#Comicsgate - The Culture Wars Hit The Funny Books!

[NasserRabadi13]

2 weeks later. Did it ship yet @Fathead?

If the postage is printed/you know the costs now, then surely you know the split by now.

 

[Adamska]

2 weeks later. Did it ship yet @Fathead?
View attachment 1598635
If the postage is printed/you know the costs now, then surely you know the split by now.
View attachment 1598637

Note I've yet to get my copy. I will probably start mocking if I don't by October given that it should be shipping by now.

 

[GranDuke]

Guys, are you aware that you are trying to analyse comic book written by kangs for kangs using characters made for kangs? I'm sure it will be written worse than in their original run, but fundamentally its same shit as it always was.

 

[Twinkletard]

You'd think with both companies skating on very thin ice that they'd stop with the antagonistic hirings. Bringing in Waid and Maggs in such a short period? No way that's coincidental. But go ahead, burn the fans and hundreds of thousands of dollars on these two failures. That will sure show Ya Boi as he continues to make money hand over fist mocking your exceptionally stupid asses.

Neither company (DC or marvel) is interested in making money in comics. They're just IP holders for AT&T and Disney and will continue to be cannibalized by their parent companies to make dish towels and shower curtains for billion dollar movies. We know mags works for basically nothing because he's a mentally ill troon faggot and Waid doesn't care about making money because he's rolling in royalty money.

These are just moves by AT&T and Disney marketing departments to keep twitter drama alive and eyeballs and hashtags on twitter for their other products, as the outrage is essentially free advertising for their IP.

In other news...

Meyer has a new indiegogo campaign, and I'm not very interested in it. It's kind of like his last two. He's taking things going on in current events and twisting them without saying anything profound about actual current events. He also layers in protagonists which are some sort of minority group, which I assume is a weak virtue signal to everyone, as if to say, 'look at me, i'm not a racist/sexist/etc." that people like Waid and twitter faggots like to accuse him of.

I really wish he would stop with these one-shots like this and focus on something. Like maybe developing Jawbreakers into a more robust universe. At least EVS focuses on one story/character (despite the tenuous amount of material offered).

I really feel like zack's trajectory is downhill because of this and other things. He doesn't do livestreams and the videos he releases are repetitive and uninteresting. He's an okay writer, but he's no Claremont. If he's trying to rest on writing laurels, he's got another thing coming and it's going to be disappointing for him. I'm looking forward to his expendables book though.

I have a lot of respect for zack because of all the shit he took there for a couple years, but let's just be honest; he's becoming irrelevant. Sure, a lot of it has to do with him trying to project a certain image for himself due to the lawsuit, but it's at his new career's detriment. He needs to be more engaged with his audience like EVS. He needs to stir them up and get them excited. Say what you want about EVS, but he knows how this shit works and how to get his fans engaged.

I'm not backing this new project of zack's, like the last two. He needs to crawl out of the hole he dug for himself and engage with his audience. He needs to do what he constantly criticize other pros for: listen to his fans.

 

[GranDuke]

Neither company (DC or marvel) is interested in making money in comics. They're just IP holders for AT&T and Disney and will continue to be cannibalized by their parent companies to make dish towels and shower curtains for billion dollar movies. We know mags works for basically nothing because he's a mentally ill troon faggot and Waid doesn't care about making money because he's rolling in royalty money.

Supposedly Waid wants really badly to have a proper Superman run and speculation is that he'd be willing to do it for low pay.

 

[Twinkletard]

Supposedly Waid wants really badly to have a proper Superman run and speculation is that he'd be willing to do it for low pay.

I wouldn't be surprised if waid is paying DC for the right to produce his fanfiction.

 

[jspit]

Supposedly Waid wants really badly to have a proper Superman run and speculation is that he'd be willing to do it for low pay.

Waid is a huge DC fanboy and the only time he was really good was on DC property. Supposedly he's affordable, most likely moreso than someone like Scott Snyder, Tom King, or Bendis. That's who his competition is. So on DC's side it makes sense.

