A frank discussion about the Rippa situation

Let’s be fair here, EVS is simply doing what Mr. July did to him in kind. He’s utilizing ragebait on YouTube to steal away customers.

Eric drew first blood.

EVS built the original customer base with years of toil and elbow grease as an actual artist, not a shock jock sweeping into a sphere of personalities to launch an unproven product.

You can point at Ethan, argue that he’s attacking Eric directly, and because of this he’s a punk. But IMO it’s less of a bitch move than going behind someone’s back and playing offstage politics and causing drama behind someone’s back. EVS has been far more upfront with his constituents AND the customer base through all of this.

Ethan was an architect of the Iron Age, he developed the practice of selling a product directly to the fandom menace without the middle man. It was EVS that showed Eric the blueprint for monetizing the hate for Star Wars in a direct way: selling to the angry nerd hordes a product and injecting that sale directly into social commentary.

To his credit Eric July saw these sales potentials from a different perspective, that purely of a promoter, not a creative. What if you wanted in on this action but you weren’t an artist? What if you just fully dove into the culture of personality and leveraged the tribalistic nature of YouTube and fandom to monetize a customer base? What if you could convince all the business acquaintances to turn on the one guy in the sphere who actually put pen to paper and make a company full of nothing but middle men?

The only thing left to do was to steal the entire Pie from Ethan. Mr. July leveraged his connections when Ethan was most vulnerable and never let up. And what did EVS have the audacity to do in that moment? Stand up for the fans during the pivotal Snyder incident.

I want to try to be fair in this post. EVS did stab a knife in the back of Jeremy at this moment. Ethan IS a fucking dick. He was pursuing his own selfish means of stealing another man’s audience from him, and it was fucked up. But this is the difference between first and second degree murder. Ethan was there, pumped up in the moment. I even sided with him early on until the fallout happened and it was clear Jeremy was in a rough spot. This incident is VERY complex and it’s murky if anyone was slighted and for what reasons. One can easily argue EVS was standing up for the fans and meant no ill will. But again, if i’m being honest…
This wasn’t as fucked up as what Mr. July did, because EVS is also fueled by a burning passion to get great comics out there, and to have the opportunity to do a lot of heavy lifting himself. Eric July was waiting in the wings and kicked a man when he was down. Had Eric run a better company, I would view this in a much more “the ends justify the means” sort of light. He didn’t.

Do you guys genuinely think that Eric is just a better “friend” while cultivating all the top personalities? Where’s the awkward friend he keeps around simply because he’s a good guy (COMICSDIVISION*COUGH*).

If every single acquaintance you have is someone who furthers your career, and you utilize them to destroy all your competition, then you use their fanbase to hire a legion of sycophants. That doesn’t exactly look good on you. Even when Eric donates to charity it’s been revealed to be a bit shady. Truth be told I’m not sure i’ve ever seen Eric do much of anything of value for others. If he’s saying kind words or encouragement to anyone, it’s someone who makes him money. Or thanking someone for praise/ sales.
He shills his books, He builds himself up, he puts others down, he’s cordial only with those who benefit him. He despises anyone who has any criticism whatsoever, even when warranted. He’s aloof and only talks about things that interests himself, and time and again we have seen him exploit and shame any and all opposition.
The MOMENT Mr. July sees anyone not licking his boot, you are this man’s enemy, it’s childish. Dude has a massive chip on his shoulder, a big head, and no sense of duty to improve himself, to be more humble for the greater good. Or as a comic creator. He’s looking more and more like a subversive, doing all manner of gaslighting, not any actual work.

Let’s be real, It’s hard to see things from another perspectives, especially when someone is buttering your bread or blowing smoke up your behind. There is honor in standing up for your friends.

But let’s try to see things from the “evil man” Ethan Van Sciver’s vantage point. Imagine you worked for 30+ years busting your ass to become one of the best artists in the world, you devote the bulk of your hours every single day to painstaking art. You have a drive to do something great, you suffer through tedium to improve linework, storytelling, ENDLESSLY. While you see everyone else is f*cking off watching comic book movies or grifting, you’re putting pen to paper.

You were ostracized from your own industry by a bunch of candy asses hell bent on subverting your life’s work for their own gain, but you find refuge in the fandom menace. You have had your life DESTROYED by this bullshit, but you now have a lifeline to continue your hard work and you find a bunch of creators who seemingly value hard working and rare talent that creates these products.

