Comic Book author Mike S. Miller has had the crowdfunding campaign for his latest work Lonestar rejected by Kickstarter after Kickstarter alleged that his listing discriminated against “marginalized” groups. The comic book depicts the violent MS-13 transnational gang, the members of which are mostly Central American.
On Twitter, Miller announced the Kickstarter rejection and shared the message he received from Kickstarter, a crowdfunding company located in Brooklyn, New York.
https://twitter.com/AbacusMike/status/1179449294312468480
“Thanks for sharing your project with us. We’ve carefully reviewed it against our Rules, and we’re unable to approve it to launch,” Kickstarter’s message said. “As a Public Benefit Corporation committed to fighting inequality and creating a more equitable world, Kickstarter does not allow discrimination, subjugation, or intolerance towards marginalized groups. We recommend you review our Rules and list of Prohibited Items to learn more.”
In the Lonestar sample that Miller shared, the hero saves a woman from a group of MS-13 gang members.
“Hey team @kickstarter, it’s nice to see that you consider MS-13 a ‘marginalized group’, since that’s the only people who were being ‘subjugated’ in the artwork I provided,” Miller added.
On September 27, Miller had an initial rejection from Kickstarter, saying simply that they’d determined that Miller’s listing “cannot be approved for launch”. However, they didn’t say why.
Miller said that he thought the rejection was because some of the content that was included in his listing was also available on rival crowdfunding site, IndieGoGo. He replied and assured Kickstarter that he had “removed all the Soul of the Soldier stuff that is available elsewhere at this time,” adding; “these are all new covers for Lonestar, not just ‘repackaging’, but if that’s the issue please let me know.”
That’s when he received the reply from Kickstarter saying that the rejection was actually due to “discrimination, subjugation, or intolerance towards marginalized groups.”
OANN host Jack Posobiec, who has recently entered the comic book genre with his own comic book, Agent Poso, commented saying simply; “This is wrong.”
https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1179489823125573636
Washington Times reporter Douglas Ernst responded to Kickstarter’s decision by saying:
“People encourage me to declare a “side” when indie creators disagree. People want me to play Twitter Traffic Cop. Kickstarter’s decision to frame a violent gang as a “marginalized” group as a pretext to deny Mike S. Miller access to the platform is a good example why I don’t.”
Mike S. Miller is an American comic book writer who has worked with Malibu Comics, Marvel Comics, DC Comics, and Image Comics – and is perhaps best known for his work on DC’s Injustice: Gods Among Us series.
Lonestar is now available on IndieGoGo.
