Tag: comics

We’ve played nice with Two-Face van Soyver and his merry band of Comicsgatekeepers to date despite their incessant sniping. But I don’t know if it’s going to be possible to continue doing so for much longer, in light of the little Kabuki theater he is presently putting on for the crowd.

Everybody’s cursing him out in the chat what a tool they’re saying what a shit move, ComicsGate, it is, what a shit move, let Ethan have it, please don’t be petty!  He won’t show his face, he’s behind a screen right now. Vox is a piece of shit can you go any lower from here? People are saying this might be the best stream we’ve ever done nice, a great time, there he is. I see you Vox! You did not start this gangster shit, Vox. The problem, Vox, is that it did belong to everyone and then you stole it for yourself, that’s the problem. He’s laughing, cuz Vox watches the chat very closely. Oh man, we got our people over there trolling and big-time beautiful. He’s smirking, look at him! Vox I do own it, I do own it!  Swallow hard, swallow, Vox. He thought, he was, he’s like in one year I’m gonna be more relevant than Ethan Van Sciver. How’s that going?

The dark stream? Dude, I mean go get that checked out that’s not that a joke. Another scam artist, somebody said, why is that anus talking he said. Way to turn ComicsGate against you. I mean what Vox doesn’t understand is that I think a few of our people were actually supporting Alt-Hero and that’s gonna go bye-bye. Vox yeah yeah the ratio did I mean dude not even close like if if we say so if ComicsGate says so that’s it for Alt-Hero. that’s it for Alt-Hero. 34 likes and 304 dislikes right now on the dark stream, 324 dark stream, yeah he’s peeing blood right now look you can’t, you don’t we’re not here to be taken, we’re not here to be taken Vox, you can’t co-opt us, you can’t, you can’t do it. I know you’re trying, it’s not working, give up, let it go. Oh, feel it slipping through your fingers that’s ComicsGate, bitch! Dude’s not going to work out. He’s got to stop.

Now, that’s a very convincing performance, until you learn that I ran the idea of creating a comics imprint called ComicsGate past a well-known professional comic artist last week and he actually approved of the idea, albeit with a few concerns about how it would play out. But he certainly had no objections, especially after I pointed out that any SJW-converged publisher with access could do exactly the same thing in a manner of seconds. It wasn’t until the Bounding Into Comics piece ran and he realized how badly his fans were reacting badly to the idea that “the brand” was being “stolen” that he turned around, pretended not to know anything about it, and feigned being surprised and outraged.

Still, don’t take my word about the identity of this professional comic artist. Just ask ol’ Uncle Ethan when he first learned about my intention to create a ComicsGate imprint.

In case you don’t believe good ‘ol Uncle Ethan would lie so shamelessly to his fellow ComicsGatekeepers, consider his revisionist description of last night’s Darkstream this morning.

By the way, Vox calls himself the Dark Lord. I took the mantle of Dark Lord from him last night and his live stream just said EVS is the Dark Lord, EVS is the Dark Lord up there, he looked very upset, he looked like he was gonna cry, and he cancelled it early. He left in mid-sentence, he just he bombed his chat out. March, march tower armies on Vox Day, and I believe we conquered him.

Translation: Ethan may be far more upset about this than any of us would have imagined. SJWs aren’t the only people who project. It was informative to see how he described our emails in detail last night, but said absolutely nothing about our 30-minute 55-second conversation on August 29th.

And since Two-Face Van Soyver is talking about emails, here are a pair of not-entirely-irrelevant emails I sent out to someone last week.

8/29/2018 7:59 AM

From [REDACTED]:

The imprint [REDACTED] has been added to your account as requested. 


9/2/2018 2:30 PM

Hey [REDACTED],

Congrats on the variant cover killing it. Below is a link to AH#4: The War in Paris in case you’re interested. Also, we’ll make the [REDACTED] announcement on Tuesday when we publish Gun Ghoul in print.

Obviously, we didn’t make the announcement on Tuesday, but moved it up one day when the print edition of Gun Ghoul got through the system and onto our direct store faster than we’d anticipated, because Bounding Into Comics had the story ready to go and was eager to run it.

ComicsGate Comics is pleased to announce that Will Caligan’s Gun Ghoul: Raising the Dead is now in print.

