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I have made myself a passive goal of having 1000 supporters by the end of this year, combining Subscribestar, Paypaly, & Patreon. I have about 890 without looking at the exact number. So, I’m going to make an effort to mention these things in the blog more often. On youtube they say stuff about them at the start and end of most videos. For me it’s only going to be for people interested enough to come to the blog, but still, if you don’t mention it people don’t think of it. I always forget to “like” videos if the person doesn’t remind me, so that should be proof enough that I need to be more active about promoting these things. Having lived through several accepted monetization eras in webcomics now I’ve done pretty much everything. Website ads, on demand merch, subscription services… Far and away the subscription model has been the most profitable for me. There was a nice midway point when ads were really valuable, but that was ruined & everyone moved on to subs.

Although actually I’m not sure if everyone did… The webcomics “community” is less of a community now than when it was a “community” before. I don’t talk to other comic creators almost at all. There’s a handful on twitter who mutually follow me, but our interactions are largely superficial. People who I thought of as friends abandoned me once my usefulness was expended & they no longer needed someone to help promote them. Many people who read my work tell me than I’m the last webcomic they read now. A lot of creators have pushed many of their audience members out with their extreme political views & incessant ranting about it. These divisive times have taken a toll on every community, no matter how loosely confederated it was…

Twitter has certainly increased my paranoia over time. It’s such a shame too because it was a lot of fun in the beginning when you could say something at any hour of the day & someone would answer back. Now it’s openly hostile most of the time. Some of my favorite accounts have been banned without even being given a reason. I’ve tried other platforms but the fact of the matter is that most of them aren’t interested in comics at all.

I actually only read one other serialized webcomic now. Questionable Content. Every other one I read either stopped, or the author did something I found too heinous to tolerate. Dumbing Of Age was the most recent one I stopped reading. People often ask if David Willis, the writer of DOA, & I get along because we both like Transformers. The answer is he doesn’t know who I am, & even if he did I expect he would be openly hostile to me anyway. I actually stopped following he & Jeph Jaques, the creator of QC, on social media because I wanted to keep enjoying their work, but knowing their opinions was hampering that severely. I abandoned political talk on social media because of that, & try to just be entertaining. Although my sense of humor is extremely mean a lot of the time. I don’t really mean anything by it, I just find mean things funny. It’s more nuanced than that really. I don’t like watching people hurt animals or something, but the sarcastic banter, much like what I write is what I actually find funny.

That and wordplay, which is what I do the most on social media. Of course if you’re down here reading this you already know how much I enjoy labored puns & absolutely stupid wordplay. I’m always more pleased with myself than any human has a right to be when I think of something too.

I dunno, I’m just kind of thinking as I write at this point. I’ve gotten away from doing that in the last 4 years or so because of how awful everything has slowly become. I worry that I’ll say something I don’t think of as problematic that will cause trouble I don’t need. I’ve already been scolded by my family many times over things I’ve said on social media, so now I just act like I don’t have family most of the time. Authenticity is radioactive & opinions are toxic… That where it feels like we are as a culture the world over at the moment. Maybe it’s better to just ignore it & enjoy this make believe world I’ve crafted. At least until the world forces us to pay attention…