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.
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