DONT STEP IN THE MUCK
Professional comic book artist and writer Otis Frampton, gave some exceptionally good advice to comic book professionals to avoid "the online drama of comic book influencers." You can view the Tweet here. See Mr. Frampton's website here.
For clarity and to avoid bringing any nonsense to Mr. Frampton's doorstep, Otis did not mention Comicsgate in his Tweet, and has no Tweets mentioning it.
THERE ARE NO SHORTCUTS
Framptom's advice is to focus on the craft and promoting the results of that craft. This advice can be generalized to almost any endeavor. Within the domain of comic books, intense and fervent tribes and factions have been formed on social media. There are dozens of YouTube channels where the content is at least partially focused on conflict between various comic book personalities. While Frampton does not mention Comicsgate, this segment likely has the greatest concentration of observable drama and conflict.
Frampton likely understands that the community of professional comic book artist is relatively small. It is very easy to obtain a bad reputation, or damage a reputation in this small community by dipping into or engaging with online drama. Particularly for aspiring or relatively new professionals who should be spending most of their time improving their craft, online drama is a distraction and perhaps an impediment to development. Participating in online drama may inadvertently close doors and opportunities before they are even encountered.
A TIMELY EXAMPLE
As a commentator, and critic I am deliberately engaging with some of the drama and personalities. My thesis is that Ethan Van Sciver's Comicsgate functions as a nexus for conflict and selectively creates it through repeatedly antagonize targets to exploit the ensuing reactions for YouTube content. Van Sciver's drama focused streams will frequently gross more than a $1,000 in superchat (tip) revenue during his live performances. Comicsgate fosters a particular type of parasocial relationship where it's followers seek out conflict with creators or other comic fans, and then report back to Van Sciver and similar personalities for affirmation and validation. For an aspiring or working comic book professional none of this activity is helpful or useful to advance their progression or development.
At the very moment I was writing the draft of this article - a Van Sciver fan/Comicsgate zealot, chose to Tweet a question why I had chosen to examine Comicsgate and Van Sciver. I took the moment to offer the questioner "Goody Twoshoes" some parameters for a good faith exchange. Van Sciver and I have had an unpleasant relationship for more than half a decade. As I noted I've ignored most of it but thought to take up the subject of Comicsgate in the greater context of "culture war". Goody Twoshoes, declined the parameters and escalated to bizarrely asking questions about my penis. A rational reader is probably perplexed, and likely asking "We are still talking about comic books, right?"
We are indeed, and this type of exchange is unfortunately indicative of the prevailing quality of comic book drama on social media. The commenter, Goody Twoshoes, because of the extremity of his attachment to a YouTube personality, considered this a worthy expenditure of his time, and of mine. This then brings us back to Mr. Framptom's excellent advice. Drama is entertainment for some, but participating in it will likely be a net negative for most professionals. A creative professional is likely best served by expressing their passions directly in their work and art.
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