#Comicsgate - The Culture Wars Hit The Funny Books!

[Kevin Grumbles]

The next CashGrab!

Maybe Nerdrotic and Jeremy Griggs will take their "Fandom" to the next level and do comic books themselves, about themselves.

Az/HeelvsBabyface has that Peeping Tom comic meme thing that popped up every so often on Real BBC. The whole schtick is that he's a high level super hero that looks vaguely like Az but uses his powers purely to watch chicks get naked and bumbles into crime solving by accident while doing so. Seems to mostly be fan art in comic cover style that someone is sending in, but wouldn't be surprised if they go ahead and make something eventually or if some of the FNT/G&G crew paid the 5 grand to get canonized in the Rippaverse.

Amusing enough as a joke but it would be cringe as fuck pushing it any further.

 

[Fleetwood]

Good point here, the canonized/drawn in tier pretty much ensures this comic universe will be full of cringe in joke cameos just like many CG books and even Tim Lim's books. I assume Geooooooooorge will be a character as well.

Az/HeelvsBabyface has that Peeping Tom comic meme thing that popped up every so often on Real BBC. The whole schtick is that he's a high level super hero that looks vaguely like Az but uses his powers purely to watch chicks get naked and bumbles into crime solving by accident while doing so. Seems to mostly be fan art in comic cover style that someone is sending in, but wouldn't be surprised if they go ahead and make something eventually or if some of the FNT/G&G crew paid the 5 grand to get canonized in the Rippaverse.

Amusing enough as a joke but it would be cringe as fuck pushing it any further.

 

[Ike Aim]

On last night's Geeks Plus Gamers Tuesday Night's Main Event, Jeremy Griggs answered a question from a subscriber dismayed by the bad blood in the FNT/G+G and CG communities. Jeremy assures this concerned superchatter that all is well. He and Ryan Kinel mention Anna TSWG and Cecil and the fun they all had at Anime Matsuri. They both seemed pretty stoked, so much so they that they can barely get the words out about how cool they are with CG. Because of this stumbling, the audience might get the wrong idea, like they're desperately trying to cover for the fact that Ethan is persona non grata by spinning some bullshit to their credulous audience. Fortunately, Lofti Pixels is there to render one of his trademark Great Takes and bring Jeremy's point home for him. Atta-femme-boy, Lofti.

Still, they have ample reason to be overwhelmed: the continued euphoria at experiencing the Coming of Rippa as it unfolds or giddyness from the first Anime Matsuri of the Rippa Era, or being on stream with Rippa that very moment while Rippa chews popcorn on cam like a zoo animal, or one of Rippa's long spells of completely disengaging with the conversation because fuck these white people, or any number of ways Rippa is changing the game. Forever. Jeremy and Ryan mention Cecil several times in glowing terms as well and I couldn't help but detect an undercurrent of relief like they'd gotten away with something. I'd imagine what Jeremy really wants to say is thank you to @FROG for not showing up in Houston and ruining everything by offending Gary with his presence.

Bonus reminder that Jeremy isn't the kind of guy to suffer fools gladly:

 

[The Coon]

On last night's Geeks Plus Gamers Tuesday Night's Main Event, Jeremy Griggs answered a question from a subscriber dismayed by the bad blood in the FNT/G+G and CG communities. Jeremy assures this concerned superchatter that all is well. He and Ryan Kinel mention Anna TSWG and Cecil and the fun they all had at Anime Matsuri. They both seemed pretty stoked, so much so they that they can barely get the words out about how cool they are with CG. Because of this stumbling, the audience might get the wrong idea, like they're desperately trying to cover for the fact that Ethan is persona non grata by spinning some bullshit to their credulous audience. Fortunately, Lofti Pixels is there to render one of his trademark Great Takes and bring Jeremy's point home for him. Atta-femme-boy, Lofti.

Still, they have ample reason to be overwhelmed: the continued euphoria at experiencing the Coming of Rippa as it unfolds or giddyness from the first Anime Matsuri of the Rippa Era, or being on stream with Rippa that very moment while Rippa chews popcorn on cam like a zoo animal, or one of Rippa's long spells of completely disengaging with the conversation because fuck these white people, or any number of ways Rippa is changing the game. Forever. Jeremy and Ryan mention Cecil several times in glowing terms as well and I couldn't help but detect an undercurrent of relief like they'd gotten away with something. I'd imagine what Jeremy really wants to say is thank you to @FROG for not showing up in Houston and ruining everything by offending Gary with his presence.


