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***Update 1 – 2017-09-27 – 16:00 CEST***

I think it’s safe to say that there have been a lot of things going on in the case with R. Merryweather and the person who has harassed and blackmailed him (Chris King aka “PingPongCall”). In the matter of fact, just recently a handful of videos has been released on the matter (even the TWD actor Sabrina Gennarino spoke up her mind about Chris King’s fishy cancer gofundme campaign). Even so, there are three particular videos that stick out from the crowd, and those would be the following:

I’ve been blackmailed and harassed for months by a man who might be faking cancer (uploaded 2017-09-24 by R. Merryweather)

Merryweatherey Situation Interview with PingPongCall + Former Co-Workers (uploaded 2017-09-25 by R. nickmon1112)

Sabrina Gennarino on Chris King/PingPongCall Cancer Controversy (uploaded 2017-09-26 by R. nickmon1112)

So if you watch those videos and read through our interview with R. Merryweather (you will find that interview further down the page), then you should get a pretty good idea what’s been going down as of lately when it comes to this matter. Furthermore, I have also added some new sources down below. Well, I have made up my mind about the whole situation with Chris King, R. Merryweather and King’s cancer gofundme campaign. So I’m just going to let you guys and girls come to your own conclusion in peace.

Source:

Chris King’s gofundme page

Sabrina Gennarino

Grant Kirkhope (part 1)

Grant Kirkhope (part 2)

R. Merryweather

Nicole Hurley‏

Nick Monroe (part 1)

Nick Monroe (part 2)

Nick Monroe (part 3)

——————————————————–

I just spent a couple of hours talking with the writer and web comics creator Merryweather (“Winter Moon“, ” The Crawling City” with many others) about what has been going down with him as of lately, because as some of you might already know. Merryweather has been harassed by an ex-journalist for The Escapist and Kotaku for months (Merryweather has also been blackmailed by the very same person). That’s also why I decided to do an interview with Merryweather about it. So you will find our interview with Merryweather down below (I hope that you will enjoy it).

Robin TGG

I’m going to start off this interview by letting you do a brief introduction of yourself. So be my guest 😉

R. Merryweather

I’m R. Merryweather. I’m a writer that does web comics with various artists around the world. I’m a featured creator on Webtoon with the comic “Winter Moon” that I’m making with my dear friend Mayui Yukisaki. I’m sort of living half in Denmark half in Japan right now. I have my family in Denmark, but many of my friends and the people I work with live in Japan.

You might have heard about me as the writer of The Crawling City.



Robin TGG

How did you get involved in the world of comics? And What’s it like to live and work in Japan?

R. Merryweather

When I was young I wanted to be a wizard. That’s obviously not a very realistic dream. Like most young people I sort of shifted between wanting to be a philosopher, a detective, a psychic, and other silly things like that. In the end I sort of realized even if I somehow managed to become one of those things, I would still have to choose only one.

That’s when I decided to write stories instead. Stories let me kind of have fun with all sorts of different characters, and live through endless types of lives. I guess that sounds a bit weird and pseudo-philosophical hahahaha.

When I realized that compared to the amount of effort writing a novel would take, very few people would likely bother to read it, unless it was an absolute masterpiece, I decided to go into comics. After a year of copy pasting DeviantArt private messages to hundreds and hundreds of artists, I finally got a few willing to work with me. Since then I’ve written over 20 collaborations, and I have 6 new comics coming this winter season.

Living in Japan was great. I don’t speak the language fluently at all, but with a healthy mix of google translate and basic Japanese, I managed to make friends and find my way around. I’d say the majority of my time was spent working, but that was a lie. I mostly hung out with my friends in the geek district Akihabara, and met a lot of Japanese artists. I also traveled around a lot to experience different culture festivals like the Snow Festival in Sapporo where they carved a giant 5 story building sized snow sculpture of Darth Vader and Cloud from Final Fantasy.

Robin TGG

I think it’s safe to say that you’ve been through a lot as of lately, and just the other night you tweeted out the following message:

“I’ve been harassed and blackmailed by this man for months. He’s now trying to ruin my career. Please RT this video.”

Could you perhaps tell us more about this matter? And from what I’ve read and heard, the person who’s been harassing you is (was) a writer for Kotaku right?

Source:

http://archive.is/ia0AT

Youtube



Merryweather

While working in Japan I was at the heart of a scandal involving a company called Samurai Buyer. As I mentioned in my video, I have moved on and I think the backlash they got was perhaps more than they deserved. I’ll try to summarize what happened in the aftermath of that scandal very shortly. If you want the longer version you can check out my video.

A man claiming to be a writer for The Escapist, Kotaku, and other big game journalist sites had followed me on Twitter, and told me he could write a story about what happened with the company scandal. I was very welcome to the idea. He then started making claims that he was dying of cancer and needed money for his medical expenses, asking me to retweet his GoFundMe site and advertise it to my followers.



