#Comicsgate - The Culture Wars Hit The Funny Books!

[WhimsicalTrolli]

How many pages is Rect Planet supposed to be anyway?

How many pages are done?

Remember he posted a month or two ago saying it's finished or something? Wonder what happened.

 

[jspit2.0]

The one on the left is baaaad. Somebody made an origami out of Not Captain Marvel in the second panel. Does the left arm come out of her ass?

Narwal... OK, printing this thing is a needless killing of trees for something that could be a good webcomic made on paint and being intentionally rough.
At least, there is some basic semblance of anatomy in his comic...

The CG is strong within you.

View attachment 2148846

It's like when DC did those Bendis is coming adds.

No, no, you have it all wrong.

499 Book One is going out to a total of 1290 people.

Except the majority of them, which as of this writing is exactly 875, decided to pay $15 extra for both the main story and a 24-page black and white bonus comic that looks like this:

View attachment 2148856
Actual fucking insanity, only way to describe it.

True.

Zack sees 499 as an honest to god work of art. He wants to make a lasting statement with his comics, and believes comics can and should be saying more. He's working closely with Narwhal, and is very inspired by this book.

I say this because I want you to know that he's SINCERE. He believes in this project and wants to produce a work of art, instead of just something crass or commercial.

I will wait to read it, although I certainly understand the criticism of how it presents itself.

I appreciate that. I also don't care.

Richard says he wants comics 'like the 90s. This aint it.

All I'm doing is telling you what he's telling me.

If only he actually had a way to have this discussion with other people instead of locking himself up in his friend's house.

Zack isn't ComicsGate. His videos spawned the movement, but he isn't trying to be an alternative to anything. He's just doing his comics.

I agree that he's over his head with late books, but he'll get it together.

Finally! how much shit have people thrown over this on here and you finally admit it.

 

[Newman's Own]

Remember he posted a month or two ago saying it's finished or something? Wonder what happened.

It appears he was 2/3 done a month ago and 1/4 done the back up.

We will see in a couple months when he predicts he'll be in fulfillment.

 

[Captain Manning]

You're right, Captain Marvel looks good and 499 looks like shit.

Okay, okay... let's not get ridiculous!

Captain Marvel also looks like shit.

It's just that 499 looks a massively bigger pile of shit.

It's all relative in the end.

 

[WhimsicalTrolli]

Okay, okay... let's not get ridiculous!

Captain Marvel also looks like shit.

It's just that 499 looks a massively bigger pile of shit.

It's all relative in the end.

At least it comes out in a timely manner and have a story, everything cg developed is just art no story....sometimes no art and story like 499 and wart the wizard.

 

[Adamska]

Okay, okay... let's not get ridiculous!

Captain Marvel also looks like shit.

It's just that 499 looks a massively bigger pile of shit.

It's all relative in the end.

Yeah, but the having an uglier friend strategy worked. I barely paid attention to "Woke Comic that has to be rebooted every 2 years" because the other thing was so bad by comparison.

It's like finding out you cracked a rib when every bone in your left leg was ground to mush and pulp.

 

[Miniluv]

Zack's sentiment about making a statement is kind of understandable from an artistic point of view. You can't blame a creative person for wanting to make an artistic statement.

Having said that, this sentiment coming from Zack is somewhere between colossal hubris and an amazing lack of self awareness.

He was making a statement with Pandemic and The Ballad of No, both of which came off kind of stupid and not terribly well written. His non-Jawbreakers books have about a third of the audience of Jawbreakers, so why he doesn't try to make these statements in a Jawbreakers story is beyond me since his stuff is pretty much variations on a military theme. He could tie the statements he wants to use into a story featuring his most popular creations. Any of the things he wants to say will have a much wider impact, he'll make more money, and his backers would be happy. If he thinks comics should "say more" then he should make them say it in comics people want to read. The same way SJWs used established characters to push their statements, Zack could use his established property to say what he feels he needs to say.