Main Event - CG and Geeks Plus Gamers [x264][540p].mp4



Bonus reminder that Jeremy isn't the kind of guy to suffer fools gladly:

Main Event - Jeremy is Badass [x264][1080p].mp4

Are the people that watch this so retarded that "Ma Brand" has to fully explain his joke to the audience? " that salty taste is my cum.... Because I nutted in her mouth" Also, how old is this idiot. "Your mom" jokes are fire when you are in middle school or very early high school, but after that, not so much.

 

[Miniluv]

Are the people that watch this so retarded that "Ma Brand" has to fully explain his joke to the audience? " that salty taste is my cum.... Because I nutted in her mouth" Also, how old is this idiot. "Your mom" jokes are fire when you are in middle school or very early high school, but after that, not so much.

The answer to your question is yes. Jeremy's audience is retarded.

And almost any joke can be funny if it's well told or clever, but Jeremy isn't well spoken or clever. I'm also not sure how much maturity I could reasonably expect from a middle aged man who sits in a room full of toys and Super Mario posters and whines about Star Wars.

 

[Gar For Archer]

Tangentially related topic, but the thought just occurred to me - what if the current manga boom isn’t the result of the shittification of comics, but rather the shittification of YA?

Let’s be real, kids haven’t been reading comic books for a LONG time, and the storytelling style in manga isn’t really all that similar to American comics anyways. What it is highly similar to on the other hand is YA fiction: action-adventure stories featuring a teenage protagonist, usually with some magic power or ability that makes them special fighting a hilariously high-stakes battle that should realistically be handled by the adults, plus a certain degree of edge and violence that appeals to kids of that age without going over the top. When I was growing up I read a ton of these books, the ones that are still well known like Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Hunger Games, etc. and the ones that nobody really talks about like the Alchemist/Nicholas Flamel series, Tunnels, Bartimaeus, Pendragon, etc. Now that the YA genre is being shitted up with the same woke garbage as every other form of media, kids are going to the next closest thing: Shonen manga, which by land large tells this same kind of story except with sequential art instead of pure text.

I dunno how accurate this hypothesis is, but it just amuses me to think that American comics are so utterly irrelevant that manga isn’t even replacing them, but rather the thing that replaced comics in the first place among its intended target audience.

 

[Elwood P. Dowd]

Let’s be real, kids haven’t been reading comic books for a LONG time, and the storytelling style in manga isn’t really all that similar to American comics anyways. What it is highly similar to on the other hand is YA fiction: action-adventure stories featuring a teenage protagonist, usually with some magic power or ability that makes them special fighting a hilariously high-stakes battle that should realistically be handled by the adults, plus a certain degree of edge and violence that appeals to kids of that age without going over the top.

Hmph. Good point. Especially since there is absolutely nothing I can see in the YA sphere that would be of interest to a male teenager, especially a heterosexual one. Especially a white, heterosexual one. They're more interested in marketing YA books to 38 year old cat ladies than they are anything else at this point. I mean, when was the last YA novel that had such an appeal? I got nothing after Ready Player One, and that was over a decade ago at this point.

'Course in their defense publishing would argue that men don't read much fiction (possibly correct) and that young men even read less. Hard to say.

Here's a screenshot of the most recent YA purchases by the Boston Public Library:



The stuff that doesn't look Manga is hilarious.

The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation - bizarrely in German. Wuxia, so not YA anyway.

The Fae Keeper - The skinhead looking dude on the cover is actually a FTM. Nothing more needs to be said.

Lock the Doors - We have a winner. Male protagonist, even a straight male. Race not mentioned, so he might even be huwite.

Witchery - Four female protagonists, no males mentioned anywhere in the description.

Beasts of Ruin - Black is beautiful, baby. (Female protagonist)

Love Times Infinity - Romance, black is beautiful baby, but surprisingly heterosexual. Female protagonist.