As it turns out he wasn’t actually working for them. He had written a freelance article in the past, and simply used their name. I became pretty suspicious of him, as when I looked into him many of the claims he made didn’t really line up. He also kept claiming he was literally about to die in a day or two if he didn’t get money. He survived whether he got money or not.

I contacted a person that this so-called journalist claimed to work closely with, asking if he really has cancer. The person replied “I don’t know.” I don’t understand how you can respond to a question like “Does your close friend and work partner really have cancer,” with an “I don’t know.” The only reason that answer might make sense is if he has a pretty good idea he might actually be faking cancer, and doesn’t want to get involved in the lie, but still doesn’t want to expose his friend.

When I confronted this so-called journalist about it, as well as the fact that he had been offering Samurai Buyer to “take me down” and “silence me”, as well as write a hit piece on me, if they gave him thousands of dollars. This can be confirmed if you contact the Samurai Buyer company. But yes, when I confronted him about it, he didn’t really seem very interested in defending himself. He provided a screenshot of a medical document stating he had cancer, but the cancer part was in a different font and not aligned properly with the other documented illnesses.

He then had a friend of his who was admin on my Discord server, absolutely destroy the entire server, kicking every single person from it and renaming all channels to variations of the N-Word. He went on to brag about having it “shut down” on Twitter. He didn’t even delete that tweet. An actual real journalist I’m talking to now has archived it. He started DM’ing individual followers of mine on Twitter claiming my Discord was not taken down because of him, but Discord itself because I was posting child pornography on it.

Him and his friends created a subreddit dedicated entirely to posting private pictures and informations about me, in an attempt to mock, ridicule, and smear me. It was pretty clear their intent was to totally destroy my career for daring to question whether he has cancer or not. I never made any public statement about it. I’m not a journalist, I don’t have a right to call out people publicly like that. After he started sending emails to my publishers claiming I was responsible for “Harassing a Kotaku writer with cancer,” I had gotten enough and messaged him.

After a lengthy discussion a consensus was reached that he would take down the harassment subreddit and I would pay him money every month in return for them not harassing me. I was exhausted and an idiot, so I agreed. It was humiliating. But after a while they started up sending emails again anyway, privately saying that I had destroyed the mans career for daring to ask questions about the authenticity of his cancer claims.

I confronted him about it. He then pretended to have collapsed and asked me to say my final words since he was about to die. I made a snarky comment that, “I’m gonna take a wild guess and say he’s gonna be fine.” This set the person off. This new character that was likely invented by the so-called journalist, then immediately knew all of the bad things he claimed I had done, and told me either I pay them more money, and make a public apology, or they’re going to ruin my career.

As of now the video has been retweeted almost 900 times in less than 24 hours, and some big journalists are looking into it. They’ve found proof that he was at least harassing me, and a ton of holes in his cancer story. The video was even retweeted by Boogie2988. I’m so relieved that people cared enough to look into this man. It’s like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders.



Robin TGG

For how long has this person been after you? (weeks, months?) And have you sought legal advice for the harassment and blackmailing that you’ve experienced from that one said gaming journalist? (current or ex-Kotaku). Furthermore, has this person ever showed any evidence at all of his cancer sickness?



R. Merryweather

This person has been after me for over 6 months at this point, ever since the Samurai Buyer incident concluded. I assume it’s because he thinks I make a lot of money by being a featured author on LINE and writing so many comics on Tapas. I was advised by my editor to contact the police after they had continuously gotten emails sent about me, and the subreddit created for the purpose of harassing me was getting filled with crudely edited pictures of me that they had taken from my private Facebook, as well as spreading my real life name.

I contacted the Danish police and they’re currently in the process of registering the complaint. It usually takes a bit long to do that kind of thing. Especially when the culprit is American.

This person has showed several documents that are supposed to prove that he has cancer. The problem is that in the aftermath of me uploading the video, many different people started looking at these documents. Mister Metokur in particular found that the document had various misspellings, the font was different in places obviously edited, and the illnesses didn’t line up at all, despite being on a website.

A lot of holes in his story have appeared as well.

This tweet for an example from a reporter saying his story doesn’t line up at all. I would have preferred to keep everything to myself and let the police handle it, but the man who had been blackmailing and harassing me decided to write a smear piece against me on his GoFundMe, including my social media links to get his followers to go attack me.



What sort of cancer victim feels the need to harass, bully, and try to destroy peoples careers, based only on the fact that they privately stated they didn’t believe his story?

Source:

http://archive.is/e84xs

http://archive.is/K8Lxt

Robin TGG

Do you know who the said harasser and blackmailer is? If so, have you thought about taking him or her to court over this? (if the madness doesn’t stop).

