blanking on her name.
What was that, like, that lesbian who wrote America?Gabby something?So she's rich now.Oh, maybe not rich, but she's doing quite well.Living out in California and doing speeches at colleges for 5, 10, 20 grand a pop.
And she doesn't produce any comics except for that.What was it called?BB Love or something like that.And that was a while ago.
But she still gets very lucrative speaking engagements.But she doesn't have a back catalog.She has, you know, what was it?11 issues of America.
And then that BB whatever it was called miniseries.But Eric has over 100 titles.So he needs to go on.
And this is a thing.This is not, like, some weird joke.There used to be something called the Chitlin circuit.
So movies didn't used to just have the same movies in every theater all over the country.There were different areas that they would get distributors.And so this is how you get guys like, you know, Burt Reynolds.
He, you know, he did good generally.But, like, you know, in the South, they were just they just had a whole, you know.So there's and there used to be different types of, you know, distributors for different markets.
He needs to shut down the whole operation.Shut down the warehouse and the employees, all of the employees.And he needs to get a storage locker with all of the copies of his books that haven't sold yet.
And then he needs to go around to churches and grocery stores and book festivals in just small and medium population cities.And he needs to present himself as Eric July, most popular black publisher of, you know, June 2023 to October 2023.However, he needs to bracket it.
He's currently saying I saw him as the most popular black independent character for the last five years.It's like you hid your sales.So I think you can say five years or four years ago he did well.
But you can show, oh, I was on Fox News.Forty thousand customers.And you just go around.
You go to the Pulgas.You go to the swap meets and you just have a table.And it's you.
And it's a car.You don't even need to be a hatchback.And you just go around the country making, you know, one, two, three grand at every event because there's no he.
Like I said, the first time he said the beggars is just like just trying it out.But the the right wing audience really liked him calling black creators beggars.He called them beggars because they were begging for attention from the mainstream, which he also does.
He also accused them of trying to speed run success, which he also does.And then ridiculously, he ends the video with a one minute clip from Malcolm X, which is basically talking about black run businesses, but not comic book companies, not entertainment.He's talking about hardware stores.
He's talking about grocery stores.He's talking about clothing stores.He's, you know, whatever it is, 1960.
And he's talking about the Negro spends 20 billion dollars.And, you know, it goes to other people.It's like, OK, so, yeah.
So I'm sure.It's 200 billion right now, whatever, 100 billion.But there's a whole circuit of places to go where.
You're an interesting thing to walk by and you go, OK, oh, look at this.Oh, he was on Fox News.OK, so you just go around to Pulgas and swap meets and church socials and grocery store openings.
I mean, Adam West did that for a decade after.Once your star fades, you still have, you know, I don't know if I would say value.You're interesting.
If there's some swap meet in Nacogdoches, you just call him, you say, hi, I'm Eric July.I'm the most popular black comic book publisher from September of 2023.They go, OK.
The other guy who's he's just selling fishing lures.He makes it home.So that's kind of interesting.
And you go there and you sell 20, 30, 40, 50 books.And that gets you gas to get down the road, gets you a hotel, gets you some snacks.And that's it, man.
Like, that's that's it.There's there's nothing left.Nobody is driving across town to go to a Barnes and Noble to find one of the three associates, you know, that aren't ringing people up and say, hi, I would like to buy detective with hat colon exclave number three.
I heard that you can order it for me.I can order it for myself on the Ripper's website.But this feels like success.
It's success adjacent.It's OK.So you're going to walk over to that little kiosk they have with that dusty ass desktop computer and they're going to slowly type it in.
Detective with a hat.No, no, just detective with hat.I see which with hat.
No, I ordered that last week.So which with hat colon exclave number four, would you like that?Yeah, it'll bother Heather on toast, I think.But yeah, this was this was the Hail Mary pass.
Oh, by the way, I finished that movie.I actually ended up liking it.My problem was simply that the lead character didn't have a recognizable human emotion for the entire first hour of the movie.
He was just a cartoon character.And actually, I was a cartoon character, but he is, you know, you don't have to hand him a book about gravity for him to fall off that cliff.Like gravity will just affect him no matter how much he made in twenty, twenty three, twenty, twenty four.