Master of Iron - Girlpower!


etc.

 

[The Coon]

Hmph. Good point. Especially since there is absolutely nothing I can see in the YA sphere that would be of interest to a male teenager, especially a heterosexual one. Especially a white, heterosexual one. They're more interested in marketing YA books to 38 year old cat ladies than they are anything else at this point. I mean, when was the last YA novel that had such an appeal? I got nothing after Ready Player One, and that was over a decade ago at this point.

'Course in their defense publishing would argue that men don't read much fiction (possibly correct) and that young men even read less. Hard to say.

Here's a screenshot of the most recent YA purchases by the Boston Public Library:

View attachment 3562799

The stuff that doesn't look Manga is hilarious.

The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation - bizarrely in German. Wuxia, so not YA anyway.

The Fae Keeper - The skinhead looking dude on the cover is actually a FTM. Nothing more needs to be said.

Lock the Doors - We have a winner. Male protagonist, even a straight male. Race not mentioned, so he might even be huwite.

Witchery - Four female protagonists, no males mentioned anywhere in the description.

Beasts of Ruin - Black is beautiful, baby. (Female protagonist)

Love Times Infinity - Romance, black is beautiful baby, but surprisingly heterosexual. Female protagonist.

Master of Iron - Girlpower!


etc.

Is this a cone head with hair?

 

[Kevin Grumbles]

Hmph. Good point. Especially since there is absolutely nothing I can see in the YA sphere that would be of interest to a male teenager, especially a heterosexual one. Especially a white, heterosexual one. They're more interested in marketing YA books to 38 year old cat ladies than they are anything else at this point. I mean, when was the last YA novel that had such an appeal? I got nothing after Ready Player One, and that was over a decade ago at this point.

'Course in their defense publishing would argue that men don't read much fiction (possibly correct) and that young men even read less. Hard to say.

Here's a screenshot of the most recent YA purchases by the Boston Public Library:

View attachment 3562799

The stuff that doesn't look Manga is hilarious.

The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation - bizarrely in German. Wuxia, so not YA anyway.

The Fae Keeper - The skinhead looking dude on the cover is actually a FTM. Nothing more needs to be said.

Lock the Doors - We have a winner. Male protagonist, even a straight male. Race not mentioned, so he might even be huwite.

Witchery - Four female protagonists, no males mentioned anywhere in the description.

Beasts of Ruin - Black is beautiful, baby. (Female protagonist)

Love Times Infinity - Romance, black is beautiful baby, but surprisingly heterosexual. Female protagonist.

Master of Iron - Girlpower!


etc.

YA was full of shit even 10-20 years ago. It was all basically romance novel lite, with discussion focused on kissing and heavy petting rather than overtly fucking, even in books that were ostensibly horror or fantasy related. Anime and manga were eating their lunch just the same as with comics back then via online scans and fan translations until the industry finally woke up and started officially printing it and making money off of it.

From my recollection, it basically went from everyone liked Goosebumps, a few liked Animorphs, then everyone beyond that grew up with Harry Potter and YA just pivoted to the aged audience that never developed a greater reading level.

There's been a huge hole in the entire reading market for a long time, and I've read and watched enough Japanese media to know what they do to an unfilled hole.

 

[A Meme to Power]

On last night's Geeks Plus Gamers Tuesday Night's Main Event, Jeremy Griggs answered a question from a subscriber dismayed by the bad blood in the FNT/G+G and CG communities. Jeremy assures this concerned superchatter that all is well. He and Ryan Kinel mention Anna TSWG and Cecil and the fun they all had at Anime Matsuri.

“CG? We talk to TSWG (who isn’t CG) and Cecil (a guy who made his big break on EVS’ show but barely shows up there anymore and still hasn’t released the campaign he funded on there), while we beak EVS on being late…”
Griggs’ room temperature IQ is only entertaining to those who are impressed by his deep insight into culture, which means its people who make Griggs looks smart. Watching him try to run cover for Gary and Az thing against EVS is only amusing if you’re as stupid as he is.

FNT will use Rippa for diversification purposes, and to hold up anything as some kind of victory, and Rippa will use them for promotion, but the FNT guys (Except maybe critical drinker) really are zeros who somehow make major money on a show that does nothing to fix the problems they complain about, and isn’t funny in any way.

