Geeks + Gamers › Forums › Community Hub › General Discussions › Is Rippa the Kathleen Kennedy of the indie comics scene?
I’m not a comic reader, but I can’t shake this feeling that something is off with the Rippaverse, and just a few days ago I was drinking the cool aide.
I’ll get right to it: The Rippaverse looks like a low effort self insert at a surface level. The character designs are uninspired. Silhouettes should give you an idea who someone is. There’s little branding here, little artistic spark. It’s a low effort clone fueled by rage bait.
So yeah, the recent spat with Nick got me thinking, I was defending Rippa on the shithole of twitter, but the seed of doubt was planted. Problem is this is starting to look like a cash grab more and more, seems like when Rippa puts out a new video or whatever, he’s just phoning it in “alright guys let’s get back into the algorithm”.
I’d like to see a well realized character, with a fantastic design, drawn in a moody, artistic short. PUT MONEY AND TOP TIER TALENT into it. Something that hits hard and screams quality and rare talent to shut up the naysayers and set a bar and attract attention from other quality creators and up and comers.
I’m bummed to see that with this entire community, with so many talented creators. This is what we got. An uninspired cash grab.
WHY THE FUCK ISN’T AZ AND DISPARU COLLABORATING ON A RIPPAVERSE COMIC AS LEAD WRITERS!?
It doesn’t make any damned sense. For all the posturing this community has done to talk about how shit everything is, when the rubber meets the road, no one makes shit.
And believe me, I know how hard it is to make art in a culture of personality. Rippa needs to learn to put his ego away a bit. I dont want to knock him like many are currently. I think he’s a fantastic lead for this movement, but I feel like his ego has gotten in the way of quality in many respects. I think he prides himself on getting art on the cheap too much, and he doesn’t realize how important a home run book of the highest order would mean for kick starting this venture.
Brand new comic Inked by Ethan Van Schiver, written by Az, Disparu, and Chuck Dixon. Why the fuck can’t this happen? You gotta admit it would at the very least be exciting to watch unfold. But “Ill Tempered Tuna”, Az and EVS would never work together, they hate each other. THAT’S THE POINT! Think of the free advertising, think of the precident it sets, “WE PUT OUR ART ABOVE OUR PETTY BULLSHIT!”.
We have all the pieces here to create amazing content, and everyone is shitting the bed. So frustrating after all the bitching and moaning everyone has done about other industries not being able to compete, and where we are… not even able to put out competent comics. One of the simplest mediums with the lowest barrier to entry, and we can’t even compete. It’s pathetic.
I want to see us put our money where our mouth is. Look how much money Jay made with his shitty book! The bar isn’t even fucking high here. Why can’t we reach for the stars and try to do something ACTUALLY decent? Az and Disparu are fantastic talents, we see their creative linguistic skills put into youtube videos every day that fall into the ether. We see Rippa trying to put these works together, and they’re not terrible, but they aren’t taking the world by storm either.
It’s a bummer… Hollywood is dead, comic books are dead, and no one is trapping lightning in a bottle when we have hot flickers of creative genius igniting all around us.
Think of the comic book that could be written with the cultural decline that’s happened around us as an allegory. If the Rippaverse Lex Luthor was the head of an entertainment industry. If there were in depth intrigue involving revolvig around the collusions of media and politics. Like holy fuck, we have the in depth knowledge of a difunctional society in great termoil and strife shoved down our throat every day and no one is even using the damned storyline. These are stories people WANT to read, they WANT to have heroes save us from this bullshit. Have a bonus character in the comic book name Doomclock making a surprise appearance as a villain who keeps trying to destroy the world but accidently saves it.
I know none of this will happens because of the petty politics. Just so silly to see the same disfunctions happening in every sphere because of our stupidity and tribalism.
Buddy, I respect that you see Rippaverse as “low effort” and “just a cash grab” but to be honest, I don’t see it.
I’ve seen where the rest of modern comics have gone pushing identity politics, pushing self-inserts, pushing hate politics, but sadly, going to disagree.
I bought, read, and enjoyed Rippaverse so far, I see a genuine willingness to make a decent comic and every ink soaked page has been a wonderful read. The colors are vivid, the scenes are well thought out, the characters are pretty original, and the concept of creating a single universe as opposed to having a multiverse is 100% ambitious and going against modern media.
