Earlier this week, Kickstarter banned a new Megaton Man project from comic creator Don Simpson apparently because of the involvement of an Iranian national who was doing some of the art duties. Now, they’ve reinstated the project.
Kickstarter has become increasingly hostile to creators in recent years, as they’ve banned a lot of creators under nebulous circumstances, refusing even to state why they’ve engaged in such activities.
Don Simpson, long-time independent creator, announced that Kickstarter declined his project. Unlike many creators, this didn’t result in a full ban, but just the project being declined allegedly because an Iranian national was involved in four pages of the art on the project.
Simpson gave an update on his Substack that the project has been reinstated, saying, “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.”
He continued talking about the Iranian artist, saying, “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)!”
He concluded the blog praising Kickstarter, saying, “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.”
He also posits that Rich Johnston of Bleeding Cool championing his cause might have been a reason for his unbanning to occur, showing that the industry cares about some people getting banned but not others solely based on political clout.
Kickstarter actually responded giving the book a “Projects We Love” tag, giving it special promotion. However, Kickstarter still persecutes different creators for their political affiliations, something that Simpson in his praising of them fails to mention.
All it goes to show in this instance is that Simpson carries the “correct” politics that Kickstarter is happy to promote. They do harass creators regularly over such matters with several projects being banned simply because of who a creator is, and not because of anything objectionable in the art.
Until Kickstarter stops with these double standards, they have a massive problem on their hands and creators should avoid the platform, even the Don Simpsons of the world who are of the “proper politics” to get reinstated by the platform.
What do you think of Kickstarter reinstating Megaton Man? Leave a comment and let us know.
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I'm glad Simpson was reinstated. The whole thing was stupid.