EDITORS NOTE: On Saturday, May 12th, 2018 Antarctic Press released a statement on Twitter claiming that they were not pressured into dropping Jawbreakers: Lost Souls by industry professionals. However, they offered no explanation as to why they decided to drop the book less than 48 hours after announcing it’s September release date. 

Earlier today I wrote that progressive comic book professionals were trying to stop the release of Jawbreakers: Lost Souls by Richard Meyer after the INDIEGOGO project surpassed $200,000 yesterday on their final day. Two days after Publisher Antarctic Press announced they planned on releasing the book in September, the publisher has succumbed to relentless pressure from progressives in the industry.

In a release on Facebook posted just hours ago, Antarctic Press gave this statement

After careful consideration, it is the decision of Antarctic Press to not release the comic series Jawbreakers.

Antarctic Press is a staunch believer in Creator’s Rights and giving creators a chance to showcase their creation and allowing that creation to be judged on its merits.

Many forces, many of them should be viewed with great trepidation about how our society acts, have led us to this decision. We do not take this decision lightly as we do believe that there should be separation between “ART” and the “ARTIST” and that separation has been blurred in our decision.

After this news broke, Diversity and Comics gave his own side of the story on Youtube. Myers claims that his political enemies namely Marvel writer Mark Waid, Marvel writer Magdalene Visaggio, Freelancer artist Tim Doyle, and Image Comics Michelle Perez amogst others threatened and demanded that the publisher refuse to release his book so it could not be released to the public. Waid was apparently the biggest force behind getting AP to back off the project. After relentlessly contacting the publishers with claims that the #comicsgate community had doxxed store owners who refused to sell the comic at their stores, Waid posted this message on Facebook,

Waid’s claims that people’s PERSONAL information was being given out online were not founded with any evidence to support the claim but the massive amount of negative reaction from the progressive wing of the comic industry was too much for the indy publisher to handle. Others in the industry have cited a hit piece from The Daily Beast that smears the #comicsgate community as Alt-right, which is a common smear that progressives use to attack anyone who doesn’t align with them politically. It is worth noting that piece even smears Ethan Van Sciver popular DC Comic book artist of Green Lantern as a Nazi because he’s openly conservative. 

So where does this leave Jawbreakers: Lost Souls after all the support they received from fans around the world? Myers says that he is starting a comic book company independently and will release the work himself. The question going forward is, where does this leave the comic book industry going forward. Ever since Progressives have taken over the reigns of major comic book publishers like Marvel and Image, sales have greatly fallen. Fans are upset at the quality of the books they are reading. Over 50 comic book stores have closed in just the last calendar year alone and now you have the same forces who are destroying the industry trying to prevent people from the opposite side of the political aisle from getting in.

Make no mistake after nearly a quarter of a million dollars was invested by eager fans just to be told by an industry that despises them that they cannot get the book they desire, a book that has nothing to do with politics but the industry hates who is writing it, there will be a severe backlash. Fans who were already fed up with the way the industry has gone will be given even more motivation to fight back against gatekeeping progressives. If you thought that YellowFlash’s boycott list was too harsh before, the industry has just kicked down the doors for a blackout.

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