Doug Tennapel won Crowd Funding, in a way I didn't think possible anymore.

Doug Tennapel won crowd funding when he finished and released his Earthworm Jim: Launch the Cow book last December. It's all over but the bad guys surrendering.

                 

This fact should be obvious to any clear-minded, third party, close follower of the movement if they decided to watch as many satisfied customers un-boxing videos on YouTube as I have.

                

I have happily watched so many videos of excited and surprised customers doing un-boxing videos on extremely small YouTube channels I have lost count of just how many I've seen. And they all have one thing in common, they are pleasantly surprised at the value they received.

Doug fulfilled this campaign, for a popular, iconic character quickly and early and then quietly surprised his fan base by over fulfilling on quality and value. I have literally not seen one unhappy backer.

I am a long and huge fan of Doug's work, so why am I surprised to now feel Doug has totally defeated the carpet baggers and usurpers of comicsgate and taken the undisputed position as the "King of Crowd Funding"? Because he did it in a way my cynical mind thought wouldn't work anymore: he did it by great customer service and by taking the high road.

For those of you who may not know Comicsgate and comic crowd funding as a whole started out as a movement for fans sick of a comic book industry that no longer respected the fans or the characters the big companies controlled.

Most of us involved were sick of seeing our beloved characters ruined and used for identity politics and propaganda and many of the creators we enjoyed being blacklisted because of politics or religion. We wanted the consumers to be in control of deciding via the marketplace what books would survive and what creators could or could not prosper instead of gate-keeping, establishment ideologues. That was how and why comicsgate came to be.

And it was good while it lasted but sadly the principals of the movement didn't stand long before they were corrupted by ignorant carpet baggers who still to this day don't understand the movements origins.

These bad elements swooped in, took over the movement at least in name only and promptly began to set themselves up as the new gate-keepers and the new establishment. Ironically, becoming the very thing the movement wanted to get away from.

But before it was completely obvious to everyone (but not too me for whatever reason I knew instantly what EVS was but nobody would listen to someone like me) Doug was lured into the movement.

Real comicsgate was created just for someone like Doug Tennapel. Doug was a talented, legendary creator with an incredible resume under his belt but because of his political and religious beliefs he had developed many fanitical detractors online and in much of the intolerant and liberal entertainment industry. Comicsgate should have been a natural and perfect fit for a creator like Doug Tennapel.

But something odd happened. Not long after Doug was invited into the movement "all the poisons that lurked in the mud" started to hatch out. Doug and other creators with like political and religious beliefs started to be attacked and ostracized just like they were in the main stream media.

Minions and apologists of Ethan Van Sciver (the aforementioned carpet bagger of comicsgate) along with the self-proclaimed Caesar himself created an online consumer harassment group called war campaign.

War campaign, in a nut shell, became a militant gay rights crusade against any Christian creator they considered unpure. If you didn't tow the line they declared you unpersoned and attacked you unrelentingly and any consumer who dared support you.

They did so by mindless trolling and with pornographic memes attacking creators and the average consumer alike.

                                            

So how did Doug deal with this when it happened to him and the like-minded creators who were his friends? He picked up his toys and his pencils and his ink bottle and just walked away. Sounds good right? So why when this happened did I the author of this piece fear he was making a huge mistake? The answer is simply, making such a move in the current culture war is usually the wrong move and usually not only hurts you personally but hurts the movement as a whole, and I was sure Doug probably didn't understand this by some of the past interactions I had with him.

Those past disagreements centered around the James Gunn controversy. The one where he relentlessly wanted Rosanne Barr blacklisted just because of her politics and then jumped on the bandwagon when she said something some thought controversial. He had no qualms seeing her deplatformed for nonsense. Then of course soon later it was Gunn's turn on the guillotine.

Under the reality of the culture war people who understand what is at stake and how the war needed to be waged knew Gunn needed canceling and should taste his own medicine.

But Doug, under the influence of wanting to take the high road defended Gunn and other certain animators who were under fire. I remember being disappointed Doug didn't seem to understand that the leftist enemies who sought to de-platform men with politics like Doug and myself would never stop until they realized they could be held to the same rules as everyone else.

I got into a minor Twitter/internet argument with him over this. I doubt Doug would remember it or even knew who I was, but it was this thought process that falsely lead me to believe that Doug was making a mistake and might pay a long term price conceding ground to the enemy. I assumed his best strategy in crowd funding would be to stand toe to toe and sock it out with his adversaries like I still fell is the best strategy in the culture war. But now looking back and seeing the undeniable results of his occupying the throne as the King of crowd funding has clearly proved me wrong.

Doug appears to have had a winning strategy for crowd funding that not only worked but should become the standard strategy for anyone with actual talent and great work ethic, that doesn't need a cult like following, to copy and adopt. It also is the best type of strategy to help inspire long term and real growth to crowd funded comic books.

First Doug pulled out of the anti-consumer mess of a movement that co-opted the term Comicsgate. He unequivocally washed his hands of it and walked away publicly. And more importantly when he did so, for the most part,  he didn't let himself be drawn into the public brawls with it anymore.

This one thing by its self began to shield him and his reputation from the constant bickering and harassment that has been causing so much customer fatigue.

Then he spent his time away from the unnecessary drama and used it wisely to make a deal for himself to finally get to work with his fan favorite and popular creation Earthworm Jim again. And of course he also used this time to put in actual real work and art and writing to make a quality product and make sure it came out on time. He spent time on his brand instead of just hoping to collect super chats.

He brought his fans along with him most of the way with daily live streams of his drawing and inking and keeping them updated on the projects status and still stayed out of the online bickering for the most part.

Then when it came time to full fill his crowd fund he didn't just take his backers money and run with it to the bank, he took much of it and invested it back into his business and reputation, and by that I mean he made each and every comic book that was bought the highest quality he could reasonably make it.

When backers received the product they realized they actually got more than they paid for and all of them seemed quite happy.

Doug stopped wading and fighting in the mud with the swine and spent his time and attention on the consumers who supported him, and they clearly love him for it. He created good will and good will should make returning costumers.

And watching all the extremely happy people open their orders and universally praise the product and the guy who made it is infinitely better for crowdfunding than any number of pornographic memes his competition can make.

Doug is the undisputed king of crowdfunding and long may he reign.

                                     Buy my Book: Moloch: A Fairy Tale for 99 cents