Do you ever suffer fools again seeing the long term ramifications of greed and hubris? Or do you stand by your life’s work?

But despite the crazy speed bump of getting canceled, it ends up being a blessing in disguise, you’re able to start building something new, you pick up the broken pieces and start busting your ass again drawing your greatest comic ever, Cyberfrog.

You want to build a new empire, one with creatives at the top under your command because you’re literally the only one with artistic talent that’s willing to do a damned Youtube stream. Everyone else is inherently flawed in one way or another to handle this online rage baiting and auctioneering. So you burn the midnight oil for months on end, fueled by a desire to create the greatest comic ever made to set the world right and cover your ravenous pie addictions.

So just as things are getting off the ground, you have a spat with Jeremy Griggs, a decent friend of yours, but someone who doesn’t understand the creative process, has no frame of reference of what it’s like to bleed for an industry, a life’s work like creating comics for your entire life. Jeremy grinds, he’s a damned hard worker, but it’s a different kind of work from a creative endeavor. The FNT crew are great talents, but they’re talents who get by having a seemingly great time, it kinda distorts their view of their favorite mediums over time, they’re not going to have raw attachments to the medium like a normal fan has.

Eric July, seeing the upheaval you caused, saw a chance to swoop in, and take control. He could manipulate this situation and “friendships” to force out the creators and take full control.
July buys a warehouse, makes some YouTube videos talking about being great and generates mass hype from the combined fandom of the entire FNT crew. No need to show incredible art, no need to show incredible story. All that was needed was to exploit notions of friendship at every turn and to convince the audience and the owners of that audience that they were his friends. In doing so, all blemishes of the actual product could be overlooked.

Subversion.

You might say “But EVS IS AN ASSHOLE!”. You’d be right. So is Eric July, that’s why these guys are able to compete at this level! It’s not a bad thing to have drive and ambition and want to conquer your enemies. That’s how culture wars are fought and won, that’s how industry is created and evolved. That’s how we got to the moon.

But the Rippaverse IMO does not exude an industrious contention. This is the exact toxic nepotism that destroyed Hollywood. And it’s a case study in the fall of empire. The Rippaverse situation didn’t happen overnight. It’s not like Eric July came up to everyone with Rippaverse 1 and 2 in hand and told the FNT crew, “hey shill this book for me”. I myself was drinking the same Kool Aide up until a few months ago.

He offered us an intangible ideal. The NOTION of a great comic book company. I don’t want to sh*t on Eric’s team too much, they’re young, they’re loyal, they’re excited and have bills to pay. They are also being told to kiss the ring and are part of the cult of Mr. July. The level of worship this company has for Eric is frankly disturbing. What kind of narcissist creates a company like this? It’s fucking weird if I’m being honest. Eric July is paying people to treat him like some kind of demigod and then shaming the audience into doing the same.

It’s manufactured greatness, synthetic.

The Soska sisters rub me the wrong way, and not for the reasons most the neckbeards are Reeeeeeing about. They weren’t hired because they are top tier comic book writers, I think Eric just wanted some arm candy to “butter up” his associates , and his fans at cons. I’m reading my own post and part of me wonders if I’m being crazy. But honestly this whole situation is fucking weird. It’s a just a vibe I get.

Something is rank in this endeavor, the Rippaverse is employing every tactic at its disposal to get in good with other influencers, to bring on fans, to exploit the audience that it can OTHER THAN MAKING A QUALITY PRODUCT. Again, I could excuse all of the above if Eric’s company was making a great comic and had ethics, but it doesn’t appear to. It makes a mockery of fandom, of comic books, of the counterculture movement. Had Rippaverse made a shitton of awesome comics over many years and 3 years down the line employed a bunch of big tittied bimbo’s. I’d be like, “Hell yeah, live the dream, you guys earned it!”. Hell, i’d probably send them a resume.

But they haven’t, Eric has taken the money from this fandom, and is using those funds to fund some hyper privildged lifestyle right out of the damned gate. WTF heavy lifting has Eric even done while he waxes poetic about being great and making great comics? Conned an audience? Made a few videos out of a warehouse prepping a few books for a small fraction of his life?

