A frank discussion about the Rippa situation

Ok, I guess we’re going to keep this going.

If Eric wants respect for his comics, he needs to improve them by getting better at recognizing talent, developing art and writing pipelines, and having his own respect for those who developed skills through very hard work over many years.

Eric was at the right place at the right time, and utilized a group of talented creators to elevate his product, this means that between him, the machine of FNT and Geeks and Gamers, and who knows what other production means he’s using, there are going to be substantial financial drains to keep the hype going. That, or he’s taking advantage of his friends while reaping massive financial benefits for the arrangement, as opposed to someone like EVS who puts pen to paper and has paid his dues and would have more respect from artists and writers for wanting a cut for promotions. EVS would also be able to be more intimate with the entire process improving writing and art for various projects in a multitude of ways while providing valid critiques.

Again, many of us saw this coming as Eric had many means of promoting his comic and rallying people, but he never created a comic before, and the quality was likely going to be mediocre at best. Now he’s got more mouths to feed as he brings on more artists, more writers. He can afford it because he generated a huge nest egg, but now that the wheels are in motion, what is it that he brings creatively to these projects? Will he just be the guy that demands everyone else’s work fit to his universe while taking a huge chunk off the top? What % of the profit is a hype man entitled to when it’s everyone else crunching late nights under the wire to meet a deadline? THIS is the main problem, Eric is overvaluing himself, and undervaluing everyone else, this is going to become a big problem with any creatives that know their worth.

Unless Eric is more respectful of artists behind the scenes and more understanding of ok work and great work, this core problem will likely be a never-ending issue as he seeks to eek out profits while outsourcing all the hard work time and time again. Stan Lee made comics. Jack Kirby made comics. EVS makes comics. Rippa pays other people to make comics for  him

The fact there are so many stans around his comic is testament to Eric’s fantastic ability to connect with his viewers, but if Rippaverse is to reach his aspirations, he’s going to have to put more effort into finding and retaining talent to improve the quality of the art and writing, and again this can be harder to pull off if you don’t do any of the heavy lifting yourself. I’ve avoided this subject because it’s touchy, but because of his attitude and stubbornness to criticism, much of it valid, he’s quickly growing a group of people who are calling BS on this entire venture, which is the topic of this thread.

If this sounds like I’m shitting on Eric because he doesn’t write, he doesn’t concept, he doesn’t put heavy legwork into the creative process when it comes to the core tenants of a comic book, it’s because I am. I think he wanted to, I think Eric genuinely thought he was going to create great stories, situations, backstories, dialogue, etc. But it’s easy to WANT to do these things, it’s something else entirely to execute when the production kicks off and you’re competing with people who have devoted their lives to these things who burn the midnight oil every day focusing on their crafts over a lifetime.

I’d love to see Eric devote 1 hour a day to drawing. Make a series out of it, be a little humble, show that he takes this stuff seriously and start looking for resources on how to be a good comic artist and actually become one himself. He wouldn’t have to become fantastic, but if he were to swallow his pride and admit he has a lot to learn, that would go a very long way to establishing trust with a diminishing audience. Acknowledge reality, acknowledge that it takes hard work to create these stories that everyone has been crapping on for several years and put effort into getting good at it. This probably sounds a little harsh, but I genuinly think this would help the Rippaverse and Eric, it would show growth not just in skills, but in character. While EVS has really turned into a douche as of late, Eric’s really shown some thin skin and unwillingness to suffer at all for the craft, even if it’s just accepting criticism.

You want to be involved in producing culture? Want to make comics? Want to generate money leading a team of hard working people? GREAT! GET TO WORK!

It’s easy to be “passionate” when you’re outsourcing all the hard work and the money is rolling in, and the core thing you bring to the table is keeping your friends on board to promote your projects. It’s easy to exploit and pay low wages to artists and creatives if you don’t properly value their contributions because you’ve never been one. It’s easy to be friends with people when you know doing so is going to lead to lots of money and you have no principles to clash over regarding art forms you’ve dedicated your life to.

You guys need to understand this about your audience: We don’t want to replace the nepotistic, gaslighting sh*t hole of Hollywood with another one. We watch you guys because we care about this stuff, we criticize and want you guys to do better because we actually care about entertainment and its affect on culture.

