This isn’t fun any more (FNT scene cannibalizing’s each other)

Whatever shit you’re going through in life that makes you lash out, I hope gets better for you, and then maybe you wont behave like a fucktrard on the internet.

I’ve been 100% transparent on this site, it’s the only way I know how to be. I like most everyone in this sphere’s content. It’s why I’ve posted here and did a stint writing articles.

Not sure what bias you’re talking about, I wear my heart on my sleeve in my posts and did so in my articles too. I put the pros and cons of circumstances as i see them.

But you’re exhibiting the EXACT negative, divisive and community destroying behavior I warned about in the rippa thread. This community is turning into a cult with everyone shilling for each others’ sides.

I tried to be a positive force, gave some frank opinions. You guys want to throw more shit and make more enemies, fine.

I’ll point at the title again, this scene just isn’t as fun any more. Lots of toxicity and accusations, and shilling, and otherings. Whisper networks, canceling, gatekeeping and all that bullshit.

This scene has turned into EXACTLY what it claimed to stand against.

Edit: I shouldn’t claim EVS doesn’t play politics or do backroom BS. I don’t fucking know. Not sure how any of this can get better, maybe this is just what this scene is now and we should either accept it or stop pissing and moaning and move on.

Through all the craziness of the past few years, I think we can all agree on one thing. The prequels weren’t as bad as we thought they were and we should have appreciated what we had before everything went to shit.

It’s just so frustrating.

We all came here because we hated what hollywood did to our entertainment. We supplanted it with The Hight Council, World Class Bullshiters, Geeks and Gamers, FNT, they were speaking directly to us, “We’re not going to screw you guys over”. They all talked about the pettiness of Hollywood, the nepotism, the politics, the gatekeeping, the lack of meritocracy, how it was all about who you know, and about their ego’s and all that shit.

And how fast did we end up here? How long did it take for all the good will and the rising tide of the iron age and the parallel economy to fall into the dirt?

We can only speculate what happened, there’s no transparency here. There’s this big elephant in the room regarding the treatment of the fans, and the lust for money and why everyone falls over themselves to support Rippaverse.

My belief is it all stems from the bad blood over the Snyder incident, it was in that moment everyone decided to go after EVS, and in that moment it didn’t become giving the fans something awesome, it became, “F*ck EVS, we’re going to farm the fans from the money they would have given him, we have their hearts and minds”.

Could be wrong, probably shouldn’t speculate, but that honestly feels like what happened. More and more we’re starting to feel like a paycheck, it’s becoming more and more obvious they didn’t build anything built to last here, their friendships didn’t really stand up to anything outside of $$$. It kinda feels like a bit of a grift.

And it fucking sucks, because individually, I think everyone here has a lot of great qualities. But it’s like all the sum total of the greed and hubris of these guys all swelled up into one giant Rippaverse fiasco.

How different would this all be today if Rippa had found a quality writer and a couple decent artists who actually had a fire under their ass to make great creative works?

I know i’m neckbearding out hard here, it’s just some youtube drama or whatever. But this whole scene to many of us was a hope of better culture and better entertainment. A return to giving a damn about the customer and meritocracy and all that, and being above petty bullshit and valuing entertainment and its affect on our society. Maybe we were just suckers for buying into all that.

Again, it’s SO DAMNED FRUSTRATING, because all the pieces were here, the potential was here for incredible new comics and movies and networking, and a new breeding ground for nerds to come together to make great stuff and celebrate creating our own comics and movies and who knows what else. But it kinda feels like many of these guys never really tried, it feels like it was a grift all along.

Never attribute to malice what can more easily be attributed to just to naivety.

Let’s be real, this is a ragtag bunch of everyday people who  fell into psuedo celebrity status on youtube. We have to accept this scene for what it is, just people trying to get by and have their channels and make some superchats and pay their bills. It makes sense that this scene is going to be more prone to politics and basic tribalism than anywhere else. FNT aren’t a throng of creatives that make things that get together every week, these are strong personalities that compete with their charisma and wit.

Gah, if only we could have put our ego’s away and really tried to make some great comics. Shame Rippaverse isn’t putting out The Doomcock #1 episode right now.

It is what it is. It’s easy to think of  what could have been. But people are people. Lots of Ego and vindictiveness and greed to go around, and lots of back room deals and petty politics. All that shit we all tuned in to hear people talk about as the downfall of Hollywood.

It hurts my brain to think how it all unfolded like this. Because you tune in and all these guys seem great! How the fuck do Rippa, Jeremy, Gary not get along with EVS? It all comes down to dick measuring and EVS being an ass who doesn’t respect anyone who can’t draw frogs as well as he can. And then in turn the gatekeeping and shady deals on the other side in spite.

This whole scene has really just beat itself into submission. No one from outside sabotaged Rippaverse, sabotaged Comics gate. It was all the internal strife and resentment. I’ll say it again, with EVS’s comic ablities and network paired with the powerhouse of FNT, these guys could have taken over the world, coulda been the architects of the next rebirth of comics. Woulda been so fucking cool to see.

