#Comicsgate - The Culture Wars Hit The Funny Books!

[Capsaicin Addict]

On a more serious note though you are absolutely right that there is nothing wrong with paying the bills, but the important thing is that these authors understand that we aren't saying no politics ever, we are saying they need to stop writing politics because they fucking suck at it.

True, there is pressure from the sjws, but that's why I think movetheneedle is a clever concept, because one of the things it demonstrates to comic shop owners is who is buying their products. A shop might get harassed by sjws, but the comicgaters have proven time and again they have money to spare and are dying to throw it at someone who is getting fucked over by sjws. It's really a no brainer.

There was a bit with Squirrel Girl a while back -- before they got the Scott Kurtz knockoff to draw her -- where she made this amazingly pointed fourth-wall complaint about 'remember how we used to read comics to get away from reality for a while?'.

Politics is downstream from culture, as Andrew Breitbart said, so you're probably never going to get sociopolitical aspects out of comics (or any other medium). But like you said, one, the current crop of writers suck at it, and two, they can't take any criticism anyways.

 

[AnOminous]

One is between a rock and a hard place in this sitation:

- Give the 'mean' Comicsgaters a platform to air their grievances with a waning industry, and the SJWs will run your business into the ground via politics and public shaming.

-Give in to the SJWs and end up closing shop because you openly trashed your customer base who find the low quality product they're producting not worth the time and money invested in it and the woke crowd practically brag about pirating the books anyway.

This is the future they chose. Fuck 'em all!

 

[damian]

The absolute state of Marvel Comics:

IDW To Create All-Ages Comics Featuring Marvel Characters Spider-Man, Black Panther, and The Avengers
Russ Burlingame

07/17/2018

IDW Publishing will launch a new line of all-ages comics featuring Marvel Comics characters, the publisher announced today as part of their run up to Comic Con International in San Diego later this week.

According to a press release, the two companies will develop middle-grade comic books designed for younger readers. Featuring some of Marvel’s most popular characters, the monthly issues and trade paperback collections, published by IDW, will be available for sale at local comic book shops and book retailers across the country, expanding opportunities for the next generation of Super Heroes to experience the Marvel Universe.

“From Iron Man to Captain Marvel, from the Hulk to Shuri — the Marvel pantheon has something for everyone,” said John Barber, editor-in-chief of IDW. “With this team-up, Marvel and IDW aim to bring exciting, all-new comics to a generation growing up in a Marvel world.”

IDW has been publishing Star Wars Adventures, featuring characters from the Star Wars universe, for a little over a year now. Star Wars and Marvel are both owned by Disney, which raised some eyebrows at the time of the Star Wars Adventuresannouncement.

Launching in November 2018, the Marvel and IDW collaboration will kick off with a Spider-Man series featuring both Peter Parker and Miles Morales, followed by an Avengers series beginning in December and a Black Panther series in January 2019. The idea is that the titles will serve as an easily-accessible jumping-on point for younger readers to follow the adventures of characters casual fans and kids may recognize from the movies and other media, even if they have never read mainstream comics before.

“Marvel is excited to work with IDW to share these brand-new stories with our younger fans,” said C.B. Cebulski, editor-in-chief of Marvel. “Characters like Spider-Man, Black Panther, and the Avengers inspire us through their strength and determination, but they resonate with readers because of the struggles they face and the challenges they overcome. We want to share their journeys with our younger fans first-hand.”



With comic shop audiences dwindling as readers from the bookstore and digital markets growing over time, Marvel's chief competitor, DC, has launched a number of efforts seemingly aimed at increasing their footprint outside of the direct market comic shops. Besides new, exclusive comics published for and distributed in Walmart stores, DC also announced plans for young-adult and middle-reader comics lines recently. The idea, like Marvel's here, appears to be to help make it easier for people to "find" their first comics and be lured into comic shops.

“Marvel is committed to delivering unique and accessible content for our younger audiences and fans,” said Sven Larsen, director, licensed publishing of Marvel. “As one of our most valued partners, IDW is the right fit to help us feature some of our most popular characters and publish stories created especially for the next generation of Super Heroes.”

