Okay. It's just another thing I've heard, so I took it at face value. I also worked customer service, so I've seen both sides of this.

@@JustSomeGuy People are lying about this comic book like they're in denial over it. It's crazy. Thanks for the great video.

@@ComicArtistProSecrets Dear EVJ: I have followed you for a long time. Don't let the negativity pull you under. I used to be in the public eye and when everyone was not totally pleased with me (or attacked me) I just told them to GTH. Jump in a lake...take a hike...fight a pit bull terrier who is in a bad mood. That fixes everything.

Sorry about mistyping EVS. My own initals are EMS, by the way.

@@ComicArtistProSecrets One thing I can attest to first hand about Ethan is that he can take HONEST criticism like the best of them & doesn't shy away from it if it is factually legitimate. On the flipside, if the accusation is false or he feels he is being misrepresented he will absolutely, in no uncertain terms, inform anyone making such claims of the fact that there is bullshittery at play & lay out exactly what the truth is or how the situation appears to have been misrepresented according to his own personal perspective. He also doesn't deflect the truth & will straight up own a mistake or oversight if it is pointed out to him. So for anyone who might see this review or read these comments in the future, I can tell you with a clear conscience that my own personal experience with Ethan Van Sciver informs me that IF he had done what Just Some Guy had himself seen multiple sources passing around on twitter & had, in fact, withheld refunds from multiple individuals who had requested one during the extensively long & wide open timeframe when such an option was available to them as was suggested in this video before the above conversation took place, I believe wholeheartedly that he would have manned up & admitted it regardless of any possibility of potential backlash. That's just the kind of guy he is. What I DID notice, though, were several instances once orders were locked in & refunds were no longer available through the official IndieGoGo website, & as proofs were starting to arrive & the fulfillment process was beginning to get underway, where several long time Cybefrog backers & Ex/Anti ComicsGaters suddenly decided that they'd waited long enough for their books & began to beseige EVS wiith a neverending public tirade of demands for refunds. In fact I believe a small number of them may have even been successful at first in getting theirs because Ethan had made a point of letting us all know that a few more chromium issues were going to be available than he'd anticipated after fulfillment was complete DUE SPECIFICALLY TO A SUDDEN RUN OF LAST MINUTE REFUNDS, after which he understandably must have chosen to cut people off as word spread and more & more Support Trolls started jumping on the bandwagon. In fact, after witnessing their Post Campaign Close / Pre-Fulfillment Refund Tactic being used to such great success upon Ethan & a few others, Jon Malin wisely opted to announce in advance & ultimately place a "NO REFUNDS" disclaimer on his latest campaign near its end in an attempt to minimize this behavior. Now he is regularly roasted for doing THAT & is still labelled as someone who dodges legitimate refund requests, so clearly no one is ever going to be able to win with these snakes. They give their support only with the intent to weaponize it later in hopes of disrupting the business & success of each campaign they attack & further damaging the reputation of ComicsGate & any creative talent who would dare attempt to sell their books using the #ComicsGate hashtag &/or Ethan's assistance. It's total bullshit. Take any criticism you hear with a grain of salt. There's always a chance that a rumor may be accurate, but whenever pertinent, ask for proof. Rarely will there be anything of merit available to be shown. It's typically based solely on heresay & someone else's insistance of its accuracy. Nothing more. Always Proceed with Caution, in Comics & in Life. 😏 Do YOUR OWN Due Diligence, Use YOUR OWN Judgement & Never Base Your Choices on SOMEONE ELSE'S UNVERIFIED TESTIMONY. Not Even MINE.

From the critiques it soubds like his biggest problem is structure, lacking a clear beginnibg, middle and end. That's unfortunately a common weakness of modern popular writing.

@@@wk3820 You gotta practice that stuff. Ethan will keep working on it I'm sure.

I'm pretty sure he does. EVS had JSG on his stream one time, and seemed genuinely excited to actually get to sit down and talk with JSG.

@@allamericanslacker2378 Which tells us more about the person, willing to excel at their craft by taking criticism and expanding off it. Those that ignore their critics end up having none by the end, ignore your consumer base and you have no consumers that will sustain your business. Many in the comics industry are more interested in getting paid then creating something, they want to send a message... that nobody cares about, then expect to get back pats for it. The whole point of the critics job is to try to find the flaws so a creator will amend their craft to excellence. When critics become talking points for a narrative that has NOTHING to do with the art, you are no longer a critic, you're a propagandist.

yeah ethan has made reference to JSG many times, and appears to respect his perspective. Ethan has already heard this exact criticism about his book, and he took it fine. Next book will be better im sure, because he'll take the critiques of people he respects, and the rough exposition part is done now, so the next chapter will be unencumbered

Great review

@Eureka Which is why I hope he watches this video and takes JSG's criticism to heart.

I read the original Cyberfrog. It's bad but enjoyable, like a shitty B movie.

*Rekt Planet

Even if it's bad writing, it's still better than what Marvel/DC puts out these days.

