Jawbreakers

[goldenarms]

This is mostly a test post, since I haven't been on the forum in god-knows how many months, but seeing the most recent events unfold in relation to a comic book campaign (currently over $300K funded), I have to ask the following question:

Are we allowed to discuss the recent events surrounding the IndieGoGo campaign Jawbreakers: Lost Souls?

I have to ask because there are several comic book formats that have blanket-banned any mention of the subject, including Reddit and CBR, and, if it isn't a hit-piece on the writer behind it, Richard Meyer, aka Zack on his YouTube account Diversity & Comics, comic book journalism won't talk about him, some even going so far as to actively get his social media accounts banned. This is a problem, as he has been gaining a lot of attention not only from the folks in the industry, including new Marvel EIC, CB Cebulski, but also retailers, particularly with his #MovetheNeedle movement to show the industry who buys comics, as well as the mindblowing success of the crowdfunded graphic novel Jawbreakers: Lost Souls.

And this is where things go off the rails. In short, we're talking a dislike for someone being so strong as to prompt Orwellian censorship to the point of conspiracy, to the point of breaking federal laws and quite possibly destroying their own career in comics (and I wish I was exaggerating any part of that, but this really happened). This, I find to be a chilling matter not just because it happened to Jawbreakers, but now, it could possibly happen to anyone in the world that wants to put out a comic book, if not beyond. That other comic book forums would rather maintain a blanket ban on D&C instead of addressing the ramifications of Mark Waid's and various comic shops' action is probably even more frightening.

So, again, are we allowed to talk about the events surrounding Jawbreakers: Lost Souls? The last thing I want to do is get deep on the issue, only to have the thread plugged or scrubbed because "fuckdatguy." There is a lot to unpack here, from who Diversity & Comics is and what he does, to his detractors, the various claims they have tried to level upon him in an effort to shut him down on YouTube, Patreon, and social media in general, and the oddball things that have happened in between which led up to Waid personally obstructing a done deal between D&C and Antartic Press and admitting to the whole nine in Bleeding Cool (quoting one lawyer who looked at the issue and read the BC article: "If I was Mark Waid's lawyer, I would slap him in the face the moment he entered my office, then bill him for it.")

 

[Contrabardus]

You should be fine. This isn't a political site and we have a porn/hentai section where we objectify everyone. I would also point out that there's also a "Pokemon" section within said porn area which frequently features images that involve tentacles, lolis, and what is essentially beastiality, so we're a bit beyond caring about politically correct here.

If it's a comic, it's on topic for this area. I've certainly never seen anyone banned or topics removed for something like this here.

It's 'comic news"-ish, so I don't see the harm in trying to start a thread, but it's also not really the sort of subject we tackle here, so it may not find much traction. Where as discussion of the comic itself may do well depending on whether it's crap or not.

As I understand it, DiC pretty much won. The resulting mess ended up giving him far more press than he ever would have gotten, and his book was crowd funded well enough to self publish and sold out.

In fact, I wasn't even aware of him until this happened, and I probably never would have seen any of his videos had it not.

While I don't agree with everything he says, he does make some good points regarding Marvel on the comic book side of their business and how they are basically tanking the company and alienating their base. [Marvel Comics and Marvel Movies are separate entities.] Not because of the diversity in the books, but because of how badly they're handling it. The writing quality has plummeted, there is an oversaturation of LGBTQ+ characters now, and they're shoehorning diversity into their books in a very hamfisted way without bothering with developing or earning it on the writing side.

Iceman went from a skirt chasing clown to gay in the space of two pages of an X-men comic. It literally came out of nowhere with no prior build up or any attempt to establish it. Jean Grey just told him he was gay, and he just was from then on. It was unearned and made no sense.

Don't even get me started on the kid who just showed up, stole one of Iron Man's suits, and everyone was okay with it because she's smart. She's basically a slightly older and not quite as smart Moon Girl and seems to have been created to address social issues dozens of other established characters could have addressed just as easily.

That's what is pissing off comic nerds, who have been historically fine with numerous gay characters for decades, it's shitty hamfisted writing for the sake of social politics, not homophobia. Nobody batted an eye when Shatterstar or Northstar were gay. It made sense and wasn't written like it belonged on rye bread with some swiss.

