Independent comics

Comicsgate

a book, and the people who make them

Ethan Van Sciver drawn as a World War One flying ace, goggles up, in the cockpit of a red biplane with kill marks painted along the fuselage and an enemy machine going down trailing smoke behind him

The comicbook industry got handed to people who did not much like comic books, and a crowd of us went off and made our own independently. That is the whole of it. No permission, no committee, no note from marketing about who the reader is supposed to be this year — you draw the thing, you print the thing, and whoever wants it buys it from you direct.

The WWI aviator ace wearing the goggles in that featured painting is Ethan Van Sciver. He is one of the ones who went first, and he took a fair bit of fire for it, so I drew him the way it looked from where I was standing. Kill marks down the side of the fuselage. That is not a metaphor I am especially proud of, but it is accurate.

What I like about this end of the independent media spectrum is that nobody is pretending. The people in these drawings put their own names and their own money on their work, and when one of them is wrong about something the rest say so out loud, usually at length, and usually on air. It is not a polite business. It is an honest one.

This page represents some of my own personal commentary on the people and projects of Comicsgate that appear in my work... so far.

Detractors 25 pages

Front to back, the whole thing. An ice cream launch, a warehouse full of three-D printed ingredients, and the detractors turning up to ambush it — which is where the title comes from, and I am not apologising for that either.

Title card, yellow type on a starfield: A long time ago, in a warehouse district far, far away....

link to image

1 of 28

Drag a page down to crank it on, up to wind it back. Hold one to see it full size. The arrows and the arrow keys work too.

On the board 26

The same pages before they were pages — taped down, inked over the pencils, and spread across the desk.

DetractorsScreenplay

D Tractor, page 12 inks — Ethan and Clippa

D Tractor, page 15 inks — the crowd talks

D Tractor, page 16 inks — your biggest problem

D Tractor, page 16 painted — the critique

D Tractor, page 20 inks — who's got powder?

D Tractor, five pages on the table

D Tractor, the turtles, three designs

D Tractor, page 8 painted — the vox pops

D Tractor, page 10 painted

D Tractor, pages 11 and 12 on the board

D Tractor, page 18 painted — the bite

D Tractor, page 18 painted — Mersh

D Tractor, Dick and Vito, the design

D Tractor, page 4 inks — calling Ethan

D Tractor, page 5 inks — pull up, air out

D Tractor, page 3 — Gary in close-up

D Tractor, page 3 on the board

D Tractor, page 5 painted — Eric

D Tractor, page 6 inks — the nitrogen line

D Tractor, page 10 inks — two parking spots

D Tractor, page 11 inks, and a Terada book

D Tractor, page 15 inks — we will win

D Tractor, page 21 in pencil — the minigun

D Tractor, page 23 inks — the arrest

D Tractor, Mint Salad in pencil

D Tractor, page 14 inks — the Mange

Covers 12

Covers, front of the book.

Cartoons, Comics, ROTC — cartoon by Ray Patrick

Comics, Comicsgate — cartoon by Ray Patrick

Cartoons, Comics, Comicsgate — cartoon by Ray Patrick

Comics, Superkillers, Comicsgate — watercolor cartoon by Ray Patrick

Comics, Comicsgate — watercolor cartoon by Ray Patrick

Superkillers 18

Superkillers.

The Maniak 6

The Maniak, written by Johnny Rocket, who also writes Superkillers.

Eric DeWayne July 19

Here because the drawing is comicsgate. The rest are on their own page.

Cartoons, Comicsgate, Eric July — ink cartoon by Ray Patrick

Cartoons, Comicsgate, Vito — cartoon by Ray Patrick

Comicsgate, Eric July — watercolor painting by Ray Patrick

Cartoons, BPITU, Comicsgate — ink cartoon by Ray Patrick

Cartoons, Comicsgate, Clippa — ink cartoon by Ray Patrick

Cartoons, Comicsgate, Vito — ink cartoon by Ray Patrick

Comicsgate, Eric July — picture by Ray Patrick

Cartoons, Comicsgate, Eric July — cartoon by Ray Patrick

Clippa 10

Here because the drawing is comicsgate. The rest are on their own page.

Comicsgate, Clippa, Mint Salad — picture by Ray Patrick

Comicsgate, Clippa — picture by Ray Patrick

Mint Salad 2

Here because the drawing is comicsgate. The rest are on their own page.

Comicsgate, Mint Salad, MANGE DAVIS — picture by Ray Patrick

Comicsgate, MANGE DAVIS, Mint Salad — picture by Ray Patrick

Vito 5

Here because the drawing is comicsgate. The rest are on their own page.

Comicsgate, Vito — picture by Ray Patrick

Comicsgate, Dick Masterson, Vito — picture by Ray Patrick

Dick Masterson 2

Here because the drawing is comicsgate. The rest are on their own page.

Comicsgate, BPITU, Dick Masterson — picture by Ray Patrick

Comicsgate, Dick Masterson — picture by Ray Patrick

MANGE DAVIS 2

Here because the drawing is comicsgate.

Comicsgate, MANGE DAVIS — picture by Ray Patrick

ASIAN O THE TIME OUTLAW 3

Here because the drawing is comicsgate.

Portraits, Comicsgate, ASIAN O THE TIME OUTLAW — watercolor painting by Ray Patrick

FROG TONY 3

Here because the drawing is comicsgate. The rest are on their own page.

Cartoons, Comicsgate, FROG TONY — ink cartoon by Ray Patrick

EVS 2

Here because the drawing is comicsgate.

Comicsgate, EVS — picture by Ray Patrick

ANNA TSWG 1

Here because the drawing is comicsgate.

D Tractor, page 17 painted — the Channel 6 crew

Nick Rekieta 1

Here because the drawing is comicsgate.

Comicsgate, Nick Rekieta — picture by Ray Patrick

The shows these people turn up on are on the podcasts page. Mersh is on his own page, the strip is Pussy Wrangler, the city is Kitty City, and the books are on the stories page. More cartoons in rayraytoons, the paintings in the gallery.