Aaron and Mike of A Comic Show want to help fix what's wrong with the comics industry, they swear they'll start a regular bombastic op/ed column here on Bleeding Cool. But first, they feel they must follow their hearts (hooves), and use their connections to get a My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic comic made! This is an open letter to pony fans, if the fans speak up, next they'll be coming for IDW to deliver!

Open letter to My Little Pony fans:

Dear My Little Pony fans,

Bronies, I can't go anywhere online these days without seeing something MLP related. The MLP fandom is the most insane, and amazing, group I have ever noticed. I wondered what is the big deal? Something about this current incarnation of MLP called Friendship is Magic has sent the masses into hysteria.

FiM is the fourth generation of MLP that premiered in late 2010, created by Lauren Faust. Lauren Faust was a main contributor to Powerpuff Girls and Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends (along with her husband, Craig McCracken, the creator of those two shows). Her next project? Super Best Friends Forever, animated shorts to appear on Cartoon Network, starring Batgirl, Supergirl, and Wondergirl. MLP:FiM is part of a new television network called the Hub. The Hub is owned by the toy company Hasbro, who also owns such properties as My Little Pony, G.I. Joe, and Transformers. Hasbro wanting renewed interest in these toy properties, accompanied the new toylines, with new television shows like MLP:FiM, G.I.Joe Renegades, and Transformers Prime.

Okay, so MLP has got some real firepower behind it, but why is the fandom so intense? A little website you might of heard of called 4chan. The home of many memes, anonymous, and widely considered to be the Mos Eisley of the internet. " A wretched hive of scum and villainy". But you're probably thinking the whole site is represented by the new***s that troll /b/, their "random" board. I'm talking about a slightly more civilized board, their cartoons and comics board: /co/. A board where they discuss everything going on in comic books, and cartoons. Here is the place where you can bitch about DC's new 52, find animated gifs of Adventure Time, and see the Brony phenomenon first hand. As a fellow /co/mrade, I tried to ignore the Brony phenomenon at first. I was there for the comic discussion! Sure I loved Adventure Time and Regular Show, and have an open mind for anything /co/ related, but ponies? /co/ exposed me to the awesomeness that is Wakfu, but things like Homestuck just weren't for me (but the fandom is DEFIANTLY to be appreciated and respected). So what the hell, I gave MLP:FiM a shot, and a year and a couple months later I have one question:

WHY THE HELL ISN'T THERE A

MY LITTLE PONY COMIC BOOK?!

MLP:FiM is the best thing in life. I am now a total Brony. I went to McDonalds and bought all the Happy Meal toys with no shame. I'm still a die-hard comic fan, so where the F*CK is my MLP comic?! Bronies, can we unite on this? As we tend to do on so many things? Can we get an official MLP comic?

Adventure Time, another brilliant children's cartoon, is getting a comic book by kaBoom! (Boom! Studio's kid imprint) and their comic is by none other than webcomic legend Ryan North of Dinosaur Comics. IDW Publishing currently has the rights to Hasbro properties, and is currently creating some amazing comic books based G.I. Joe and Tranformers So where is the MLP:FiM comic? Hell, when tweeted about the idea, IDW responded that there are definite Bronies' among them:

https://twitter.com/#!/ IDWPublishing/status/ 151773490264023040/photo/1

The largest Brony fansite Equestria Daily – http://www.equestriadaily.com/ has over 99 million hits, over the course of one year. Not bad, considering it was started January 19th 2011 by one Brony: Sethisto, now with a staff of three. And Sethisto, like most Bronies, spun out of /co/. One of the most popular items on the Equestria Daily? Fan works, as in fan art, fan fic, and the combination of the two to create fan comics. The site now has over 20 dedicated pre-readers work for free, and get fanfic up in any where from 20 minutes to a couple days. The never ending churning of fanfic keeps the fans satiated in-between episodes and seasons, but if we get a comic now, it could continue far after the shows' conclusion. Whedonites can attest to this with Firefly and Buffy the Vampire Slayer continuing in comic form after they are no longer airing on television.

