The Further Downfall of IDW: The Friends Forever Issue #24 Fiasco


A couple weeks back, the twenty fourth issue of the Friends Forever series was released. Written by Georgia Ball (who had previously written the eighth issue of IDW's Micro-Series, which was rather well received), it featured Rarity supporting Gilda's boffyball team while she designed their team uniform.

While Ball's writing was relatively solid, the comic failed spectacularly in other departments. More after the break.

When the issue was released to the public, it was revealed that a number of the griffons featured in the comic were intended to pulled from the show, namely Greta and Grandpa Gruff.

Apparently, the artist didn't get that memo.


As seen in the two images above, the characters seen in the comic look nothing like the characters from the show they were meant to portray. Especially Greta, who looks like she ate the canon iteration of herself. It's like the artist who illustrated this issue didn't even bother doing any research into the characters he was supposed to draw.

Hell, it's like the artist hasn't even watched the show before.

Of course, if you're familiar with artist who worked on this issue, you would know that's exactly the case.


For those of you unfamiliar with Jay Fosgitt, he previously illustrated the twenty second issue of the Friends Forever series, where he was caught using clip art he pulled off of Google Images for a character's cutie mark, apparently being too lazy to be bothered to actually do his job.

Jay has previously stated that he has never even watched the show, though shortly after admitting this, he promised that he would "try to improve".

Evidently, he hasn't been trying hard enough. He didn't even use Google this time around.



Jay's flop didn't catch flak from just readers. Georgia Ball, the writer of the issue, was pretty peeved by the lack of effort put in by the illustrator, and made sure her anger was heard through her Twitter.


She went back and forth with numerous followers about the situation, not bothering keeping her annoyance over the whole fiasco hidden as she did so.

It would later also be revealed that the editor (who is known for putting literally no effort in his editing and ignoring any criticism of his "work") also messed up Georgie Ball's name, not only the inside of the comic, but on the cover as well.


Further discussion with her followers revealed that Ball has no plans to pitch anything to IDW for future My Little Pony comics due to the blatant mishandling of her work, though she does plan to continue doing work for their other series.

After scaring off one of their senior writers because of their blatant incompetence, IDW should seriously consider getting their shit together.

However, considering their past, I doubt that's going to happen.


Update:
They couldn't even be bothered to upload the right comic to Amazon, instead giving paying digital customers a copy of Spiderman.



Comments (50)

  1. That's franchise suicide right there. Keep an eye out y'all.

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  2. idw was doing very good in the beginning then along comes jay ted and Jeremy and they fuck everything up with there bullshit this jay person in particular should be fired because that's what any sane company would do

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    Replies
    1. People are still buying it. There NEEDS to be action with wallet voting, action that isn't being taken. Of course Hasbro doesn't seem to care about most franchises relating to females. The Rey debacle over in Star Wars land anyone?

      Delete
    2. you MUST be one of those sycophants from 4chin if you think there was ever a time it was good. They JUST got done dealing with changelings, and knowing how they operate, yet immediately fall for as incompetent and hackneyed a plot setup as that.

      There will be no true mlp comic until Cook, Jay, and Ted are in the same con together, and you encourage a radical islamist to give him his critique.

      Delete
    3. I only bought issue 9 and 10 because I saw comedic value, but I can see how that could be the only good ones, and become good on accident.

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    4. Oh, come on, "Randi Harper"
      The comic used to be good indeed, just take a look at Rarity's micro, Big Mac's mini arc and such.
      Andy's art was so strong and vibrant back then, it wasn't until Reflection's arc when both him and Katie finally said "Fuck this shit, we are already famous!" and everything went fucking downhill for good.

      Re read their old comics and then compare them with anything from 2014 onwards, you will notice a huge difference and that's what makes so many people feel angry.

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    5. IDW went downhill at #25 to me (I one of the probably few people who likes Reflections) and it hasn't picked up at all minus maybe #51... Fiendship #1 and #34 had promise, but come #35-37 the last chance the comic had to redeem itself was gone. Even Price's art there suffered.

      #51 I've heard looks good, so I might give it a chance.

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  3. IDW also decided to simply destroy their own boards to cut down the chance of receiving any criticism there.

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    1. They actually were down for some of November and all of December only coming back January 16th. Funny how FF 24 comes out thus shit goes down and the boards are now down again. Suspicious much...

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  4. At this point, I suspect that IDW is doing it on purpose just to piss people off.

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    Replies
    1. Possibly. I don't think they pull this with other licenses though.

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  5. Hasbro needs to take the MLP license away from IDW before they do serious damage to the brand.

