Waging the culture war is often like beating your head against a wall on repeat, hoping eventually the wall will fall down. It requires a hard head for one, but you’ll find more often than not that people you thought were on your side will attempt to put walls around you.
It sounds like a vague analogy, and it is to some extent, but it’s also what I’ve encountered since doing everything i can to start a cultural revolution in comic books in 2017. As we know, my movement I began is called ComicsGate. And since that time, it’s morphed from what it was supposed to be into a club of grown men acting like a high school mob.
And it’s not healthy. I’ve done everything I can to try to get it back on track, and still am working toward that end, because there’s a huge real battle out there.
But we have to have purpose, and remember what the roots were. I’ve been hamming on this point for nearly a month because there is a subset that won’t listen and is continuing with the same ways that are stagnating the growth and making it so no normal person would join up if they’re in their right minds.
The purpose has always been this:
- The mainstream industry is blacklisting conservatives
- We are opposed to that
- We want great comics that aren’t pushing an identity politics narrative
That’s it. It’s pretty simple and a great base to start producing and getting going. I’ve put my money where my mouth is and produced 3 full graphic novels in this time to try to counter the industry, making the equivalent of monthly books with my hard work.
And meanwhile, a lot of other folk are meandering and stirring up drama with cosplayers on YouTube, muddying the points above because it’s more about their personal YouTube clicks than anything else.
Yet more are taking to blacklisting conservatives because they are trying to appeal to a “centrist” core that they imagine exists. They act like the mainstream industry only label themselves ComicsGate. It flies in the face of everything we’ve tried to create.
It’s ugly and unfocused. And it’s time for change.
We need to get back to our purpose. And those who can’t are showing themselves, because they want a few short term dollars from outrage. It’s not sustainable, and doesn’t do anyone any good. Those are the people to look out for in the movement, the ones that will do anything to maintain a buck while not producing much of anything.
Join me in fighting against the mainstream that’s in lockstep and looking for any reason to hold us down. But we have to stay with those bullet points above. Otherwise, we’re just here flailing and yelling for no reason.
My book’s now up on BackerKit for people who missed out on the campaign. Join a lot of readers who are moving comics forward in a positive direction.
Leave a Reply