Oh well! No point crying over spilt milk. It is what it is. I still tune into FNT all the time, TNME, even watch some trash casts from time to time. But it’s all tinged with a bit of dissapointment now. That rising tide of thinking this scene was going to fight for the consumers and for great entertainment is kinda dead. This stuff is just comfort food, not much more.

Crazy how we let our pettiness get in the way of everyone thriving and doing so much more. Everyone really dragged each other down in this sphere, it’s just really, really sad, and most everyone’s at fault for all of this. Everyone was petty, everyone was making those petty deals behind the scenes, no one took it upon themselves to find quality writers, artists, to develop pipelines for great creative works… but they all cashed in.

Bleh.

Edit: Quick shoutout to Razorfist and his artist who does all those amazing comics. THIS is how you make comics in this sphere. Badlands looks fantastic. But will it even get any bumps from the FNT crew? Feels so corporate these days, and all those NDA’s floating around preventing anyone from being upfront with the fans about what’s going on. Damn does this sphere just feel like another money grubbing business now. No transparency, see no evil hear no evil. That group of friends assembling for the high council every week is long gone.

Thanks for the reply Comicsgate, great insights as always.

I wouldn’t say that I expect creation from these guys. If these guys had stayed out of comics and movies, I’d have no problem with that. But they vigorously shilled Rippaverse, they really sold this comic and the Universe and told us all that we’re going to make the world better if we buy this stuff. Did you hate StarWars? Well Rippa’s trying to make a difference, and he’s our FRIEND, and if you support this cause, you should buy it and it’s going to lead to a better world!

THAT is what rubs me the wrong way in terms of FNT.

I’m always accused of being a shill for EVS here, and your post really put into perspective for me why I side with him so much.

I worked in the gaming industry for several years, went to college in a very liberal program as well. I’ve been surrounded by what I call “Smarm f*cks” for a long time. Smarmy back scratching people who all shmooze. They don’t work hard, they all brown nose and play petty politics to get ahead. Typical subversive stuff.

I was working in Portland when all this craziness went down. Wasn’t my choice, just ended up being the place I could find work. I did some technical type work not many could do. But all through school, all through my career, I was always hamstrung by these “zeros”. Petty people who never developed their talent, and played politics and got by on their social credit. The people who smile, nod, jump how high everyone wants them to.

I wouldn’t say I was canceled from my job, but the work environment got so toxic I left the industry. Had it been another year or two in the future, I absolutely could have seen this industry canceling me.

Point is, I don’t think these guys know the kind of conditions EVS went through, and I totally get that anger and rage he gets working with these guys who never put pen to paper, didn’t work for decades competing in the arena. HAVE NO FRIGGIN’ RESPECT FOR THE MEDIUM WHATSOEVER YOU DEDICATED YOUR LIFE TO. Then over a petty argument (assuming here) they decide to subvert you and take full ownership of indie comics with a failed Rippaverse?

That would make me FUCKING IRATE. I can see this from Ethan’s perspective. I have this same fucking rage in me for the gaming industry and what these weak, lazy, do nothing assholes did to gaming and culture and meritocracy at the behest of spoiled, generational heir, ideologue globalist technocrats.

But I take a deep breath and try to remind myself we all have our own perspectives. We don’t know what we don’t know. Rippa and the FNT crew don’t realize just how friggin’ hard this stuff is. How high the gulf of “good” to “great” is in these industries like comics and games and tv and movies. I could go on a big tangent with Critical drinker and his movie, but it’s the same shit. The audience, they don’t know how the sausage is made, they only know what their favorite personalities tell them. They don’t have an intuition for how things work, and can’t extrapolate from outcomes that things went awry, why things went awry, and who might be at fault for issues they aren’t even aware of. In short, it’s a bit of a cult of personality, and a lot of nuance gets lost in these rage fests among fans who are standing up for their favorite creates, which is noble of them, if sometimes naïve.

It’s easy to WANT to make a great comic, to THINK you’re going to put together some wonderous work. But actually putting something together and kicking ass? That takes years of building discipline and proper expectations. Simply put the FNT crew just doesn’t have what it takes to do this stuff. They don’t even have the capacity to find people to do it for them, because in order to do that, you need at least a foundational set of skills in that industry. They don’t have this.

IMO, the odds of Rippaverse rising out of the dirt are astronomically low, because I don’t see Eric Learning any hard earned lessons here. It’s not like he’s putting in tons of man hours. He’s only founds new ways of throwing money around with diminishing returns. The ONLY point of success with rippaverse was farming the good will of the fans out of the gate. The art has not improved, the writing hasn’t improved, there aren’t new, compelling characters. In fact, in every way future comics will be weighed down by an existing low expectation. It will only be harder and harder to produce a product of value with a now diminished brand. Rippa had good faith, and a good name, and momentum 2 years ago. Now he’s going to struggle to get any competent talent on board to rebuild. He DOES have a fervent and loyal base, but the prudent path forward will be smaller scale books, lower expectations, and finding a small sustainable path ahead. But how do they do this when all the hype and fan loyalts stems from this image Eric created of taking over the world of comics with something huge and amazing?

