Various comic book projects have been rejected by Kickstarter over the last two years, resulting in the division losing tons of revenue and contributing to the overall downturn in performance with a 35% year-over-year drop for the company in 2020 compared to 2019. Well, the person responsible for the comic book gatekeeping, Camilla Zhang, has been laid off.
Ethan Van Sciver’s ComicArtisPro Secrets account captured the news as it was spread around on May 11th, 2020.
KICKSTARTER’s Comics Outreach Lead CAMILLA ZHANG Laid Off https://t.co/w4FeHvQNBd via @Newsarama
CAN’T
STOP
WINNING
— ComicArtistPro Secrets (@EthanVanSciver) May 11, 2020
The link leads to a Newsrama article about how Camilla Zhang was one of the 40% of staff laid off at Kickstarter to compensate for the massive revenue drop the company experienced over the last year.
Zhang, herself, posted a tweet on her Candor Cam Twitter account with an open letter to the community about her departure from the crowdfunding service.
My last wk @Kickstarter. It’s been an honor & joy 2 have served the comics community as an outreach lead, & I’ll continue to do so on my own, offering free advice via https://t.co/79hnRn2TnL
In the meantime, here is my love letter to creators & my colleagues at @ksr_united pic.twitter.com/GDtBUpHaE9— Candor Cam (@illathekilla) May 11, 2020
After two years with Kickstarter her tenure has been brought to a close as the Comics Outreach Lead.
Unfortunately, Zhang won’t be leaving the comic book industry entirely.
In her letter to the community she explained…
“[…] I am very excited to see the remaining Bargaining Unit members win their very first contract. I only wish that I could be there to help make it happen. In the next few months, I will be sitting on the sidelines of Kickstarter United, however, I will not remain a stranger to the comics community. I’ll be taking a few months to focus on my novel and graphic novel, but I’ll also be starting my own newsletter where I’ll offer free crowdfunding education. My hope is that I can continue to help creators by lowering the barrier to entry. I’m working on setting up a Patreon page as well so I can share my own creative work. I will eventually be available for consulting, so please stay tuned!”
The good part is that most #ComicsGate supporters simply need to avoid anything Zhang is associated with to steer clear of any agendas or politics.
As pointed out by Clownfish TV back in march, Kickstarter had been putting politics before profits by having someone like Zhang over the comic book division.
Various projects were stopped in their tracks or prevented from going live on the platform that didn’t align with the crowdfunding company’s sociopolitical agenda. Hence, why books like Lonestar were canned because the hero was fighting against MS-13 and Kickstarter found that to be discriminatory.
The real question is if Kickstarter will replace Zhang with another Social Justice Warrior or if they will attempt to get back on track to actually generating revenue by hiring someone who isn’t tinged by the Liberal Progressive disease?
(Thanks for the news tips Reina Todoroki and Clownfish TV)
