The Four Color Media Monitor

Even after the recent scandals involving Scott Allie, Warren Ellis and such, there's comic writers who still want to see Comicsgate as the sole issue. All following Dynamite's announcement they're participating in a podcast, or supporting the work of a guy with a humorous riff on Vampirella and Red Sonja, who's also a Comicsgate supporter (Cecil Jones, and Donal DeLay). Here's Screen Rant's denigrating little smear against Dynamite:

Dynamite Entertainment, the publisher of popular series such as Vampirella, Red Sonja, The Boys, and Green Hornet, have been publicly called out by numerous comic book creators for partnering with the Comicsgate harassment campaign. On Saturday, writer Mark Russell announced he would not continue his relationship with the company as long as Dynamite was associated with Comicsgate.

Comicsgate, a comic book spinoff from Gamergate, is a campaign organized against what they perceive as "forced diversity" in the comic book industry. The group's message is said to be about 'making better comics,' but the campaign has been widely criticized for harassing marginalized creators, associating with the alt-right, and trying to co-opt the late Darwyn Cooke as someone who would have been one of their supporters (with some going after his widow). The mainstream comic community has denounced the group on multiple occasions, but when Dynamite Comics recently tweeted support for a Comicsgate-led project and CEO Nick Barrucci has been seen participating in CG live streams, many creators working at the company said they no longer feel comfortable doing so.

Once Dynamite tweeted support for a Comicsgate project (something they've done before), creators who have done work for Dynamite announced they would no longer work for the publisher until their association with the group was ceased. Gail Simone, who's run on Red Sonja really solidified Dynamite's place in the industry, said she was very disappointed and sad by the recent developments.

Okey-dokey, Mr. Russell and Mrs. Simone. If you don't want to respect your former boss' business choices, you can heave-ho, and nothing of value is lost. It's clear you're just virtue-signaling, and besides, the former writer's work was politically influenced, while the latter's wasn't too far behind. And, just look at how SR put forth their allegations with evidence. Here's CBR's equally shoddy report:

Dynamite Entertainment has come under fire over the past several days for supporting a Comicsgate project. The movement advocates against the "forced diversification" of the comic industry, with supporter Ethan Van Sciver describing it as "a consumer-led revolt against what is clearly a left-wing dominance in the comic book industry" and "a response to a culture war."

I miss the part where CBR at least acknowledges this, or explains how it's justified. All that said, Dynamite unfortunately caved:

But it was the Vampirella variant from Donal Delay and ComicsGate mascot "Cecil" that opened the floodgates of complaints. Over the course of the weekend, comics pros such as Mark Russell (SECOND COMING, RED SONJA) and Carla Pacheco (BETTIE PAGE) announced they would break ties with the company upon completion of their contracts. Others who were not employed by Dynamite joined in as well, expressing emotions from disappointment to outrage that the company would do business with "that type" of person.

The online tantrums succeeded in getting the attention of Dynamite CEO Nick Barrucci, who issued the following statement online through the Dynamite Comics Twitter account:

"In speaking with Cecil, neither one of us realized the cover would be so polarizing. We discussed and are not moving forward with the cover or the campaign." - Nick Barrucci, CEO & Publisher of Dynamite

— DynamiteComics (@DynamiteComics) July 19, 2020

Now, whether they should've gone through with this or not, they shouldn't have even addressed this at all, and now, they've led to a situation where the audience is divided, and it could even harm prospects for Billy Tucci's Miss Fury project. Yet, this may not be all that surprising: this Bleeding Cool article says they've been contributing to Black Lives Matter charities:

However, there has also been pushback from Comicsgate fans against Dynamite regarding their decision to join other publishers in donating to Humble Bundle appeals for Black Lives Matters charities, including funding bail bonds of protestors arrested. It was too much for some Comicsgaters to back any more Dynamite crowdfunders.

So you are saying Dynamite didn't send a email for Humble Bundle that all proceeds bail out Antifa, BLM and is supported by Gail in email?

Im sry Dynamite is donating to the Bail Project. Its already documented that the Bail Project has been bailing ANITIFA and BLM rioters our of jail. I will not let my money go to them. I can no longer back anything CG that deals with Dynamite.

When Dynamite has a fund to bail out Antifa rioters it's not bull sh-t read the story from the chicago Tribune and BLM is a communist movement they said it, So why make us back them. ALL I want is to back Cyberfrog I dont care about Dynamite. Long live #CG stop the Grift

Well I'm afraid this isn't going to do much good for Dynamite's image either, if they're going to participate in this kind of virtue-signaling for the wrong sources. Getting into these kind of divisive political issues only hurts their image more.

DeLay's campaign took in quite a bit of money, by the way, one more reason why Dynamite missed a big chance to prove they weren't narrow, and they shouldn't have been associating with bad ideologues like Russell in the first place. It's clear people like him were desperate to start a fuss where it could've been avoided, and that's why they don't belong in comicdom.

Labels: indie publishers, moonbat writers, politics