Posted in: Comics | Tagged: comicsgate, preston poulter, red 5 comics, white lily

Red 5 Comics to Publish Preston Poulter's White Lily

Published Mon, 10 Aug 2020 16:00:22 -0500

Earlier this year, we reported on Comicsgate creator and critic Preston Poulter and his attempt to trademark the term 'Comicsgate'. The registration was made by Common Sense Press Inc DBA Pocket Jacks Comics, of Dallas, Texas. Poulter is the writer and creator who self-publishes comics such as White Lily under the name Pocket Jacks Comics, and creates YouTube videos commonly covering 'Last Week in Comicsgate'.

He then declared he was going to start enforcing that trademark, deciding who could or could not use the comicsgate term in publishing or promoting that work. This put him up in direct opposition to the likes of Ethan Van Sciver, WarCampaign, and the like. Subsequently, some extremely graphic adult videos of Poulter were discovered and spread on social media, apparently by those who didn't appreciate his criticism or plans for the trademark.

Red 5 Comics to Publish Preston Poulter's White Lily. — Red 5 Comics to Publish Preston Poulter's, White Lily.

We also reported that as a result of Poulter's actions, an earlier, abandoned trademark application for ComicsGate by Antonio J Malpica of Florida comics publisher Scorn Comics, was revived. During that process, Poulter's own application was suspended. That does give Poulter the chance to appeal, however.

But now it appears that Poulter is moving his business plans to more traditional publishing methods rather than relying purely on crowdfunding. During San Diego Comic-Con@Home, Red 5 Comics announced that they would be publishing White Lily next year. On the video, Red 5 Publisher Joshua Starnes stated,

"Our first piece of historical fiction White Lily, which is a true story based off of the most successful female fighter pilot ace of al, the first female fighter pilot ace , the most successful female fighter pilot ace of all time. She was a Polish refugee during World War Two who escaped to Russia just before Poland was overrun by the Nazis, became a pilot for the Russian military and then once things got very desperatem despite high command desires, she got made a fighter pilot and became the most deadly fighter pilot in the Russian army. White Lilily was her callsign and the story kind of breaks down everything from her life as a refugee to her desire to be a pilot to what she had to face becoming a pilot, especially a lot of chauvinism from her superiors and her fellow pilots. And then of course the danger of war itself , so it's going to be a five issue series probably starting in the first quarter of 2021. Some fantastic writing from Preston Poulter and this is going to be a great book, everyone please check this out."

Red 5 was founded by Paul Ens, former Director of Lucasfilm's Lucas Online, and Scott Chitwood, the co-founder of TheForce.net, later joined by Dave Zeibart and Joshua Starnes. They are best known for publishing Atomic Robo., but also the likes of Moon Girl, Afterburn, Box 13, ZMD: Zombies of Mass Destruction with a gender-flipped take on Mandrake The Magician lined up for later in the year.