Comicsgate 2.0

Sitting pretty at over 1/2 million dollars, Cyberfrog: Blood Honey fires a warning shot to SJW editors and writers at mainstream comics companies such as Marvel and DC. Is this the return fire salvo in the Comicsgate battle that spells doom for mainstream corporate comics? According to Doug TenNapel, the recent success of IndieGoGo fueled comics is Comicsgate 2.0. And what he means by that is that fans now have a choice to procure top quality comics directly from the creators. And that also means, the creators can focus 100% on story and art and not have to worry about perpetuating an agenda. Also, as many of the top titles from Marvel and DC are now being written by people with intense hatred for Donald Trump, the line (forgive the pun) has been drawn between true comic book fans and those who claim to love then, but only want to push an agenda? It seems comic books will never be the same.

According to the Urban Dictionary, Comicsgate is the opposite of what I have learned from true fans and creators of comic books. The Urban Dictionary lists the best definition as: "A low-rent spin-off of Gamergate that campaigns against superhero comics that include characters who are non-white or non-straight, female characters with small breasts, and stories that involve modern social themes; by trolling, cyberstalking, doxxing, and otherwise harassing any female, POC, LGBT, and progressive/liberal straight-white-male writers and artists who create them."

Instead of using an already established gay character, such as North Star, Marvel decided to make Iceman gay after 5 decades of him not being gay.

The problem with the Urban Dictionary description is that it leaves out the fact that these non-white and non-male characters are specifically very critical of white straight men. And in many cases the heroes themselves who used to be straight white males are now replaced by a character who is not a straight white male. So it seems to me the problem is that instead of creating a bunch of new characters to promote a non-white or non-straight, female characters with small breasts, and stories that involve modern social theme, the people in charge of comics negated their readers and changed characters that have been around since the 1960s. And you have of wonder why you would alienate 1000s fans over such an agenda. Does Marvel comics division really have money to burn? Or will Marvel stop publishing comics as their sales figures diminish?

A selection of tweets and responses from Ethan Van Sciver. Many mainstream professionals have been trying to paint Ethan Van Sciver as some kind of Nazi. But, anyone with a brain, knows how loosely that term gets thrown around today. And, in fact the actual racism seems directed against being a straight white male as you can see in some of the screen grabs below.

So right off the bat, they are accusing anyone who has criticism of the direction comic books have taken in the last 5 years as "low rent". The irony here is in this same description they claim they are being harassed, they are in fact harassing people by using the term "low rent". They claim it is this new direction that is being "harassed" by people who yearn for the days of good story-telling, good comic book illustration, and using traditional themes that 98% of all comic book buyers look for in a comic book. And, according to popular YouTuber Ethan Van Sciver, Comicsgate is the result of aggressive SJWs who went after anyone who had any criticism at all for the new direction comic books have taken since they've changed direction from their traditional roots.

Comics MATTER w/Ya Boi Zack reviews comics and sometimes rips them apart. His anger is because of the bad writing that never has modern heroes facing any real challenges. And instead he constantly finds new comics tend to promote an SJW agenda over good story-telling.

An interesting example of someone attacking Ethan Van Sciver and insulting his art for having an opinion that is different from the SJW soaked comic book industry that exists today.

And yet, tracking down this twitter account leads to what seems like a faux account. Was this account created simply to attack Ethan Van Sciver and thereby perpetuate a narrative? Is so, who created this phony account? Was it Gail Simone?

Unapolagetic, Gail Simone and Kelly Sue DeConnick troll traditional comic book fans on social media. And at the same time, they do not seem to realize their SJW agenda is not very popular with comic book fans. Hence sales are slumping so greatly, it could mean the end of main stream comic books.

Kelly Sue DeConnick is the "creator" of the most recent iteration of Captain Marvel. I put the term creator in quotes because there is nothing really original about her version of Captain Marvel. And Carol Danvers was first introduced in 1968. DeConnick just made sure she was ugly and butch. And hence no one bought the ugly and butch Captain Marvel comic books regardless of several attempts to launch the character into pop culture.

Some of the more heinous directions of Comicsgate was Ice Man becoming gay, after not being gay for 5 decades as a Marvel superhero. I've covered before in this blog. But this is only one facet out of an entire set of crown jewels in the comicsgate crown of absurdness. As I have only been getting into this subject recently, it seems almost every Marvel comicbook is plagued by political correctness and SJW agenda. Well, as it turns out, the people now in charge of Marvel have been infested with the same Hollywood point of view that has ruined cinema for the past decade.

Above we have a tweet that encapsulates the attitude that is fueling the move away from the big corporate comic book publishers and making small indie single source publishing the wave of the future. Not sure what the logic is behind alienating your fanbase, but here it is.

Comicsgate to me, seems synthetic and not a natural progression for the comic book industry to follow. Since most of the people who used to buy mainstream comics are white males, going out of your way to harass these fans does not make economic sense. So, there must be an agenda driven economic motivator to all this.

Reposts like this from This Is Comicsgate @ThisIsCGate on twitter show the back and forth arguments between traditional comic book fans and those who have taken it over for their identity political statements.

But, reposts from This Is Comicsgate @ThisIsCGate, like the above screen grab, show there is a deeper agenda here. And my hypothesis is that #comicsgate is part of a cultural war against the USA to fracture our sense that "we're all in this together". Comicsgate creates division. And it is interesting that comic book sales from these SJW direction comic books titles have taken a nose dive. And at the same time, MAGA supporters like Ethan Van Sciver have thrived with their own independent comic books.

One of the complaints traditional comic book fans have had about the direction Comicsgate has taken is the elimination of the sexy female super hero. But, as comic books have traditionally been an adolescent fantasy for young men, and young women are generally interested in a host of other things, you have to wonder about the logic of Marvel & DC Comics in all this.

More proof that a truly direct from the creator independent comic book can be more successful and more lucrative for the artists is Doug TenNapel's BIGFOOT BILL graphic novel sitting pretty at $196,611. How many comic books from DC or Marvel have made that kind of money lately?

So it seems that comics has been given the same marching orders as Hollywood. And it's interesting to note that since the 1990's comic book conventions have become more and more about Hollywood and "stars" and less about actual comic books. So, it should stand to reason that the same agenda we see in films were going to eventually show up in comic books. However, it seems with today's internet marketing and social media, there is no way for huge dinosaurs like Marvel or DC to stop the creative wave that will consume them. And that creative wave is called Comicsgate 2.0.

Tony Castelluci is a filmmaker, writer, and raconteur. Having once served as a Water Safety Survival Instructor as a member of the elite special operations USMC unit 2nd ANGLICO, Tony still seeks adventure on air, land, and sea. Please subscribe, resteem if you can afford it, and share this post if you appreciate the content.

Follow the curation trail and allocate some steem to our cause. We will not be silenced. We cannot be stopped. We are legion!

Sources:

Urban Dictionary - https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Comicsgate

Ethan Van Sciver’s CYBERFROG:BLOODHONEY Comic Book - https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ethan-van-sciver-s-cyberfrog-bloodhoney-comic-book#/

ComicArtistPro Secrets - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCp8nOGQKLpFhtoIOOUVK40g

Back THE CASE OF THE LITTLEST UMBRELLA here! https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/th...

Comics MATTER w/Ya Boi Zack - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrlzSqLSGj8GIOeT5jrQsJA

UPDATE TO #Informationwar - I appear to be locked out of my Discord account. For some reason it is not allowing me to log in. It keeps rejecting my log-in stating I need to include an "@" symbol. And I do. But it does not seem to help at all. Please reach out if you know how to fix this.