Eric July (aka. @YoungRippa59) has recently introduced us to a new comic book company under the title Rippaverse. And now as of July 11th, they have officially released their first comic book: Isom #1. This doesn’t come as a sole publication but as the promised beginning of a new comic book universe, along with their own creative code of ethics. According to their Code of Ethics, they have three main points: Respect the Customer, Canon and Continuity, and a Comprehensive Timeline.
Respecting the customers is highly emphasized in this company. As Eric says, “We aren’t owed your dollar, but we’d love to have you as long time supporters. It’s going to be up to us to keep you interested and invested.” He goes on to explain that respect is a two way street, “…as long as you respect us, we’ll respect you. Its all about reciprocity.” He also explains how he views all individuals as equal. “Your ethnic background or genetic makeup is wholly irrelevant to us.”
They also value canon and continuity highly, as they believe that these factors are not as well handled among other comic book companies and series. “This is an ever expanding universe, “ He says. “But when you buy a book from us, you’re going to own a piece of history: it matters.” Launching forward from that, he explains that the “multiversal aspect” or “time travel” will not be used to rewrite or undo what has been written. Once a comic book is released it will become, and stay, canon. This is very smart, in my view, because right off the bat they are putting it out there, and saying that their universe is like ours, it’s meaningful. If a character goes through a journey, and grows, or dies, they don’t come back from this. It’s left a permanent mark. It’s got teeth. Real stakes!
And number three, a big thing they wish to communicate: Comprehensive Timelines. “No matter when you jump into this space, we wanna make it easy for you to get caught up on some characters that you’re interested in…,” he says. Eric tells us he doesn’t wish to confuse the readers, but also not hold their hands as “it’s a part of the fun” to learn on your own.
He chose to keep current politics and current narratives out of the books, even though he values liberty. Playing off of that, he goes on to say, “Previously being a part of comic book fandoms, I understand the importance of them. We’ll do our part to keep the sanctity on the business end and we hope you will help us preserve a more healthy and thriving fandom.” Eric wishes there to be no fight among his fanbase, no political views clouding judgement, and no prejudices amongst the fans. And they refuse to take on any investors so that they can answer only and fully to the customer.
You can find everything you need to know here at their official website: https://rippaverse.com.
You can also check out their campaign page here, as their entire campaign is run solo, without the use of crowdfunding assistance.
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