Someone – or something – is taking out the crime lords of Chicago.

Agent Justice of the FBI is on the case. She is a Meta Prime, with the ability to see into the past. But not even her superhuman abilities allows her to explain the impossible. And the FBI is not the only agency that is interested in learning more about the new player in town. In their search for the mysterious killer who is wreaking havoc on the crime lords of Chicago, Agent Justice and Detective Callahan of the Chicago Police Department team up to recreate a gun battle that took place at a restaurant in Chinatown. What they learn leads them to the killer’s next target, where they find themselves face-to-face with the ruthless, relentless, inhuman being.

Gun Ghoul: Raising the Dead is a furiously action-packed graphic novel by military veteran Will Caligan. 116 pages, $14.99. The graphic novel is published in 10×7 format on high-quality 70-pound paper. The four digital editions that are collected here have all been bestsellers in the Horror category on Amazon.

Let the ComicsGatekeepers gnash their teeth all they like. While they have been talking, talking, and talking some more, we have published 22 digital editions and 11 print editions in the last eight months. And based on an author who signed with us last night, it is safe to anticipate that some of the loudest voices raised against us will be publishing with us in less than a year.

“I own the word ComicsGate. It belongs to me and I will fight him in court for it. Nobody will make a line of ComicsGate comics except for me.”

Yeah, so, about that… it’s a pretty poor prophet who has to eat his words less than 8 hours later. Ethan isn’t going to fight anyone in court over ownership of the word ComicsGate. I very much doubt that he is dumb enough to throw all his crowdfunded money away on a hopeless legal case in a foreign jurisdiction when he hasn’t even bothered to spend $6k on the URL, which was registered in 2013. It sounds as if someone is going to have to explain the concepts of “dilution”, “prior usage”, and “jurisdiction” to him.

In not-unrelated news, Alt★Hero #4: The War in Paris continues to meet with great reviews and is now the #1 Best Seller in 45-Minute Comic & Graphic Novel Short Reads and the #1 New Release in the Superheroes category.

We anticipate launching the Alt★Hero: Q campaign this week, most likely tomorrow. We’re just putting the final touches on it now, although like last time, we will probably add stretch goals and additional perks as the backers request them. As per previous backer request, there will be an option to receive all of the six single-issue paperbacks in a single shipment when the sixth issue is complete and they will all be Gold Logo limited editions.

Which means that depending upon the number of backers, supporting the campaign may turn out to be the only way to obtain a Gold Logo edition of Alt★Hero: Q. In the meantime, please enjoy the campaign trailer. We are hoping to more than double our previous backer total and reach at least 5,000 backers. Because we are using new artists, and because The Legend Chuck Dixon is already almost done with the first 12 Avalon scripts, AH:Q will not slow down the production schedule of either the AH or CDA series. In fact, we expect to release AH#4: The War in Paris to backers next week, followed very soon after by CDA#2: Breaking the Code.

The vote of the Swan Knight Saga backers went as follows:

• 198: Publish the comics however you think best
• 168: Publish the black-and-white comics
• 058: Publish the stylized color comics
• 004: Cancel the project and return as much of the money as possible

So, we are going to publish them in black-and-white inkwash, which may actually turn out to be a variegated color wash that should look really great. An example of the selected artist’s work in this format can be seen below, and I’m pleased to be able to announce that he enthusiastically agreed to come on board for the project after reading the script for the first issue. This option will also permit us to get the covers properly colored within the original budget.

I very much appreciate those who offered to increase their backing in order to expand our options, but we would definitely prefer that support go to the upcoming AH:Q campaign. We have already offered refunds to the four backers who voted to cancel the project. Will Caligan is quite pleased with the solution to the situation; he very much appreciates your support and Dark Legion will soon be publishing several of his projects.

Since we’re talking comics, there is some reason to suspect that the smaller form factor which has proved popular with readers since it allows us to hit the $2.99 mark may be difficult for comic book stores to carry. While the readers love the lower price, the comic book stores actually tend to prefer higher prices since it increases their margin. We are therefore considering adding 7×10 premium versions with alternate covers for the Alt-Hero line. If you’re an Arkhaven reader, would you prefer a) $3.99 premium with the same 50-lb paper or b) $4.99 premium with 70-lb paper? The $2.99 versions will still be produced either way.

