Explaining Comicsgate to someone not familiar with it, is a challenge.
Succinctly Comicsgate is a YouTube centered affiliation of comic book artists and fans, who crowdfund comic books, and spend a lot of time, livestreaming on YouTube. The fans who watch these YouTube videos spend a lot of time being upset, over comic books.
The central figure of Comicsgate is Ethan Van Sciver, a former comic book artist for Marvel and DC Comics books. A sampling of comments and chats from Ethan's YouTube shows - reveal an audience, who like to watch the "enemies" of Comicsgate get mocked and ridiculed in the livestream content, and Comicsgate makes a lot of enemies.
Let's pause for a moment. If this is the first time you've heard about Comicsgate, you are probably thinking did Edwin just say comic book YouTubers have enemies? That sounds ridiculous, it's comic books. Perhaps the important realization is that the fans, of Comicsgate YouTubers genuinely believe they have enemies.
The side affect of this is that the audience for Comicsgate has become filtered for negative and irrational personalities.
Patrick Thomas Parnell, a self publisher of comic books and a toy maker, was formerly associated with Comicsgate.
A few years ago Patrick had a falling out with Van Sciver and some of the other Comicsgate personalities, so he was proclaimed an enemy of Comicsgate, and YouTube content was focused on explaining his particular "villainy'.
One of Van Sciver's YouTube fans, and a large and frequent spender is an individual named "Pranvat Gulati". Some of his spending on one of Van Sciver's recent YouTube channel "Comic Artist Pro Secrets."
Recently on her Instagram Account, Patrick's wife posted a picture of herself in the hospital with their newborn child. Van Sciver's fan Pranvat went into post and asked "Patrick's or Dales?". If that's not clear, Pranvat was asking if the child was fathered by someone other than her husband. Comicsgate fans appear to believe it's rational behavior to stalk, harass, and attempt to cause distress to the "enemies" of their favorite YouTubers.
This example jumped out at me because, Pranvat had attempted to contact me on Twitter. I assumed he was a random obsessive Comicsgate fan, and just blocked him and went on my way,
For some context our family experience a housefire two years ago. It was a tragedy, and we continue to grieve - I'm not asking for sympathy here - but rather using the interaction as an exampled of disordered behavior. Pranvat appears to be asking if I set the fire, along with some insults, with a misguided attempt to cause distress, because I have criticized the object of fandom, Ethan Van Sciver. Observers of Comicsgate and Ethan, have seen this pattern repeat. In a video posted earlier this year, Van Sciver made a retraction of statements the he had made about another comic book publisher Preston Poulter. The settlement with Poulter, appeared to also require Van Sciver to exhort his audience to "immediately cease and desist all "deep dive" or other research into Preston Poulter's background or personal life."
The video can be viewed at:
A neutral observer might conclude that the purpose of Comicsgate appears to be encourage harassment and monetize it through YouTube and other mediums.
This post can be viewed in video form at:
https://x.com/GentlemanRural/status/1896655443545735330