There is a path to redemption, but it’s not going to be easy. Rippa cashed in, now if he wants to continue to make withdrawals he’s going to have actually compete, and that takes hard work and sacrifice. At the bare minimum, accepting criticism and getting better like every other professional creator in history has done.

Appreciate the level headed response.

To answer your question, why do people care so much? We came to this community because we were tired of our entertainment falling apart, because we saw a community of people who weren’t afraid of calling out the BS and willing to stand by the fans through the thick and thin.

I realize i’m shitting in your guys’ cheerios here, so i’ll refrain from blathering too much in this post.

Gary talks about this often, Henry Cavil is famous for siding with the fans on this. We’re passionate. We genuinly care about the art, we genuinly care about good stories, we believe this stuff is the bedrock of our culture and society. If there’s a big monolith sucking up all the attention and money out of the room, we’re going to want that thing to be better.

Our world has decayed so much in the past decade, much of that stems from decayed culture stemming from decayed entertainment, decayed meritocracy, not caring about work ethic or quality of product.

It’s also easy to get swept up in the banter and jabs that comes with this online stuff, but this is the environment that’s been fostered with Rippaverse this is the kind of attitude that’s been fostered that we HAVE to think it’s good, that we can’t criticize it, and after all the crap we’ve dealt with in our lives that brought us to this community, it’s really not a good feeling to be gaslit and told by a new group of people to think a certain way.

We didn’t go out of our way to crap on Eric’s venture, he insterted himself into the spotlight, he put himself in a very prominent position knowing full well this was a very discerning community of geeks and gamers who aren’t going to just take entertainment because people tell us to. He monetized the fans, but has been nothing but hostile and closed minded to any and all feedback, which is now snowballing because it is valid feedback that is meant to help. It all goes full circle, and is exactly why this post was made. This is damaging to this community, to the legitimacy of this space, if he could just acknowledge valid criticism and grow, this situation would be moving in a more positive direction.

Jeremy talked about what you have to do as a leader, he made it very clear, a leader falls on the sword, he takes the heat, he takes the blame for the team, doesn’t make excuses, owns the problem and sorts it out. Jeremy did just that, and a lot of us respect the heck out of him for this. Where’s Eric July during this fallout? Blocking people on twitter, refusing to take any accountability for a poor first offering that wasn’t just poor in production, but poor in spirit. Jay’s book may have had sh*t art, but it was heartfelt, you could tell someone was behind that book who cared.

If Mr. July takes issue with the criticism of his book, if he thinks all the outrage is manufactured, repay the favor in kind. Whip out cyberfrog and get to shit stirring. But we all know why Eric doesn’t criticize EVS from a perspective of talent. Decades of late nights honing a craft went into the foundations of that comic, it was born out of a love of comics, EVS created his characters when he was just a teen with aspirations, it’s the embodiment of his own fandom, not a cash grab. Exacting penmanship went into every rendered corner of linework in those pages. The lettering, the character silhouettes, the world building, the relationships, the coloring spring up from foundations cultivated over a lifetime. One cannot fathom each and every component that creates these works, from professional relationships to gut drives that tell an artist what works and what doesn’t developed over endless toil. But we know it what we see it. Cyberfrog is a celebration of craft, a work of principle that suffered from stubbornness not purely born of ego, but also convictions. You’re free to think Ethan is an egomaniac, heartless asshole. You can’t convince yourself the man doesn’t know how to make a fucking comic book. And what fuels that fire that brought Ethan to that level? Uncompromising conviction, the same fire that burns bridges.

This was an opportunity for Eric to show himself as a great leader, to be humble, to show a thick skin, to show that he’s in this through the thick and thin and can grow and be great. A great leader builds foundations, humbles success, and inspires others around them by putting in the leg work. It’s no accident that George Lucas, Stan Lee, Walt Disney found success. They threw themselves at the wall, failure after failure, movie after movie, comic after comic. Their love of creating, sense of purpose and drive carried them through the hard times.

A Rippaverse cannot be created overnight, it requires failure, it requires busting your ass for many, many years competing against fantastic competition and in that fire of healthy competition, your skills are forged. Rippa comes out of the gate, generates millions of dollars off a fanbase others helped to foster from the get go, and is now acting like a prima donna asserting everyone has to like his stuff, because he doesn’t want to bleed for the craft. The story arc he’s written for himself in his own mind is that of a Mary Sue.