On Waid's side, its two fold benefit. One, GranDuke is right, Waid is desperate to put his stink on Superman. He's wanted it for decades. Two. He's a petty fuck. He's sticking it to Bob Harris and Dan Didio. They blocked him for years. Now he gets to stick it to them. This is a man who stuck it to a former employer by mocking his dead, cancer ridden wife.

I wouldn't be surprised if waid is paying DC for the right to produce his fanfiction.

Oh, it'll be...unique. In Birthright, he made Clark Kent a vegetarian because he sees 'life energy' or whatever. He and Tom Peyer shortly after the election went on twitter to discuss whether it was appropriate for Clark Kent to come from rural Kansas in the modern day because it's not 'diverse' enough.

 

[A nameless trool]

Meyer has a new indiegogo campaign, and I'm not very interested in it. It's kind of like his last two. He's taking things going on in current events and twisting them without saying anything profound about actual current events. He also layers in protagonists which are some sort of minority group, which I assume is a weak virtue signal to everyone, as if to say, 'look at me, i'm not a racist/sexist/etc." that people like Waid and twitter faggots like to accuse him of.

I really wish he would stop with these one-shots like this and focus on something. Like maybe developing Jawbreakers into a more robust universe. At least EVS focuses on one story/character (despite the tenuous amount of material offered).

I really feel like zack's trajectory is downhill because of this and other things. He doesn't do livestreams and the videos he releases are repetitive and uninteresting. He's an okay writer, but he's no Claremont. If he's trying to rest on writing laurels, he's got another thing coming and it's going to be disappointing for him. I'm looking forward to his expendables book though.

I have a lot of respect for zack because of all the shit he took there for a couple years, but let's just be honest; he's becoming irrelevant. Sure, a lot of it has to do with him trying to project a certain image for himself due to the lawsuit, but it's at his new career's detriment. He needs to be more engaged with his audience like EVS. He needs to stir them up and get them excited. Say what you want about EVS, but he knows how this shit works and how to get his fans engaged.

I'm not backing this new project of zack's, like the last two. He needs to crawl out of the hole he dug for himself and engage with his audience. He needs to do what he constantly criticize other pros for: listen to his fans.

I'll slightly disagree (because I am also not interested in the new campaign and the new Jawbreakers book may be the last of his books I back).

Zack was the average comicbook fan who was broke for years, then returned to comics to find out they suck balls for all the reasons you mentioned.
Except for one thing: the average comic fan would dig up 2-3 titles they enjoyed and also start buying back issues or go to manga (since you Yanks have little access to the European Comics Master Race).
Instead, he went on youtube and the fact that he simply had more sense and charisma than 99% of comicbook YT (while also being more exceptional than 50% of it) made him blow.
People who were also thinking "comicbooks suck nowdays" stumbled on his videos and they made sense.

Also, what made Zack great was that he was listening to people in the comments and changed course. There is at least one term that CG started using after I left him a comment years ago, so this is proof. He always had empathy, for instance he stopped using the term autistic once one of his fans told him about his child that is autistic.
These are the things that made him stand out.

Nowdays, his reviews are getting a bit stale, because his model of content (review new titles and roast on them) is not supported by the market.
But when he (or JSG) gush about a comicbook, it makes me happy. They are fans like I am and discovering a comic they like feels precious to me.

As for the commentary, he is also starting to get blackpilled and realizes that it is not an evil Leftist conspiracy to take over comics, just some sad, underpaid fucks who want to publish their headcannons for companies that do not care, while other sad fucks will cancel them so they get the gigs themselves.
That and the fact that he has to church it up because of the lolsuit.

But he seriously needs to level up his writing skills. He has potential, but he should go on a grind, doing a jawbreakers run for a year or two, one issue a month, so he builds some solid writing muscle. His plotting is way off and his transitions are attrocious. His business model is getting solid though, creating a back catalogue to sell again and again. My guess is he will go digital in a year or two (once Amazon goes all KDP with Comixology) and make a good profit out of it.
But yes, he should focus on JawBreakers. He did his Image stuff, now he should get back to them and keep them coming.