Also, FYI, the gold logo print edition of Alt-Hero #3 will be available from Arkhaven Direct later today.

Bounding Into Comics reports that IDW’s President just resigned:

Ozer is the latest in a number of executives at IDW to exit from the company. In July, IDW Media Holdings CEO and co-founder Ted Adams took a leave of absence with McCluggage replacing him. Adams had previously been the IDW Publisher, but made the transition to CEO last November.

IDW Publishing’s Editor-in-Chief and former Chief Creative Officer Chris Ryall also stepped down from the company in March of this year. He had been with the company for 14 years.

According to The Outhousers, there have been a number of staff leaving the company including “in positions such as graphic design, accounting, editing, and public relations.”

This departure also comes after IDW saw a significant decline in revenue in fiscal year 2017. According to Publishers Weekly, “Revenue at IDW Publishing fell 12.1{64c1a3d9a40559511922326ab01596b0c1a24761117e0e4906b04888ba2118a8} in the fiscal year ended October 31, 2017, compared to fiscal 2016.”

Total sales for the publishing arm were down to $24.5 million, down from $27.9 million. IDW blamed “a cyclically slow period in the comic book specialty market” and their transition to Penguin Random House for distribution for the decline.

However, IDW Entertainment did see a slight increase in revenue for fiscal 2017. It rose from $16 million to $16.2 million.

Total revenue at IDW fell 7.5{64c1a3d9a40559511922326ab01596b0c1a24761117e0e4906b04888ba2118a8} to $60.4 million. The company also suffered a net loss of $797,000 compared to $3.7 million in earnings in fiscal 2016.

With the amount of top executives leaving IDW in the past year, could the company be in big trouble?

It certainly looks that way. I’m not at all surprised since I already noticed IDW, the #4 comics publisher, was on a downward trajectory when I was running the numbers on the industry last December. While the publishing-related declines at Marvel and DC have been even steeper, they are protected from the consequences by being part of massive corporate conglomerates. Being a public company, IDW is useful because it gives insight into the industry not available at Disney-owned Marvel and Warner Bros.-owned DC. Notice that despite IDW primarily producing comics based on IP owned by other companies, more than half its revenue is nevertheless derived from the non-publishing division. In other words, from licensing and developing IP rather than selling comics.

That’s why IDW is in more difficult strategic position than Marvel or Disney. Content is now king and they don’t own the comics-related IP they are publishing. Of course, it doesn’t help that they don’t have a corporate giant to run them at a loss indefinitely, but that’s beside the point.

In June, IDW’s top-selling comics were: Sonic, Star Wars, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, My Little Pony, Ducktales (Disney), Transformers, Ghostbusters, Back to the Future, Tangled (Disney), and 30 Days of Night #6. Only the latter MIGHT be IDW-controlled IP, and it has sold fewer copies than Alt-Hero #1.

Hence all the interest in Arkhaven…. Except for TMNT and GI Joe, IDW doesn’t even publish any properties that we would want to publish, so imagine how little interest there must be at Image and Dark Horse, let alone Marvel and DC.

Don’t miss our latest: QM-AMD#3 and AH#3!

Arkhaven Comics has sent us an exclusive first look at the cover for Quantum Mortis: A Man Disrupted #3.
– Bounding Into Comics

And so we have….

While we’re on the subject of Arkhaven, a new video review of Alt-Hero #1: Crackdown.

QUANTUM MORTIS A Man Disrupted #3: A Secret Love is now available on Kindle and KU.

Chief Warrant Officer Graven Tower is a ruggedly handsome military policeman who hates aliens. Fortunately, as a member of His Grace’s Military Crimes Investigation Division – Xenocriminology and Alien Relations, he gets to arrest a lot of them. Sometimes he even gets to shoot them.

“If you’re looking at the expansion of the market, we keep on seeing new companies being introduced every day.  They seem to be coming out with a much stronger amount of content, right coming out of the gate. It’s not a slow buildup, these guys are coming out on the ground running.”
– DC Comics Publisher Dan DiDio

This is what he’s talking about.