The Jawbreakers audience is probably the widest impact he can hope to have, to be honest. Nobody is exactly clamoring to know what sort of deep thoughts lurk in the mind of Mr. Breakfast *cough* Burrito. His aversion to making something "commercial" is unfounded though. His ideas aren't going to get any exposure outside of the CG sphere since his reputation is sealed and even someone that doesn't know him is only a Google search away from seeing a guy with a terrible haircut getting clowned by Jim Jefferies for not liking minority characters.

Maybe I'm wrong and Zack is a heretofore untapped reservoir of thought provoking ideas and artistic statements that are more than just typical lukewarm boomer takes mixed with GI Joe fanfic. Maybe people will like these artistic statements enough to overlook art they wouldn't otherwise pay $25 for. Maybe.

 

[X Pac Heat]

Oh no Zack what is you doing?

 

[Rupin]

Oh no Zack what is you doing?

I’ve been asking that ever since he cucked out to Mark Waid.

 

[jspit2.0]

Zack's sentiment about making a statement is kind of understandable from an artistic point of view. You can't blame a creative person for wanting to make an artistic statement.

Having said that, this sentiment coming from Zack is somewhere between colossal hubris and an amazing lack of self awareness.

He was making a statement with Pandemic and The Ballad of No, both of which came off kind of stupid and not terribly well written. His non-Jawbreakers books have about a third of the audience of Jawbreakers, so why he doesn't try to make these statements in a Jawbreakers story is beyond me since his stuff is pretty much variations on a military theme. He could tie the statements he wants to use into a story featuring his most popular creations. Any of the things he wants to say will have a much wider impact, he'll make more money, and his backers would be happy. If he thinks comics should "say more" then he should make them say it in comics people want to read. The same way SJWs used established characters to push their statements, Zack could use his established property to say what he feels he needs to say.

The Jawbreakers audience is probably the widest impact he can hope to have, to be honest. Nobody is exactly clamoring to know what sort of deep thoughts lurk in the mind of Mr. Breakfast *cough* Burrito. His aversion to making something "commercial" is unfounded though. His ideas aren't going to get any exposure outside of the CG sphere since his reputation is sealed and even someone that doesn't know him is only a Google search away from seeing a guy with a terrible haircut getting clowned by Jim Jefferies for not liking minority characters.

Maybe I'm wrong and Zack is a heretofore untapped reservoir of thought provoking ideas and artistic statements that are more than just typical lukewarm boomer takes mixed with GI Joe fanfic. Maybe people will like these artistic statements enough to overlook art they wouldn't otherwise pay $25 for. Maybe.

He says he's a hot dog salesman. This weiner is defective, toss it.

Yeah, but the having an uglier friend strategy worked. I barely paid attention to "Woke Comic that has to be rebooted every 2 years" because the other thing was so bad by comparison.

It's like finding out you cracked a rib when every bone in your left leg was ground to mush and pulp.

I lol'd looking back at his art critics and pairing them next to 499. It's not just line work and form. The color! How much has he bitched over that kindof coloring in comics?

Okay, okay... let's not get ridiculous!

Captain Marvel also looks like shit.

It's just that 499 looks a massively bigger pile of shit.

It's all relative in the end.

Aint that the sad truth. It took Sequel Star Wars to make us appreciate the prequels. It took SJWs to make us miss the 90s.

I’ve been asking that ever since he cucked out to Mark Waid.

red pill man.

 

[X Pac Heat]

I’ve been asking that ever since he cucked out to Mark Waid.

I didn't even realize that I've completely stopped paying attention to his videos because they got to be so boring, so I guess I completely slept on 499.

The lawsuit was bad but i could look over it. But this art? This is actually going to get a Y I K E S out of me.

 

[Rupin]

I didn't even realize that I've completely stopped paying attention to his videos because they got to be so boring, so I guess I completely slept on 499.

The lawsuit was bad but i could look over it. But this art? This is actually going to get a Y I K E S out of me.

yeah the announcement of the 499 campaign came out around the same time he dropped the Waid lawsuit so, it was like a double whammy for me once I came out of the denial stage and moved on to being angry at Zach for making such boneheaded decisions after being a fan of his for so long.