 

[Milwaukee Macho Man]

Meyer has a new indiegogo campaign, and I'm not very interested in it. It's kind of like his last two. He's taking things going on in current events and twisting them without saying anything profound about actual current events. He also layers in protagonists which are some sort of minority group, which I assume is a weak virtue signal to everyone, as if to say, 'look at me, i'm not a racist/sexist/etc." that people like Waid and twitter faggots like to accuse him of.

I really wish he would stop with these one-shots like this and focus on something.

Impossible Stars? It's not a one shot hes been hyping this for over a year now and plans on it being a franchise for his sci fi ideas.

 

[Twinkletard]

But he seriously needs to level up his writing skills. He has potential, but he should go on a grind, doing a jawbreakers run for a year or two, one issue a month, so he builds some solid writing muscle. His plotting is way off and his transitions are attrocious.

Yeah, it seems like his stories just plod along from point to point, and lack clever twists and character arcs that are meaningful. I think Jawbreakers could be really good. Maybe he just needs a creative assist from someone who knows how to execute or give him feedback or alternatives on how to move things along. Like a good editor who makes him go back and rewrite things.

 

[Smug Freiza]

The most egregious thing to do with most of Zack's new campaigns is he neglects to post a final page count. Nowhere in his video or on the campaign page does he list how many pages Impossible Stars will be. Pandemic was listed as a floppy which I assume is 24 pages, but nowhere is the page count listed on the campaign page. Both Jawbreakers: Grand Bizarre and The Expendables Go To Hell are 50 page main stories with three side stories each, but none of the side stories contain a page count. Are the side stories 24 pages each like a one shot comic? Are they shorter like Xaxi Respawn from Godking? Who knows?

Impossible Stars is listed as a graphic novel, however since Comicsgate considers 48 pages to be graphic novels, I'm guessing that's where the page count would fall, or around the 50 page mark like Expendables and Grand Bizarre.

I've backed all of Zack's books to date and I'm still waiting on The Expendables, Grand Bizarre and the Pandemic/NO double pack and he launches another campaign? Unless he posts a final page count, I'll be skipping this one.

 

[SaidNoOneEver]

Neither company (DC or marvel) is interested in making money in comics. They're just IP holders for AT&T and Disney and will continue to be cannibalized by their parent companies to make dish towels and shower curtains for billion dollar movies. We know mags works for basically nothing because he's a mentally ill troon faggot and Waid doesn't care about making money because he's rolling in royalty money.

These are just moves by AT&T and Disney marketing departments to keep twitter drama alive and eyeballs and hashtags on twitter for their other products, as the outrage is essentially free advertising for their IP.

In other news...

Meyer has a new indiegogo campaign, and I'm not very interested in it. It's kind of like his last two. He's taking things going on in current events and twisting them without saying anything profound about actual current events. He also layers in protagonists which are some sort of minority group, which I assume is a weak virtue signal to everyone, as if to say, 'look at me, i'm not a racist/sexist/etc." that people like Waid and twitter faggots like to accuse him of.

I really wish he would stop with these one-shots like this and focus on something. Like maybe developing Jawbreakers into a more robust universe. At least EVS focuses on one story/character (despite the tenuous amount of material offered).

I really feel like zack's trajectory is downhill because of this and other things. He doesn't do livestreams and the videos he releases are repetitive and uninteresting. He's an okay writer, but he's no Claremont. If he's trying to rest on writing laurels, he's got another thing coming and it's going to be disappointing for him. I'm looking forward to his expendables book though.

I have a lot of respect for zack because of all the shit he took there for a couple years, but let's just be honest; he's becoming irrelevant. Sure, a lot of it has to do with him trying to project a certain image for himself due to the lawsuit, but it's at his new career's detriment. He needs to be more engaged with his audience like EVS. He needs to stir them up and get them excited. Say what you want about EVS, but he knows how this shit works and how to get his fans engaged.

I'm not backing this new project of zack's, like the last two. He needs to crawl out of the hole he dug for himself and engage with his audience. He needs to do what he constantly criticize other pros for: listen to his fans.

