Comic News- The Jawbreaker Drama as of June 14th

Publisher wounded after announcing then pulling support for comic while Artist gets over $340k Crowdfunded

Richard C. Meyer, has been an artist for some time working on various comics. His latest production, Jawbreakers, has been met with both ecstatic support support and extreme critique. The critical nature however is not the content of the comic but the commentary of the artist on social media. Various websites and “News Sources” while seeming to be “Known for valid reporting of the facts” have been circulating screenshots and various “quotes from recorded interviews” with no actual evidence beyond citing “he said things on twitter and that one recording (that we don’t have linked or posted anywhere)”. However, while the content of the comic is a nod back to the fantastical era of comics printed on pulp and intended to tell a story much like the golden age of comics some folks can’t leave well enough alone.

In the wake of a crowdfunding Campaign for Jawbreakers, Meyer had found a publisher and distribution with an old favorite of ours from one of our first articles, Antarctic Press, who were ready to roll with the punches of getting the i’s dotted and t’s crossed with Diamond Comics who’re one of the larger circulation sources. What followed with the announcement was a backlash that would wound the Indi Publisher and set aflame the “#comicsgate” movement with the force of a thousand suns. Antarctic Press reneged on their support and left Meyer to fend for himself in publishing and circulation while the propaganda between Comic Book Stores leaked to the public. Names were dropped, people were outed, and Meyers took to Twitter to make it known how he felt. Soon, store owners were claiming acts of vandalism were the fault of the Comic Book artist and fingers pointed at his witty banter without any evidence to prove otherwise. It was only a matter of time till people were making themselves libel online in-mass while desperately clinging to the “proof that he was a Nazi” or any variety of “Bigot” they could muster while copying and pasting it into whatever form of social media they could.

This backlash at the time boosted the indigogo  beyond it’s stretch goals as people put their money where their mouth is. Sadly, there was no one the critics of Meyer’s could throw their money at and the now recoiling Publisher, AP (Antarctic Press), was suffering a drop in support from stores and the now publicly exposed owners for their almost Nazi-worthy levels of demand for censorship and bookburning. Die-hard fans of their works such as Gold Digger and Steam Wars or their various parodies were still purchasing and keeping them afloat but the backlash could be seen on their Twitter page and even on the Facebook Page of their founder, Ben Dunn. Meyers, on the other hand, has pulled over $340K as of 6/14/18, established Splato Comics as a Publisher and continues to grow.

It should be said that while AP is a great company when it comes to parody and satire they bent the knee to the wrong folks, folks who never heard of them and now will never even consider investing due to their “Affiliation” even after they disassociated. It seems Splato Comics will be the “Official” Publisher for Meyers current and future projects moving forward.

All content is copyright it’s respective creator.

Written by: R. Rankin