To me, low effort implies that Eric July doesn’t care about the work and it’s just to make money. If that was the case, then I wouldn’t think the comics would be as well written as they are or have actual artists, it wouldn’t be well put together and it wouldn’t sell, Isom checks all these boxes. Sure, maybe the stories aren’t the best written stories ever, I can admit to that because it’s a new comic book series and it has to start from somewhere. Imagine starting day one, first comic on Batman and saying “oh a guy in a batsuit fighting crime, that’s so uninspired and low effort” but batman went on to make millions and become an iconic comic book character.
The same has to go for Isom or any other comic book creation, the starting comics don’t always have the best opening stories. I mean we see people poking major holes in Batman’s plot, but he’s still a beloved character to readers. I also don’t see the problem with Eric July doing a self insert for his character because at least it’s his own character and not someone else’s.
In the comic book industry, many fake creators have changed existing characters to push a self insert instead of doing something original, That’s the problem With today’s industry, there’s no effort.
Rippaverse shows 100% effort in branding, art, and writing. If you don’t like the art, you don’t like story, and you don’t like series, that’s your right as an individual and Eric has also said many of times: if you don’t like it, that is your choice and you don’t have to buy it. That’s your opinion if you think it’s low effort, but if Eric’s “low effort” is making millions off 2 comics, then I would be shocked at what his high effort can do. 😲
I honestly don’t see what you’re talking about and you let a clown’s opinion get to you. I won’t say Eric July made the best comic book ever, but if I compared it to every comic book coming out today, I would say it’s 100% more effort than anyone else is doing. Rippaverse is going places and it’s still in the world building phase too, so I definitely think you’re judging his work a little too early to be saying it’s bad when it’s literally only two comics in, but from what I gathered, it will need some work like every other comic book series. Superman didn’t always have the power of flight you know?
The color, the contrasts, and the scenes all look better than modern day Marvel or DC and he’s making more money than them too. When I hear people criticize the art, I laugh because every inked sheet I see, has quality writing and art right in there. Whatever little details that the hate groups want to point out, I would say they are nitpicking and I would be right. The only valid criticism to the art that I agreed with was the leg on one of the Alphacore members(in the first comic) looking funny. Sure, I can see that, but really have you seen half the art that came out of marvel? This is from an indie Creator and they can manage to do all this? That’s high effort my friend, higher than anyone else.
The story has Avery, a man who shut himself out of the world coming back to a city running amok with crime organizations and a friend being prostituted while the city gets controlled by excepts’. Then we come around to find the magical principles of the underworld are behind some these issues and goes after Isom? Is Isom magical? Spiritual? Why are demons interested in him? Does he hold a special power to link their pocket dimension to his world?
The questions are open my friend, there’s genuine interest in the story for me. only an actual high effort comic can do that to you. I want you to list of examples of why you think it’s low effort because I strongly disagree. There’s actual story, art, and effort in it. I’m all in.
Lastly, if Eric was so high ego, he wouldn’t be putting his readers first. High ego is thinking you’re the best no matter what, I’ve seen Eric admit to mistakes, that takes level head and grounded ego which keeps me from agreeing with you.
Eric has called out haters, yes, that’s part of his generation of wealth much like any other content creator. If you’re going to point fingers at Eric, point them at every other content creator. At least Eric sticks by his word and provides his product.
Look at his peers: that one marvel writer who made his own comic, he made a promise for his comic 2 years ago and never stood by his Kickstarter or patreon or whatever he did, but never released a single page to his backers physically and he had the audacity to criticize Eric July when he released his comics, he has actual physical copies.
Low effort would tell me he would go straight to digital, but no. He has it printed physically, made by real writers, made by real artists, and used his own money to make it happen. Low effort is going on Kickstarter, low effort is hiring one person, low effort is not trying to make something compelling that people love and get criticized.
Comparing him to Kathleen Kennedy is just a empty argument. Kathleen Kennedy made Disney star wars about herself and ruined the entire franchise. Eric made something out of himself, he didn’t rely on someone else’s work, he made his own work and hired the help of real writers and artists to make it happen. Kathleen stood on the shoulders of Disney and Lucas to make woke garbage. Eric stands on his own to make his brand and vision happen and owns his errors. Big difference.