We’re random fans who watch some YouTube videos here and there and spend a bit of time on Twitter and even we can see there are massive problems emerging. This is NOT a tight ship being run. Rippaverse is unprofessional, reckless and destructively self serving. There are no standards of quality, no standards of work ethic, no passion or respect for the fans, only on a very easily faked surface level.
If you look at their actions: putting out shit comics, charging INSANE prices, nickel and diming key positions that translate to quality of product, they have disrespected the consumer at every turn. To say nothing of how some personalities seemingly are weaponized to gaslight and take advantage of our trust.

Am I being too harsh? This was their first venture after all… NO. The sheer levels of hubris, the mass marketing campaign billing this as the second coming of the X – Men, the bullying of the audience, the destructive monopolistic practices, the SHEER FUCKING HUBRIS.

From what i’ve seen, this Rippaverse production is a madhouse, where the only thing that matters is that you have name recognition, are willing to say nothing bad about the company, and will phillate Eric’s ego.

Horse man? Is this some sort of out of season April Fools joke? What’s next, “Octopus man?” It’s uninspired. Just batman with the name and horse man and with a southern accent. Isn’t that the same damned thing they did with the Alpha Core leader guy? Just take superman and give him a southern accent?

It’s NOT impressive. It’s not even close. One has to wonder if they’re even fucking trying. And all the while their cashing checks from the reserves of the audience’s fading optimism.

And then you’ve got the Soska sisters pumping out more sludge. That panel was pretty cringe. All this giddy NDA stuff, have these people ever worked on a professional environment before? They’re acting like children. Hard to watch

I was a genuine fan of Rippa’s, but he’s really exposed himself here with Rippaverse in a very short period of time, and I don’t want to see him bringing everyone else down with him. Maybe he turns it around, I dunno, I’m not optimistic, I think Rippaverse has to fail for that to happen, he’s too all in at this point.

Since we’ve decided to go full mud slinging in this thread at everyone, I’ll say Eric comes off as a lazy, entitled, hack of late who has no respect for hard working talent, the medium of comics or the fans.

Dude could have built an empire if his ego would have allowed him to get a little more help in these regards, because he is quite good at promotion and getting people on board his vision, the problem is, the only vision he has is to make a ton of money and he doesn’t give a damn how many people he burns along the way, how many fans he blocks.

The FNT / Geeks and Gamers crew are a trusting and friendly lot, and maybe a little easily taken advantage of. I respect that they’re standing by their friend, I just hope they don’t enable him to destroy a very important pillar of the culture war.

Maybe I’m being too harsh on Eric, maybe he’s able to keep it together. I know I sound like an asshole here or that this will be perceived as a “gay op” or just a REALLY fucking nerdy neckbeard blather, but I’m gonna call it like I see it because fuck it Hollywood is burning, and this drama intrigues me. This shit is riveting and the culture war for entertainment is near and dear to my heart.

I foresee rising issues and poor PR for the Rippaverse as money squabbling sets in soon and pressures rise to find people who will actually produce a quality book who know what they’re worth and the very public profits being made. Maybe they try hail mary’s like outsourcing art to impoverished nations or AI art.

I see the low moral character people Eric is bringing on board, and I see the cult of personality he is building in front of all of YouTube for the world to see, and I see his thin skin and I see his controlling personality and lack of ability to make a great comic book.

This is very important: Not everyone Eric employs is a hack, but he has already started to build the culture of his company, and IT IS NOT one of excellence. It’s one of doing the bare minimum, kissing his ass, and easily being able to coast by. Everyone in this sphere is riding on the faith of the fans and exploiting one another.

I do not see this ending well at this point, but hey, they get to live it up for now. A lot of us were called haters not long ago for discussing problems we saw with Isom many months back. Now we’ll be told we’re hating on Eric for not giving him space to prove himself this time. In this cult of personality, this will go on forever. We humans are an intneresting lot, you could put two identical products in front of us, and if we were told one was made by someone we liked, we would immediatly think it was of a higher quality. This is the absolute core of Eric’s business model. Rippaverse isn’t a comic book, it’s a lifestyle brand.

I was willing to have an open mind up until Megacon. But something just doesn’t sit well. The low effort new properties, the Soska sisters (I honestly don’t give a shit about their personal lives) just seem so cringe and hired on for the absolute worst reasons.