 

[Mecha II]

YA movies fell off hard, and especially the dystopia setting. They didn't even finish the Divergent series. The third movie ended on a cliff hanger waiting for a Hunger Games style two-parter as audiences for these movies dried up almost instantly.

With the news of Batgirl getting cancelled there is hope the Superhero movie fails eventually. Doing so would mean the big two stop printing comics that chase movie trends. Or are influenced otherwise.

Batgirl could be a bellwether for the end of SJW nonsense in popular media as well. There's cries of "White men cancelled minority lead films!" But with the HBO Max moves seemingly getting away from scripted content in favor of reality programming, that remains to be seen.

I am glad that someone in the decision making room had the sense to ask "Bat-girl?"

No one wanted that shit SJW or not. Just look at "The Mighty Thor" figures that were spotted on clearance during Love and Thunder's theatrical run.

 

[A nameless trool]

Tangentially related topic, but the thought just occurred to me - what if the current manga boom isn’t the result of the shittification of comics, but rather the shittification of YA?

Let’s be real, kids haven’t been reading comic books for a LONG time, and the storytelling style in manga isn’t really all that similar to American comics anyways. What it is highly similar to on the other hand is YA fiction: action-adventure stories featuring a teenage protagonist, usually with some magic power or ability that makes them special fighting a hilariously high-stakes battle that should realistically be handled by the adults, plus a certain degree of edge and violence that appeals to kids of that age without going over the top. When I was growing up I read a ton of these books, the ones that are still well known like Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Hunger Games, etc. and the ones that nobody really talks about like the Alchemist/Nicholas Flamel series, Tunnels, Bartimaeus, Pendragon, etc. Now that the YA genre is being shitted up with the same woke garbage as every other form of media, kids are going to the next closest thing: Shonen manga, which by land large tells this same kind of story except with sequential art instead of pure text.

I dunno how accurate this hypothesis is, but it just amuses me to think that American comics are so utterly irrelevant that manga isn’t even replacing them, but rather the thing that replaced comics in the first place among its intended target audience.

This is a great take (and Bartimaeus was the GOAT).
It may be part of the reason why Manga is successful, but my take is that manga rule the same way american comics grew in the 80s - kids watched anime since they were young and as they grow towards adulthood they can still read manga as they age up with them.
Spider-Man, X-Men and Teen Titans did the same in the 70s/80s, Harry Potter did this (to the point YA is for 30 yo women nowadays) and European comics like Asterix are great all ages (at least the Rene Goscini ones).
It is less about wokification of western media (but this is a symptom of) and more about the lack of all ages entertainment.

 

[Yosha]

“CG? We talk to TSWG (who isn’t CG) and Cecil (a guy who made his big break on EVS’ show but barely shows up there anymore and still hasn’t released the campaign he funded on there), while we beak EVS on being late…”
Griggs’ room temperature IQ is only entertaining to those who are impressed by his deep insight into culture, which means its people who make Griggs looks smart. Watching him try to run cover for Gary and Az thing against EVS is only amusing if you’re as stupid as he is.

FNT will use Rippa for diversification purposes, and to hold up anything as some kind of victory, and Rippa will use them for promotion, but the FNT guys (Except maybe critical drinker) really are zeros who somehow make major money on a show that does nothing to fix the problems they complain about, and isn’t funny in any way.

i don't know how can anyone even listen to these guys anymore. You already know what their opinion will be, years in advance... I believe that the only reason Gary has even liked comics in the past is cause he was always on meth.
But i guess it was fine when there was just the FNT show, where they bitched for 4 or 5 hours, but now it turned into 4 or 5 days per week. Additionally to the FNT, there's the G&G's Tuesday night stream, then theres the BBC with Az and Gary and you also have the Gary's Nooner shows... Now, you could also count Mauler's EFAP into this, but they are in a special category of stupid i think... There's also Drinker, but he actually does make stuff about content he likes, so I'll give him a pass. Ohh and he does write books, so he's at least productive and actually doing stuff, while every other ''zero'' is doing absolutely nothing but cry.

