#Comicsgate - The Culture Wars Hit The Funny Books!

[NasserRabadi13]

this spendy cultist shown in the pictures backed the action figures 3x and Tucci's recycling of Shi 3x also.

I own 5 copies of Psycho on bluray. Am I part of a cult also? Or am I just a collector who likes to have multiple copies of things he enjoys?

 

[Absurdity]

I own 5 copies of Psycho on bluray. Am I part of a cult also? Or am I just a collector who likes to have multiple copies of things he enjoys?

You're a (p)syc(h)ophant who will hitch his cart to anything that has momentum. Psycho is a classic. Cyberfrog is reheated beans.

 

[Sex Cannon Lupa]

I own 5 copies of Psycho on bluray. Am I part of a cult also? Or am I just a collector who likes to have multiple copies of things he enjoys?

Why do you need five copies?

 

[NSA]

I own 5 copies of Psycho on bluray. Am I part of a cult also? Or am I just a collector who likes to have multiple copies of things he enjoys?

Having 5 copies of the same movie on bluray does indeed mean that you are a retarded consoomer and a weirdo.

 

[Newman's Lovechild]

I own 5 copies of Psycho on bluray. Am I part of a cult also? Or am I just a collector who likes to have multiple copies of things he enjoys?

This is the topic you're looking for:

https://kiwifarms.st/threads/consoomers-consoomer-culture.85636/

 

[NasserRabadi13]

Why do you need five copies?

Bought it on bluray from Half Price Books. Later I was at Best Buy and I liked the packaging on the Steelbook more, so I bought the Steelbook. Then I bought an Alfred Hitchcock box set (Psycho, The Birds, Vertigo, North by Northwest, Rear Window). Then I bought a Psycho 1-4 box set. Then Psycho came out on 4k UHD so I bought the 4k UHD Steelbook. I believe they have a Psycho 4k UHD that is in regular packaging instead of a Steelbook--if I come across that I'd buy it too.

I love the movie and love having multiple copies of it. I have multiple copies of The Exorcist, too, and I'm looking for another copy of it.

 

[A nameless trool]

The horror element gets lost the moment you introduce super-powered heroes. It's still limited, but it would have been more effective with regular humans. As it is, most of the human race is gone anyway so they basically won. Not for the TMNT April O'Neil fetishists I guess, but what is there to really fight for or defend? Cyberfrog is literally late and hermaphroditic to his own timeline.

A better writer would have issue one as Heather Swaine leads a group of survivors in an attempt to release CyberFrog from whereever he was trapped, as they are taken one by one by alien wasps.
The moment Cyberfrog appears it is the end and hope is restored and you just want to go to the next issue to see him kick wasp ass.

 

[NasserRabadi13]

A better writer would have issue one as Heather Swaine leads a group of survivors in an attempt to release CyberFrog from whereever he was trapped, as they are taken one by one by alien wasps.
The moment Cyberfrog appears it is the end and hope is restored and you just want to go to the next issue to see him kick wasp ass.

You'd rather have 60 pages of people LOOKING for CyberFrog, then he appears on the last page, instead of 60 pages of CyberFrog being awesome?

That's just not an interesting story.

 

[Absurdity]

A better writer would have issue one as Heather Swaine leads a group of survivors in an attempt to release CyberFrog from whereever he was trapped, as they are taken one by one by alien wasps.
The moment Cyberfrog appears it is the end and hope is restored and you just want to go to the next issue to see him kick wasp ass.

There are a lot of ways you could treat the material that would have been more impactful and laid the groundwork for more development. One way would to focus in on a very few characters in a serious tension-filled story but doesn't aim to be more than a very limited series, or on the other end of the spectrum is to keep it light and fun with a ton of supporting characters that all help to compliment the main character and set the stage for advanced world-building. Cyberfrog's list of main players is so shallow and weak that you end up having to flood your book with narrative and exposition because you don't have enough characters to reflect and react to the reality you're trying to depict.

However, there is no world to build on in Blood Honey from the outset. It's not even post-apocalyptic fun where you see ingenious ragtag systems in place to survive "love among the ruins" style. The setting is so devoid of potential, he's got to have the next issue take place on the space hornet planet. The only immersive thing about this series is that it will have taken Ethan the same amount of time to produce the comic as it would have to actually travel to another planet.

You'd rather have 60 pages of people LOOKING for CyberFrog, then he appears on the last page, instead of 60 pages of CyberFrog being awesome?

That's just not an interesting story.