I just don’t know what to tell you, I don’t see the low effort, the ego, or the lack of quality. Eric has earned my dollar and my business and I respect that he still has to earn yours or you don’t want it and that’s fine too, but I will argue til the end of days that Eric is genuine.
Hopefully, RippaTeam uses the feedback they get that they can implement to improve. His team keeps adding talent. He is funded. It just started.
Is it improving? Getting better? You’d think it would only be a matter of time.
Saw this video out and about online. He talks about Rippa a lot and seems to come from a place where he nitpicks but with good intentions.
What actually happened between Eric and Nick? The G&G crew seem very tight-lipped about it.
I’ll admit the comparison to KK was a bit out of line, I was mostly thinking of the self insert and I appreciate the well thought replies.
I am NOT trying to say that the Isom comics are trash, or below average. What I AM trying to say, is Eric is new to this, he seems a bit stubborn, and he hasn’t been very open to feedback from other talented people.
It’s created a rough situation. While people haven’t said bad things about his book, one thing people HAVEN’T said are many praises. I wont single anyone out, but there isn’t a lot of buzz regarding these books or them being top notch.
Yes Rippa is new to this. Yes it’s still early in the lifecycle. It’s entirely possible the Rippaverse can improve very quickly in the short term. BUT it does come off as not all in, and not just monetarily.
Take the covers for instance, some of them are AMAZING. But they’re all covers of characters that are IMO uninspired in their design. I can’t comment on the writing because I haven’t read the books, but again I’m not hearing a great deal of buzz either.
My main point was that with all the connections and the unutilized talent that are out there, and now that there’s solid funding into this book, it kinda feels like there could be more. I’ll use my example again, a comic inspired by batman with original Designs by EVS, written by Chuck Dixon, Az, Disparu, would just utterly destroy. It would have hype and the X factor of maybe being REALLY, REALLY good.
Ok, maybe it’s a pie in the sky dream to think Eric would take a huge gamble on unproven writers, or to give up creative control to power hungry types like EVS. I dunno, if you look back on any great creative work, it takes herding cats and interesting characters to get the work done. Instead we get some discount artists who were hired because they’re incredibly cheap, and a couple legendary writers who have already achieved the zeneth and might not have the full fire under them to push the envelope.
Rippaverse is not the steamrolling behemoth of new blood and energy that it could have been. It feels more like a really really safe bet. And there’s nothing wrong with that, I’m happy to see Eric succeed. But I’m also saddened that a bit more exciting risk taking, and a spirit of “f*ck it, we’re going hard and I’m bringing the best and brightest with me”. The Rippaverse absolutely drew off the passion of this comicsgate movement, and it doesn’t feel like it’s adding much back. EVS for all his faults seemed very intent on bringing others on board and sharing the glory, even if he was going to be the top dog. With Eric, it doesn’t feel like he’s interested in building a team of people to make this incredible. I could be wrong, but it’s just the vibe that’s coming out of all this. Like great, Eric made money. Does it change the culture at large? Are people becoming empowered and building a new media empire? The money was there at the start, it was this big explosion of potential, but we’re not seeing the movements towards bigger things.
@Maverick If you search Nick interviews Young Rippa on youtube you can find some stuff, long story short Nick and some others behind the scenes just don’t think the Rippaverse is all that great, and that’s causing some head butting. Nick is also defending various people who can often come off as anti comicsgate and are often times trollish, but maybe there are some legitimate criticisms.
Yeah, I can agree with that to some extent, it’s not as big as it should be and sure, they don’t have the best right now and there’s much work to be done which I have seen Eric admit first hand, it’s a work in progress.
The story didn’t give me the exact same WOW factor like blackest night or Flashpoint and why would it? This isn’t hay day DC, or last hurrah DC, this is Rippaverse. As for “The Buzz” argument, I wouldn’t trust anything or anyone you’d hear on the Internet who are or aren’t raving about a comic. I am reading because I like what I am reading, something that doesn’t try to push a narrative, something that’s trying to be itself.
Most of the criticisms I’ve seen on Rippaverse have been biased at best, but there are people have legitimate criticisms and I can understand that far more than the people who are just blatantly attacking like the SJW writers who aren’t making money.