 

[Rupin]

i don't know how can anyone even listen to these guys anymore. You already know what their opinion will be, years in advance... I believe that the only reason Gary has even liked comics in the past is cause he was always on meth.
But i guess it was fine when there was just the FNT show, where they bitched for 4 or 5 hours, but now it turned into 4 or 5 days per week. Additionally to the FNT, there's the G&G's Tuesday night stream, then theres the BBC with Az and Gary and you also have the Gary's Nooner shows... Now, you could also count Mauler's EFAP into this, but they are in a special category of stupid i think... There's also Drinker, but he actually does make stuff about content he likes, so I'll give him a pass. Ohh and he does write books, so he's at least productive and actually doing stuff, while every other ''zero'' is doing absolutely nothing but cry.

blame the right wing boomers that are still trying to keep up with current culture for keeping FNT in business. It’s their views and dollars that keep the lights on for Gary and Jeremy.

 

[GoPro]

I mean if you're talking on a production level then yes black and white is more cost-effective but the appeal of Japanese art style is the vibrant color that goes along with it. Yeah I can understand it and like a slice of life (School Days) manga where nothing really happens it's just a bunch of talking throughout the panels then yeah you might as well save money I'm not trying to colorize it will be no better than colorizing a movie from the 40s that's just a slow drama that you have on to fall asleep to.

It's just kind of a shame that more of the Shonen/Action/Adventure oriented manga doesn't use colors since like old American comics just brings out more of the energy that's coming out of each panel. Sure it might be expensive yes but if manga wants to make it big here in the States on a mainstream level it has to make some changes. Even the cheapest/poorest American comics were still in color.

I have to disagree on your color philosophy and so do millions of people buying manga to the point the industry is dealing with with paper shortage.
I think that too many western artist use colorists as a crutch, and are not as thoughtful of line weight and details because colorists can bail them out. They tend to put less thought into character designs than people working in black and white. They don't have to because colorists will do part of the work. And there is of course the issue of bad colorist ruining good art and not all art being a good fit for colors. Alex Toth's art for example looks much better in black and white.

Color can do wonders to the mood however. Even then, you can get get similar results using shadows, tones, and framing. Something American artists do not bother much with as colorists can do that job for them.

Since manga makes relatively few concessions to American readers other than translate into English, b+w will probably stay for a while considering it hasn´t gotten in the way of overtaking American comics in their own backyard.

B&w can even be a welcome trait by some readers, kind of like some anime fans prefer to see the original cartoons in Japanese with English subtitles instead of the dub.

I do not see manga going to color. Not until coloring part can be at least partially outsourced to the AI, and physical formats will become a minor fraction of the manga market.

Tangentially related topic, but the thought just occurred to me - what if the current manga boom isn’t the result of the shittification of comics, but rather the shittification of YA?

Let’s be real, kids haven’t been reading comic books for a LONG time, and the storytelling style in manga isn’t really all that similar to American comics anyways. What it is highly similar to on the other hand is YA fiction: action-adventure stories featuring a teenage protagonist, usually with some magic power or ability that makes them special fighting a hilariously high-stakes battle that should realistically be handled by the adults, plus a certain degree of edge and violence that appeals to kids of that age without going over the top. When I was growing up I read a ton of these books, the ones that are still well known like Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Hunger Games, etc. and the ones that nobody really talks about like the Alchemist/Nicholas Flamel series, Tunnels, Bartimaeus, Pendragon, etc. Now that the YA genre is being shitted up with the same woke garbage as every other form of media, kids are going to the next closest thing: Shonen manga, which by land large tells this same kind of story except with sequential art instead of pure text.

I think your theory is partially right at best. Manga and anime's popularity was already growing in late 90s and early 2000s. That's why Marvel tried to make the Mangaverse a thing. This was at the peak of Pottermania, Lemmony Snicket, Princess Diaries, Hunger Games, Percy Jackson, and Twilight. From my point of view it look likes YA publishing died down the moment publishers realized that left wing middle aged women read YA fiction and started to pander to them instead.
Social media, streamers, fan-fiction communities, and video games are more of a threat to YA than manga and anime. Although that's just an outsider's perspective on this. I know rather little about ins and outs of YA publishing.