If you haven’t caught the Arkstream yet, you may want to check it out to see what’s coming next. And don’t miss our latest releases: Alt-Hero #3 from Arkhaven and Rebel Dead Revenge #3 from Dark Legion.

As I’ve pointed out before, the Right has no idea how to cooperate or play follow-the-leader:

I’m in Chuck’s comics circle online. I really feel like ALL OF US trying to do our Right Wing comics need to band together to form our own “Marvel” because it’s EXTREMELY hard to make comics without having any name. Here’s my AltRight web comic.

The alternative to Marvel and DC has already been created. We are well into the process of building the necessary infrastructure at Arkhaven. While we’re getting excellent support from both comics fans as well as culture warriors, and while we’re building key strategic relationships with a variety of partners, we still have relatively little support from a) the conservative media, b) the social media stars, or c) the aforementioned comics circle.

Now, just to be clear, that’s absolutely fine. I’m not complaining about it. We never counted on it. We have always been of the Gideon mindset; it’s better to have 300 warriors at your back than 10,000 counter-signaling moderates.

There are a number of obstacles to what this gentleman wants to accomplish. First, the attention-seekers can’t stand for anyone else to be the leader, no matter who it is. See: Comicsgate. Second, right-wingers are individualists who tend to focus on maximizing their personal situation at the expense of building institutions and organizations capable of supporting them. See: Milo Inc’s abortive attempt to create a publishing house. Third, moderates will not accept radical leadership for fear of rejection by the Left whose approval they still seek. See: Diversity & Comics and many indy authors.

Imagine where we would be if all those indy authors and social media stars and Baen authors had been willing to work out mutually beneficial deals with Castalia House. We’d already be in a much stronger position to defend the interests of everyone on the Right. Instead, it’s just more dog-eat-dog competition in a negative-sum game as Amazon methodically drains the pool of available ebook money. It will almost certainly be the same thing in comics, with one or two big winners and everyone else scrambling for the scraps. Again, not complaining, merely observing and analyzing.

Now, there are those who have recognized the situation, bought into the vision, and gotten on board. As for the others, a few will do great on their own, although they will fail to build any lasting institutions, and the rest will muddle along in obscurity. And while not everyone will acknowledge it now, eventually it will become obvious that the right-wing alternative was born on the very first day of the Alt-Hero campaign.

I don’t know how I somehow managed to miss this interview with The Legend Chuck Dixon – that is how he is addressed in the Arkhaven offices, you understand – by Bounding Into Comics:

BIC: Along with Levon’s War, you are also working on a number of projects with Vox Day’s Castalia House publishing. You’ve got Avalon which is expected to come out this March. The book will feature the crime fighting duo of King Ace and Fazer, what can you tell us about these two?

Chuck: King and Fazer are just a part of a larger ensemble cast of super-powered heroes and outlaws. To say King and Fazer’s relationship is complicated is an understatement. King Ace is a kind of Superman type, a big beefcake who’s bullet-resistant, super-strong and can leap long distances. Fazer has the ability to pass through solid objects. They’re powers complement one another even though their personalities are very much at odds.

We also have Cash, a mercenary crimefighter who battles evil for tips and Vendetta, a female vigilante, whose motives and mission provide much of the core story for the first six issues of the book.

But the true star of the book is the city of Avalon itself. It’s an east coast town that’s seen better days and getting rather tired of being ground zero for super-fights between good guys and bad guys.

BIC: You will also be working with Will Caligan. Have you figured out which novels you will adapt into graphic novels?

Chuck: We’re adapting Swan Knight’s Son by John C. Wright. The novel really lends itself to comics. Loads of great eye candy and a story that gets off the blocks on page one and never slows down.

BIC: Will also lost his job because of his very personal Christian and conservative beliefs. There have been a number of people who hold similar conservative and Christian beliefs who have also had their careers threatened or lost. Do you see this as a serious problem in the comic book industry?

Chuck: Damn right. A lot of great talent is either unemployed or underemployed because of either their personal religious or political beliefs. Their personal beliefs. The blacklists are very real and a lot of careers have been damaged. And as bad as this kind of discrimination is, the effect of silencing other creators who fear for their livelihoods is even more far-reaching. It’s intimidation, pure and simple; a radical core of far-left editors and publishers forcing their ideologies on the creator community as well as the readership.