My bias is in favor of good art. I've always been an art first guy. I can enjoy a garbage story if i've got great artwork to stare at, but i will skip the greatest story in the world if the art isn't up to my expectation, or doesn;t at least pique my interest.

I think the primary problem here is Twitter -- a combination of the people it attracts, and also how it shapes people. Either way it focuses much of the cancer conveniently in one place, to subsequently avoid.

But, but, that would be like admitting that the end doesn't justify the means. Didn't you read Rules for Radicals or Mein Kampf?

Zed Not Zee tbh yes

That was kind of what he promised all along. Whatever the negatives of the book, it delivered exactly what it promised to creatively. This is the best 90's style book about a 90's character written and drawn by Ethan that anyone could expect to get. If anyone's expectations were higher than that, maybe they were not familiar with Ethan's work going in.

Exactly.

@@Jim-Tuner or at least pay attention to what Ethan says about the book. He warned us repeatedly that this he's not an experienced writer and this book would end abruptly. I've been a fan of Ethan's work since 2011 when a friend turned me on to his Green Lantern run with Geoff Johns, and i bought this book on the strength of his artwork

Actually I wouldn't find that much disagreement between your take and Just Some Guy's. Where the difference lies is point of view. He is reviewing Blood Honey critically and objectively as a seasoned colleague of Van Sciver. If he says something is "Okay," I take his comment as coming from an editor's point of view, as if to say "approved for publication" and that it's sufficient to call professional work. Professional work is what us less talented amateurs or total non-artists (like me) would call "really good work." On the other hand, where he heaps praise on the artwork detail, this is high praise indeed, considering the source. The comment about kinetics appeared to be more advice to Van Sciver than complaint. Merely something he was able to articulate, as a fellow professional, that most of us mere mortals might see intuitively but not be quite able to put our collective fingers on. Imagine Beethoven giving his opinion of Brahms' work. It would surely be more objective than that of a doting fan. Kinda gotta look at JSG's review in that light. The range of points JSG offers here lends credibility to his commitment to objectivity and fairness, one of the things I greatly respect about his videos. In this review, he heaps praise to some aspects, says tells the author not to be a dick in others, and flames those who allow glaring ultetior motivations to affect their published opinions. In sum, I found JSG's review to be the most credible, unbiased, insightful, and competent that I've seen. Despite the neutral tone of the review on balance, my take from it was that van Sciver did a good job, and deserved credit for delivering fairly on his promises, albeit a bit late, and generally accomplishing what he set put to do. Given that Van Sciver's overarching goal was to show that the small independent publisher David really can prevail against the Woke Marvel/DC oligopoly Goliath, he succeeded in that goal.

Lol hey Sister. Hope you'll enjoy. Got my team up copy bout a week ago (chromiums are being signed & shipped out nownI think). I enjoyed it and jsg's critique is very fair. You travel in fun circles. Hope you get your copy soon and you avoid spoilers!

@@ninjapirate47 LOL! You remembered! :D Thanks for the kind words, and I should get it soon. I got the rare Salamandroid copy so mine should be creeping along any day now.

@@lghtngfan yeah I'm still waiting on my sal copy too. Good choice! Thank you for the kind words in return. Had a shit day & you've cheered me right up. All the best! ; )

@@ninjapirate47 i was part of the first campaign but im looking forward to getting my copy sometime soon. Comics gate has made me excited about comics again.

@@GodOfPlague me too gop! Sure it'll arrive soon! Enjoy.

It's times like this that people show their true colours. People acting like this were never CG imo. I don't like Mike, Doug or any of the ex-CG creators but I don't have any ill will against them and would never hate on their work whether I bought it or not because they all have proved themselves as good creators. Even before Mike left CG I wasn't really a fan of him as a person but I thought his art in Injusice was good and I like sharks so I backed his Meg book. If that was the same people trying to bring EVS down they would be trying to refund but I thought that was wrong and still believe it will be a good product but I will never back him again.

@@MrDayday112 It's amazing how often situations like these repeat themselves This happened in GamerGate as well & it is mostly compromised of conservatives who want to attack blindly & socio liberals who can't handle the state of afairs, weaker to offense than dedicated to freedom The trick is to keep a cool head & regardless of your tastes follow the ethical code of consistent integrity To do this requires volumes of thought available to you in books or even just GamerGate's originally set ethical standards Those who don't follow them always without fail, ended up either proving themselves to be biased unreliable hypocrites or self absorbed self righteous vengeful pariahs

@Corvo@AZ you missed the point

Aren't the detractors just entryist agents from the alphabet communist people?

@@battleofwills7189 no granted 1 was, perhaps more, it's a tactic some use yes but that wasn't the topic or point JSG was tryng to pass on

@Monte Cristo print run is back from the printer, stretch goals get ordered today. Probably will begin shipping in less than 2 weeks.

@Monte Cristo I'm glad you understand!

@Monte Cristo Hey, thos schtick is all mine. Thank you for your support!