Meanwhile, most people I know who are into manga were initially interested in comics. After they found out that most American comic books are trash, they looked for something similar but good. They ended up finding indie and foreign comics - mainly manga. Another cohort are people who watched anime on TV or internet, found out that it is adapted from manga, and decided to read the original story. Then they became manga readers over time. Kind of how film adaptions boost sales and interest of the source material, as long as that source material is not bad like so many big two comics are. Lastly, there are people who got into manga through friends' recommendations.

You are touching on the lack of genres and sub-genres however, and I definitely agree with that. Comics killed themselves by abandoning genres that weren't superheroes so they could pander to fanboys and collectors. And later to identity politics obsessed ideologues.

 

[5t3n0g0ph3r]

@GoPro

I do not see manga going to color until coloring part can be at least partially outsourced to the AI and when physical magazines and tankabons will become minor fraction of the manga market.

I agree on this part. When a colorized version of a manga volume is released, it's usually a special edition.

 

[Car Won't Crank]

i don't know how can anyone even listen to these guys anymore. You already know what their opinion will be, years in advance... I believe that the only reason Gary has even liked comics in the past is cause he was always on meth.
But i guess it was fine when there was just the FNT show, where they bitched for 4 or 5 hours, but now it turned into 4 or 5 days per week. Additionally to the FNT, there's the G&G's Tuesday night stream, then theres the BBC with Az and Gary and you also have the Gary's Nooner shows... Now, you could also count Mauler's EFAP into this, but they are in a special category of stupid i think... There's also Drinker, but he actually does make stuff about content he likes, so I'll give him a pass. Ohh and he does write books, so he's at least productive and actually doing stuff, while every other ''zero'' is doing absolutely nothing but cry.

I used to tune into the FNT streams because it was somewhat entertaining but after having seen about half a years worth of streams, it feels like there's nothing new anymore. There are some creative bits like that song and funny intros. Besides that the main content is the same old whiny complaining and retards sending them superchats also whining and complaining. There's no creativity going on in the discussions or pondering of themes in comics or some form of analysis of the media they talk about. @FROG posited a pretty good thesis on the He Man show on Rekieta's stream finding symbolism in the sword being the penis and the like. That was fun and sorta new. FNT doesn't have any of that.

 

[Newman's Lovechild]

after having seen about half a years worth of streams, it feels like there's nothing new anymore.

I'm still subscribed to Nerdrotic, Clownfish and others, seems like I can't care enough to hit unsubscribe. But I never watch the videos. I look at the titles and thumbnails to get a rough idea of what's going on, and their sheer repetitiveness lets my mind fill in what they have to say about it,

 

[Rupin]

Does anybody know when or why Clownfish TV decided to disassociate themselves from CG?

 

[The Bovinian Derivative]

I used to tune into the FNT streams because it was somewhat entertaining but after having seen about half a years worth of streams, it feels like there's nothing new anymore. There are some creative bits like that song and funny intros. Besides that the main content is the same old whiny complaining and retards sending them superchats also whining and complaining. There's no creativity going on in the discussions or pondering of themes in comics or some form of analysis of the media they talk about. @FROG posited a pretty good thesis on the He Man show on Rekieta's stream finding symbolism in the sword being the penis and the like. That was fun and sorta new. FNT doesn't have any of that.

I agree. I am completely burned out on the whole FM sphere. If something new comes around they'll cry about it being woke, if a trailer is disliked it's paraded around as a huge win, ad infinitum. Now there are notable instances where something like this has worked (eg.: Sonic) and the new Warner/Discovery CEO seems to be purging some of the shit (mostly because the company is bleeding money and that's the only thing that matters), but for every one event like this there's 20+ where it's just pissing in the wind and Amazon will NEVER have money problems. At this point I am just sick of the perpetual monotone, surface level complaining. Get off your ass and contribute something tangible like CG (when books actually happen, I know), Drinker, or Razorfist does.
The absolute gayness of this is that Gary said on a few occasions that he had ideas for comics books that'll never see the light of day because (i think) he said he can't draw for shit. I am pretty sure .01% of monthly superchat earning could net him a decent artist, but that would be actual work.