Again, it’s too soon call it out, but I’m excited to see where this goes. If this ends up as a one shot series and they move on, that’s cool. If they make it into the next DC, that’s also cool. I’m not gonna poke holes, I’m just gonna keep reading until I lose interest and I think that’s where we need to be.
We give our input, give criticism from a genuine standpoint and see where it goes. At the very least I’m happy to see people reading comics that aren’t pushing a narrative. Honestly, I didn’t even get an inkling of anti-woke agenda or pro woke agenda. It’s non-woke which means it’s just trying to tell a good story and so far I’m hooked on it.
Isom may come to a dissatisfied conclusion and they may replace him with a new lead comic. We may get new characters. We may see a new series separate from the Isom Universe. We may see Rippaverse get to the point where they can afford to buy long standing comic book companies, who knows right?
I believe Eric July is putting his passion and creativity out there with a genuine business appreciation and that’s what has me excited, new comics. Whether he got excited with Comicsgate and did his own thing or it’s something he wants to challenge, I’ll put my money where my mouth is for it.
Comicsgate and Rippaverse to me are the same thing. Making comics great again.
And I wouldn’t call these characters generic either lol I hear the term “generic” but I have only seen one or two characters with a cape so far and everyone else seems to have their own outfit and place in Rippaverse. No one is genuinely a “good guy” and even the guy who aspired to be a hero had failed. Isom’s universe is about men becoming heroes, in DC it’s about heroes being human.
Isom follows the marvel formula of comics that these are characters who are very human pushing to be more than human which is great, but there is a lot of groundwork too. The story seems pretty obvious but then you see that Isom doesn’t fit the bill for super humans either. There’s some guesswork and the story does tend to drag in places where it shouldn’t, but to me this is the basis for modern storytelling in comics and maybe that’s the issue. It’s not starting in the glory style of comics where fights just happen and you get explanations or you get sequence into an action moment. To me, the workplace of storytelling starts with more drama than action. If we break down what we are missing from Isom, I think we could pencil our own assessment of what can improve.
Again, DC and Marvel have dragging points too. In fact, batman has a lot of points where it just drags on, divulging plot points and really getting story technical rather than action based. I could analyze it all day, as could you. I’m still saying it’s too early to tell
“If you search Nick interviews Young Rippa on youtube you can find some stuff, long story short Nick and some others behind the scenes just don’t think the Rippaverse is all that great, and that’s causing some head butting. Nick is also defending various people who can often come off as anti comicsgate and are often times trollish, but maybe there are some legitimate criticisms.”
@IllTemperedTuna Thanks.
My take: Everybody is entitled to their opinion; you can’t please everyone so don’t even try. I find it best to have your say AND let others have theirs. Arguing to convince them otherwise is a waste of time especially when:
Final thought on this matter: Experience has taught me that when people criticize or “attack” you, you’re usually doing something right. Your success triggers some insecurity in the attacker, hence their behaviour. Picture this, if the RippaVerse was a failure do you think Nick would waste his time commenting on it?
Food for thought.
See @Maverick I wouldn’t have known anything about that, all I’m doing is reading comics 😂. Who TF is nick? Why should I care about what was said years ago?
I shouldn’t, that’s my point. If you like the comic, read it. I’m gonna get Yaira and Alphacore when it comes out. Best comics
Well, the reason many were drawn to Geeks and Gamers was we were unhappy about the direction of star wars and it was refreshing to see someone call it out. We’ve learned over the years that our society is built from the ground up by the sort of financial institutions that provide us our entertainment and give us jobs and culture. There’s this entire societal machine that springs up around products and how those products generate money and how they interface in politics and how they foster talent, and who gets a slice of the pie.
If the Rippaverse’s cultural value was measured purely in dollar signs, I think we’d all be beyond impressed. But it’s not, and for me I look at all the success Eric has had and it’s very much rooted in this frustration from the fandom menace. There is only room for maybe 1 or 2 Rippaverses, anything beyond that and the customers start to become stretched.
I’ll be honest, this has gone probably as well as it could have. It seems to be an above average comic, it could end up being better over time, but Eric seems like a big fish in a small pond. There really wasn’t much competition in this space. If doomcock had put out a comic, or if Jay had tried to do a superhero book, I don’t think it would have compared to Rippa’s first outing.