"Being awesome™"= being too late to save anyone but a pinup girl he can't get with. Literally no risk (Cyberfrog dying might actually be the funniest thing he ever does), no stakes (everyone's dead already), and no reward (eternal friendzone). Tell me every young boy doesn't want to admire this cosmic joke of a "male" character!

 

[NasserRabadi13]

"Being awesome™"= being too late to save anyone but a pinup girl he can't get with. Literally no risk (Cyberfrog dying might actually be the funniest thing he ever does), no stakes (everyone's dead already), and no reward (eternal friendzone). Tell me every young boy doesn't want to admire this cosmic joke of a "male" character!

Bro CyberFrog has woken up to a world that's completely changed. Almost everybody he's known before is dead. It's heartbreaking. It's great motivation for him to save what's left of the world.

The story you and "A nameless trool" are pitching just isn't interesting, but it also wouldn't change any of the things you're complaining about.

In the story you're pitching, a bunch of people walk and talk for 60 pages trying to find CyberFrog. There's just nothing there visually. Even if they get killed by a mutant wasp monster, there's no suspension or tension or anything there because they're going to be throwaway characters on a quest alongside Heather. We'd care for Heather but not the others in that proposed story.

Plus this is CYBERFROG's story. Not a bunch of random people's story.

 

[FROG]

You are fun Ethan.

I remember thinking - Ethan's ego will not allow him to bear any critical questions - and he will likely mention politics or Mike.

We get invited back to participate in the local GOP all the time we registered more local Republicans than anyone in the past 10 years.

Mike seems like he is doing well - it also seems like he made the intelligent decision to decouple his livelihood from anything that you could directly influence via your super fans.

This is why CG has been reduced down to about 1,500 core purchasers. Your sycophants flail at anyone you point at. That's good for you from the context of control but for broader adoption a middle nerd cult isn't appealing to a wider audience.

Arguing with the Geek and Gamers and Friday Night Tight crew sounds like it was ego driven rather than rational - they have captured a big slice of the emotionally incontinent nostalgia driven nerds who spend money impulsively.

I didn't fully grasp how much a few hundred super backers are responsible for a huge chunk of purchases - this spendy cultist shown in the pictures backed the action figures 3x and Tucci's recycling of Shi 3x also.

Neither are rational expenditures. You are extraordinarily skillful at extracting maximum dollars from a relatively small fan group. The cyber simps are almost exactly like the devotees who would send their rent money to the Televangilists back in the 1980s.

Adding the comic book seems like a bare minimum nod to the super backers and the premium being charged for the figures. I admittedly know very little about action figures - so I compared your offerings to similar products on Kickstarter - you are charging more and offering less.

Are these action figures being fabricated in the US or assembled at one of the Chinese concentration camps?

You get invited back to "participate" in the local GOP? You mean voting?

I enjoyed your moment on CNN. Perfectly timed, too, Just as the Leftists of media were building their final case against Trump supporters, right before January 6th, Edwin Boyette humiliates the 37 remaining Republicans in Hawaii. It could ONLY be you.

I'm glad that embarrassing catastrophe has allowed you to come back to ComicsGate via KiwiFarms to stamp out my ego. Since I'm only selling to 1500 people or so with Billy Tucci, it seems like a good use of your time, and not a sad final descent into insanity before you finally announce you're trans.

 

[Absurdity]

Bro CyberFrog has woken up to a world that's completely changed. Almost everybody he's known before is dead. It's heartbreaking. It's great motivation for him to save what's left of the world.

The story you and "A nameless trool" are pitching just isn't interesting, but it also wouldn't change any of the things you're complaining about.

In the story you're pitching, a bunch of people walk and talk for 60 pages trying to find CyberFrog. There's just nothing there visually. Even if they get killed by a mutant wasp monster, there's no suspension or tension or anything there because they're going to be throwaway characters on a quest alongside Heather. We'd care for Heather but not the others in that proposed story.

Plus this is CYBERFROG's story. Not a bunch of random people's story.

It hasn't "changed" so much as it's been destroyed. Had it not been a total wipe and some cultural elements remained intact, he could react to it in meaningful ways. He might have had a small chance to make his character more defined or even relatable. There's a ton of leftovers from the 90s and current day to lampoon and criticize, compare and contrast, but then that would have forced Ethan to write about something deeper than torn jeans and reflective metal appendages. For all the drama and talk of Edwin's "disgracing the GOP" he's a complete milquetoast when it comes to his own material. He knows that if he ever made it more than about his own struggle and his own personal (non-principled) sense of what qualifies as an enemy, he'd be a much bigger target with even less fight in him than Ya Former Boi Zack.