Even with the increased page count, its unreasonably late. You can see by the project history when he started and when he finished the art. If you look at his art productivity, pages divided by time, its clear he was doing something other than drawing for most of that project. But being fair, working for yourself is also a learning experience. Alot of people have an adjustment to make the first time they don't have a boss holding them accountable.

@@Jim-Tuner Fair point, but you also have to look at how many people complained versus those who haven't. Apparently, most customers were fine with waiting longer to get more pages for their money, while a few were vocal about his failure to deliver on schedule. Majority rules I guess.

There were multiple reasons his project was late. I'm not excusing him for it, but I think people should consider that this is his first time self publishing, and he had no idea how it worked when going into it. From what I remember of his streams, those covers were made in another country, and had to be shipped to him once they were made. He also expanded the book a couple times, and there were related things he was working on to go with it, like those trading cards he made. As far as I know, those weren't just clips of pictures from the comic itself, but were original works, so he had to take time to draw all those as well. It was also pushed back by people repeatedly asking him to reopen it on indiegogo, so they could purchase it as well. He was also complaining about pain in his drawing arm for a while, and that was bound to slow him down too.

Agreed

@@TJ347 You can have that attitude if all you want to sell to is a small cult-like group of people who are already fans of your work. But if you have bigger ambitions, being late isn't a good thing and he needs to do better. It doesn't make him a bad person. Its just objectivity reality. Everyone has room to improve.

Or Squirrel Girl.....even worse than 3D models.

They don't even use models they try and trace older art but add their own details that ruin the art.

@@WastelandSeven i don't even mind the squirrel girl art really. It would be fine for a disney book, or any of those licensed cartoon books. Not the right look for a Marvel superhero comic though. Even if you want to sell squirrel girl to kids, use the cutesy tumblr style they've used on Captain Marvel books before, the wonky cartoon network look just doesn't fit

Why do you guys continue to spread false information? Have you read of House of X/Powers Of X? Immortal Hulk? Any of Marvel's main books at all? There's serious problems in the comic industry right now but it also doesn't help that you guys keep lying.

@@tylove7992 well the 3d model shortcut that guy mentioned is real. And the is a lot of sub par work coming from marvel. Like I said, I don't mind the style presented in squirrel girl, I just don't think it's a good fit for superhero books. But I'm buying Absolute Carnage and the artwork is awesome. When the core series is wrapped up, I might start collecting the tie ins too. Symbiotes were a hot commodity when I got into comics, so I'm a sucker for this carnage event

endless[3cho] I’m sorry, I’m not understanding. What is the purpose of your suggestion for him to make an alternate account? He already has this account.

In general, having a detach approach seems best. Every youtuber story about someone burning out seems to come from them engaging too much, especially the ones that want a fight.

@Eureka Zack's first book had many problems which he steadily ironed out with each story thence. He is a fine human. I hope EVJ can do this, too.

Exactly what needed to be said.

Same.

Totally disagree, I thought it was well written, the pacing at the end jumped a little bit, I still thought it was a fun ride. Just some Guy is correct, the end needed more context. That's my only critique.

So basically a run of the mill 90s comic?..

I loved the story, so I don't know what you mean by bland

black R0n1n I know this reply is from several months ago, but I’m gonna put my two cents in and say that I find the second point about good art carrying bad writing debatable imo.

Appealing to integrity in the grievance whores who would do that is an exercise in futility.

SciFi4Me ya that’s my thought, the team up cover was originally supposed to be square bound. I never saw anything saying otherwise. But the cost of adjusting the prints would have been pretty expensive so I get it. Just wish that he had put the updates into the campaign

It is cheaper otherwise you would have to pay for a setup and lose your price break. When you send it to the bindery they just switch out covers.

Most definitely.

With all the attacks on him and all the drama endangering his business, can you blame him?

Ya, there are a few sci-fi writers I follow that have the same problem. I notice that social media is important for advertisement, but so many just spend all of their time on it picking fights and they don't write the book. Twitter especially has this problem. You definitely see the worst (whether it be their morality or intelligence) of a person by skimming their twitter feed and they can't ever seem to stop. This is probably due to a large enough crowd cheering/egging them on.

Which is why it's better to have had someone he trusted handle the social media stuff and "marketing/exposure" while he focused on making the comic itself.

With comicsgate so full of TRAITORS, what other choice did he have. The treasonous SJWs and Vox Day supporters had to be driven from the community to keep it pure and hate free. Only by purity to Ethan's ideas can we save civilization and get good star wars movies.

@@AscendantStoic He trusted Mike, Edwin, Doug, Tim, JDA, Nerkish, etc. People keep revealing themself for who they really are later on. Who knows how much damage someone could have done with access to his twitter.

CG is full of sociopathic LARPers whose love for Ethan has nothing to do with good comics.

#lovetrumpshate?

EVS isn't ComicgsGate. He's WarCampaign. That's his treasure chest, that's his paypiggies, that's his problem holding him back.

@@bar-1studios what is CG in your opinion?

@@bar-1studios war campaing was agenst evs

It was, Ethan wrote the original story in the mid 90s I think. This is supposed to a throwback to that time.

That was his aim.