But if we go back many decades to the old comic book, it was this big pool and there were tons of creatives competing with each other over many many years and from that came the behemoths of DC and Marvel. Good things spring out of competitive environments, when you don’t know if you’re going to sink or swim, you put the axe to the grind and you go HARD. You’re not comfortable, you’re not picking yes men, you pick highly talented people who are going to push your projects but might be hard to work with because you need an edge to compete.
I don’t want to ramble too long, but long story short is this just feels like a very safe bet from Eric. And there’s nothing wrong with that, there’s nothing wrong with Eric seeing an opportunity to make a lot of money while living his dream to make his own comic. But from what I’ve seen, it doesn’t look like he’s going to give others a chance, or take risks trying to be the next Stan Lee by really pushing the envelope and trying to push the medium and do something exciting for the fans. Like it’s just Rippa, and his hired guns, which is admittedly smart and can safeguard the business venture from dangerous actors. There just seems to be so much untapped potential these days, I guess I’m just frustrated that Rippa isn’t trying exciting new things with untapped talent. We’re in a new frontier, we have new ways of networking, new ways of monetizing, new stories to tell, new mediums to make comics in, new creatives who can help make comics in new ways and draw an audience in new ways.
And what we’re left with is a very tight lipped company, full of yes men, who are all in service to Eric’s vision, which is unproven, and thus far hasn’t made huge waves outside of simply generating lots of money. Not his fault, it can take time to build a universe, and he COULD end up being a rare talent, I guess time will tell. In the meantime this excitement, this big wave for a new alternative to the falling giants will only crest once, and it’s Eric who’s positioned himself to be the sole benefactor of the movement so many cultivated, while taking seemingly no risks or sharing this creative venture with any other people.
I guess what i’m trying to say, as an outside fan of the counter culture movement, I’d like to see more of an expansive creative spawning ground with this community fostering more writers and artists, and them finding the best of one each other, and from all this teams of amazing creators teaming up to do really cool stuff. Instead we have Rippa rising above everyone else, and stiff arming everything towards his vision without much engagement to the community at large or trying to make this exciting by collaborating with fresh blood rising stars. In a word it just feels “corporate”.
Anyway, if someone was going to get rich off all this, glad it was Rippa, he’s a genuine guy who loves comics and he’s as good as anyone to lead a company like this, solid work ethic, principles, and level headed. But the eggs are also all in one basket, and he can be a bit stubborn about his own work, and very controlling about who he allows in and when. I suppose in a lot of ways, that’s not his fault, and more everyone else for not being able to get something going themselves. It’s just frustrating. But I suppose inevitable in this new culture where creators in this space put out a new video every day, expecting them to hunker down and put pen to paper to create a creative work that isn’t meant to be digested and thrown away isn’t necessarily in their wheelhouse.
“I guess what i’m trying to say, as an outside fan of the counter culture movement, I’d like to see more of an expansive creative spawning ground with this community fostering more writers and artists, and them finding the best of one each other, and from all this teams of amazing creators teaming up to do really cool stuff.”
Well I can see how you feel that way, but you need to be grounded with a foundation if you want to be able to take risks in the first place. Furthermore, what do you consider “counter culture?” The idea of counter culture has changed.
The counter culture today is about going to church, having a family, and having a stable income. The counter culture of yesterday is dead along with “anti establishment” since that’s become the new establishment.
Even punk rockers from yester-year are saying that’s the new counter culture. So to me, when you say “rippaverse needs to work more towards the counter culture” I see that he’s already doing that.
The opposite of comic book culture right now would to be “safe and stable” because right now the comic book industry in the mainstream is very risky and volatile. Woke agenda being pushed into readers, unproven writers getting a shot to change marvel characters in comic to sell them, and losing excessive amounts of money.
Rippaverse, despite making millions, still needs to stay grounded and stable because that’s why they’re winning. So Rippaverse is in fact part of the counter culture, it’s just not the counter culture you remembered growing up.
Corporate comics today are about pushing agendas and we just don’t get that with Isom or Rippaverse which is the counter culture. Maybe down the line, when rippaverse more established and they have those risks, maybe he will give opportunity to new talent, but right now skilled and proven talent is what’s going to turn up sales, not taking unnecessary risks because that’s what corporate mainstream comics are doing and spoiler alert: its not working.