R. Merryweather

I know who it is, and the journalists who contacted me have already located him. Even if I wanted to waste all that money setting up a lawsuit, I doubt there’d be much to gain considering their desperation in attempting to blackmail and bully others.



In all honesty I just want them to leave me alone. The biggest weapon he has to “destroy my career” as he put it, is to shame me for not believing him as he’s a cancer victim. If people start actually looking into him further, I doubt that’s going to carry much weight. Also I’ve been given some information that suggests pretty strongly that this person is most likely mentally ill.

Robin TGG

Where will you go from here? I mean, what advice have you been given so far?

R. Merryweather

The various journalists who have been digging into this person seem to at least have undeniable proof he was harassing and blackmailing me. What’s left is proof that he doesn’t actually have cancer. Honestly I think it’s best to leave it up to them entirely. I hope this will make him and his group leave me alone so I can focus on making my comics. In a few days I’m starting with releasing my new winter lineup so I’d prefer for my social media to go back to being about fun weeaboo comics rather than drama.



I’m honestly a bit disgusted with myself that I gave him money. I should have called it out sooner, or cut all ties to him when I found out his shadiness rather than confront him. Following the Samurai Buyer scandal I feel like I’ve learnt a lot of lessons about how to deal with the internet. I hope to avoid shady people like that in the future.



Robin TGG

What can people do to help you out? And what do you say to those who don’t believe your story? (what evidence do you have to show to prove that you’re telling the truth).



R. Merryweather

If people want to help me out, I suppose reading my comics wouldn’t hurt. I don’t really need money or anything like that. The situation hasn’t hurt me financially. In regards to evidence I have filmed a video of me going through the DM’s on my laptop to show that they aren’t faked. But the person has pretty much admitted to all of my claims anyway, which is coming out in a big article soon. I can share with you the video so you can confirm it for the readers.

Robin TGG

What’s your thoughts on GamerGate? And what’s your history/relationship to GG?

R. Merryweather

Those were good times. I supported GamerGate heavily back when I had just about two thousand followers on Twitter. My biggest contribution was mostly getting artwork done of Vivian James, and that one time when the HoneyBadgers was banned from a Canadian convention after a man had reported them for being GamerGate sympathizers. I googled his name and found out this very man had been accused of sexually harassing Felicia Day in the past. I made a tweet about it which got a surprising amount of retweets, and earned me a follow from Mike Cernovich who still supports me to this day.

I kind of felt home in GamerGate since about that time Social Justice Warriors were taking hold in not just games media but also comics. I was more or less banned for openly supporting GamerGate when I had just a few hundred subscribers on a webcomic of mine. In return, 8chan voted my comic as the number 1 comedy webcomic of 2014 giving me a bunch of price money. I used some of that to commission a really high quality illustration of Vivian James as a thank you.

I have a strong distaste for abusive admins, corrupt journalists, and social justice warriors who try to profit off shaming innocent people like a man wearing a cool shirt because it had sexy women on it. No matter the public perception of things I’ll always side with the good old channers.

Robin TGG

Do you know of a Spanish comic artist named kukuruyo? I/we have talked to him quite a few times about censorship, SJW madness and political correctness in the past. So since you’re a creator as well, I would like to hear your thoughts on that matter too.

R. Merryweather

I just now looked him up. He looks like a stellar guy. I like how he carries himself on social media. In regards to the censorship of SJW’s I have been very fortunate that the only time I was really censored by any SJW was during GamerGate, where I was ousted from a web comic site for “death threats against a female creator,” when all I did was copypaste the Navy Seals Copypasta in response to her claims that my angry black policeman with an afro was a racist stereotype due to his habit of repeatedly telling the female main character to “CALM YO WHITE ASS”.

I think right now there’s a cultural war going on in the western world. The far leftist liberals who seem to betray the very foundations of liberalism. George Carlin would be disgusted to see what has become of the liberal left who in the past didn’t care about offending snowflakes, and having “dangerous opinions.”

The politics of the world tends to swing from right to left, and back again. As the founders of America said, the tree of freedom must sometimes be watered with the blood of tyrants. While that sounds a bit extreme, it just means that the side supporting free speech, tends to change based on who becomes “The Establishment.”

Because of that, it’s healthy to change it up once in a decade. And also, Luckily I don’t experience must SJW rage, since I tend to hang around the Asian community where that sort of nonsense simply doesn’t exist.



Robin TGG

I don’t know if you have read a lot of Marvel and DC comics in your life, but I grew up reading their comics in the 80s and 90s. Well…Nowadays both Marvel and DC Comics injects a lot of SJW cancer into their comics and whatnot. So I would love to hear your take on it?