Walt bled for the craft, Mr. Lee bled for the craft, Peter Jackson gave it his blood, sweat, and tears. You won’t see any documentaries about these guys whining their critics are all wrong, they used that fire under their ass to be great. You want to reach for the same heights these guys obtained? GOOD, we need visionaries more than ever.

Get to bleeding.

An artist creates. They have a burning fire in them to make things, and what separates a hobbyist from a truly great artist is time, dedication, perseverance, and taste.

July himself has told us the importance of gatekeeping, about voting with our dollar. This entire sphere of entertainers is built on educating the audience so that worthy art can be made. We took this to heart, some of us have worked in the creative spheres, some of us have been been burned first hand by this madness and seek to build a new creative space that fosters something positive.

You can look at the current state of the Rippaverse, which is healthy, it has funding, it has an audience, but I’m more interested in the trajectory. Does this grow into something positive for this world? I don’t want to repeat myself, i’ve blathered a substantial amount already.

Why do people climb tall mountains? Why did the creators of Apocalypse Now subject themselves to such hell to create a work of cinematic art?

Because some are driven to do great things, to throw themselves against the spinning wheels of the hubris, the tribalism, the gaslighting and cash grabbing.

No one watches Con Air and hopes Steve Buscemi gets the girl (Well, maybe Vito, ALLEGEDLY). We want to see positive traits conquer our weaknesses. We want to see hard work rise above, we want to see those sacrificing day after day climb that mountain, we want our kids to see these hero’s so they can aspire to do the same.

The path to hell is paved with good intentions. We don’t set out to be the bad guy, but if we’re not careful, if we’re too stubborn, and we take short cuts and we start becoming entitled and relying on back room politics over product, the foundations on which you are building your empire will start to crumble.

This thread has been pretty blunt, but I want to reiterate, I WANT the Rippaverse to succeed. I want Rippa to toughen up and be a good leader, to do what’s right by the fans, to take the time to do things right. I don’t want him to throw money at complex problems, I don’t want him to rely on his friends to burn their principles as fodder for his ambition. So ultimately whether we fans want this venture to succeed relies entirely on Rippa and his team. Again, it’s hardly too late, but if this is going to go the distance, people need to start taking deep breaths and having frank, and open conversations with one another.

Remember that scene in the matrix where Neo doesn’t make the first jump? Everyone was excited he was going to do it, he was the one! And yet… he doesn’t make it. That’s how EVERY creative starts. Whether it’s making your first youtube video, your first animation, your first book, your first comic, it’s all the same, it’s going to SUCK. And if you have a love of that medium you’re making, you’re not going to want that thing to turn off fans, you’re going to lurk and practice and practice and practice and some day, with a bit of luck, maybe you can break through.

Did Neo get up off the shattered concrete and blame Morpheus? Did he whine about how hard his path ahead was? Did he take the God darned blue pill!? No, he got up off his ass, and went out there and bettered himself against all odds. We don’t have a brain probe to shove into our heads that will teach us kung fu or how to make comics. We gotta fail, get up and fail some more! This world doesn’t owe us shit.

I’m not a huge fan of comic books myself, but I find this entire process enthralling. We’re watching the birth of the Iron Age, and creators, viewers, customers alike, we are all invested into this new frontier. The stakes are high, I know it sounds crazy, but the future of civilization rests on our ability to build something rooted in goodness. Rooted in hard fought truth. No one likes cutting people down, especially when they’re chasing their dream, but when you get a really big head about it, you make it a lot easier.

Rippa if you read this, dude people like an underdog, people like to see people grinding and improving themselves, they root for that person to rise up and be great, you know this. Take a deep breath, and look at what you’re becoming, it’s not pretty, it’s not something that people outside your fervant fans are going to cheer on. You can be a likeable cocksure tough guy, but you gotta earn it. This is an arena you’re not used to competing in, focus on the art, the money will flow from there.

Ethan, you’re a fucking asshole. But fucking hell can you make a god damned comic book and a fun stream.

Chickens in the chat.

Last thing I’ll say. There’s a lot of hurt feelings and hostility influencing this space. Eric got riled up by forces that want him to fail, and put him in this self destructive, negative head space. He’s focusing too much on haters which clouds his judgement towards the general audience. Here’s the crux of the problem: we want good entertainment, great even, we need to know that the people we are buying from respect the medium. I hope you guys can talk to people like critical drinker for ideas about vetting talent (not in their ideology, but in their talent).

