Megaton Man vs Kickstarter

How the Man of Molecules Brought the Industry to its Senses (or was it Yarn Man?)

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All right, so at best this was a TKO. The ref called it in the first round. And we may never know the full story of how or why the Mightiest Crowdfunding Platform in Comics came to reverse its implacable decision, but it was pretty clear it was a no-brainer all along. Even to an impartial observer—me.

A self-pitying cartoon I can no longer use—guess I’ll just have to tear it up and throw it away now!

I built the pages for the campaign for Megaton Man: Multimensions with Cosmic Lion Productions publisher Eli Schwab, who has launched several successful Kickstarter campaigns for such projects as Big Big Bang and Giant-Size ‘63 (to name just two that I happen to have single pages in). As I wrote my snarky set of FAQs (example: “Who in the heck is Don Simpson?”)—which is, in fact, a frequently asked question—

— I decided to add one that humble-brag boasted of our international roster of talent:

Restored FAQ with the addition of Joaquín Pereyra (Argentina), who colored Scott Lost’s Second Shift crossover with my X-Amount of Heroes.

I thought it would be nice touch to show that no less than three continents and both global hemispheres (I’m not a geographer, so you can argue whether Eurasia is one landmass or not—let alone whether the British Isles is part of it) were involved in Megaton Man: Multimensions, since indeed they were.

The contributor from Iran, in fact, was finishing the coloring in Teheran on his Meddler collaboration with Dan Shahin over the holidays when I inquired about delivery of the final files. The hold-up at the time seemed to be the possibility that Israeli bombs might come raining down on his drawing board without notice—such is the world we live in these days.

Milo Trent, I have since learned from Dan (I was probably told this five times before—I’m very dense), actually hails from British Columbia, Canada, but has resided in that Nation-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named for some thirty years. I don’t know Milo’s politics, religion, or even ethnicity—but I do know he professes to love American comics and our once-open Western society. And he draws the most hysterical Yarn Man I’ve ever seen (and I created the character)!

Every time I look at this drawing it breaks me up. Still! From Megaton Man: Multimensions.

How did a cartoonist with a weakness for a fluffy pseudo-Muppet made of wool run afoul of Kickstarter, threatening to derail a 214-page anthology by some sixty contributors? Did somebody upstairs (more likely, sitting in a Brooklyn cafe with a laptop and ear buds) think the “Y” was some kind of secret code being smuggled to and fro across the Iron Curtain? Holy Berlin Wall, Batman!

By the way, Milo’s is far from the only rendition of Bing Gloom (a.k.a. Yarn Man) in Megaton Man: Multimensions. To wit:

Kate Workman’s crochet Yarn Man, photos by Amanda Stella Powers. From Megaton Man: Multimensions.

Robert A. Kraus’s Evil Snowlady boots Bing Gloom. From Megaton Man: Multimensions.

Pencils by Steve Stegelin, Charleston City Paper’s resident cartoonist, who speculates a megavillain could be elected president—thank God that could never happen!! From Megaton Man: Multimensions.

As Eli put it, “Our biggest fault was being proud of our diverse, world-spanning creative team.” But really, the mistake was all mine.

I ran for cover …

Having caught the naughty word in the tentacles of its algorithim, Kickstarter apparently had no choice but to reject Megaton Man: Multimensions—despite the fact that transactions with Iran seem to be a one-way street—cartooning comes out, but nobody’s figured out how to pay the guy the measly wages we promised (if and only if the campaign funds).

The whole situation heading into Easter weekend was such a monumental insult to my intelligence that I just couldn’t keep my mouth shut. I fired off an angry email to the Lead Outreach, Comics at the platform, and proceeded to spam all available social media.

I don’t know whether it was the negative publicity generated by Rich Johnston at Bleeding Cool, the behind-the-scenes efforts of Jeff Trexler at the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, or just the Powers-That-Be at Kickstarter having their socks charmed off by these pictures of Yarn Man (I kinda think it was the latter), but evidently they changed their minds.

Late Monday night, a remarkable thing happened: Megaton Man: Multimensions was approved by Kickstarter.

Now, as a cause a cause célèbre, Megaton Man: Multimensions may not rank with the persecution of journalists (even here in the United States these days, for Christ’s sakes) or the censorship of authors under brutal dictatorships. In our humble case, the matter was pretty much an algorithm glitch that caught “four innocuous pages” (as Rich Johnston phrased it) by an artist who happens to love American comics and who, for whatever reason, lives abroad, and held fifty-nine others temporarily hostage.

It’s a free world, isn’t it? (I thought I heard Freddie Mercury sing so, at least.)

But it is genuinely uplifting to see a crowdfunding platform reverse course—no harm, no foul, water under the bridge—on a decision that simply had no basis in fact or law or common sense.

They even made it a “Project we love”—but I bet they say that to all the legacy IP from the 1980s!

In any case, I could never have dreamt up a publicity stunt like this.

Suffice it to say, Yarn Man lives to box with his big, red mittens for another day!

More Yarn Man renditions from Megaton Man: Multimensions:

Not to be outdone is Meesimo, a.k.a. Christian J. Meesey. From Megaton Man: Multimensions.

Steve Whisler Jr. and Milton Knight Jr., colored by Amanda Stella Powers. From Megaton Man: Multimensions.

A cosplayer faces Section 12 and Red Rock by Len Mihalovich (script), Phil Miller (art), Bruna Costa (colors), and Ted Sikora (letters). From Megaton Man: Multimensions.