I mean yeah, Narwhal’s art is his own style that look like badly drawn anime but, it had it’s place in his own books. But for Zach to put this shit front and center in his own campaign after trashing other people’s art, a lot of which looks way better compared to what we saw in 499 is extremely hypocritical of him.

 

[WhimsicalTrolli]

The lawsuit was bad but i could look over it. But this art? This is actually going to get a Y I K E S out of me.

Looks like the home movies show from the 90s.

 

[Mister Dongs]

I say this because I want you to know that he's SINCERE. He believes in this project and wants to produce a work of art, instead of just something crass or commercial.

Richard C. Meyer's entire approach to comics is an attempt to capture an aesthetic, whether it's a "indie comic you'd find on a men's room floor in Tijuana" (Iron Sights) or capturing a nostalgic feeling of a new reader being dropped into a developed, living world, like a kid picking a pulp comic at issue #133 without any idea of what's going on and at the end left begging for more (Jawbreakers) . The goal I've noted is always about instilling a specific feeling. The problem is that Meyer never put in the hard work to hone the craft and skills necessary, like plotting and worldbuilding, that actually made those comics he tries to recapture powerful, evocative and memorable. You said it best, he wants to be an "idea guy", making executive decisions on what the end goal should be without putting in the mental labor on figuring out how to get there. So we get sloppy concepts sloppily executed - the product of sloppy thinking, the end result resembling a certain Australian treehouse. Or a "publisher" that outsources all their fulfillment to a third party without so much as skimming the billing structure.

And while I'm sure Meyer in private phone calls says he just wants to sell his comic books, be left alone and not change nuffin, the message he's peddling to the plebs is something else entirely. Here's a recent video where he starts meting out his personal proscriptions that would "recapture the comic book industry from the SJWs"; Richard's beliefs enforced as hard law by someone, somehow (again, lack of details) - creators should not be allowed on social media for any reason, all political advocacy should be not be allowed in comics, and other nuggets of wisdom that propelled Richard C. Meyer to go from 10,000 backers in 2018 to 1200 in 2021, accomplishing what the mainstream industry did in 30 years within three. And he managed to achieve this feat during a crowdfunding boom. Why would any industry professional give any credence to the dictates from on high of someone who loses half his customers after each project?

Personally, I don't have high hopes that a guy who is using "a spare room of his friend's", uploads videos explaining how he's discovered things like shelving and has a track record like Meyer's when it comes to attention to detail is going to be able to successfully carry the largest combined fulfillment program (14,025 orders across 5 projects) in CG history, his first.

If Comicsgate was a "lifeboat from the sinking ship that is the comic book industry", Richard C Meyer responded by yelling "every man for themselves", scrambled into a one-man rocketship and proceeded to steer it directly into the fucking ocean floor. It's difficult to muster any sort of sympathy for his situation, one entirely of his own making and vanity in the face of well meaning advice from his supporters, peers and betters.

 

[Yosha]

''Zack isn't ComicsGate''. Yea, no shit, everyone knew that in 2019. You're late on that as you're with the book.

 

[WhimsicalTrolli]

I'm starting to think Zack is going to retire from comics or just let others work on his books soon.

 

[Miniluv]

Personally, I don't have high hopes that a guy who is using "a spare room of his friend's", uploads videos explaining how he's discovered things like shelving and has a track record like Meyer's when it comes to attention to detail is going to be able to successfully carry the largest combined fulfillment program (14,025 orders across 5 projects) in CG history, his first.

If Comicsgate was a "lifeboat from the sinking ship that is the comic book industry", Richard C Meyer responded by yelling "every man for themselves", climbed into a one-man rocketship and proceeded to steer it directly into the ocean floor against the advice of his supporters, peers and betters.

Very astute assessment of Zack's continuing slow motion trainwreck.

It's difficult to figure why Zack believes his terrible instincts aren't terrible and must be followed even if people with experience that have his best interest in mind give him advice to the contrary. He's like some snotty teenager who thinks he knows better than everyone else and also pays child support for three kids. Clearly he has a long history of making shitty decisions.

