Remember "The Micros"? It was a 5-episode animated poker series, which ran on YouTube from 2010-2011. It was sponsored by Full Tilt, and...
... well, you know what happened to Full Tilt in 2011, and that was that.
You can find the episodes here: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheMicros/videos
In addition to those five, there were a few little shorts and specials, including a "lost" episode six which was commissioned by Pokerstars, never really panned out, and was released almost 2 years later.
Anyway, I was never a huge "Micros" fan, but I will acknowledge that it had some funny moments and creative little gags. It was generally well liked by the poker community, and eventually several big name pros pahticipated in cameos. Even Micon was briefly in one episode (#3), but later cut from the re-edit when that particular episode was poorly received (not joking). They hired actual voice actors to portray the main characters.
It was created and designed by Jay Rosenkrantz ("Krantz") and John Wray. Krantz, of course, was a very successful poker pro in the 2000s, and eventually left poker to get into other things. As far as I can tell, he's still doing well for himself.
John Wray, on the other hand, is/was a theater guy who was never much of a poker player.
Well, apparently Wray needs money, and has revived the Micros in comic form. He got his old buddy Krantz to help promote it on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/jayrosenkrantz/status/1406305631011672064
They just released the first 5 comics, in a ten-comic series:
https://twitter.com/TheMicros/status/1405973535181316096
https://twitter.com/TheMicros/status/1406278378060058629
Several things wrong with this.
First off, The Micros doesn't work as a comic. The series' best moments were part physical comedy, part timing. It also just feels cheap for the well-produced Micros to downgrade itself into hastily-produced comics.
Second, it's got a Patreon, with a top tier of $1000. You gotta be fucking kidding me. If Wray needs money this badly, why doesn't Krantz just break off a piece of his fortune and help out his old buddy? It's embarrassing for a successful guy like Krantz to be pushing everyone to a Patreon, even if he's just helping Wray promote it.
Third, it's no longer just a poker comic. It's half poker, half Magic. Yes, that Magic. A game played by high school nerds in the 1990s and early 2000s, which somehow produced some good crossover players to poker during the boom. But nobody in poker cares about Magic anymore, and it's weird to make it a major piece of The Micros. In fact, The Micros itself was never about Magic in any way, so I'm not sure how this even became part of it.
Fourth, they just dropped a new black character into the mix, without bothering to explain who he is or why he's there. I guess this is some weak attempt at wokeness, but it was poorly executed. It would be fine if they introduced a new character who happened to be black, but Wray just dropped this guy into the story as if we're supposed to already know him.
Finally, it's just not funny.
Pretty sad.
Mind you, Krantz already irritated some people in 2013 his using of Kickstarter for his "Bet Raise Fold" movie. Here we had a rich dude who did really well from poker, and he wanted the community to pay for his project. Pretty bad form, in my opinion.