Marvel Artist Attempts To Get Rippaverse Colorist Gabe Eltaeb Banned From All Future Comic-Con Events
It’s no secret the success of Eric “Rippa” July’s Isom #1 campaign has upset a lot of professionals in the mainstream comic book industry. With more than $3.2 Million raised for his first comic, Rippa has exceeded what most Marvel and DC employees will make in their lifetimes.
Now, Marvel Artist Mark Brooks has put forth a plea on Twitter to ban Isom #1’s colorist Gabe Eltaeb from future San Diego Comic-Con events.
Mark Brooks is an artist relegated to work on a few covers over recent years, with 3-D renderings not suited to sequential production work at a reasonable pace. He has spent countless hours tweeting about his hate for independent creators in the ComicsGate, libeling the group “Alt-Right Conmen” for their brave act of telling mainstream publishing they won’t submit to the woke agenda in their books.
Brooks has spent the last year and a half harassing ComicsGate creators, including Cyberfrog creator Ethan Van Sciver regarding whom he has made many passive-aggressive tweets. Brooks once claimed to his audience, “He needs you until you’re used up and then he’ll either discard you or turn on you. Mark my words, that day is coming.”
“I know Ethan and his lackeys have tried to convince you I’m some boogeyman out to destroy comics. The Truth is that it’s Ethan trying to do that,” he added.
He has also tweeted lambasting a Dale Keown-drawn Cyberfrog: Rekt Planet cover as having “no focus,” stating, “It’s over rendered within an inch of its life, and I can’t tell you what the hell is going on.”
This drew criticism from fans and other professionals who pointed out that it’s Brooks’ art that has no focal point in his work.
Hundreds of people have commented on Brooks’ bizarre obsession with #ComicsGate, but in his multi-tweet rant against Gabe Eltaeb, the Marvel artist acts as if he were attacked out of the blue. He also unfoundedly implies that Eltaeb is not only dangerous but a potential violent threat.
In the nearly 800-word rant Mark Brooks paints himself as a victim, neglecting to state how he has poked and prodded at #ComicsGate creators, even small creators like Lord Finatra, a musician with just over 500 subscribers on YouTube, who has been talking about making a raunchy parody book of Cyberfrog called “RoboChode.”
Brooks threatened to copyright the RoboChode property in a Discord message. He stated to Finatra, “You weren’t very smart about RoboChode… For $187 I copyrighted the name and image within 20 minutes.” While harassing Finatra, Brooks gaslighted the YouTuber even further as he claimed to have offered a helping hand.
With Eltaeb, Brooks reacted to an image the Truth, Justice, and the American Way creator posted where he can be seen posing in front of Brooks’ shared booth at SDCC while Brooks was not there. At the time Eltaeb wrote, “Couldn’t find little Marky. Maybe tomorrow ???” including the #comicsgate and sharing the respective photo of the booth.
Brooks took this as a threat and claimed he contacted security at the event.
Why he assumed a long-time industry professional stopping by to say hello constituted a threat is unclear. Some fans have noticed that Mark Brooks is Caucasian and Eltaeb is Hispanic, so some level of racial bias may be in play.
Brooks further ranted stating, “I’m hoping this is the end of it but I also worry about future convention appearances. This person doesn’t seem stable. If he is attending a convention as an attendee or guest, I won’t be there.”
This statement marks an implicit threat that San Diego Comic-Con must either ban the long-time industry professional — with no history of violence — from attending or Mark Brooks will try to harm their event.
He didn’t stop in his attempt to harass Eltaeb out of conventions, though, further stating he is extending the same threat to all conventions he attends.
“I am alerting all my convention contacts that this will be the case from now on. If this person has harassed or sought to intimidate you, I advise you do the same. And document EVERYTHING,” Brooks would go on to declare.
Conservative creators like Eltaeb have to deal with this kind of harassment regularly because they’ve taken a stand politically against a mob — very much alive within the industry — that wants all dissent to be destroyed. With Rippa and ComicsGate making so much more money in their campaigns than these artists make from Marvel/DC, it’s become an embarrassment to mainstream publishing, causing artists like Brooks to lash out with unhinged statements.
We’ve seen similar attempts in the past with conventions bothering creators such as Richard C. Meyer, Mike S. Miller, and Larry Correia, among others.
Conventions must stand strong against the bullying of creatives because of their religion or political affiliation. There is no place in conventions for harassers like Brooks who can’t handle being in the same space as other Americans believe and vote differently than they do. Comics are for everyone.
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