One thing that seems pretty weird to me is that for a guy with combat experience, he acts like he can't take a punch.
He quit on the Waid lawsuit rather than go the distance with the biggest baby in comics, even though he had tons of support to help him finish. He backs off of all social media, which I can understand in a way but he uses Twitter as fodder for his videos while claiming he's just passing through the culture war. He flat out refuses to promote his books on streams because he can't handle the idea of spontaneous interaction he can't control, perhaps out of fear he'll say something off color that could be used against him. But the damage he's trying to avoid has already been done. Richard C. Meyer's name is already mud. He might as well go all in.

It's understandable that Zack would just want to be left alone and make his comics but I think that ship has sailed. He can't ever go mainstream so his only option to keep a lucrative career in crowdfunded comics is to do what the most successful creators are doing in crowdfunding. He's not keen enough to blaze some pioneer path that doesn't involve livestreaming or any sort of promotion. He's going to have to get his shit together if he ever wants to see another six figure campaign. You don't get six figure campaigns by laying low and making videos about Twitter slapfights, bookended by 15 seconds of promo for your book.

 

[A nameless trool]

Then he’s lost the plot.

‘Believing’ he is creating art is not the customer service you’ve been touting for x years. Funding comics were supposed to be about giving disillusioned fans a viable comic alternative; not indulging experimental concepts which look like arse and sell for a premium.

Best guess - your allegiance to Zack is all that is stopping you admitting how abysmal this looks. That’s fine, but ‘seeing what happens’ is beyond optimistic.

YBZ has consistently praised some rougher-looking indie comics. Recently, he was raving about a comicbook by that guy who liked to fuck trannies and called out Mags and co a while ago, and the art looked as rough as 499. I mean, the dude loves Rob Liefeld, the fact he even likes good art is a miracle...
Hell, even in every Squirell Girl video he made, he was saying "Erica Henderson is talented and can draw but she phones it in".

Plus, if 499 does not sell well, he won't blame the consumers as nazis who do not like his vision, but will try to find a way to make more comics he likes and break even like a businessman. Or just take the hint that this shit won't sell.
Which was the point of his videos since 2017.

As with other -gates people are just adding stuff they want to see to what is being said.
The Captain Marvel page is still an abomination.

Yes, I would never back 499, it is a waste of paper. Would probably read a webcomic version of it though, because it looks like someone who can draw did make an intentionally crude webcomic and it deserves to be mocked for it.
And I can't see why he is not making more Jawbreakers books. Or, maybe, I can see why he doesn't and this is what makes most of his criticisms feel so wrong. He made a career out of mocking underpaid creators who phone in stories they do not care about and know that nobody would read so they could indulge themselves, yet he cannot be arsed to make more stories for a comicbook people are excited about because: "they are not good enough".
And then, he repeats every mistake those SJWs made all those years, because, in the end, it is not about political leanings but it isabout creators believing their bad ideas can make it.

EVS is a 27 years veteran, he can sell shit because he knows that some shit he comes up with will not sell at all.

One thing that seems pretty weird to me is that for a guy with combat experience, he acts like he can't take a punch.
He quit on the Waid lawsuit rather than go the distance with the biggest baby in comics, even though he had tons of support to help him finish. He backs off of all social media, which I can understand in a way but he uses Twitter as fodder for his videos while claiming he's just passing through the culture war. He flat out refuses to promote his books on streams because he can't handle the idea of spontaneous interaction he can't control, perhaps out of fear he'll say something off color that could be used against him. But the damage he's trying to avoid has already been done. Richard C. Meyer's name is already mud. He might as well go all in.

Alright, first thing you learn in combat is: "do not take the fucking punch. Take it, and you will have zero experience. Because you die"

 

[FROG]

I think TUG lost his channel.

 

[NasserRabadi13]

I bet if I mailed Nasser a sharpie or talked him through how to use MSPaint he could do the whole show.

All I'd need is 3 art lessons and I'd be better than Smiller..