The same goes for ethnic characters. We were fine with Sam becoming Captain America for the most part, it was earned, he did the time and it made sense. Rhodey was Iron Man decades before, so it wasn't anything unusual.

Miles Morales was also pretty well received. It wasn't Miles or the fact that he wasn't white that people were mad about, it was that they killed off Peter. They got over it pretty fast because the writing was so good. He was so well liked that he was one of the few characters to actually survive the end of the Ultimate Universe to avoid fan backlash for killing him off.

The diversity issue is just a symptom of a larger problem regarding writing. Marvel has always been left leaning and more counter culture focused than DC, but recently they're putting that ahead of good art and writing.

The movies are working because they are using storylines from fifteen to twenty years ago, back when sales were high and social politics weren't steering the direction of the books.

I also don't think it's necessarily a problem with the writers so much as management. The editors and executives are trying too hard and are alienating their base in an attempt to appeal to people who aren't going to buy their books regardless of what they do. They're basically writing by committee and focus groups, and that doesn't work for something like comic books.

DC is doing a much better job of navigating and exploring modern social politics in their books. They're not compromising their characters to try to appeal and pander to minority groups, but still manage to write and develop stories that don't beat their readers over the head or rush to fit in whatever flavor of the week the current political climate has decided is in vogue.

Honestly, I don't care much for DC's main line of books. Too many Bat books.

I do enjoy their more mature off the wall stuff like Doom Patrol, Lucifer, Shade, Hellblazer, Swamp Thing, etc...

That said, I have heard good things about the art and writing in Jawbreakers. Which is what I care about more than anything else. DiC seems to have put his money where his mouth was and produced something interesting if initial reports about the comic are anything to go by. I'll have to check it out at some point.

 

[goldenarms]

...and then DC announces their rebranding of DC Vertigo with more "socially conscious" titles, with Zoe Quinn leading them with "Goddess Mode." :snigger: :rant: :headbanger:

Yeah, I wasn't entirely sure about bringing up the topic, given the lack of interest, and it had been a minute since I was seriously on here. Still, it's downright shocking for someone like Mark Waid to go so far as to break up the deal DiC had with Antarctic Press and then brag about it to Bleeding Cool, of all places, while effectively putting EVERYONE in trouble with the Federal Government. In fact, DiC himself admitted his case wasn't really that solid against Mark Waid until he fanned his own dirty laundry like he mistaken himself to be an Avenger or something. Apparently, CB Cebulski put a serious gag order on Waid, since all his social media accounts have been deleted after the shenanigans (not that it stopped him from blabbing to Rich Jahnston).

The more chilling effect, though, comes down to the precedent that progressive extremists can literally stop you from putting your book out at all, not because of the book's content, but just on the grounds that they don't like you. One of the Jawbreakers stretch goals would be for the creative team of DiC, Jon Malin, and Brett Smith to make an appearance at a convention or store -- because of Mark Waid's actions, they're more concerned about getting a location that won't cancel on them last minute, or forbid them entry when they arrive. Plus, this effect has rippled outward to affecting anyone that so much as associates with DiC, like Dylan, the personality behind TheRealComicBookGamer, who was forbidden from shopping at his LCS Magic Mirror Comics when he came in to pick up some comics and his pull list, all because he supports DiC. Imagine, a store that had to make a GoFundMe page to move to another location, refusing to serve customers that are spend at least $100 per visit!

And, yet, sites like Reddit and Comic Book Resources don't want to talk about DiC, Comicsgate, or anyone tied to what they label as "Alt-Right Nazis." The mods just up and summarily decided the internet is right and nothing is false or misleading about DiC. <_< It's bizarre, shortsighted, and really off-putting when you consider that they're tacitly okaying this kind of censorship and deplatforming. It's one thing to not like what the guy is saying -- it's another thing to balls-out bully-till-capitulation publishers to make certain he can't get a book in the market, particularly since the book isn't political like Vox Day. If this happened to a very vocal man-hating black lesbian, there would be blood on the walls from Amsterdam to Zaire, there would be thirty articles on news site, she'd be on CNN for two days (because no one cares about outside the US), and there would charges to have her work entered into the Library of Congress and placed with the likes of Shakespeare, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Mark Twain.

So why act like nothing is wrong when there is a giant black rip in the sky hovering over our heads?