The whole "he's cool because he's supposed to be" is a direct parallel to "I'm Ethan Van Sciver and I'm cool because I make well-drawn comics" and it's not strong enough to excuse mediocrity and all the other compost around the "movement" coming from the same person. As soon as you run afoul of Ethan, you're a few fake chuckles away from being regarded as an obsessed space monster SJW.

 

[The Coon]

Wow this is the most excitement I have seen on this thread in a while. Edwin flys down from the sky to take a few pot shots at Frog while Frog returns fire. Nasser returns to his rightful place at Frogs crotch(don't forget to cup the balls).

"My cup runneth over"
Happy Sunday everyone!

 

[Unverified]

A better writer would have issue one as Heather Swaine leads a group of survivors in an attempt to release CyberFrog from whereever he was trapped, as they are taken one by one by alien wasps.
The moment Cyberfrog appears it is the end and hope is restored and you just want to go to the next issue to see him kick wasp ass.

There are a lot of ways you could treat the material that would have been more impactful and laid the groundwork for more development. One way would to focus in on a very few characters in a serious tension-filled story but doesn't aim to be more than a very limited series, or on the other end of the spectrum is to keep it light and fun with a ton of supporting characters that all help to compliment the main character and set the stage for advanced world-building. Cyberfrog's list of main players is so shallow and weak that you end up having to flood your book with narrative and exposition because you don't have enough characters to reflect and react to the reality you're trying to depict.

However, there is no world to build on in Blood Honey from the outset. It's not even post-apocalyptic fun where you see ingenious ragtag systems in place to survive "love among the ruins" style. The setting is so devoid of potential, he's got to have the next issue take place on the space hornet planet. The only immersive thing about this series is that it will have taken Ethan the same amount of time to produce the comic as it would have to actually travel to another planet.

I'd like to look at it with a wider and more metacontextual lens. Ethan had to use Blood Honey to introduce an almost entirely new audience to his characters while still attempting to make something reminiscent of his 90s work. More importantly, he had to build up as much interest in CyberFrog (the character) as humanly possible to make this crowdfunding venture last. So I would say that keeping CyberFrog out of a large portion of the story wouldn't be much of an option for Ethan, even if it would make for a better impact if we were to consider the story as its own entity.
Ideally, I'd have kept the parts of Blood Honey set in the 1990s about the same in order to establish the characters and show the initial Vyzpzz invasion to see what the enemy is capable of. After that, I'd have set a good stretch of the series in the post-apocalypse without CyberFrog. We need to establish the survivor colony and see them at their lowest point so that you can feel the weight of CyberFrog's return (or at least what it means to Heather). We would also get a better sense of how the new world works and how CyberFrog's interference is actually going to throw a wrench into the new establishment, given that he's now a vestige of the past and only knows 1990s Philadelphia. However, this story structure would only work under one of two conditions, as far as I can see it:

A.) If issues were coming out at a faster rate. Were this a monthly title, the audience could bear to go several issues without seeing the titular character if the writer was doing a great job of fleshing out the supporting cast and building the world.
B.) If 90s CyberFrog was an absolute smash hit that everybody read. That way we'd all be anticipating the return of a character we loved in the past and it would hit like an emotional freight train when we saw him again. However, this still leaves new readers in the dust. In this situation, Ethan would've had to put out Warts And All prior to Blood Honey in order to catch people up and start building their investments in the character (and the franchise, financially speaking).

Given that neither of these is the case, I understand why Ethan is doing things the way that he is. He needs to put as much *CyberFrog* into each issue as possible. The character has become an icon and it's what people want to see. He can pump out ancillary material with Heather, Lily, Salamandroid, etc., but the main issues have to be Frog-focused for the time being. I love the idea of an issue set on the Vyzpzz planet, though.

All that being said, I think Ethan mostly knows what he's doing and the overall story should be pretty solid when it's all said and done. The book being primarily from CyberFrog's perspective still works fine, as this way we will get to experience the new world in real time as CyberFrog does. It should make for a better 'fish out of water' feel, if Ethan does it right. Shouldn't be that hard when your main character is already a cybernetic swamp creature.

 

[EGB]

You get invited back to "participate" in the local GOP? You mean voting?

I enjoyed your moment on CNN. Perfectly timed, too, Just as the Leftists of media were building their final case against Trump supporters, right before January 6th, Edwin Boyette humiliates the 37 remaining Republicans in Hawaii. It could ONLY be you.

