Heh...now that's not very nice. Dave is only trying to make something positive and prosperous out of a project he has since 15. According to him in a journal on deviant art, Morandillas at MTJ publishing came to him and asked if Yenny could be published as a tickle comic. Yenny as the tickle fetish icon she is today wasn't Dave's intention at first, but by default, her big ticklish feet made her likeable using that to bolster her popularity. He's not selling out to anything or anyone he's continuing what he initially intended to do in the first place while. We're fortunate that Yenny was even here in the first place...
Everything you've stated doesn't make him any less of a sell-out. Whether he was untrue to his original "intention" and himself by making Yenny into a fetish icon (i.e. selling his "vision" for quick cash) or untrue to his fetish-based audience by removing his work as soon as the possibility of it going "mainstream" occurred (only to return his work once his mainstream comic attempt proved
unprofitable), David Alvarez cannot escape what is so inextricably a part of who he is. I realize he's a friend and everything, but the truth is the truth. Dude forgot where he came from. Sue me if I think that's shady.
Yenny is already "mainstream" from her comic strip... this is all about getting Yenny into an animated cartoon which Dave has been trying to do for years, but like I said it's not that simple due to funding. That's why it's necessary to have this fundraiser to finally (and might I add, "legally") get money for the project from anyone who WANTS to contribute... Nobody is being forced to "dump their hard earned money". This is all to secure a pilot episode so that companies can see Yenny's potential as a full cartoon. But some people believe that the niche fetish interest that she has on the forums is more important than allowing her to progress.
How much did Jim Davis's friends have to donate before Garfield became a cartoon series? Did Charles Schultz need to put up a website that basically begged for cash in order to make his dream of an animated Charlie Brown come to life?
The reason why these two comic artists/writers (among many, many others) did not have to beg, borrow, or panhandle for money is because their comics were moderately-to-wildly successful when put before a mainstream audience.
Their successful comics spoke for themselves and sold themselves. Obviously, that was not and is not the case with Yenny. From this, two points arise:
1. Yenny, unlike Garfield or Peanuts, is not a mainstream success even after a comic run that's lasted a few years. That means that it's either unliked by a wide mainstream audience or it's just plain unappealing and therefore unnoticed. Investing in the property (even in terms of a donation) is very risky. There is a good chance that the pilot will be found just as unappealing by a board of executives as the comic strip was by the casual comic strip reader. From a business standpoint, one might as well toss one's money down a hole. Artists just don't think like businessmen. They'd be much more successful if they did.
2. That "niche audience" you mentioned is pretty much Yenny's
only audience. Fetish is where Yenny's been most successful thus far, even after some moderate mainstream exposure--that's
not wishful thinking, that's a
fact. That said, fetishists are likely to be the cartoon's (financially and otherwise). If the cartoon fails to go mainstream (a greater possibility than death itself at this point), will those who tossed change into David's cyber-hat ever see the pilot for themselves? By right, they should--but judging by David's "it's my party and I'll keep Yenny out of the fetish spotlight if I want to" attitude that he's displayed in the past, probably not.
But, tl;dr. While I don't think it's a fraud, I do think there's painfully little that will come of the animated series. If Yenny couldn't prove herself a mainstream success as a comic strip, how is she going to do that as a cartoon? What exactly will change enough to make people who aren't fetishists take notice and say, "Oh, yeah, I guess I'll sit here every week for fifteen to thirty minutes and watch a twenty-something latina get tickled," when they wouldn't even say, "Oh, yeah, I guess I'll sit here for thirty seconds everyday and read about a twenty-something latina getting tickled"?
If those who have enough expendable cash to do so are intent on donating, then great, but they should be prepared to see nothing substantial come of it. And if it does become a success, prepare for David Alvarez to evacuate the fetish scene faster than my bowels after eating at Chipotle.
Caveat emptor.