“This partnership reflects the true spirit of collaboration at work,” said Greg Goldstein, president and publisher of IDW. “As comic book publishers, IDW and Marvel are able to produce high-quality visual storytelling experiences for fans both young and old. By combining our efforts, along with Marvel’s ever-increasing presence in popular culture, the results will be spectacular.”

There are no specific creative teams or story details available yet.

Seems almost everything CG spergs have been warning about is happening. I’m excited to see how the SJW comic pros will double down.

 

[Steamboat_Bill]

The absolute state of Marvel Comics:


Seems almost everything CG spergs have been warning about is happening. I’m excited to see how the SJW comic pros will double down.

So who is calling this a good thing and who is calling it a bad thing?

You'd think wanting to get kids reading comics is a good thing.

 

[Pope Negro Joe the XIIIth]

You'd think wanting to get kids reading comics is a good thing.

You and I both know this shit is going to be "Why Antifa and Communism are great and white people are the devil."

Watch, they'll let Coates write or edit the BP book. Yeah, kids should be reading comics, but both companies are better known for propaganda at this point. Remember that IDW let Sitterson turn G.I. Joe into Fat Samoa with bonus Tom of Finland fetish art.

 

[AnOminous]

So who is calling this a good thing and who is calling it a bad thing?

You'd think wanting to get kids reading comics is a good thing.

Dude, it's IDW.

 

[Steamboat_Bill]

Dude, it's IDW.

True, but they're the only company who can even market comics to kids these days. Marvel hasn't tried in years. DC once had something but I don't know if it's even still around.

You look at the kids comics sections in any comic shop, it's full of their stuff. They even have the Disney license, and have managed to bring that venerable brand back to American comics stores.

 

[Pope Negro Joe the XIIIth]

Honestly, the only series I can think of that I really enjoyed from IDW (That I can recall of the top of my head) was Locke & Key and that ended in 2013 I believe. I do agree that they've got the children's market locked up with licences, on the other hand they do ridiculous things like let Man Vissagio's Transformers vs. Transtrenders go to print so I'm not really sure who they think their market is anymore.

 

[thismanlies]

Dude, it's IDW.

I'm out of the loop on comics. How bad is IDW? Are they the LJN of comics or something?

 

[Liquid Cool]

I'm out of the loop on comics. How bad is IDW? Are they the LJN of comics or something?

Sonic and GI Joe are their big 2. They had a horrible last year with sales dropping around 90% or something crazy.

True, but they're the only company who can even market comics to kids these days. Marvel hasn't tried in years. DC once had something but I don't know if it's even still around.

Is DC still going to do that "DC Ink" thing they announced a while back? I think that was targeting the tween crowd or something.

 

[damian]

I'm out of the loop on comics. How bad is IDW? Are they the LJN of comics or something?

Long version:
IDW’s net income plummeted down to 91% in just one year, they almost lost 2 of their biggest licenses (Transformers and G.I. Joe), the ‘Sitterson Situation’ caused a PR nightmare for them and their Editor in Chief was fired for insubordination.

The Sitterson Situation:

Aubrey Sitterson, extreme socialist G.I. Joe writer was intentionally pissing off of the G.I. Joe fandom on forums and his comics were extremely low selling. On 9/11, he got the idea to piss off not just the G.I. Joe fandom but also everyone mourning the tragedy. He made a tweet saying that if you can’t really mourn 9/11 because you weren’t there on NY on that day. This caused the Yo Joe (the largest G.I. Joe fan forum) and many other fan sites to boycott all G.I. Joe books until the problem (Sitterson) was resolved. His books and his relaunch (Scarlett Strike Force) were later cancelled for low sales. He blamed the nasty ComicsGate people of getting him fired, when it was his dumbass self that got himself AND his friend Chris Ryall fired (oh we’ll get to him as well).

Chris Ryall, IDW’s Editor in Chief. When Sitterson was under fire, he provided a shield for him. He told Sitterson to shut up on all social media and to let things blow over. Spoiler alert, that didn’t work because Sitterson couldn’t keep himself quiet and it eventually escalated into him being benched. Chris got orders from higher ups to basically fire Sitterson and instead Chris decided to shield him against higher up’s orders and gave him a new series that he would secretly be writing under a pseudonym. It was found out immidiately, both Chris Ryall and Sitterson got booted from IDW.