Simple, direct question: WHERE ARE THE GOOD COMIC BOOKS!? I haven’t seen a SINGLE decent panel with next level writing from this multi million dollar company yet. It’s been 2 years and we just got to see their upcoming stuff. The quality of their art in terms of covers has actually diminished to revisit the issue I raised prior. In this environment Eric created, where everyone but the creatives are taking the lion’s share of profits, it’s going to be hard to retain quality talent. There are too many mouths to feed, and the bad blood created will poison the foundations of the business.

Call me a hater, call me an EVS simp, a manchild for following this cultural drama. I don’t give a shit. I know what I know, I see what I see. This post is certainly an attack on Mr. July, but only the Eric that I see today, the thin skinned control freak who started a business exploiting fans and workers for an endeavor that should be headed by an artist or acclaimed writer, a Stan Lee, a Jack Kirby, or IMO an EVS. I miss the Eric who was full of spunk and excited to rise up the algorithm, excited to be a guest on a show, talk comics, rage at Mario Kart, just have a good time and passionate about his anarcho-capitalist values.

We fans who are still realling by the collapse of Hollywood want quality entertainment, but quality entertainment has to be made by those who have a pain tolerance and willingness to use it. Great creators get in the trenches and work hard, take criticism and get better so they can be great. Fact is, Eric has not shown this key qualities, in fact, he’s shown himself to be dishonest, thin skinned, nepotistic, full of hubris and exploitative. This is the exact same shit that destroyed Hollywood.

Just calling it as I see it. If HORSE MAN ends up being AMAZING or if the Soska sisters put out the greatest comic ever made with the greatest art ever, feel free to yack it up at my expense.

Last thing: Why am I going so hard on this? These opportunities are very rare. Comics all imploding, the rise of youtube stars, Hollywood falling to ash… This is a very unique time in entertainent and the people in this sphere have one chance to put their best food forward and to make a real fuckign difference in this world for the better. And they would have all the accolades and $$$ for years and years into the future.

Or they can burn it all living it up for a few years on the dime of conmen.

Excited to see star wars theory around. That dude makes quality shit and has UNPARALLELED respect for the fans, and not just the ones who kiss his ass. I watched his video with Jay, and hidden at the end of the video, these guys are chatting about how people don’t understand the grind. They don’t see the long hours, “It’s lonely at the top”. The comment section was filled with “YAY! strawberries!” But that little moment really resonated.

Most people will never understand this, they won’t ever know this pivotal aspect to our humanity, the guiding force that springs from the sacrifices and principle of the few. The long hours, the labor of love to provide something of value to this world by the very few and misunderstood, who know full well it may all be for naught.

Delayed gratification, constant uncertainty, living in poverty persuing the dream. The Rippaverse did not endure any of this.

Most people will side with the liars and gaslighters, putting all their effort into being our “friend” while the visionaries are up late nights burning the oil, doing their best to fight the madness…

That’s a fair take. And I share a lot of that frustration.

It’s such a shitty situation for everyone involved. Sure, lots of people making bank, I’m just mulling over what would could have been, and bummed by this cloud that’s now hovering over this fandom. Eric and FNT are the ultimate hype men of this sphere, Ethan is the ultimate comic creator. They could have taken over the world if they were united. At one time there was a very tangible path to EVERONE winning together and making EVEN MORE BANK. For us fans to be ranting and raving about how badass this new comic sphere is that came from all these fantastic YouTube personalities, excited about all our favorite creators making cool shit, talking about cool shit, selling cool shit.

Instead we’re all at each other’s throats bickering over stupid shit.

Instead we get this dysfunction. Picking sides. Justifying or demeaning the counter culture. Petty tribalism, greed, hubris, personal attacks, letting bad blood get in the way of the medium.

It is what it is.

I’ve blathered enough and done enough shit stirring, time to get over this. If there’s some big event maybe I’ll reply in the future, but overall, just disappointed how this whole situation unfolded.

Glad someone enjoyed the read!

I’m going to stay true to my word and not stir the pot any more. YouTube just recommended me this video and while watching it I couldn’t help but feel compelled to post it here:

Seemed relevant and finishes on a high note about rivals who had a falling out came back together in the end over love of the comics. Who knows for the future for this scene, going to be a wild ride, and if I’M being honest, I’m not even that interested in the comics, but this whole rivalry has been absolutely captivating. I turn on Comic Book Kings and I feel like I’m watching a live feed from an old folks reality TV show, but I really just can’t find myself getting excited about anything Rippaverse. It’s such a weird matchup, haha!

