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2024-12-19T23:41:54Z

Layten Ghay:

"ComicsGate wants to enjoy our own comics, our own company, our own community without being harassed by crazy people."

— Ethan Van Sciver, Feb 25, 2019[[File:COMICSGATE.jpg|thumb|none|600x600px]]

"''I'm a freelancer, nothing more. He handed over a script, I drew it and we blew the doors off setting up a new reality for freelancers to set themselves free of an environment that has nothing to disprove that it openly hates them. One a-hole against many, many others.''"

~ '''Jon Malin''' on the launch of Jawbreakers

== #Comicsgate Wiki ==

Welcome to https://wiki.comicsgate.org, a project of https://comicsgate.org.

== Recent Articles ==
#[[What is Comicsgate?]].

What is Comicsgate?

2024-12-19T23:40:09Z

Layten Ghay: /* Timeline */

2024-12-18T04:22:06Z

2024-12-15T20:54:45Z

Layten Ghay: /* Early History */

== TL;DR ==
<nowiki>#</nowiki>comicsgate is a term adopted to describe a "Creator owned" movement focused on customer service; prioritizing quality, storytelling and talent over political propaganda in comics.

__TOC__

==Early History ==

In the U.S., Comicsgate began as a hashtag on Twitter in 2014, initially responding to the cancellation of a variant cover of Spider-Woman #1 in a suggestive pose. The Mary Sue news site complained about it in Aug. 2014 in an article entitled, "Marvel, This Is When You Send An Artist Back To The Drawing Board." <ref>https://www.themarysue.com/marvel-spider-woman-variant-butt/</ref> A few weeks later, the cover was cancelled by Marvel Comics. <ref>https://www.themarysue.com/milo-manara-marvel-variants-cancelled/</ref>

This was the initial spark. Many comic book fans were upset, calling for artistic freedom, and the first uses of the hashtag appeared, in its first iteration as #Comicgate without the "s". <ref>https://twitter.com/search?q=(%23ComicGate%2C%20OR%20%23Comicsgate%2C%20OR%20%23ComicsGate)%20until%3A2015-01-01%20since%3A2014-01-01&src=typed_query&f=live</ref> Bleeding Cool responded to the controversy, insisting there was no scandal to the cover's cancellation in an article entitled, "No, Everyone, This Is Not #ComicGate – Milo Manara Is Still Creating Covers For Marvel". <ref>https://bleedingcool.com/comics/recent-updates/no-everyone-this-is-not-comicgate-milo-manara-is-still-creating-covers-for-marvel</ref>

During that time, there was a push from mainstream media outlets to diversify the comic books medium, and publishers' attempts to answer that call, for example, in a piece from FiveThirtyEight entitled, "Comic Books Are Still Made By Men, For Men And About Men," complaining that comics target the male demographic and reporting on Marvel and DC's efforts at diversity and inclusion. <ref>https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/women-in-comic-books/</ref>

In 2015, the use of the hashtags #Comicgate and #Comicsgate continued. <ref>https://twitter.com/search?q=(%23ComicGate%2C%20OR%20%23Comicsgate%2C%20OR%20%23ComicsGate)%20until%3A2016-01-01%20since%3A2015-01-01&src=typed_query&f=live</ref>

That year, pushes to change covers continued with Batgirl #41, which depicted the Joker threatening Bat Girl (an homage to the 1980s "Killing Joke" when the Joker shoots Barbara Gordon/Bat Girl, paralyzing her). In article about the cover, Bleeding Cool calls it Comicsgate with an "s". <ref>https://bleedingcool.com/comics/changethecover-is-not-the-comicsgate-that-gamergate-has-been-waiting-for/</ref> Matt Santori on Twitter summed up the complaint, writing, "The BATGIRL team (and @DCComics) has worked really hard to make this book for new female readers. This is inconsistent. #ChangeTheCover". <ref>https://twitter.com/FotoCub/status/576736323689701376</ref> Fans brandishing the #Comicgate and #Comicsgate hashtags would respond on Twitter saying the cover should not be changed.<ref>https://twitter.com/search?q=(%23ComicGate%2C%20OR%20%23Comicsgate%2C%20OR%20%23ComicsGate)%20until%3A2016-01-01%20since%3A2015-01-01&src=typed_query&f=live</ref> The same day the Bleeding Cool article ran, the cover was cancelled, as DC Comics caved into Twitter pressure. <ref>https://www.cbr.com/dc-comics-cancels-batgirl-joker-variant-cover-at-artists-request/</ref>

2016's use of the #Comicgate and #Comicsgate hashtags in part saw fans negatively reacting to Captain America declaring "Hail Hydra" (a story arc depicting Steve Rogers as having somehow been a Nazi the whole time) and the hashtag dying down a bit, with echoes of the covers being changed. <ref>https://twitter.com/search?lang=en&q=(%23comicgate%2C%20OR%20%23comicsgate)%20until%3A2017-01-01%20since%3A2016-01-01&src=typed_query</ref>

2017 saw the emergence of the movement's most recognizable and vocal advocate Richard C. Meyer, aka Ya Boi Zack. Meyer's YouTube channel "Diversity in Comics" <ref>https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrlzSqLSGj8GIOeT5jrQsJA</ref> and the companion Twitter account steadily gained followers and views throughout the year and became one of the fastest growing channels criticizing the direction being taken by the mainstream comics industry. The channel would later rebrand to "Comics Matter with Ya Boi Zack". Meyer's first video, entitled, "Marvel Before SJW- A Deep Dive analysis of a classic Captain America story by Mark Waid & Ron Garney," was broadcast on April 12, 2017. <ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mv04-OYfZJg</ref> Meyer faced a onslaught of unfair attacks from both industry professionals and mainstream fans over his criticisms. Among the noteworthy highlights are the discovery of a secret Facebook group composed of comic industry insiders conspiring to ruin Meyer and his supporters in any way they could

2017 also saw DC Comics artist Ethan Van Sciver emerge as a critic of cancel culture in mainstream comics, noting in a Daily Caller article entitled, "DC Comics Artist Gets Accused Of Being A Nazi Because He’s A Republican," he was being targeted in the industry simply because he was a Republican who voted for former President Donald Trump, with absurd allegations that he was some sort of fascist or Nazi. <ref>https://dailycaller.com/2017/08/16/dc-comics-artist-gets-accused-of-being-a-nazi-because-hes-a-republican/?print=1</ref> Van Sciver would later end his relationship with DC Comics in 2018 prior to his independent publication and production of Cyberfrog in 2018.

During 2017, the hashtag settled into the plural #Comicsgate. <ref>https://twitter.com/search?q=(%23ComicGate%2C%20OR%20%23Comicsgate%2C%20OR%20%23ComicsGate)%20until%3A2018-01-01%20since%3A2017-01-01&src=typed_query&f=live</ref>

==References==
<references />