Sean Gordon Murphy committed the cardinal sin of crowdfunding with his Zorro: Man of the Dead comic and not only released the comic far before when his backers would receive the book, but he also released it at a much lower price than he originally offered it on Kickstarter, giving his backers very little value for supporting him after he raised more than $300,000 on the project.
The Zorro: Man of the Dead project gained traction as Sean Gordon Murphy had already done one mega-successful crowdfund with his book The Plot Holes. This book came off the heels of his Batman: White Knight for DC Comics, which made a lot of waves simply for it being a readable Batman book, even though it was an odd Elseworlds, which made The Joker, a sociopath, the hero.
The Plot Holes was released on IndieGoGo, following the model of #ComicsGate away from Kickstarter to launch hyper-successful crowdfunds from former Marvel and DC Comics artists. Since he drew such comparisons, Sean Gordon Murphy did everything he could to distance himself from the budding rebellious movement against wokeism in the mainstream.
RELATED: Jonathan Hickman’s Ultimate Spider-Man Is Crushing It For Marvel Comics, And It’s Easy To See Why
Murphy spent excessive time in 2019 and 2020 propping up embattled comic writer Brian “Mags” Visaggio, posting Twitter pictures with Visaggio and calling him his “BFF.” Visaggio later took to Twitter and accused Murphy of manipulating him, including “lovebombing,” which was not made clear as to whether it meant Murphy had made advances toward Visaggio to have a homosexual relationship.
His associations with #ComicsGate further troubled his mainstream prospects as it was revealed he did a cover for Bigfoot Bill creator Doug TenNapel. Instead of following through with his work and standing by his conservative friend in the arts, Sean Gordon Murphy threw him under the bus. He asked TenNapel to remove his cover from sale on the IndieGoGo campaign and canceled TenNapel in a Twitter statement where he made it clear he opposed Christian values.
Sean Gordon Murphy said, “I recently did a cover for a creator. But it’s been brought to my attention that the creator has posted opinions that are anti LGBTQ. I’ve spoken with that creator, and the cover will now be pulled from the project.”
The Batman: White Knight creator continued, “Anyone who knows me knows I’m a big supporter of the LGBTQ community. From the hard workers at my publisher, to my fellow creators, to the people in my own family.
“I’m sorry if I hurt or upset anyone-I’ve always wanted my work to be about inclusion and about people working together. It’s a major theme in my Batman work. But I can’t be connected to opinions that hurt the LGBTQ community that’s meant so much to my life and my upbringing,” Sean Gordon Murphy then concluded.
Recently, he’s gone further, giving an interview with Comics By Perch and stating, “I’m 90% aligned with Heather Antos and the others.”
With cucking to Heather Antos and her whisper network’s control of the comic industry, it’s no surprise Sean Gordon Murphy then betrayed backers with his Zorro: Man of the Dead Kickstarter project, as the mainstream comic industry shows disdain for the fans on a regular basis.
While the book isn’t due out until July 2024 for backers, Zorro: Man of The Dead is already in comic shops. Last week, issue #1 of 4 was released from Massive Publishing at a $4.99 price tag. The book is out, ready to read, and be reviewed now.
Issues #2 and #3 are already up in Diamond Previews, ready to be pre-ordered, with the second issue of Zorro: Man of the Dead slated for February and the third for March, which would set the final issue for April.
Why is this a problem? If comic shops get the complete story in April, and the Kickstarter begins fulfillment in July. In that case, random comic readers will get the book before backers, a major faux pas in crowdfunding, as backers should be taken care of first.
Not only that but by totaling the price of the issues, one can get the entire Zorro: Man of the Dead story in print by Sean Gordon Murphy for under $20, when the Kickstarter edition is $50 at a minimum. This means backers have lost over half the value of what they would support well before the book even comes out.
While the Kickstarter is an exclusive hardcover version, having Zorro: Man of the Dead out to comic shops so early shows there was no point in ever supporting a crowdfund to get this made. It would hit shops anyway; he was going through mainstream routes, and backers are at a loss for their efforts, with Sean Gordon Murphy paying little attention to them.
The Batman: White Knight creator even bragged about it to backers, showing his lack of concern in a Kickstarter update by asking backers who had already bought the book to pre-order the retail edition coming out first! They offered the first issue digitally to backers but didn’t give it until January 10th, when the first issue hit stands.
It looks like Sean Gordon Murphy was trying to manipulate his backers into buying the book twice and not even giving them the digital book before the retail print edition came out. It is icing on the cake for insulting his backers. It defeats the point of crowdfunding and Kickstarter as supporting something like Zorro: Man of the Dead. Backers really should be treated as premium customers who get their books first.
What do you think of Batman: White Knight creator Sean Gordon Murphy putting out his Zorro: Man of the Dead book to retail stores first while Kickstarter backers are hung out to dry? Leave a comment and let us know.
NEXT: Literature Devil: Rorschach Truly Is The Hero In Alan Moore’s Watchmen
“Love bombing” is a term of art. It is one of the techniques cults and manipulators use where one person or group showers another with excessive affection, attention, and praise in order to gain their trust or control over them.
Why does he even have a retailer teir if you can just order this stuff in Diamond? I’d be pretty mad as a backer if I found people could get this at a comic shop before me
Remember, Sean Murphy is a Leftist who Supports Brian Vissagio. Good job Reporting Jon.
“I’m 90% aligned with Heather Antos and the others.”
This sentence makes only sense if there is a group of people who have an agenda and Murphy is one of them. Who are the “OTHERS”? How stupid this formulation is! How revealing!!! This people should be ashamed to include their political views into everything this days. When even one of the biggest creators is doing this… comics are fucked! Is there no common sense anymore?
And then he is doing this Kickstarter this way and including this woke crap in the story… WHY? Looks like this people always are trying to fuck their fans and the followers they have left. What does it even mean I am aligned 90% with Antos…? This sounds a lot like “I am NOT comicsgate… please do NOT put me into this group!”.
F all of them!