And he's talking about, oh, I made five million dollars last year out of seven hundred remaining customers.They spent thousands.Really, it's over.
The plane is still in the air.The airframe is still intact, but the engine is gone.You can't spawn in another engine.
You're going to have to crash or you're going to have to land.And there are this is a big country and every weekend people need something to do.And so there are these little book fairs all over the country.
There are library openings.There are bookstore openings.There are hell, you can just call a half price books.
Hey, I'm in town for the book fest, but I got here a day early.Can I set up a table?And I'm the number one black comics publisher from October 11th, 730 p.m., 2023 to October 11th, 745 p.m.in 2023 or 2024.Those are both good years for me.
And I go, OK, yeah, sure, sure.Yeah, we got a little table.You got a little set.
I got to set up.I got the whole thing.Conventions.
Weirdly enough, I would say to avoid comic book conventions because comic book conventions is not exclusively, but mainly for comic book readers.And your comics don't appeal to comic book readers because you don't actually read comics for fun.Your remaining customers did not read comics before you.
This is just some right wing dopey protest against real art.And that is only going to last for so long.The right wing audience is not a sustainable audience.
They buy things to protest.They buy things to bother people.And then they get bored and then they find something else that bothers people.
And then they go support that.As you've seen from 42,000 to 700, there's no sustain.You can't maintain just overhead on the warehouse.
A dozen employees with the taxes on them and the health insurance and all that.No, it's just the stop.You tried.
It didn't work.Now you need to.I saw this.
It was one of those things like the fall of Wizard Magazine.And the guy was trying to make it look like Gared Sheamus was like homeless.But then he had to keep admitting that Gareb Sheamus just made business deal after business deal for 40 years.
And he's always got something going.So this thing, this Riververse thing, it's over.Riververse 2.0 is you in a van driving around the country selling 20, 30 books.
You put a signature.You charge them an extra 20.And that's what you do.
And that can be sustainable for a good long time.I mean, Gabby Rivera, right?Yeah.Gabby Rivera is still making speeches.
She was the first hefty lesbian to write a number one at Marvel.Okay, that's a subcategory of a subcategory of a subcategory.But yes, we can't deny that.
That is an objective fact.You are the first flat brim, fitted cap, butch lesbian with no history of reading comics that was handed an amazing opportunity and fucked it up.But objectively, you are semi noteworthy.
So, yeah, get yourself an agent.Do speaking engagements.Go around to book fests, swap meets, church socials.
Set up a desk by yourself.You don't have the money.There is not a budget for an assistant.
And that's what you do.You sell books.You're a bookseller, right?So sell some books.
Yeah, but the whole calling the Black Creators beggars for just wanting to write popular characters in beloved universes, like, that's...It got even darker, but I didn't want to...At one point, he was doing like, this isn't me saying it.This is what they would say.And he's like, well, well, your wife is white.
It's like, oh, shit.Of course, the right-wing people love that, and they are encouraging him to be more like that.This audience, they never encourage you to be a better version of yourself.
It's always like, yeah, yeah, say he's biracial.Say his wife is white.Like, what is that?I just want to make it clear, that's not me.
That's what they would have said, but they didn't say that.That you did.And you're clearly getting angry because you're running on fumes.
There's not enough...There's cash flow right now, but there's not enough.I started doing this thing called overlifting.I'm sure there's a technical term for it.
And it goes like this.I'm 52.I get the delivery.
It's, you know, whatever, 32 bottles of water.And it's like, oh, boy, let's see.Let's see if I still got it.
So, you know, I squat straight back.I lift it up.I'm like, oh, that's pretty good.
I can still, you know, still got it.But then I was like, okay.But I just have the strength to lift that.
So in 10 years, if I have 80% of my strength now,I'm not going to have the strength.So what I do is I basically, you know, I lift it up.And then I lift it over my head.
And then I do that three times.With the idea of if I can lift it over my head three times at 52,I can lift it over my head two times at 62.I can lift it over my head one time at 72.
So when I'm 82, I can still lift it.That's the idea.But anyway, I just got bit by an ant.
[SPOILER/]
I mean it's not like he's going to suddenly quit Rippaverse and become a full-time CGer. If Mike Baron can do both, I don't see why he won't.
If I had a dollar every time somebody said that only for it to not happen...... sheesh 