Short story:
IDW’s is somehow worse than Marvel in terms of mismanagement and collapsing sales. If you want more info check Umbrella Guy, he has an a-log level fascination with them.

 

[thismanlies]

Long version:
IDW’s net income plummeted down to 91% in just one year, they almost lost 2 of their biggest licenses (Transformers and G.I. Joe), the ‘Sitterson Situation’ caused a PR nightmare for them and their Editor in Chief was fired for insubordination.

The Sitterson Situation:
View attachment 498263
Aubrey Sitterson, extreme socialist G.I. Joe writer was intentionally pissing off of the G.I. Joe fandom on forums and his comics were extremely low selling. On 9/11, he got the idea to piss off not just the G.I. Joe fandom but also everyone mourning the tragedy. He made a tweet saying that if you can’t really mourn 9/11 because you weren’t there on NY on that day. This caused the Yo Joe (the largest G.I. Joe fan forum) and many other fan sites to boycott all G.I. Joe books until the problem (Sitterson) was resolved. His books and his relaunch (Scarlett Strike Force) were later cancelled for low sales. He blamed the nasty ComicsGate people of getting him fired, when it was his dumbass self that got himself AND his friend Chris Ryall fired (oh we’ll get to him as well).

Chris Ryall, IDW’s Editor in Chief. When Sitterson was under fire, he provided a shield for him. He told Sitterson to shut up on all social media and to let things blow over. Spoiler alert, that didn’t work because Sitterson couldn’t keep himself quiet and it eventually escalated into him being benched. Chris got orders from higher ups to basically fire Sitterson and instead Chris decided to shield him against higher up’s orders and gave him a new series that he would secretly be writing under a pseudonym. It was found out immidiately, both Chris Ryall and Sitterson got booted from IDW.

Short story:
IDW’s is somehow worse than Marvel in terms of mismanagement and collapsing sales. If you want more info check Umbrella Guy, he has an a-log level fascination with them.

I really need to start keeping up with Comicsgate. I thought it was just Mark Wade and Michelle Perez who were pants on head retarded. I didn't think the whole comics book industry was full of speds chugging paste in the back of a short bus.

 

[RK 672]

His books and his relaunch (Scarlett Strike Force) were later cancelled for low sales. He blamed the nasty ComicsGate people of getting him fired, when it was his dumbass self that got himself AND his friend Chris Ryall fired (oh we’ll get to him as well).

Scarlett's Strike Force was cancelled before the preorders for the first issue ended. That's how badly he messed up.

 

[RodgerDodger]

I'm out of the loop on comics. How bad is IDW? Are they the LJN of comics or something?

They are so deep in the red it will be amazing to se ethem last out the year. They Got Woke, they went Broke.

 

[AnOminous]

I'm out of the loop on comics. How bad is IDW? Are they the LJN of comics or something?

I'll just let this speak for itself.

Spoiler: spoil for incredibly huge and incredibly homoerotic picture

 

[Vault Boy]

I'll just let this speak for itself.

Spoiler: spoil for incredibly huge and incredibly homoerotic picture

View attachment 498299

It's very amazing how stereotypical they look, especially since this was done in an unironic fashion.

 

[damian]

EDIT:

I'll just let this speak for itself.

Spoiler: spoil for incredibly huge and incredibly homoerotic picture

View attachment 498299

I’ll just let these speak for themselves.

Spoiler: He put these on the internet himself

What a tard.

 

[Jub-Jub]

True, but they're the only company who can even market comics to kids these days. Marvel hasn't tried in years.

Have you seen the level of writing in marvel comics? It's Disney tween sitcom zany-ness all the way down. I'm wondering what age range IDW are going for, they keep mentioning younger readers / fans, but Marvel is already at the tween / YA level. Does this mean IDW's books will be for 6-9y?

IDW’s is somehow worse than Marvel in terms of mismanagement and collapsing sales.

I feel this is a Hail Mary attempt to try and turn IDW's plummeting finances around and an experiment by Marvel to see if they can make similar profit by simply licensing their IP. I don't think it will save IDW, but Marvel might learn something. I'm surprised that Marvel didn't offer IDW the characters they just cancelled (Iceman, the wasp, etc) as well just to see what they could do.

The Sitterson Situation

Hey look everyone, my stationary is pink. I am a lady!

