The president and chief of IDW "steps down" after 14 years with the company. Could it have anything to do with massively declining sales numbers?
Anything that has to do with Mitch Breitweiser is sketch as fuck. Don't ever trust that dude. It sounds a lot like Kelsey took the money and ran and "fuck nasser" because you're just a dude without a Walmart deal.
NDA's are usually indicative of some deep rooted shenanigans. While not uncommon in comics they are usually reserved for bigger contracts with major IP's and cover things like plot points and storyline. Be careful with NDA's because it usually means SOMEONE [you] is about to get fucked.
Ethan probably has an NDA with Ritter about the plot and pages of Cyberfrog but he can still say what he's working on. To back out of a deal and cite an NDA as a reason not only points to Mitch being paranoid but to Kelsey being a guy you shouldn't have trusted to begin with.
He could have told you "hey I cant work on this project anymore because I'm making a deal with allegiance arts and it has an NDA plus its an exclusive contract, gotta go with money over friends, got bills to pay etc." He didn't because he doesn't respect you. He's only reaching out hoping you don't torch his ass like you did Donal. These shady mother fuckers hate getting exposed and will lie.
People are fucking you and see you as disposable for a reason Nasser. Something you're doing or not doing is leading these guys to treat you like shit. I know youre into novels now but if you ever decide to go with a publishing company they will treat you the same way.
Contracts are important. These guys chose written contracts over verbal ones and chose to ghost you instead of following through on a few weeks worth of work it would have taken to draw your comic.
Tl;Dr don't trust anyone even tangently related to Comicsgate. Comics people are NOT your friend no matter what they say. Good people in the industry are few and far between. SJW's and "non SJW" creators are the same. Have the same FYB attitude and will cancel you for the same reasons, to cover their own ass.