I'm glad that embarrassing catastrophe has allowed you to come back to ComicsGate via KiwiFarms to stamp out my ego. Since I'm only selling to 1500 people or so with Billy Tucci, it seems like a good use of your time, and not a sad final descent into insanity before you finally announce you're trans.

So that's a yes on Chinese prisoners assembling the toys?

Relax Francis - your fans will likely get you over the $400,000 mark.

On a practical note - consider doing a tie in with Golden Corral - there is bound to be a huge overlap with your natural fanbase.

 

[Least Concern]

I didn't fully grasp how much a few hundred super backers are responsible for a huge chunk of purchases - this spendy cultist shown in the pictures backed the action figures 3x and Tucci's recycling of Shi 3x also.

Neither are rational expenditures. You are extraordinarily skillful at extracting maximum dollars from a relatively small fan group. The cyber simps are almost exactly like the devotees who would send their rent money to the Televangilists back in the 1980s.

This part's unfair, I think. Comic books and figures are not "rational expenditures" even if you only buy one. If someone has the spare dosh to buy three and does so, what's the harm? Maybe they'll be split up amongst friends who went in together on the order to minimize shipping or whatever. But even if not, who cares?

 

[VIkkiVerse]

In the story you're pitching, a bunch of people walk and talk for 60 pages trying to find CyberFrog. There's just nothing there visually. Even if they get killed by a mutant wasp monster, there's no suspension or tension or anything there because they're going to be throwaway characters on a quest alongside Heather. We'd care for Heather but not the others in that proposed story.

Nasser, may I introduce you to a little story entitled Lord of the Rings ?

On a practical note - consider doing a tie in with Golden Corral - there is bound to be a huge overlap with your natural fanbase.

Why bring Ashley Lewis into this?

 

[Absurdity]

I'd like to look at it with a wider and more metacontextual lens. Ethan had to use Blood Honey to introduce an almost entirely new audience to his characters while still attempting to make something reminiscent of his 90s work. More importantly, he had to build up as much interest in CyberFrog (the character) as humanly possible to make this crowdfunding venture last. So I would say that keeping CyberFrog out of a large portion of the story wouldn't be much of an option for Ethan, even if it would make for a better impact if we were to consider the story as its own entity.
Ideally, I'd have kept the parts of Blood Honey set in the 1990s about the same in order to establish the characters and show the initial Vyzpzz invasion to see what the enemy is capable of. After that, I'd have set a good stretch of the series in the post-apocalypse without CyberFrog. We need to establish the survivor colony and see them at their lowest point so that you can feel the weight of CyberFrog's return (or at least what it means to Heather). We would also get a better sense of how the new world works and how CyberFrog's interference is actually going to throw a wrench into the new establishment, given that he's now a vestige of the past and only knows 1990s Philadelphia. However, this story structure would only work under one of two conditions, as far as I can see it:

A.) If issues were coming out at a faster rate. Were this a monthly title, the audience could bear to go several issues without seeing the titular character if the writer was doing a great job of fleshing out the supporting cast and building the world.
B.) If 90s CyberFrog was an absolute smash hit that everybody read. That way we'd all be anticipating the return of a character we loved in the past and it would hit like an emotional freight train when we saw him again. However, this still leaves new readers in the dust. In this situation, Ethan would've had to put out Warts And All prior to Blood Honey in order to catch people up and start building their investments in the character (and the franchise, financially speaking).

Given that neither of these is the case, I understand why Ethan is doing things the way that he is. He needs to put as much *CyberFrog* into each issue as possible. The character has become an icon and it's what people want to see. He can pump out ancillary material with Heather, Lily, Salamandroid, etc., but the main issues have to be Frog-focused for the time being. I love the idea of an issue set on the Vyzpzz planet, though.

All that being said, I think Ethan mostly knows what he's doing and the overall story should be pretty solid when it's all said and done. The book being primarily from CyberFrog's perspective still works fine, as this way we will get to experience the new world in real time as CyberFrog does. It should make for a better 'fish out of water' feel, if Ethan does it right. Shouldn't be that hard when your main character is already a cybernetic swamp creature.

I would say Ethan knows what he's willing to do without hiring a competent writer or taking in criticism. Was there ever anyone clamoring for more Cyberfrog at any time? Was there ever a fan of Ethan's work on DC or Marvel who thought to themselves "Man, I really wish he'd revisit that classic awesome™ Cyberfrog again!" It never happened. Cyberfrog represented a young artist getting his work out there before he made it big. A creative dead end. His character building is even worse for new audiences. What does any of this background information signify if the characters don't interact with it? City Hall in the background? A Liberty Bell here or there? The LOVE sculpture? It's non-functional visual information. Philadelphia is a generic city setting that got covered in honey. It has no personality or ambiance outside of what the space hornets have done with the place.