R. Merryweather

Marvel and DC’s sales have been dropping for a while, haven’t they? I heard what happened to that guy who made youtube videos criticizing this forced attempt at diversity in comics.

Several journalists were privately talking about trying to instigate him to throw punches so they could retaliate? Absolutely despicable behavior. I think unless Marvel and DC comics start realizing that they’re not going to get more sales by changing characters to fit their political agenda, and start to actually write some decent stories with the superheroes we all know and love, then their sales are going to continue plummeting. I have faith that they as a business will realize they need to change things up. Until then there’s always Japanese comics. Noone is going to take that away!

Robin TGG

Why do you think today’s MSM, Gaming sites and magazines fear sexy female characters, nudity and sex so much? Simply put, why do they look down on lewd content as much as they do? And why is it such a big deal for SJWs you think?



R. Merryweather

Just like rich white people have been obsessed with charity and helping the poor and homeless to make themselves look better and fuel their own egos, todays upper class white people have decided that they’re going to be championing the poor minorities and defenseless women who can’t fend for themselves.



Because of that we see sexiness being shamed in an attempt to appear more progressive. It is no longer okay to put the ideal female body on a pedestal, and anyone who tries to, should be shamed like they are perverted sexists. The reason why it’s such a big deal for leftists, I think is because it makes them look good and “progressiver than thou”. It’s a topic I’m a bit rusty on, I’m afraid.

Robin TGG

Did I get it right that Chris-Chan is a reader and fan of yours? Have you ever met or talked to him? And do you know the story about him/her? (I think there exists at least three documentaries about Chris-Chan by now).

R. Merryweather

I know about Chris Chan. We did a podcast interview with Chris about her life and Sonichu, and all the wonderfully weird events that fill up the Chris Chan timeline. Since then I suppose she’s taking a liking to me since I wasn’t being rude during the interview. I know pretty much everything there is to know about Chris. Watched all the documentaries and read all the articles. I find Chris pretty fascinating.

Robin TGG

As you most likely already know, Youtube is going on even harder with censorship and demonetization against those who have the wrong thoughts and opinions. So I would like to ask you what you think about the case with the Google memo guy (James Damore), Gab’s fight against Google and the ongoing war on censorship on the Internet at large? (people like Lauren Southern have had her instagram and Facebook account closed down).

Source:

Tim Pool

Styxhexenhammer666

MILO Meets James Damore, Author of the Google Memo



R. Merryweather

I had a lengthy conversation in a podcast with Mister Metokur about this. My opinion is that companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter represent monopolies and we need to see legislation in the future assuring that people cannot be de-platformed to such a scale simply from sharing unpopular opinions.

It’s pretty scary to think that three companies who promote such heavy far-left opinions are capable of silencing dissent. If I was to get banned off Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, where left is there to go? Minds? Vid.me? I think you should be allowed to express whatever opinion you want. If you’re truly wrong, people will shoot you down with words, not try to get you deplatformed.

Robin TGG

What’s your thoughts on lewd content in general? Furthermore, I have noticed that Asian game developers and anime/manga artists are one of the very few that still has the balls to produce and release content of that kind (just look at “Gal Gun”, “Senran Kagura” and “rabi-ribi”). So do you think that the wind of change will reach the West as well in the near future?

R. Merryweather

I love lewd content and I think it does really well mixed in with entertainment. Many of my comics have lewd aspects to them, which is pretty easy to find. I love cute animu girls so I’m pretty happy with games that decide to go that route.



I think the west and the east are fundamentally different but there is hope for the West yet. As the backlash to Social Justice Warriors is becoming more and more mainstream, it is likely publishers will speak out against them. Recently we saw someone who worked for Rockstar Games call out those people saying if it was up to them, all the millions of people who bought Grand Theft Auto wouldn’t be able to enjoy it.

There will always be people who are opposed to other people’s fun. In the past it was angry mothers, and priests. Now it is far left radicals. History repeats itself. That means problems will always arise. But it also means brighter days are always ahead.

Robin TGG

What’s your plans, hopes and expectations for the rest of the year? And is there anything else that you would like to say to our readers.

R. Merryweather

I hope to just relax and work on my comics in peace. Got a nice new line-up for the winter season, and I expect to be saving money together to go back to Japan at the start of 2018. If anyone’s curious, this is a guide to my winter comic line-up with links to the various artists working on them: https://www.patreon.com/posts/guide-to-my-line-14486978

Yes, I just heard that the person’s GoFundMe page has been taken down:

http://archive.is/7z7tp

http://archive.is/axlPg

https://www.gofundme.com/30u0dc0

http://archive.is/kk09k



Robin “V-Act” Ek

Editor in chief

The Gaming Ground

Twitter: @TheGamingGround

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Tags: #GamerGate, Censorship, Comics, Lewd, Political correctness, R. Merryweather, SJWs