But to be fair to the FNT guys, Eric included, they have other talents and abilities and qualities that are genuinely rare and valuable, and EVS totally shits on those things, because he posseses them too. He undervalues them because these aren’t talents that are fostered with hard work, they’re innate, so he’s only going to see value in the talents he busted his ass to acquire. Calling everyone zero’s is unfair. I won’t go on a dick sucking marathon but i’ll just say that Az is a fantastic talent. That dude goes on tangents and spits out the most incredible diatribes of why woke games are garbage. You could write those down verbatim and put them in a comic about wokeness and it would be gold. There is talent here. It’s raw, and its undisciplined, but it has value. And if they DID have a good comic, they could have sold the SHIT out of it with their social pull which is well earned.

It’s a remarkable machine they’ve put together at FNT, they’re so well balanced. Ryan’s the witty asshole, Rippa’s the industrious Ancap, Gary’s the wise shepherd tellin’ all the truths about this crazy world and how everything works, Jeremy’s got a lot of the heart and the vision for what this scene could be, there are no zero’s on FNT.

But both sides have done nothing to see the other perspective, or to acknowledge that the other side has value. Like, Ok Ethan, you can draw gooder than everyone else, does that mean you can just treat other people like shit and only your world matters? And then for the FNT crew like you pointed out, they gave EVS almost no respect for being an actual creator who could have rebuilt this entire industry because he had genuine rare talent and drive to create something amazing.

This was bigger than all of us, this was about rebuilding meritocracy, this was about giving the fans what they wanted and leaving our petty shit behind so we could pay homage to the great entertainment that brought us together in the first place, but somehow everyone managed to make it all about themselves and their petty bullshit.

We don’t know what we have ’till it’s gone. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity to strike when the iron was hot, while the fans were pumped, when everyone was excited for the parallel economy to make something of value that could last and grow, and bring more and better creatives into the fold. And it all got squandered and pissed away over personal squabbles and greed.

Not mad they wanted to make money. That’s capitalism. What pisses me off was the sheer incompetence and hubris across the board, paired with the secrecy. All we got to see was the epic failure. Why were these artists chosen, who was in charge of the dialogue? Why did everyone fall over themselves to sell this shitty book? Why is there no accountability? WTF is even going on?

I feel like i’m taking crazy pills sometimes, and people love this crowd so much they will point blank tell you you’re racist for not liking the rippaverse after all the fucking years of being gaslit by Hollywood to watch their woke garbage with the same vile accusations.

I understand. Money is being made, despite all the fun and games these are professional entertainers we’re talking about, you don’t rock the boat, we all play the game when we have to.

But had there been a dialogue, had there been transparency, had this all been handled with some level of competency and respect for the medium, and a genuine passion to make a great comic and indie scene. Everyone in this scene would be making so much fucking bank it would have been ridiculous.

We always talk about how the Sequels are a cautionary tale, and that their mishandling of the Star Wars IP will be taught in film schools for generations… but Rippaverse is another cautionary tale for the exact same reasons. The hubris, the taking for granted of the medium, of underestimating the demands of quality art and writing, allowing spite and greed to eclipse the will to create something great.

You talk about this decline in this country and that is 100% a specter on our entertainment. People just lack grit any more. They lack the guts to be able to swallow their pride, to do what’s best for the medium over what’s best for themselves. And every single person involved in these endeavors is tainted by this spoiled, shallow nature, an unwillingness to reach deep and put the hours in, a low pain tolerance to go the distance and iterate for the thousandth time, to take the 30th shot to get the perfect performance, to go through 500 resumes to find that perfect artist, the best friggin’ writers.

There’s no will for excellence any more. No respect for the medium. No drive to suffer through failures to be great. We put success on a silver platter and spoon feed it to narcissists and they hold the keys to the kingdom in this vapid world.

So yeah, I side more with EVS on this whole thing, it’s not because I have a hard on for the dude, I’ve just lived a more similar life as a creative working with a bunch of shit heads who take for granted all the hard work that it takes to create an industry. It’s all tribalism. But I understand most people simply don’t understand the world from this perspective.

Again, there’s no winner here. I’m not advocating for someone to win, I don’t even know how all this can be rectified. Everyone lost, especially the fans. I guess Rippa made some bank. Woo hoo.

Dude, you’re fucking noise, I’m not going to dignify your low brow, immature screams with a response. Scream into a fucking pillow or something. Go paint some more Warhammer figurines. Occupy yourself. Draw some Rippaverse fan art.

Edit: This thread has been edited so my reply now looks overblown. Typical subversive tactics.