There is no point to setting the story in current year if nothing represents anything in current year. If the 90s mean anything, you have to establish what it means for the comic. Name drop President Clinton all day long, it won't matter if you refuse to get into political discussions. Dick Tracy established it's own cartoon version of 1930s New York, Batman '89 basically did a 30s/80s hybrid, and Superman '78 was set it an alt-universe current year. All of these had cool ways of showcasing their protagonist's powers against a backdrop that is familiar to the viewer. Human progress is traditionally celebrated or criticized in the form of technology and it plays a big part both in the origin and the main story for nearly every comic book character. In CF, all tech has been replaced with alien tech which is unfamiliar along with what drives the said technology. What replaces human progress as the main meditation of comic book superheroes? Why it's an alien mystery box! Make sure to buy the full boxed set, piggies!

Icon is an empty word when talking about a brand that does not have widespread recognition much less cultural significance. The character is an icon only for people who already know about Ethan's crowdfunded mediocrity and social media bloodsports. Cyberfrog could be the anti-icon, whose existence is completely dedicated not to a message or a symbol or a principle but small-scale niche consumerism carrot-on-a-stick grift. A "Mystery box" has everything to sell and nothing to say.

 

[Rupin]

You are fun Ethan.

I remember thinking - Ethan's ego will not allow him to bear any critical questions - and he will likely mention politics or Mike.

We get invited back to participate in the local GOP all the time we registered more local Republicans than anyone in the past 10 years.

Mike seems like he is doing well - it also seems like he made the intelligent decision to decouple his livelihood from anything that you could directly influence via your super fans.

This is why CG has been reduced down to about 1,500 core purchasers. Your sycophants flail at anyone you point at. That's good for you from the context of control but for broader adoption a middle nerd cult isn't appealing to a wider audience.

Arguing with the Geek and Gamers and Friday Night Tight crew sounds like it was ego driven rather than rational - they have captured a big slice of the emotionally incontinent nostalgia driven nerds who spend money impulsively.

I didn't fully grasp how much a few hundred super backers are responsible for a huge chunk of purchases - this spendy cultist shown in the pictures backed the action figures 3x and Tucci's recycling of Shi 3x also.

Neither are rational expenditures. You are extraordinarily skillful at extracting maximum dollars from a relatively small fan group. The cyber simps are almost exactly like the devotees who would send their rent money to the Televangilists back in the 1980s.

Adding the comic book seems like a bare minimum nod to the super backers and the premium being charged for the figures. I admittedly know very little about action figures - so I compared your offerings to similar products on Kickstarter - you are charging more and offering less.

Are these action figures being fabricated in the US or assembled at one of the Chinese concentration camps?

Umm… I’m not Ethan. And Mike took over a 100k pay cut in comic book sales when he left CG And now he is sinking into obscurity and reduced to making Jesus silent movie type comic strips where nobody but him gets the joke and following the Antonio Bryce formula of teaming up with a YouTuber that doesn’t like comics and making a comic about Bitboy, a hero whose powers are based on crypto…

View attachment 1627236956968.jpeg
View attachment 1627236835165.jpeg
Link to Bitboy’s YouTube channel Where Mike got the idea for the comic from:
https://youtube.com/channel/UCjemQfjaXAzA-95RKoy9n_g

But if you call these head scratching decisions doing fine, then whatever floats your boat dude.

 

[A nameless trool]

You'd rather have 60 pages of people LOOKING for CyberFrog, then he appears on the last page, instead of 60 pages of CyberFrog being awesome?

That's just not an interesting story.

To be honest, I was expecting cyberfrog waking to a destroyed world and kicking alien wasp ass for 60 pages.
And I paid another $25 to read the extra book of how Cyberfrog went AWOL when the invasion happened.
But Ethan decided to put the story of how the invasion happened on the main book and all I got was Cyberfrog beating up some other insectoid villains.

Now, if we talk book 1 of 4 then yes, I can do with 60 pages showing how threatening the wasps are and how desperate the characters are to find this Cyberfrog to save them. This builds up the character (and ofcourse you can always narrate the backstory in flashbacks as they die one by one, so 30 pages of post apocalypse, 30 pages of backstory) and by the point they get there, I know the Vzzzptdz or however they are ninetiespelled are scary evil motherfuckers and I want the main character to kill em all.
This is how you build a story. Terminator 2 and X-Men Days of Future past start like that.