Dissecting Comicsgate (Pt. 4): Revenge of the Bigots

What makes the visceral surrounding Comicsgate even worse is that the movement has actually received validation from a few prominent figures within the comic book industry. The most prominent of these individuals is undeniably Ethan Van Sciver, who is second only to Richard C. Meyer in being the leading voice of Comicsgate. For those who don’t know who Van Sciver is, he was formerly the artist on popular comics like Geoff John’s runs on GREEN LANTERN and THE FLASH as well as Grant Morrison’s NEW X-MEN. While Van Sciver is certainly a very talented illustrator, his online rhetoric leaves a lot to be desired. Not only has he engaged in cyberbullying, such as when he notoriously told a fan on Facebook suffering from depression to “kill [himself]” in May 2017, but he is also an outspoken supporter of Donald Trump and has retweeted popular Alt-Right memes such as images of Pepe the Frog. Speaking of which, Van Sciver has been frequently accused of including Nazi imagery in some his artwork, with the most infamous case of this being a sketchbook he released in 2007 entitled “My Struggle.”

Ethan Van Sciver's sketchbook. From My Struggle Volume 1 (2007). Art by Ethan Van Sciver. Copyright © DC Comics .

Not only does the title translate to Mein Kampf in German, but the character on the cover is Sinestro, a Green Lantern antagonist who’s basically the space-equivalent to Adolf Hitler seeing as how he’s a dictator who used the power of fear to seize control over his home planet’s populace. Furthermore, Van Sciver himself has mentioned that the title of the sketchbook was a joking reference to his own struggles of becoming a comic book artist, thereby adding more unfortunate implications to the situation.

In relation to Comicsgate, Van Sciver has publicly defended its members, while describing the movement as such:

“Comicsgate is a consumer-led revolt against what is clearly a left-wing dominance in the comic book industry. It’s an opportunity for displaced comic book fans, fans who have often quit the hobby, to take control and make or support the comics they’d rather read. It’s an opportunity for creators who cannot find work in mainstream comics for political reasons, or any reason, to create again, free from the oppressive social justice warrior harassment and blacklisting that made work difficult or impossible for them.”

Basically, rather than denouncing Comicsgate for the hate campaign that it is, Van Sciver instead attempts to paint the movement’s members (i.e., white men with conservative political views) as the actual victims of oppression and harassment, which again is a form of “whataboutism” that I referred to back in Part 2 this essay. Van Sciver has also shown support for Comicsgate by hosting both Richard C. Meyer and Alt-Right spokesperson Vox Day on his YouTube channel “ComicArtistPro Secrets.” But more egregiously, Van Sciver has encouraged and directly participated in the harassment of Comicsgate’s opponents. A notable example of this was when he repeatedly pressured cartoonist and critic Darryl Ayo to appear on his YouTube channel after the latter criticized former Marvel artist Jon Malin for literally comparing SJWs to the Hitler. Ayo declined Van Sciver's offer. This led to several of Van Sciver’s twitter followers harassing Ayo, while Van Sciver claimed that he himself was actually the victim of harassment since Ayo accused him of being a Nazi based of the “My Struggle” sketchbook. He also was reported to have stated that he “[thought his] fans [were] the best” following the incident. Van Sciver has also proven himself to be hypocritical and indecisive, since he has not only publicly condemned online harassment whilst participating in cyberbullying himself, but he stated that he was leaving Comicsgate on November 10, 2018, only for him to declare two days later that he was “back in.”

Going back to Richard C. Meyer though, Meyer has made various attempts to influence mainstream comics beyond his online presence. In addition to claiming that he has insiders at both Marvel and DC, Meyer has taken public credit for the firing of former IDW writer Aubrey Sitterson. Sitterson faced controversy when he posted a tweet about performative guilt in relation to 9/11 on September 11, 2017, which led to him being fired by IDW two days later due to fan boycotts of Sitterson’s G.I JOE series SCARLETT’S STRIKE FORCE.

Aubrey Sitterson's cancelled series. From Scarlett's Strike Force #1 (Dec 2017). Art by Nelson Daniel. Copyright © IDW Publishing.

Later in December 2017, Meyer told PJ Media that he personally encouraged the boycotts, stating:

"My hope was to get Sitterson fired and for IDW to stop peddling SJW politics. I’m happy with how he was removed.”

Meyer’s purported reasoning for getting Sitterson fired was not just because of his deservedly criticized tweet but mainly because his book portrayed women and overweight characters in the military, an idea that Meyer seemed to be offended by. Fortunately, however, the industry seems to have learned from the experience with Sitterson, as Meyer and his followers so far have failed to get anyone else they don’t like fired. Meyer’s most significant attempt to change direction of the comics’ industry, however, has been the attempted publication of his own indie comic JAWBREAKERS: LOST SOULS.

