Ethan Van Sciver

Hello, I am a new member here, but I've been in comics for most of my life.

I'm Ethan Van Sciver, former artist at Marvel and DC Comics, with credits on New X-Men, Green Lantern, Flash, and lots of other titles.

I'm now an indie comics creator again, with my crowdfunded comic CYBERFROG.  People consider me to be controversial, I realize that.  I'm hoping to enjoy this message board, follow the rules, and maybe get a few people to try my new comics.

Thank you!

Clownfish TV just published this video.  More food for thought.  

I had a source telling me that DC and Jim Lee were being told to get character bibles together for the whole universe two years ago.  But I haven't heard anything new since, so take this with a grain of salt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6O4ipCt7So&t=2s&ab_channel=ClownfishTV

On 9/6/2022 at 7:54 AM, CGC Mike said:

I did call him out specifically, and informed him that politics were not allowed here.  If he continues to do so, I can assure you that action will be taken.

I abide by the rules of the forum, once I understand them.

On 9/4/2022 at 7:55 PM, Ryan. said:

Tell me more about this. 

Sure.  Either everyone gets to spout toxic political mess on social media or nobody does.

And yet...

On 9/4/2022 at 3:06 PM, Buzzetta said:

I doubt it’s actually Van Sciver.  It’s one of his “fans”.  @Ethan Van Sciver if it is you, feel free to announce to the world that you joined the boards by announcing it on your Twitter feed.  
 

Then maybe I’ll take this account seriously. 

Why wouldn't this be me?  I'm very active on social media.

Go check my Twitter.

On 9/4/2022 at 3:00 PM, Cat said:

You're being extremely disengenuous by putting it down to you 'being an entertainer'. That's a cop-out answer, and you know it. Who were you entertaining when you told your own fan to kill himself, even after he'd begged you not to because his ?brother? had committed suicide recently.

Who are you entertaining by taking a cel of incels and catering to their fantasies, empowering them to do harm in their own lives in how they treat specific people, specifically competitors of yours, people who have have bad mouthed you. 

"KYS" is internet slang.  Its the same thing as "Go jump off a bridge".  It isn't a demand for suicide, and everyone knows it.  That is, everyone knew it until they decided to pretend to NOT know it, in order to get me into trouble.

He wasn't a fan, he was a hater who was joining a mob against me on Facebook over the fact that I voted in 2016 and was happy with the results.

You're calling my fans and supporters "incels."  That's ridiculous hypocrisy.  They're comic book fans and supporters of my work. I can't take you seriously.

On 9/4/2022 at 2:19 PM, Lazyboy said:

When you get banned, it will be because you broke the rules with the inevitable ridiculous political rant.

By the way, if you don't like social justice in comics, you should have abandoned comics about 84 years ago.

That'll be up to the moderators of this board.

I don't mind any political stance in comics. Everyone should be able to speak their mind without consequence in this business and in this hobby.  It's not that social justice exists, it's that ONLY social justice exists, because activists use mob tactics to silence other viewpoints with Cancel Culture.

On 9/4/2022 at 2:16 PM, jdandns said:

These complaints seem to have to do almost exclusively with DC and Marvel superhero comics.

If that's one's entire prism of viewing what comics are, they are and have been sorely missing out. 

I like the old superhero comics of my youth well enough to have kept them all this time, but that's not where the good stuff is where comics are concerned, and hasn't been for a long time, well before people got waked, or wooked, or warked, or whatever nonsense word is being used this week. 

For the companies who specialize in that stuff, it's totally understandable they'd want to expand their audiences by putting different kinds of people in them. It's marketing, and in some cases, it's led to better stories, but the bar has been low for superheroes anyway, so putting a girl where there used to be a guy here and there certainly doesn't make them any worse, on average. The scale for DC and Marvel is much bigger than Van Sciver's and they therefore need a way bigger audience than his. Ethan gets by (apparently quite well) with a bunch of 35 to 40 year old dudes buying a bunch of non-comics stuff from him in between the seldom published actual comic books, which, while very well drawn, read like mid's 90's Image comics. That won't work for Marvel or DC. Whether they are correct in their assessment or not, they feel they can sell more comics to a wider section of the public who want more modern stories with characters that look like them. 

Ethan says he's got the inside stuff on creators who high-five him in secret, and that there are plenty of them. I'm surprised he accepts those accolades from people who won't do what he's done which is tell the truth about what he thinks, and strive on in the business he loves on the sheer strength of his own personality and undeniable talent for drawing. You're complaining about the wrong people. Make some comics about those two-faced cowards, sir. I'd read those. If they all did what you did, maybe things would be different in the superhero comics industry. 

In the meantime, middle-aged men picking on various people because Superman and Spidey aren't exactly the way they were when we were 12 just strikes me as a waste of energy, especially for the talented.

I don't encourage other professionals to join ComicsGate because it's a tough road.  Everyone has to make a living and not everyone knows what to do with this kind of freedom.   

Many still join us anyhow.  Dale Keown, Shane Davis, Ken Rocafort, many others...they're all doing just fine with our club, and they're enjoying their newfound freedom.  I think they're all making more money, too.

CYBERFROG is great fun.  I just want to make the ultimate graphic novel, offered in 100 page installments every year or so.  It's working pretty well, and I own it all.  To think that I worked for 20 years and can't reprint any of my own work...That's work for hire.

I don't want to fight with the board members here.  I wish you all well.

EVS