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  6. How are people still defending IDW?

    Just


    how


    the


    fuck...?




    Okay look. I get liking unpopular or controversial things. Hell, WE like a cartoon geared for little girls. But there is just no effort, no thought, and no fucks at all given by this company. They treat this franchise that's been spoon-fed to them as a fucking soapbox to just stand on and spew out whatever retarded storyline they want to tell. They make mistakes that first-time fanfiction writers don't make, and errors that brand-new unpaid fan artists don't make. They don't even try to improve their abilities, or even address the fuck-ups they've made, and fan artists and authors who haven't been around as long as them have since surpassed them in ability and integrity.

    And now this. This isn't not giving a fuck or being incapable. This is making a conscious effort to not give a fuck and be incapable.

    Seriously, Hasbro: Pull this franchise away from them. They don't deserve it, nor do they even seem to want it. Do yourselves a favor: hire up some brand new artists and writers and hand it to THEM to do.

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    Replies
    1. 21:17
      IDW has Star Trek among other things. They're somewhat liked as a publisher on the overall. Can't see why.

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    2. GASP People who genuinely like the comic exist and not everyone in the world is a sad little channer basement dweller that blow a gasket and ask for head to roll when his little channer anus is not tickled correctly

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    3. @13:06
      Liking the comic is good, the artist and editing staff making basic mistakes that push away writers, not so good.

      Delete
    4. @13:06
      I was asking why people are still DEFENDING them, and went on to immediately say I understood why people LIKED unpopular or controversial things. You obviously were so blinded by your 4Chan hateboner that it made it hard to read, or realize I'm not a channer.

      Maybe actually READ and UNDERSTAND someone's comment before you decide to trash on someone, yeah? Here, I even CAPITALIZED the relevant words to make it easier for you.

      Delete
    5. I always find it hilarious the anti-channers, even though this isn't 4chan, claiming bias channer hate are actually the ones who are the most froth at the mouth angry ranters that post here. Who totally don't have their own bias, right?

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    6. It's the easiest way to win an argument, after all. Why disprove, debate, acknowledge, or even bother to READ someone's statement when you can call them out for being the EEEEVULL Annony-moose leejun and call it a day?

      Delete
  7. @17:24

    It will not happen. Here's why.

    >Hasbro CEO:Brian Goldner
    >Goldner
    >Hasbro being destroyed by Jews

    /pol/ was right again

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  8. That update. SHAME ALL AROUND.

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  9. PURPLE TRANNY
    U
    R
    P
    L
    E

    T
    R
    A
    N
    N
    Y

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  10. Wait wait wait

    Aren't the artists supposed to be supplied a character asset pack to reference from? Or has Hasbro really slacked off and dropped the ball on this one, since MLP is their shekel generator.

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    Replies
    1. Not like it's hard to just find the character art from the show online. Also if the company or the artist doesn't give a fuck like IDW clearly do now then what good would having access to an asset pack anyway.

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    2. Hasbro's dropped the ball all across the board to be honest. They're basically letting IDW do whatever the fuck they want with zero real input, guidance, or limitation, and it's letting them churn out one hell of a crappy product.

      It's literally the equivalent of a company finding the sleaziest Chinese factory it can to make one of their product lines. That factory is going to round up the best orphans 10 cents an hour can buy and put 'em too it to churn out as much product as possible to make as much a profit as possible and to hell with the quality. Thing is, is this time around said company already has a mainline product, and doesn't check into said Chinese factory any further than what little extra profit it's making them.

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    3. Fucking Hasbro, they have this vice grip on the show when it isn't needed, and don't give a fuck when it is. They release a movie about furries when we wanted a movie about ponies. I think they are just blindly incompetent.

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  11. 10/10 would bang fat Greta while greatly grizzled Grandpa Gruff gazed upon the grandeur.

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  12. I might have missed this point, so excuse me if I repeat information-

    Playing devils advocate, is it absolutely clear if Greta and Gruff were introduced before the comic was drawn, or did Georgie just pull some G names out of a hat, and fuckwad just took artistic license?

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    Replies
    1. Yes, the characters were introduced months before the comic was drawn.

      Fosgitt himself tweeted some pics of the comic being drawn during late october as well.

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  13. WHOLE NEW LEVELS OF INCOMPETENCE
    H
    O
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    E

    N
    E
    W

    L
    E
    V
    E
    L
    S

    O
    F

    I
    N
    C
    O
    M
    P
    E
    T
    E
    N
    C
    E

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  14. It's a good thing I stopped reading the comic after arc #1.

    If they don't care, why should I?