 

[Magic Sun Daddy]

Have you seen the level of writing in marvel comics? It's Disney tween sitcom zany-ness all the way down. I'm wondering what age range IDW are going for, they keep mentioning younger readers / fans, but Marvel is already at the tween / YA level. Does this mean IDW's books will be for 6-9y?

Now you got me looking at Gail Simone comics with a laugh track playing in my head at every horrible joke. It fits so perfectly that it makes me sick.

 

[Jaimas]

In a lot of ways, Comicsgate now is what would have happened had Gamergate never actually occurred when it did.

Veterans of my discussions of the subject might recall that I once said that if GG hadn't blown up when it did, it would have happened again later, and likely would have been much, much uglier than the actual hashtag revolt/Autism Holy War was. The reason is that as endemic as the usual ideologues were within the industry at the time, they didn't quite have the presence or influence they wanted to have, where they could essentially mandate what did and did not get released, something that, arguably, was always their objective. We have a situation now where devs often self-censor, yes, but just as many are willing to give the journo class the finger and ride their poutrage all the way to the bank. Had GG never happened, they would have burrowed in that much deeper and would have been that much harder to ferret out.

Which isn't to say these clowns wouldn't have eventually been sent packing anyway - they absolutely would have, and the free market would have shown that one nicely as it did with Wokenstein: The New Way to Fuck a Franchise and Mass Effect: Please Be Patient I Have Autism. The problem is the damage they'd be able to do to the medium in the interim. Recall if you will that these asshats have already gotten multiple games broadly censored based on their outrage du jours (Hello Andrea Ritsu and Jed Whitaker) or even successfully disrupted attempts at launch Japanese games stateside.

What many people don't realize is... We've been down this road. A few times. And we've seen where it goes.

Spoiler: One History Lesson

Back during the console war period in the 80s, Nintendo rose to prominence by virtue of exclusivity deals and market dominance, but it brought with it Nintendo of America. NOA was responsible for localizations and so on, but it also was responsible for censoring and/or editing certain games for content, and failing that, blocking their release. The original intended goal was noble enough: preventing the foundation of porn games on the console - but since NOA had signed-in-blood exclusivity deals and nobody could actually put out games for the thing without Nintendo's express permission until the mid-90s, this was kind of an empty concern.

Unfortunately, NOA quickly mutated from simple localization to ridiculous levels of censorship in about 6 years. What started with keeping some Nazi imagery out of Bionic Commando so they could sell the game in Europe mutated into removing virtually any reference to death or killing from SNES games, a blanket-ban on gore, and most, if not all RPGs from the 16-bit era having had a belt-sander applied to their stories and dialogue. Probably the best-known example of a game fucked by this censorship was Id's Wolfenstein 3D SNES port, which had Nintendo force Id to remove the Nazis and gore from a fucking Wolfenstein game. In response Id didn't even bother optimizing the title or doing any further work on it, refusing to work with Nintendo further.

What put an end to this shit was the free market and games like Mortal Kombat. When Sega refused to censor, the game outsold its SNES counterpart by a factor of 5:1 or more depending on which block of statistics you look at and Nintendo lost millions that holiday season. NOA's nanny arm was essentially dismantled after this, and no further Nintendo products were censored in this fashion for some time. Humorously to secure the SNES as no longer censored, Nintendo approached Id again, trying to get a port of Doom, which Id provided but on the condition that Nintendo wouldn't fuck with it the way they had Wolfenstein 3D.

It's not beneficial to customers (who have reduced choice and get patronized), not benficial to developers (who are forced to work under illogical rules that will ultimately make them less money), and ironically enough, not beneficial to the publishers (who, due to the first two, will correspondingly make less bank), which is why in the past when it's been done it was ended because it fucking failed. The only people who benefit from this shit (and have ever benefited from this shit) are the people who have an agenda to push.

The pushback going on now via this new culture war full of Autism is kind of a natural progression, and gives you a pretty good idea of what these clowns do to various forms of media once they establish a foothold. As retarded as it is, we should be thankful for the Autists of CG for what they're doing - not the least of which is provoking their opposition into psychopathic responses, allowing us to easily milk the worst offenders.

While it would work itself out in due time - again, free market at its finest - the fact that we have the comics geeks pushing back gives us a hell of a show to laugh at. I can get behind that.