Richard C. Meyer's "Magnum Opus." From Jawbreakers: Lost Souls. Art by Ethan Van Sciver.
From https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/jawbreakers-lost-souls-graphic-novel#/.

But before I discuss JAWBREAKERS itself, I feel that it’s important to provide some context about this book and how it’s representative of the movement’s larger mission. While for the most part Comicsgate has been focused on harassing and silencing the voices of progressive creators, one of the movement’s other goals is the publication of comics that they feel are more reflective of their own standards of storytelling. Several of its members, including Meyer, have claimed that comics have been an apolitical medium until just recently and that the quality of their writing was at its peak during the 1990s since that era had the strongest sales figures of any decade in comics’ history. There are multiple fallacies behind this argument, however. The most obvious failing is the idea that comics have always been apolitical, completely ignoring the fact that political ideologies and themes have been included in superhero comics since their initial inception in the late 1930s. Take for example the first appearance of Superman in ACTION COMICS #1, which has Superman taking on real world issues like domestic abuse and senatorial corruption. Or how about the first appearance of Captain America in CAPTAIN AMERICA COMICS #1, which not only has its cover featuring the sentinel of liberty punching Hitler in the face, but was published a year before the attack on Pearl Harbor and was created by two Jewish men at a time where pro-Nazi sentiment still existed in the U.S.? How on Earth is that not a political statement?

Captain America punching Hitler in the face! From Captain America Comics #1 (Dec 1940).
Art by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. Copyright © Marvel Entertainment. 

Not to mention that even some of the more infamous comics from the 90s era that Meyer seems to hold in high regard contained political themes and social commentary. For instance, Rob Liefeld’s YOUNGBLOOD #1 had its characters operating as government agents and assassinating foreign dictators like a stand-in for Saddam Hussein. The latter is an incredibly overt political statement considering that the comic was published in 1992, only a year after the Persian Gulf War ended. Overall, Meyer’s assertion that comics have never been political is completely ignorant of comics’ history as a whole. 

There are also various problems with Meyer’s statement about the 90s being the best era of comics due to them having the strongest sales figures. First of all, judging the quality of a story based solely on its financial success is problematic in and of itself. For instance, there are several movies that were critical and box-office bombs when they were initially released but in later years became cult classics like THE WIZARD OF OZ or John Carpenter’s THE THING. On that same token there are been countless films that were box-office hits despite being critically panned like the Michael Bay TRANSFORMERS films. Secondly, while I freely admit that there are several comics from the 1990s that I personally enjoy like THE DEATH OF SUPERMAN, BATMAN: KNIGHTFALL, and even parts of the otherwise infamous SPIDER-MAN: CLONE SAGA, the 90s era as a whole has been described by many scholars and critics as “the Dark Age of Comics.” This is because the comics of this era tended be viewed more as commodities than quality stories since people mostly bought them primarily for their artwork and collector’s value, thus resulting in the speculator boom. Consequently, the comics of era featured stories with rushed and terrible artwork (and equally terrible writing) like the aforementioned YOUNGBLOOD and the majority of Image Comics’ early titles, constant crossover events that ranged from good like X-MEN: AGE OF APOCALYPSE to outright terrible like AVENGERS: THE CROSSING, as well as gimmicks like foil covers and trading cards that unnecessarily raised prices.

Foil Covers from the 1990s. (Left) From Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 1 #365 (Jun 1991). Art by John Romita Sr.
(Right) From Silver Surfer Vol. 3 #50 (May 2006). Art by Ron Lim and Tom Christopher. Copyright © Marvel Entertainment. 

Additionally, while sales were initially strong for Marvel during the 90s, seeing as how Chris Claremont and Jim Lee’s X-MEN #1 and Todd McFarlane’s SPIDER-MAN #1 still rank among the highest-grossing single comics’ issues of all-time, the speculator boom eventually collapsed under its own weight and Marvel experienced financial troubles so severe that the company was forced to declare bankruptcy in 1996.

The highest-grossing single comic issues of all-time. (Left) From X-Men Vol. 2 #1 (Oct 1991). Art by Jim Lee.
(Right) From Spider-Man Vol. 1 #1 (Aug 1990). Art by Todd McFarlane. Copyright © Marvel Entertainment. 