As always, hail the 199, but also: chickens in the chat. Hope both parties do well and this rivalry leads to a great new comics scene.

No, I thought I was pretty transprent about that in most all my posts. I’m a fan of craft, in any form. I may not like movies that much but I watch drinkers channel. I’m not into woodworking but I watch a good bit of woodworking tutorials because I find it interesting.

I’m very invested in the culture war at large, so naturally i’m going to be interested in the goings on with EVS and Rippa. I’m not a big fan of indie films but i’m really curious to see what happens with Epicverse for example. I’m not a fan of rap but I’m curious how Tom MacDonald does with his music. Not a Daily Wire subscriber but interested in how their movies do. I was hoping they’d put out a great movie for example that wasn’t divisive and mended bridges in the culture war, but that didn’t happen. If I saw someone raving about how amazing their movies were I would have called them a darned shill, no matter how much I enjoyed their content.

I appreciate quality content, I appreciate people putting their everything, their blood sweat and tears into products to try to create something great and to make the world a better place. I don’t respect cash grabs and appealing to people’s lesser emotoins.

I’m a fan of all these channels. I bought into the talk about building a better creative scene. So i’m going to be interested in the scene all these people create and I’m going to hold them to the standards that they have set for other properties for years on end.

I feel like I’m repeating myself.

Quick edit: People seem really sensitive to people having their own opinions. I speak for a lot of people when I say that being “coerced” or implying I must think this or that to have my opinion isn’t going to change my mind, it’s only going to make people want to be more vocal and more frustrated with the Rippaverse elements. That’s why this Rippa situation is spiraling out of control so quickly, people REALLY dislike being told what to say or think, or being told they are no longer welcome for having a criticism.

The culture Rippa has fostered in his company is very destructive to anyone who doesn’t support his venture 100%. And that would have been fine if Rippa was doing his own thing, but again, the Rippaverse has been inserted front and center into this entire fandom.

Anyway, I tried to leave this thread on a positive note, but this keeps going on and on, it’s kind of a microcosm of twitter right now…

I’m done responding to this thread. Not taking the bait.

Have a good life everyone.

I spoke to what I felt was an important topic for this community. I don’t want to tarnish it with infighting.

Feel free to start a new thread if you feel like calling me weird further, I’d prefer not to shitpost with a Mod in this thread.

I’m not asking for any special privildged here. This is an open platform, people are free to roast me, I neckbearded out, that’s fine.

Other people are welcome to create threads defending Mr. July and talk about why they enjoy his comics. I enjoy this community, I had some concerns. I wanted to keep the discussion level headed, but I certainly don’t control the narrative and got a bit hot headed myself, that’s just fandom, part of being a geek or gamer.

Feel free to criticize me and my post however you wish, I never said that I couldn’t be criticized, I did say that i’m going to try to keep a certain level of candor, though admitedly I slipped a bit through the thread. You’re right I did kinda shit on Mr. July. I feel it was warranted, you’re welcome to feel the same about my hypocrisy. We’re all fallible, nothing we do will ever be perfect, just gotta try to do the best we can with our given situations.

You’re right. I was a bit of a dick and it was shitty of me to act all high and mighty and beyond reproach. And yeah, I guess it’s weird to make all these blocks of texts ranting and raving about comics I don’t even read. It’s a weird time to be a fan of nerd culture these days, this is what it’s evolved into for many of us.

Do you guys know what a struggle session is?

I’ll repeat myself again. I’m not telling anyone not to say anything. Feel free to say whatever you want. You’re even free to conjure lies, call me weird, make a huge scene and decry that I’m the unreasonable one.

Go ahead, I won’t stop you.

But I don’t have to dignify immature, incoherent ramblings from those who can’t be bothered to read what I actually posted with a response, no matter how much you may gaslight, kick and scream.

All I see is Rippa simps proving my point exactly. You all have made my case far better than I ever could.

Want to refute this post? Fine. Explain how Rippa HASN’T built a cult of personality where it’s not ok to criticize him, explain how he hasn’t utilized this entire community to manufacture his comic, explain how people don’t fall over themselves to tear down anyone with valid criticism, explain how these are well made comics with compelling characters.

The floor is yours to actually argue any of the points I’ve made in this thread however you want, in this thread or elsewhere.