IndieGoGo Bans ComicsGate's Cecil From Crowdfunding His Cash Grab 2 Comic
ComicsGate has been targeted for years on IndieGoGo but the comic creators have ignored the crowdfunding platform's censorship problems.
IndieGoGo has a terrible history of de-platforming comic creators. First, the company removed Vox Day and Chuck Dixon’s Alt-Hero Q, then Jon Del Arroz, the author of this article, and now Cecil Jones from ComicsGate has been banned from the platform.
As a San Francisco-based company, IndieGoGo has always been one of the wokest of the woke. The first signs of problems occurred when a fellow who goes by Electric Dinosaur had his Rebel Yell Issue #2 removed from the platform without warning in 2019 after successful funding. IndieGoGo refused to deliver the funds, alleging a violation of “Trust And Safety.”
The same happened to Vox Day and Chuck Dixon with their Alt-Hero Q book, which raised well over $100,000. This led to an arbitration between backers and the company, which cost IndieGoGo a lot of money, and ended up settling with Vox Day for an undisclosed amount.
Jon Del Arroz was removed from the platform after a mentally ill man from Australia kept reporting his A High School Girl From The Crusades comic repeatedly, lying and claiming it was stealing his intellectual property. IndieGoGo would not respond or have a dialogue on the situation.
In more political moves, almost anyone openly associated with ComicsGate had their books completely shadowbanned and removed from the platform search and Google searches by the company. The only people who could use IndieGoGo could do so directly.
Despite all of this, Ethan Van Sciver and Jon Malin attacked creators who chose to use Kickstarter as a platform, claiming ComicsGate must boycott Kickstarter because Jon Malin was angry over Kickstarter declining Ya Boi Zack’s Jawbreakers: Lost Souls in 2017. Rumor has it the comic was denied because YBZ had several outstanding, unfulfilled projects, and unlike IndieGoGo’s actions, it wasn’t politically motivated.
The action hurt dozens of creators who couldn’t get ComicsGate support because of rabid sycophants of Van Sciver and Malin piling on people choosing to use Kickstarter as a platform. The two comic creators encouraged this and hurt many indie creators themselves in the process.
Now, ComicsGate is in a quandary, as Jon Malin’s cohost of his stream, Cecil Jones, has been banned from the platform again for violating some nebulous “trust and safety.”
“Censorship is in full effect at @Indiegogo. Cash Grab 2 has been booted from the site for "wrong think,” Cecil posted to X along with the screenshot.
As IndieGoGo has lagged behind Kickstarter and other platforms like BackerKit and Zoop in terms of functionality, many have abandoned it anyway. There is little natural “foot traffic” of comic customers looking for books on the site. This does, however, make many wonder what ComicsGate will do now to keep their backer base corralled.
What do you think of IndieGoGo canceling Cecil Jones from ComicsGate? Leave a comment and let us know.
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I backed a lot of books on IGG and I'm fine with using it if I like the creator but platforms like FMC are much better and there's always the D2C route with your website which is what any creator with any savy should be working towards.
I could probably write a book filled with what I DON'T know about crowdfunding. I was going to share my graphic novel on Arkhaven, then, when it's ready, launch campaigns on Fund My Comic, Kickstarter and IGG, possibly using Rippasend for fulfillment.
What I get from this article is that it might not be worth even doing business with IGG, even though I've backed campaigns there before. Sounds like a big enough headache and timesuck WITHOUT them pulling the plug because my GN doesn't adequately represent sexual deviancy or something.
Is Comicsgate a cult of short-sighted backstabbers? That's what it looks like based on this information.