Supposedly, this era is the benchmark of quality that Meyer and his followers believe that all comics should aspire towards…

These are the flawed foundations upon which Meyer’s comic JAWBREAKERS: LOST SOULS was founded. Written by Meyer himself and illustrated by Jon Malin (the aforementioned artist who compared SJWs to Hitler), the premise behind the book according its Indiegogo page is that “a team of ex-superheroes attempt to save a ‘monster’ from a vicious warlord who wants to exploit it!” Additionally, Meyer pitched the comic on his Kickstarter as “a cross [between] THE AVENGERS and THE EXPENDABLES” and “superheroes who take on real evil like ISIS.” These statements further serve to highlight Meyer’s hypocrisy since he claims that comics have always been apolitical whilst producing a comic with heavy political connotations behind it (only in this case the politics are conservative rather than liberal). Furthermore, the “monster” the Jawbreakers are trying to save according to the preview pages is a giant mutant gorilla. This last point especially frustrates me since Meyer once criticized an issue of MS. MARVEL for including a giant mutant-cyborg iguana, which he described as being “silly-billy” or “cringe-worthy,” and yet now he’s doing something similar in his own comic. Again, hypocritical much? Ignoring the hypocrisy, while I haven’t read it myself (and I refuse to give Meyer any of my money), JAWBREAKERS appears on the surface to be a very generic and boring mercenary comic. This is most especially apparent in the character designs, which are very cliched as not only do two of them look a lawsuit-level similar to the Comedian from WATCHMEN and Sam Wilson's Falcon, but all of the others wouldn’t seem out of place with the characters from YOUNGBLOOD. Not to mention that the preview images seem to exhibit slight hints of bigotry which is unsurprising coming from Meyer. For instance, there is a page featuring an African tribeswoman who is wearing nothing but tiny cloths to cover her breasts and nether regions.

 

An African tribeswoman meets the Jawbreakers. From Jawbreakers: Lost Souls. Art by Jon Malin.
From https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/jawbreakers-lost-souls-graphic-novel#/.

While this image already falls into the territory of being a racist caricature, it is made even more uncomfortable by the fact she is portrayed in a very sexual manner with her being drawn with ridiculously large breasts and panels focusing of her butt. Not to mention that image is just poorly drawn in general considering that the woman has the type of cracked spine you’d normally see in badly drawn 90s comics. Despite all of these factors, JAWBREAKERS has managed to find an audience in the form of Meyer’s supporters, as the book accumulated over $400,000 through crowdfunding.

Furthermore, Comicsgate has also attempted to publish other various indie titles aside from JAWBREAKERS through similar crowdfunding campaigns. While I could discuss Ethan Van Sciver’s independent project CYBERFROG: BLOODHONEY, I instead feel that ALT★HERO and its author Vox Day are far more deserving of my scorn since they're more eerily reflective of the types of toxic ideologies that Comicsgate stands for.

Vox Day invades the comic book industry. From Alt★Hero #1 (May 2018). Art by Cliff Cosmic. Copyright © Arkhaven Entertainment. 

The Investigative Fund describes ALT★HERO being centered around a “Confederate flagwaving superhero named Rebel, and a white vigilante who turns immigrants over to ICE.” And just like with Meyer’s JAWBREAKERS, I have not and absolutely refuse to read this comic since I fear it would make me feel uncomfortable to degrees that Frank Miller’s HOLY TERROR could only dream of achieving. Regarding the book’s author, Theodore “Vox Day” Beale is a science fiction writer and video game designer who’s a leading online figure in the Alt-Right and was heavily involved in both Gamergate and the Sad Puppies controversy. While he’s most infamous for his novel SJWS ALWAYS LIE: TAKING DOWN THE THOUGHT POLICE, Vox Day recently attempted to establish a new comic publishing company entitled of course “ComicsGate.” While Meyer is reported to have been a fan of Vox’s anti-SJW novels, and Van Sciver has both given platform to Vox on his YouTube channel and was even allegedly on board with inviting Vox into Comicsgate, there were apparently many Comicsgaters who believed that Vox was too toxic even for their movement. On that note, it's worth mentioning that Vox Day wrote the Alt-Right's unofficial manifesto (which included a passage of him supporting "the 14 Words," a mantra cited by Neo-Nazis and white supremacists worldwide), he once tried to defend the Taliban shooting Malala Yousafzai by stating that educated women are "bad for society," has advocated that Syrian refugee boats be sunk with the passengers still on board, and worst of all, Vox is an open and avid supporter of the Neo-Nazi mass-murdering terrorist Anders Breivik, who killed 77 people in the 2011 Norway Attacks (the majority of whom were children). 

So while both Meyer and Van Sciver tried to disassociate Comicsgate from Vox once their followers spoke out, the fact that they were both receptive to Vox's dangerous ideologies and were at one point even willing to incorporate him into their movement, speaks negatively to the characters of both Meyer and Van Sciver. However, Vox Day’s attempts at appropriation of the name "Comicsgate," as well as both Meyer and Van Sciver's previous support for him, means that the movement will forever be tainted by its connections and association with the Alt-Right, a label from which it can now never escape…