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    Replies
    1. Ironically that comic arc was the best comic arc in my opinion (though I did like other ones) :P

      Delete
  15. Come on, really. The comics have Always been just fanwork that just happened to have a Hasbro licence. That's literally th ONLY thing setting them apart from ay other fan comic you find posted on EqD every day: they're legally allowed to make money off it.

    Actually, come to think of it, most other fan comics at least stay true to canon, something which the IDW comics have never bothered with before, so why should they start doing so now?

    I mean, canon: ponies know very little about dragons, because they're dangerous. Comic: there's a whole dragon area in a big pony city akin to little Italy or Chinatown.

    Canon: Daring Doo's writer is Daring Doo herself under the pseudonym AK Yearling. Comics: Twilight's MOM wrote Daring Doo.

    and now this, I'm like, why bother getting worked up over it? IDW doing it WRONG is nothing new. Just meh, shrug, and continue ignoring this fan comic in favor of much better fan comics. (which deserve the official Hasbro licence a hundred times more anyway)

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    Replies
    1. I have to agree. Fans tend to care for canon much more than the franchise owners. Just look at a certain space opera property.

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    2. Twister, have you been catching he'll from the Assholes in Bring Back Legends too?

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    3. In the interest of Fairness: The comics saying Twilight's mom wrote Daring Do came out before the episode "Daring Don't," and it wasn't something explicitly stated in the comic.

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    4. Heck, maybe Twi's mom was the cover illustrator or the editor, and the entire team got awards from the publisher?

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    5. @05:51, 13:38

      Maybe Daring's publisher got her name wrong on the cover as well.

      Delete
    6. Correction to 22:52 meant to ask Twister if he's catching Hell from the Bring Back Legends asshats

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    7. Good guess, but no. I was referring to the fact TFA sucked ass balls, and was basically a pile of trash that raped the original movies.

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    8. I'm sorry you felt that way.

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  16. And I'm not even going to MENTION "Nightmare Rarity". The biggest load they took on the canon ever.

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    Replies
    1. That arc's still better than the later shit that came out from them like Siege of the Crystal Empire, that arc easily is My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic at its absolute worst.

      Then again the only comics I considered canon from there were Return of Chrysalis and maybe Reflections, and I do have to agree, most of the fan comics are way better.

      Delete
  17. CONGRATS IDW
    CONGRATS
    I REMEMBER THAT I ONCE HAD FAITH IN YOUR SORRY ASSES WHEN TWILICORN WAS THE WORST THING EVER AND EQG WAS JUST AROUND THE CORNER. YOUR SHIT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE QUALITY. BUT NO, YOU STUPID FUCKING KIDDOS SAID "NAH FUCK IT" AND THEN STARTED PRINTING OUT THE EQUIVALENT OF XEROXED TOILET PAPER THAT WAS USED TO WIPE DIARRHEA FROM TED ANDERSON'S ASS. READING THE MLP COMICS BY IDW MAKES ME PHYSICALLY SICK. HASBRO, THESE PEOPLE ARE SO INDIFFERENT THAT THEY ARE LITERALLY MISREPRESENTING YOUR BRAND. PLEASE, TAKE OUT A CIVIL CASE ON THEM. WHEN THEY SOMEHOW FUCK UP SO BAD IT MAKES EQUESTRIA GIRLS LOOK GOOD IN COMPARISON, YOU KNOW SOMETHING IS WRONG. END THIS MADNESS, PLEASE.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Deep breath, in through the nose, out through the mouth. Then google some copyright lawyers and send a calm letter stating why you feel they are doing this and recommend a list of lawyers to this. Maybe add the ashes of the comics you don't like as part of it.

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  18. Man, they didn't even mention what Spiderman comic it was. Maybe it was a good one. Maybe they could have found something new to love.

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  19. Geez, why so salty over 2 characters. IDw comics are fine in my opinion. I'm not crazy over such details and stories are enjoyable. Take a chill pill guys.

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  20. wow so much drama over a fricking fan comic Really people ? Yeah they made a mistake with a MINOR character design ! So of course it has soooo much impact on the main story it's so fucked up really... You people really need to stop your not going to die because of it you know? (plus Grida design in the comic look waaay better than in the show in my opinion it look less like a copy of Gilda with ... whatever those awful green spots are)
    However I agree about the amazon buying thing but it should have been fixed by now

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  21. Uhhhhhhhh whats the f all about?
    The style is adorable and just another interpretation like it happens every day...
    its a fitting style to say the least. A bit 'overdrawn' and not as stale...

    geez. get a life people. there you find real problems to complain about

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  22. it's very humorous But each person has different preferences

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