Who Is This Cecil Guy

Notation: When the guy I’m talking about has a YouTube channel that specifically says is adult content and has “dick” in his Twitter handle and on his avatar, maybe don’t let the kids into this one. I’m expecting bad language and other questionable content within YouTube limits. Watch at your risk.

The comics world is as volatile lately as the worlds those comics tend to portray. I use stay out of the drama because I’m all about the end result. I will call things and people out from time to time but this is about the art of storytelling. I even have an article series under that name. However, I have also used this website to go over information that tends to be lacking, things forgotten or not explored, if only to satisfy my own curiosity. Sing Me A Story has been used for that multiple times. So the question I wanted to answer is “who is this Cecil guy and why did comics Twitter have a rage fest when he got a variant cover?”.

For those of you not following the backstage drama Dynamite Comics still follows the variant cover nonsense, only now they’ve gone to crowdfunding via Indiegogo. My dislike of the variant cover gimmick outside of special occasions (say, a convention exclusive) is well known. This one in particular is what outraged certain comic creators, but at no point has any article I’ve read explained where the hate comes from. At first I thought it was the artist, since that’s a growing trend right now. Hate the man’s politics, make sure he can’t even flip burgers at Dairy Queen much less work at comics. This has kind of backfired as these blacklisted creators, usually conservative or “not liberal enough”, have used the opportunity to crowdfund passion projects and these backlashes have led to supporters who probably wouldn’t have cared about the comic but just want to push back against cancel culture or support Comicsgate, a movement all about promoting storytelling over what they see as political propaganda. Even the more liberal commentators I follow either support or are open members of the movement, while others stay out of the fight altogether and are penalized for it by the anti-Comicsgate movement, like Alterna Comics. I personally don’t join movements because movements have a nasty habit of being corrupted or not going away even if they succeed.

However, none of the article have really explained what the hate is for this guy. He must be a pretty popular YouTube creator to have his own cover and have the likes of Kwanza Osajyefo, a VERY politically motivated writer, wanting to kill this cover. The thing is I don’t know every celebrity on YouTube. I can watch a Fine Brothers’ YouTubers React episode and not know who any of them are, or at best know two of them. I watch Disney XD’s Players Select, which started doing stupid things this season, and I only know Markiplyer or Jack Septiceye (and I don’t even know if I spelled those right) because they’ve been mentioned on shows I do follow. So I really wanted to know who this Cecil is and why he is so loathed. I’ve chosen a few random videos based on the name and maybe we’ll come up with an answer.

This is the video from his unsubscribed main page. In other words if you aren’t subscribed to the channel this is how he’s selling himself to get you to sub.

Again, this is supposed to get you to subscribe to his channel. Talking Heads’ “Psycho Killer” with random clips from Star Wars commentator That Star Wars Girl (who also made a variant cover for one of Dynamite’s other comics, also crowdfunded which feels like a misuse of crowdfunding but remember I hate variant covers) while wearing the kind of mask Hollywood thinks bank robbers wear. This is how he promotes his channel. This is completely stupid granted but I’m not getting where the hate comes from. Let’s try a random video. Dude’s got livestreams between one and seven plus hours long but there are videos in there.

I’ve seen liberals who found the New Warriors insulting to the very groups they’re trying to represent so let’s just all agree this wasn’t even funny. Just Some Guy posting random videos of people laughing at the reveals was funnier. So does being unfunny qualify him to lose his cover? What about this one?

It appears to be an ad for a comic he’s crowdfunding. Again, all I’m seeing is that it isn’t funny to me and kind of stupid. Well, there are I think some actual reviews among the livestreams, and I’m guessing this costume is just what he wears in those podcasts because I haven’t seen them anywhere else.

Okay, I see why Simone doesn’t like him. You can complain about someone’s work and do negative critique without being nasty about it. I could see if she was giving answers he thought were terrible and called her out on it (some of the ones I see even made good points) but this is just riffing for the sake of trashing. One thing I try to do with Jake & Leon is to have a point I’m trying to make, not simply to trash someone. In fact I’ve actually stopped myself from writing strips that turned out to be just that. Even Black Lantern Johnny DC had a point.

Let’s see, some terrible audio recordings of some group called RayGay in concert, more livestreams, discussing a Todd Phillips movie prior to Joker that I’m not comfortable bringing up even with the warning at the top of this article, oh, here’s one from the announcement that Robert Pattison would be playing Batman.

Well, that was worth the warning. So….bunch of videos about Rose Tico being left off of Chinese movie posters for The Last Jedi according to the titles…like five or six. Come on, I’m trying to find the major controversy that set Kwanza crazy. Okay, last chance. I have a deadline. Ah, Ghostbusters Afterlife trailer. Certainly he’ll say really sexist stuff about the 2016 movie or something.

I haven’t even finished the video and I’m ready to pronounce sentence. This wasn’t even all that interesting. It’s just Cecil rambling about stuff so much that he had to go back and rewatch stuff. How is that interesting? What am I missing here, fans of this guy’s stuff? Heck, what am I missing ENEMIES of this cover? Maybe it’s the people on his livestreams, something he does on Twitter, or something else, because while I found a reason for Gail Simone to be upset (she took a few days to finally make a statement, that she was going to work for Dynamite anymore because they made the cover, while Evan Van Schiver made the same pronouncement after they canceled it and put out a huge apology on Twitter–it all comes back to Twitter, doesn’t it?) I don’t know why Kwanza had a meltdown. I didn’t see any major attacks against him from Cecil. What would he do if Just Some Guy had a variant cover, go into cardiac arrest?

Basically I’m questioning everybody here. I don’t know why he has enough fans that Dynamite thought a variant cover would get them some extra cash because I find him kind of annoying. On the other hand I don’t understand why such blood-demanding hate came out from him because I’ve seen more hate-able (from their perspective anyway) commentaries elsewhere in the comic commentator community. So, maybe it’s me but I don’t anything in this controversy. It’s nice artwork I guess but otherwise I am so neutral I’m confused. Can some explain…any point of view on this?