Most damaging, in the long term, is the hiring of staff and assigning of freelancers based on their political beliefs rather than any kind of merit. The result is the current crop of, frankly, mediocre efforts from companies that used to be the industry leaders. It’s hard to find even a competently written and drawn comic let alone anything that could be called exemplary examples of the medium.

We’re all paying for this with depressed sales overall and the loss of readers who may never come back.

BIC: Blacklists seem to be a pretty hot topic right now. One Twitter user even created a pretty lengthy list for customers to boycott certain professionals. He labeled these professionals as the “main contributors… to the declining quality” of comic books. What are your thoughts on this list?

Chuck: I don’t like lists of any kind. Blacklists, redlists, enemies lists or ****lists. While it’s true that a number of people on the list I saw are guilty of writing agenda-driven comics, a few on that list are vocal personally on political matters, but not in their work. The declining quality of comics is due to creators who prioritize their ideology above their professional standards. So much of the stuff I’ve seen is simply poorly crafted comics. They call attention to themselves by doing crap work. No lists needed.

BIC: I also read Marvel has had you on a blacklist for over 15 years. Is that true? How do you go from writing one of their best-selling comics with Punisher: War Zone to completely blacklisted?

Chuck: When you don’t fall in lockstep with everything Axel Alonso believes. Of course, which of us is still working in comics today?

BIC: Where do you see the comic book industry in the future. Do you see it sticking with the tried and true DC and Marvel or will we start to see it fracture along political lines?

Chuck: I think it will become like the music industry. Garage band kinds of comics that will find their own audience. The big comic book publishers have never really known, or tried to really market their product. Now that, for all intents, the major publishers have skipped a generation of readers, they’re going to have to work to get them back. And I don’t think they have the first clue as to how to do that.

We’ll be looking at more and more creator-owned, creator-marketed comics that don’t do huge numbers but are financially rewarding enough for the creators to keep doing what they love.

Nice little shiv there, with a twist. This is just an excerpt, read the whole thing there. Believe it or not, the machine that is known as The Legend Chuck Dixon has already scripted the first EIGHT issues of Chuck Dixon’s Avalon. #2 is being colored now, and we’re bringing on a second illustrator in order to get the entire 12-issue series out in a reasonably timely manner.

And yes, Vendetta is back and doing her thing.

THE PRICE OF A DRINK is the fourth issue in the RIGHT HO, JEEVES series, which tells of the travails of the inimitable Bertie Wooster, summoned from the comforts of #3A Berkley Mansions, London to Brinkley Manor by his imperious Aunt Dahlia.

In this issue, Gussie Fink-Nottle has summoned up the courage required to address the collected youth of Market Snodsbury, but it is a liquid courage. Not only that, but he has summoned up entirely too much of it, with hilarious and humiliating consequences for everyone involved.

Adapted from the classic Wodehouse novel by comics legend Chuck Dixon and drawn by SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN illustrator Gary Kwapisz, THE PRICE OF A DRINK is issue #4 of 6 in the RIGHT HO, JEEVES series.

And on a not-entirely-unconnected note, it appears that our competitors are experiencing difficulties and declining sales, which, of course, cannot possibly be connected to their convergence.

Comic book publishers are facing a growing crisis: Flagging interest from readers and competition from digital entertainment are dragging down sales. Hoping to reverse the trend, publishers are creating their own digital platforms to directly connect with readers and encourage more engagement from fans.

The goal is to reach readers who may not live near a comic book shop but want to keep up with the Avengers and the Justice League. Experts say the direct-to-consumer model also helps compete with streaming services like Netflix and Amazon’s Prime Video.

“They all look at Netflix and say, ‘Why do I need an intermediary?’” said Milton Griepp, the chief executive of ICv2, an online magazine that covers the industry. “That’s where this battle is being fought.”

Smaller comic book publishers are testing their own direct-to-consumer platforms. Image Comics, the publisher of popular titles like The Walking Dead and Saga, started a direct-to-consumer platform in 2015 to sell comic book subscriptions and apparel.

Of course, Arkhaven Comics already has a direct-to-consumer platform. The latest addition is the gold-logo print edition of Alt-Hero #2: Rebel’s Cell.