Agree 100%.
To me “counter culture” essentially means anything that isn’t 100% ideology and fealty driven, a group of people or business that gives a solitary damn about the quality of their product, the talent of their workers, and their work ethic.
It says a lot about how far mainstream entertainment has fallen that simply wanting to provide something of value to your customers makes you the minority.
I see this flaring up still, it’s not going away and I felt the need to make amends on this subject.
More and more I’m starting to think this isn’t so much about the Rippaverse as it is the endless throng of haters, the other Comics gaters who are jealous of the success Eric July got and that there is only really room for one Rippaverse in this creator sphere. It’s just good old, petty jealousy, that same old specter of hate gnawing on the tribalist hordes that breeds endless accusations and attacks.
You could say Rippa could change this or that about his comic and that you don’t like the writing, you don’t like the characters, you don’t like the art, fucking whatever. You can say the same thing about EVS’s fucking frog thing.
For a long while I thought Rippaverse wasn’t an earnestly good comic, because no one was overhyping it. But now i’m starting to realize that this was the wrong take.
This sphere DOES have some level of integrity, it’s gotta grift to survive, we get that, but it never full sells out, which is why I stick around. Will they shill Jay’s shitty kids book? Sure, *I kid… kinda*. Will they bring on various creators and get a commission to talk up their great books? Looks like it. BUT, they don’t cross a line, they don’t completely betray the viewer’s trust or completely sell out.
They gave Rippa a platform, he sold a lot of books, but they’re obviously not totally on his payroll and shilling hard for rippaverse 24/7.
Everyone’s always going to be jealous, everyone will always find excuses for why someone should or shouldn’t be successful. If the ONE fault that Eric has is in this early phase he’s not good at taking criticism of his “baby”, all it really shows is that he deeply cares about the project and he wants it to succeed so much he’s a bit blinded. Most everyone goes through this. And furthermore, maybe it just shows he can see the snakes in the grass.
There was also the element that Rippa came out of nowhere and soaked up all the success in the comic space from hard working artists and writers with more experience. This is also a bullshit take. Rippa’s role isn’t the sole artist/ writer on comic books, Rippa’s primary role is to bust his ass herding cats, keep a level head and promote his damned product, and he is DAMNED fucking good at that. Rippa has been working in the creative business across SEVERAL FUCKING DISCIPLINES for years. This take is just outright insanity, if anything Rippa is overqualified to manage a comic.
Everyone is so petty in this space, there’s so much pride, money, and prestige at stake, on top of self validation and petty tribalism.
Anyway, shitty thread, shitty title. But I wanted to make amends after feeling like a dirty neckbeard and thinking I may have been wrong about this entire situation. It’s interesting following this sphere, because people become prominent because they are likable and make quality content, so it’s easy to go down rabbit holes of opinion and lose your sensibilities along the way.
Happy for Rippa’s success, hope it’s long lasting, he employs passionate hard working and good people. Someone had to be the big winner here, and I can’t think of anyone better. Underneath it all, for all the moral posturing, for all the social maneuvers and all that bull, Rippa isn’t as petty as all the rest. Kind of a bummer everyone can’t just get along and sing kumbaya, but that’s capitalism. Here’s hoping in the end we get some great comics.
TLDR haters gonna hate.
I don’t think that at all. It’s a very good thread and title from the heart. Sometimes, we go too hard when we don’t have to because of the way people are. It’s good feedback. ISOM has all the elements, but they need to come together more and it needs help. Nothing wrong with the artwork.
Wish more people would write honestly like the OP. No holds barred. Hold nothing back and rant as long as it’s from a real place.
Was reading Mister Terrific this morning and DC did a good job on that one, but I don’t think it sold. Of course, the CW made him gay.
There is another one I can’t find that is more modern. It was a black hero or spy and he was like a black Bruce Wayne type figure. I tried to find the comic but cannot think of it, for now. It was recent. I had to admit that I liked the character. Sales are more important than anything though.
OK. It was Prodigy by Image Comics. They also had one called Prodigy: This Icarus Society. That one I liked.
No wonder I liked it. Mark Millar was on it.
Last thing, but the OP was good because if we want Eric to succeed, authentic feedback matters.
If someone did, like, John Boyega in the role of Prodigy, there would be no need for a black James Bond.