.

Unfortunately Frog is becoming irrelevant as well. I've defended him for a while here but there's only so many times you can watch the same livestream for the 1000th time. The Cecil Oxmaul bit was beyond old 9 months ago but he keeps having him do it, now it's just pathetic. The rest is just a Slapchop infomercial. Very disappointing.

Say whatever you want about YouTube's algorithm removing subscribers but you know it's all you.

 

[Adamska]

In other news my twin copies of Bigfoot Bill came in. Was a nice surprise and now it's even funnier that Fatboy Donal can't get me my Bootleg Lobo comic yet still.

Not as stupid as Stealing Mitch not giving me a copy of his chicken comic, since I was part of his initial funds that he used to trick other investors.

 

[Smug Freiza]

I really feel like zack's trajectory is downhill because of this and other things. He doesn't do livestreams and the videos he releases are repetitive and uninteresting. He's an okay writer, but he's no Claremont. If he's trying to rest on writing laurels, he's got another thing coming and it's going to be disappointing for him. I'm looking forward to his expendables book though.

I have a lot of respect for zack because of all the shit he took there for a couple years, but let's just be honest; he's becoming irrelevant. Sure, a lot of it has to do with him trying to project a certain image for himself due to the lawsuit, but it's at his new career's detriment. He needs to be more engaged with his audience like EVS. He needs to stir them up and get them excited. Say what you want about EVS, but he knows how this shit works and how to get his fans engaged.

I'm not backing this new project of zack's, like the last two. He needs to crawl out of the hole he dug for himself and engage with his audience. He needs to do what he constantly criticize other pros for: listen to his fans.

Here's the data from my spreadsheet regarding Zack's campaigns, if you're interested. Some key points:

*Price = the lowest physical tier available.
*Price per page = the lowest physical tier and includes bonus pages, comics and ashcans to the total.
*Funding/Backer = the average price paid per backer
*Campaigns are listed in chronological order
*Due to Indiegogo's system, shipping is included in the funded amount and final amount.
*Due to Indiegogo's system, backers buying multiple tiers during a campaign are considered multiple backers.