I know I talked about you guys developing skills in this thread, but that’s not the best advice we could give as fans. The best thing rippa can do to do right be the fans would be to get better about finding quality talent. You look at the rippaverse and you don’t see art made through adversity, a product with the sole purpose and being great. You see that nepotism creeping in, lots of friends who know people. It’s a little too safe.

Let’s see some risk taking, let’s see more effort put into finding great talent, innovation in art that produces better results. It’s too safe right now, it doesn’t really show any spirit, it doesn’t wow anyone.

Maybe I’m crazy, but it seems like you guys are watching this thread, so I’ll leave with a crazy idea that you can take or leave.

Rippaverse focuses really heavily on this big, long production cycle comic book, and that’s great, it keeps the lights on, but it doesn’t really fit this online personality format and it’s not something that can generate exciting youtube content on a consistent basis, nor does it tie the audience directly to the product or convert them to customers all that well.

What if Rippaverse adopted a new format of media to supplement the long form comic, something a little more light hearted and experimental? A kind of short story comic book and you guys would pair it to a Youtube personality like Gary, Az, Disparu, Doomcock, whoever, any creative that wants to take a stab at making a creative comic. Sorta like selling a plushie. Not a huge production, can be executed quickly. Something relatively low cost that can be created fast and low cost. And here’s the best part: It doesn’t have to be earth shatteringly good, the idea here is about GETTING BETTER, creating your own content so you guys don’t canabalize each other over drama. About ASPIRING to be great. Take the audience on a ride as various creators are on a quest to become better creators. This is a more interesting ride to be a part of than just “here’s a quality book every few months”.

WE NEED A 3 HOUR STREAM WHERE AZ SHIT’S ALL OVER NINA INFINITIE’S DOG SHIT COMIC GOD DAMN IT. TRASH CAST BY AZ THAT’S IN GOOD FUN AND CELEBRATES THE CREATIVE PROCESS, NOT DEMEAN IT!

This solves a lot of problems. It allows youtube creators to start dipping their toes into creating comics without too much commitment so they can get better in the short term without worrying about them getting egg on their face if they don’t deliver with their first outing. Sell the comic super cheap for the first title. This casual situation for the viewer, the low expectation, the cheap price, this builds the habit of buying the comic in the audience. It also directly ties the people we tune into watch to the comics themselves and makes us want to buy it. It also adds legitimacy to this entire venture, you guys wouldn’t just be hype men, you’d also be creators worthy of big profits.

And when I say low barrier to entry I mean LOW, like maybe 10 pages, a mini scene, a single joke. But be really open to fan feedback, get us involved, ask us about the character design, about the dialogue, bring us along for the journey, I could see Az, Gary, and Mauler having a field day tearing other people’s creations apart. It could turn into this healthy competition ever few months, each creator has to find an artist through some means, a co writer maybe, and then you guys could compete to see who puts out the best mini book. It could even be hilarious if some people (jay i’m looking at you) put out a comic with TERRIBLE art.

This also allows the Rippaverse to test the waters and see what works, what doesn’t work, without years of downtime between iteratoins. You guys are so new in this space, you gotta iterate! You gotta find what works, who works, what art is working, what pipelines are justified, etc. You don’t get better very fast if you have years between projects.

It would just make for good content, you wouldn’t be so reliant on hollywood drama, and I think it would be fun for everyone involved, and it would make this whole scene feel more alive. You could even accept fan submissions and have rippaverse gift cards for winners in the catagories of art, writing, and overall best, and who knows maybe you guys find some diamonds in the rough out there who do better writing and art then you ever thought you could and you bring them on board.

Great art isn’t made by chance, it’s made through contention, it comes from a large pool of people creating. Crazy idea I know… might be hard to pull off, but something to think about. Think it would be great content, good fun, and maybe even lead to some great comics down the road, would love to see some more innovation and risk taking in this space to further the medium.

Most of all, this would be fun as hell and maybe improve spirits in this space and give you guys a good excuse to sh*t on each other for your little creative outings, which is the real reason we tune in (JUST KIDDING). The best art is made when you’re enjoying the process a bit, excited for the potential, excited to compete.