Sure Bronies love comics, but will they pay for anything? Internet fandom doesn't always translate to sales, no one wants another Snakes on Plane here. I don't think anypony needs to worry. Bronies have disposable income, and they have it for the right causes. http://broniesforgood.org is a Brony community created to raising money and bettering life which raised money for Smile! Charity and able to generate over $11,000 in less than a month for the Children's Cancer Association. When Steam was raising money for their Humble Indie Bundle #4, the Brony community united under the banner Humble Brony Bundle (http://humblebronybundle. blogspot.com/ ), and began to pool financial resources to donate to the cause. This started a playful competition between the Bronies and Markus Pearson(Notch), creator of the current zeitgeist in gaming, Minecraft, the biggest success story of indie game developing. Notch donated 8.5k, which prompted Bronies to out-generous him, if he would only watch a few episodes. The Bronies eventually ended up donating a total of 16k which is close to doubling Notch, all so he would watch a few episodes of MLP, and join the herd. (I play Minecraft with the 'Mine Little Pony' fanmod http://www.minecraftforum.net/ topic/748553-11-mine-little- pony-v11/ )

So, if Bronies have money why don't we have a comic book yet?

Do the publishers think MLP is somehow going to lose them money? Are they actually afraid to strike when the iron is hot? It's more relevant now than ever. Mighty Fine Tees, the t-shirt company wasn't shy to jump on this money maker, and their top sellers are all MLP. Their top 25 t-shirts are ALL MLP, with one exception of one Adventure Time t-shirt, and they also have the Marvel Comics licence. I sport my Brony shirt whenever I can, but also their Marvel tees that include any unicorn or pegasuses. Mighty Fine is t-shirt company in every Hot Topic, so you're telling me I can get pony shirts at Hot Topic, but NOT a MLP comic at A Comic Shop? Anecdote: Aaron from A Comic Shop was at NYCC just a few months ago, and he visited the Mighty Fine booth day one, he spotted a good amount of MLP shirts, and decided he would come back for them later. Mighty Fine sold out of pony shirts later that day, but still had plenty of Marvel shirts. At one of the BIGGEST comic book convention in the world, My Little Pony shirts were selling better than comic book shirts.

I want to buy an MLP:FiM comic book from IDW. I would love if they opened submissions and all the brilliant fan artists could submit. I want this now. Not five years from now. Let's strike when the iron is hot, as opposed to beating a dead pony. In 2005, the Chuck Norris meme was relevant, a year later when WOW released in an in-game Chuck Norris fact generator, the meme was still relevant. 2007 when Chuck Norris campaigned for presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, the joke ended, the fun stopped. But WOW, who seemed to be able to jump on the joke early on, recently decided to bring it back with new commercials featuring Mr.Norris, SIX YEARS LATER. A not relevant meme, for a not relevant game, when all the kids are playing Minecraft anyway (with the Mine Little Pony mod). Okay so it works like this, the internet is like one big human-centipede, something that starts on 4chan and reddit, gets shit into the mouth of digg, tumblr, and stumbleupon, which in turn shits it into the mouth of facebook, twitter, and youtube, and after it's thoroughly digested there it gets shit into the mainstream media where it's no longer valid, or relevant, and can't possibly continue on. It looks like this:

Ponies by nerdyshow.com's official drawfriend, Tony: michaelbaldini.deviantart.com

MLP is cartoon for children, but the fan community is from the internet, and it hasn't been shit out into mainstream media yet. Mightyfine realizes this and creates quality product that anypony can enjoy. Why can't there be a comic for the Bronies? So, what to do? Let's get this community moving, organized, like we tend to do, and get a comic made. I've done my part, I wrote this letter, I'm going to like this idea on facebook, and you should too: (http://www.facebook.com/ pages/My-Little-Pony-Comic/ 218368524920093 ) But I leave the rest to your capable hooves. And the Bronies at IDW, do your part too.

Beloved Brony,

Triforce Mike