NAME​

CREATOR​

PLATFORM​

COMICSGATE​

FUNDED BACKERS​

FUNDED AMOUNT​

FINAL BACKERS​

FINAL AMOUNT​

FUNDING/BACKER​

PRICE PER PAGE​

PRICE​

STATUS​

FULFILLED​

YEAR​

Jawbreakers: Lost Souls​

Richard C Meyer​

Indiegogo​

Yes​

5,362​

193,279​

10,619​

404,913​

38.13​

0.22​

25​

Closed​

Yes​

2018​

Iron Sights​

Richard C Meyer​

Indiegogo​

Yes​

3,338​

119,424​

3,338​

119,424​

35.77​

0.17​

20​

Closed​

Yes​

2018​

Iron Sights: Premium​

Richard C Meyer​

Indiegogo​

Yes​

155​

15,170​

155​

15,170​

97.87​

0.83​

100​

Closed​

Yes​

2018​

Jawbreakers: Lost Souls Remastered​

Richard C Meyer​

Indiegogo​

Yes​

1,519​

56,164​

1,519​

56,164​

36.97​

0.22​

25​

Closed​

Yes​

2019​

Jawbreakers: Godking​

Richard C Meyer​

Indiegogo​

Yes​

5,032​

196,102​

6,510​

251,357​

38.61​

0.26​

25​

Closed​

Yes​

2019​

Iron Sights 2 Psychos​

Richard C Meyer​

Indiegogo​

No​

2,040​

94,174​

2,799​

131,895​

47.12​

0.25​

25​

Closed​

Yes​

2019​

The Expendables: Go To Hell​

Richard C Meyer​

Indiegogo​

No​

2,528​

180,893​

4,144​

271,453​

65.51​

Unknown​

30​

In-Demand​

No​

2020​

Pandemic​

Richard C Meyer​

Indiegogo​

No​

1,947​

50,954​

1,947​

50,954​

26.17​

0.63*​

15​

Closed​

No​

2020​

Jawbreakers: Grand Bizarre​

Richard C Meyer​

Indiegogo​

No​

3,265​

163,126​

4,078​

201,978​

49.53​

Unknown​

25​

In-Demand​

No​

2020​

Pandemic 2nd Chance​

Richard C Meyer​

Indiegogo​

No​

308​

8,080​

593​

15,590​

26.29​

0.63*​

15​

Closed​

No​

2020​

DOAYT: Ballad of No​

Richard C Meyer​

Indiegogo​

No​

2,045​

69,648​

2,045​

69,648​

34.05​

0.58​

15​

Closed​

No​

2020​

Iron Sights 2 Psychos 2nd Printing​

Richard C Meyer​

Indiegogo​

No​

323​

18,412​

384​

21,688​

56.48​

0.25​

25​

Closed​

Now​

2020​

Summary:
* From Jawbreakers: Lost Souls to Jawbreakers: Godking, Zack lost 4109 backers (38.7%) he continued to lose a further 2432 backers from Godking to Grand Bizarre (37.4%) from Lost Souls to Grand Bizarre he lost 6541 backers (61.6%) - these results aren't final due to Grand Bizarre being In-Demand.

* From Iron Sights to Iron Sights 2 (including 2nd Printing) Zack lost 155 backers (4.6%), however these results would be worse without the 2nd Printing as he would have lost 539 backers (16.1%)

* His price per page on graphic novels is normally between 0.17-0.26 which is pretty reasonable compared to other campaigns, though without final pages counts on The Expendables and Grand Bizarre this data is flawed.

* His price per page on floppies is between 0.58-0.63 which is absolutely terrible, considering your average 24 pages $4 Marvel or DC comic comes in at 0.16 per page.

* The Expendables Go To Hell, while doing remarkably well for a crowdfunding campaign, seems to have unperformed in my opinion. I would have expected an established IP with the backing of Sylvester Stallone and the involvement of Butch Guice, Chuck Dixon and Graham Nolan to have out performed any of the Jawbreaker books.

* Zack experienced an uptick in backers from Pandemic to the Ballad of NO, however including the 2nd Chance campaign distorts the numbers. Ballad of No offered a Pandemic double pack, which would have saved on shipping charges, especially international.

* Iron Sights 2 was increased in price from $20 to $25 while the page count was reduced by 20 pages, a fifth sixth of the book. Increasing the price per page by 0.08/page.

* Zack has fulfilled six campaigns, is fulfilling one now and has five campaigns unfulfilled. (This does not include Impossible Stars).

* Iron Sights: Premium has the highest backer average at nearly $100 and the highest price/page at 0.83, however since this was a charity campaign and a one off it should be disregarded in the final data.

* The average amount a backer is paying is increasing per Jawbreakers issue, Iron Sights issue or floppy comic issue. Not a good sign considering the drop in backer numbers.

* The (*) in Pandemic's price per page is assuming the comic is 24 pages, this total might change in future.

* After discussing it with other Kiwis in the Comicsgate thread, we unanimously agreed that Jawbreakers: Godking was the last campaign by Zack that could be called "Comicsgate", all subsequent campaigns were decided not to be.

This data is taken from a spreadsheet with over 250 crowdfunded comics from multiple platforms and creators, once it is completed and updated I will make all the data available via a burner gmail account on google drive.

EDIT: Spaced out the summary so it wasn't a blob of text, errors in summary and added additional key points.

 

[Twinkletard]

* The Expendables Go To Hell, while doing remarkably well for a crowdfunding campaign, seems to have unperformed in my opinion. I would have expected an established IP with the backing of Sylvester Stallone and the involvement of Butch Guice, Chuck Dixon and Graham Nolan to have out performed any of the Jawbreaker books.

He could have pulled in another 100K on that campaign had he been doing his old livestreams and interacting with people like he used to.

Maybe even more.

 

[Milwaukee Macho Man]

He could have pulled in another 100K on that campaign had he been doing his old livestreams and interacting with people like he used to.

