In our previous discussions of the journey of comic book creators coming out of Hollywood (aka ComicsGate) we have discussed who some of these creators are, and where they came from, here and here. But besides new comic books, new comics universes, and new comics movements, what other elements of community are needed to solidify a true cultural phenomenon? Two things come to mind… more traditional journalism such as a magazine, and this “new era” of comics being celebrated. Both of these elements are chiseled in stone with this single product, Anvil: the Iron Age Magazine.
When you learn a bit about comics, you find out that there are eras that celebrate and separate the unique styles that arrived at different periods in their history, such as the Golden Age, the Silver Age, the Bronze Age, and the Modern Age, (as explained here on Wikipedia) almost like the ages of ancient mankind. But ComicsGate-adjacent creators such as RazorFist saw the need to brand a new era of comics into history, a new era that reflects the idea of returning and going back to an older time, in which men of valor and women of beauty, inspired more traditional values; and so the Iron Age was born.
Watch RazorFists’s call to action to begin the Iron Age here.
RazorFist aka the Rageaholic on YouTube
So, who will curate and make record of the exploits and adventures of this new Iron Age? Razorfist gave us a hint in his video… that’s right, Iron Age Media! After all, this is a large enough marketplace to start featuring some of these creators with stories and magazine articles. But isn’t it too early to be doing this now? Not really! CGNow.Net shows a large and growing number of comics for sale representing market growth just in this single part of “conservative” or “anti-woke media”. As CreatorGo.com shows, it’s now up to $19m in contributions for the last 3 1/2 years.
Yes, you can see a ticker of campaign growth, a CG Tracker, so-to-speak, on their site, but what’s even better is that this does not include all comics of this kind. For example, neither Thin Blue Line (when I started tuning-in to this movement), nor Truth Justice American Way (when I first contributed to it), nor Isom from Rippaverse (arguably the most successful of this movement) is included in the CG Tracker, which seems to only track traditionally crowdfunded campaigns. So, its not a complete picture of the market’s worth, but It probably contains a good 50-75% of all ComicsGate-style comics. This entire movement could represent from $25-40m in value not including conventions or direct sales.
So, Iron Age Media cometh (at Ironage.media), and their magazine Anvil: Iron Age Magazine, which conjures the same sort of ancient wartime imagery, has come with it. Here is their trailer for their first issue which was successfully crowdfunded about 3 months ago.
Trailer for Iron Age Media’s Anvil Magazine on YouTube
Their 1st issue campaign was on IndieGoGo here, and is now completed. They are now funding their 2nd issue, and you can see their campaign here, which has just begun only days ago!
They sell issues in digital & print and also sell posters and even Iron Age branded dice. Each physical issue is about $25, but includes massive articles of epic creators, their stories, and their primeval tales of Iron Age exploits.
Did you enjoy this article? Will you be checking out their campaign? Are you a fan of ComicsGate and their larger movement to make anti-woke comics? Let us know in our socials!
