I expected some heat from RoboToad: Rekt Manlet, but i didn’t expect the sheer level of attempts of deplatforming, removal of the campaign, the hate thrown at me personally — all because I made a comic book.
Let’s say that again — I made a comic book.
There’s no person being represented in the comic book like Cecil’s Cash Grab, I just made a book about a monster robot toad kidnapping a beautiful woman and our protagonist having to rescue her.
There’s nothing offensive about that. The book is PG. Meant to be family-friendly.
And yet there are hundreds of grown men going around the internet acting like church ladies on the topic, rambling about “copyright claims” – pretending there’s some giant legal conspiracy case here, calling me the nastiest of names, trying their hardest to get my social media platforms and content censored, and trying to warn people not to read my book because…
…because they don’t want me, you, or anyone else to have fun.
When we started an indie comic movement in 2018 to try to combat the mainstream’s dreary, boring, characters, we were about the opposite of this. We were about bright new horizons, wanting heroes to be heroes again, wanting comics to flourish in all sorts of different genres, styles, allowing creatives to really flex and be themselves and NOT be pushed down by editorial mandates — or most importantly by political social pressures.
That was the goal.
Now in 2020, if your project isn’t approved by one youtube channel, people refuse to look at it. If you don’t signal you’re on the right team or hang out with the right people, people are not checking out the projects. If you don’t say the right buzzwords constantly, people shun the comics.
It’s a political trap that was exactly the problem in the comic industry before.
I’ve always liked humor, always liked fun. Humorous representations are good things, there’s nothing in RoboToad that’s remotely offensive.
The Title Rekt Manlet is a shot — not against Ethan Van Sciver — but against the people who would shut down comic book campaigns because they’re “offfffffennnnded” on someone else’s behalf on the internet. We used to mock that and call it White Knighting — and pro-tip, edgybois, Ethan isn’t going to sleep with you. He’s happily married.
So instead of getting panties in a twist, why don’t we have fun again? Enjoy comics. Laugh. The world isn’t serious — and certainly COMIC books (emphasis on comic) are not serious.
We should all get back to enjoying quality storytelling, something I provide and am a master at. Everyone in the group loved my writing until they were told they weren’t allowed to.
Don’t let anyone censor fun, especially as we’re all in the most stressed-out time in history with this COVID crisis.
And by the way, Ethan has personally endorsed the book, congratulated me on funding, there’s no fight here except in the minds of internet outrage-posters. There is just a good comic book. That definitely puts the tribal “worries” in perspective, doesn’t it?
Check out Rekt Manlet today (and don’t be a rekt manlet!). Make Comics Fun Again!
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