Maybe even more.

There felt like a distinct lack of promotion for Expendables after the first...week or so? Maybe I just wasn't paying attention but I remember him constantly being like "Oh, next week I'm really going to start promoting the book!" and it felt like he never actually got around to it.

I wonder if there's something going on behind the scenes I don't really know about that maybe made him less than enthusiastic about promoting the book? Like he's not making much money off of it or maybe there's some kind of deal that's going to get the book into stores?

I don't know, but it does feel like he is stretching himself too thin. I didn't even bother with Pandemic and Ballad of No. I'm also on the fence about Impossible Stars. I'd really like to have Expendables in hand before I back another book after Grand Bizarre.

 

[Twinkletard]

There felt like a distinct lack of promotion of Expendables after the first...week or so? Maybe I just wasn't paying attention but I remember him constantly being like "Oh, next week I'm really going to start promoting the book!" and it felt like he never actually got around to it.

I wonder if there's something going on behind the scenes I don't really know about that maybe made him less than enthusiastic about promoting the book? Like he's not making much money off of it or maybe there's some kind of deal that's going to get the book into stores?

I don't know, but it does feel like he is stretching himself too thin. I didn't even bother with Pandemic and Ballad of No. I'm also on the fence about Impossible Stars. I'd really like to have Expendables in hand before I back another book after Grand Bizarre.

I haven't counted his new book out entirely, if what you said before is right.

Also, I saw the Nexus (one-shot?) so that might be enough to get me in, just out of curiosity.

But did you see where that ended up on his campaign page? Way down towards the bottom, like it's no big deal. wtf? That's a big deal. Put it up a little higher.

Strange guy. Turns down going on Joe Rogan but goes on Jim Jeffries to get character assassinated. It's like Zack is a masochist.

I still respect him for what he went through, though.

 

[Least Concern]

The most egregious thing to do with most of Zack's new campaigns is he neglects to post a final page count. Nowhere in his video or on the campaign page does he list how many pages Impossible Stars will be. Pandemic was listed as a floppy which I assume is 24 pages, but nowhere is the page count listed on the campaign page. Both Jawbreakers: Grand Bizarre and The Expendables Go To Hell are 50 page main stories with three side stories each, but none of the side stories contain a page count. Are the side stories 24 pages each like a one shot comic? Are they shorter like Xaxi Respawn from Godking? Who knows?

Impossible Stars is listed as a graphic novel, however since Comicsgate considers 48 pages to be graphic novels, I'm guessing that's where the page count would fall, or around the 50 page mark like Expendables and Grand Bizarre.

I've backed all of Zack's books to date and I'm still waiting on The Expendables, Grand Bizarre and the Pandemic/NO double pack and he launches another campaign? Unless he posts a final page count, I'll be skipping this one.

Zack actually did let slip page counts for Impossible Stars and Nexus in this video. Impossible Stars will be about 60 pages and Nexus will be about 22 pages. Timestamped:

 

[Adamska]

Zack actually did let slip page counts for Impossible Stars and Nexus in this video. Impossible Stars will be about 60 pages and Nexus will be about 22 pages. Timestamped:

Stars might actually be worth it then, though only just so. Nexus is a hell no.

Nevermind. 3 out of 4 of his last stories are fucking political and about topical shit according to the descriptions, and it's an allegory to the Wu-Flu and the lockdowns destroying shit. Nopenopenope.

 

[Least Concern]

Nevermind. 3 out of 4 of his last stories are fucking political and about topical shit according to the descriptions, and it's an allegory to the Wu-Flu and the lockdowns destroying shit. Nopenopenope.

Well, he also said that he came up with the story for Stars several years ago and that this year turned into a year full of quarantines was just coincidence. I recall him saying in another video (maybe the one he put up soon after the campaign launched) that he had previously considered launching it back in January, which would have been before most of the world knew what was about to happen. So I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt that this particular comic, unlike No and the one about the thief lady whose title I can't recall, is not based on current events to a significant degree.