Since the inception of Comicsgate.org, the website has listed and redirected traffic to all of your projects, whether they are hosted on Indiegogo, Amazon, Walmart or Kickstarter.

Although I might personally question and disagree with going on Kickstarter on moral grounds, and will occasionally voice those concerns, creators make their own choices.

It’s never my place to tell anyone how to run their own businesses. That includes Jon Malin, who has warned creators, wisely in my view, that he will not promote their books if they are hosted on Kickstarter.

 

 

Kickstarter deplatformed Malin and Richard C. Meyer in 2018, telling Meyer on April 9, 2018: “As a Public Benefit Corporation committed to fighting inequality and creating a more equitable world, Kickstarter does not allow projects that promote discrimination, subjugation, or intolerance towards marginalized groups.”

Meyer pleaded, in vain, to save the project, stating that “the project does meet your rules. It’s a simple story about superheroes rescuing a monster that people want to exploit. The superheroes are diverse racially and sexually. Both [I] and the artist are veterans. My family is diverse. I have a Muslim daughter who wears a hijab and a Hispanic son. There is no discrimination in the book or in the campaign.” Kickstarter wouldn’t listen, and proceeded to falsey defame Meyer and Malin, who instead launched Jawbreakers: Lost Souls on Indiegogo, raising more than $404,000.

Some, such as Vikki Verse, have recently, mistakenly claimed that Meyer “really got kicked off because he tried to start a new Kickstarter before he fulfilled one that was two years too late,” perhaps referring to Meyer’s 2013 Kickstarter offering, No Enemy, No Peace or maybe the first Jawbreakers book from 2015. But as you can plainly see for yourselves, Kickstarter was falsely and directly accusing Meyer and Malin of “discrimination, subjugation [and] intolerance towards marginalized groups.” They were falsely calling them bigots.

 

 

It is not an understatement to suggest that cancelling Jawbreakers was one of the major sparks of the Comicsgate crowdfunding surge, which has seen more than 200 projects successfully launched and delivered the past three years, raising millions of dollars.

That is also thanks in no small part to leaders like Jon Malin and Ethan Van Sciver, who have sacrificed a great deal to be a part of the Comicsgate movement. We cannot thank them enough. And when they speak, that Kickstarter is incredibly risky for a number of reasons, I think we should listen to what they have to say.

Would anyone of us want to tell these creators that their sacrifices were in vain? That they didn’t matter?

At the end of the day, I will support you all no matter what.

I do worry that with any outside platform, whether with payment processing or social media, the question of longevity comes into play, and that with today’s cancel culture, doing business with U.S. corporations is becoming harder and harder — and more frustrating.

We saw that with Jawbreakers in 2018, and then later with Mike S. Miller and Lonestar in 2019 when he was kicked off of Kickstarter, which told Miller the same thing it told Meyer and Malin: “Kickstarter does not allow discrimination, subjugation, or intolerance towards marginalized groups.” I personally don’t think these deplatformings were isolated incidents. And I do worry it will actually get worse. It is absolutely a risk of having one’s reputation and career perhaps permanently damaged — by Kickstarter — that creators must consider when they do business on Kickstarter.

I think that by challenging corporate America’s social justice agenda, Comicsgate has placed a visible target upon itself. To call yourself CG in many ways is a sacrifice as much as it is an opportunity for first-time creators to make their dreams come true!

My view is that long-term, Comicsgate will ultimately need to build its own platforms. The social justice movement is simply too well embedded in Wall Street and ESG investing. That is in part why I put together and invested in Comicsgate.org, and will continue to add new features and functions to improve the user experience.

 

 

I’ve also run ads for the website on Google, Facebook and Twitter. Quite honestly, not my favorite companies in the world, but I realize that I need to go where people are. And, yes, occasionally that means venturing into hostile territory. It’s working.

I have many more ideas to increase awareness of Comicsgate including utilizing search engine optimization and other means to get the website to the top of Google naturally, and I will continue investing in this project on a long-term basis. I am fully committed, whatever the future might bring.

My view is that a rising tide lifts all boats, and that Comicsgate continuing to create an alternative marketplace for comics and other media in the coming years won’t be easy. But I am confident that Comicsgate is and always will be stronger together.

I’ll back you no matter what. Good luck, #Comicsgate!

Robert Romano is the Editor-in-Chief at Comicsgate.org.