After lots of hours I've finally completed my DP illustration! I'm glad I got to include a lot of my favorite ghosts!
Close-ups!
Prints will be made soon!
comicfury continues to reign supreme as the only webcomic platform that understands it's a webcomic platform
making an extra post because the tags aren't good enough
here is all the reasons why you should use comicfury (if you aren't already) :
- pretty much full control over your custom site design. if you're an HTML/CSS nerd you can go as crazy as you want with it. but for those who aren't so code-savvy, there are also simplified built-in design tools so you can create a unique site for yourself and your work. reject homogeneous minimalism design of bigger platforms, embrace tradition of mid-2000's kitchen sink site design (if that's what you want, that is).
- the site demonstrates its own philosophies through its extremely charming vintage 2000's-era site design. it ain't broke so it doesn't need fixing. if it's too 'ugly' for you and wards you off from using the site, then it's succeeding at what it was designed to do.
- forums! remember those??? CF sure does!
- full view of your comic statistics over the past month, shown as delicious daily line graphs, separated by unique visitors, web page view, and scroll view.
- hosting is free. don't want that pesky 'thecomicseries' or 'comicfury' add-on? all you gotta do is purchase your own domain name. contact kyo and they'll take care of the rest.
- you can categorize your pages per chapter, making for an easier reading experience
- you can include page transcripts for screen-readers as well as mouseover text
- you can enable comments per upload and even manage them so that all comments have to be approved by you before they're shared publicly
- archive tagging!!! i.e. you can tag uploads with relevant characters / locations / etc. so people can find specific pages easier on your site.
- you can run a goddang BLOG on your comic site so that people can read what you've been up to! or don't, it's your choice!
- clear filters for NSFW content. the filters do what they must to inform your audience as intended, outside of that, your comic will not be taken down, flagged, or suppressed in search results just because it contains violence or boobies.
- they are strictly anti-AI
- they do not make licensing deals with third-party companies, so the only 'competition' you have are other indie creators like you, no Marvel or DC nonsense
- you're free to embed ads and/or donation buttons on your site and CF will not take off a single cent of it for themselves.
- the front page goes to Recently Updated by default, all the other tabs are simply Popular Now and Popular Overall. there's also a Random button if you want to be surprised with something new. while this might seem like a bad thing for people who prefer custom filtering, this unbiased layout prevents the common visibility issues / favoritism / etc. that happen on other platforms.
- but if you DO want to find something new that fits your specific tastes? just use their search bar, unlike on Webtoons it actually does what search bars are supposed to do! within the search page you can pick and choose whatever genre tags you want, and you can filter out major NSFW flags you're not comfortable with seeing.
- saving the best for last: none of those features outlined above require paying a premium subscription tier. you have access to ALL the same tools and permissions that everyone else does. you have just as much potential to gain an audience there as everyone else and you are all granted the same freedoms.
COMICFURY HAS A SCROLL VIEW SETTING THAT YOU CAN ADJUST IN YOUR SETTINGS. THE PLATFORM IS ALREADY DESIGNED TO BE CONSUMABLE ON YOUR PHONE. IT DOESN'T NEED AN APP.
ugh man i'm so sorry for popping off on this very innocent and well-meaning bystander but what did i JUST say
when i say it's a webcomic platform that knows it's a webcomic platform
that's it. no asterisk. that's the POINT OF THE MEME.
it is a website for reading and hosting webcomics. there is no app. and that is why it works.
i realize this might just be a consequence of me being Old™️ compared to the average webcomic consumer / artist, but do y'all know how destructive phone apps have been and still are to webcomic culture? because not only is developing a phone app EXPENSIVE AND TIME-CONSUMING, but it's pretty much impossible to have phone apps now that aren't managed and funnelled through Google and Apple.
that means CENSORSHIP. and CORPORATE INTERFERENCE. and FINANCIAL INVOLVEMENT. which is entirely opposing to WHAT WEBCOMICS ARE.
as soon as indie sites based around free content develop apps, there's a very clear shift in how that site continues to operate, prioritizing corporate standards and profit over usability and community. because otherwise, they can't justify the creation of the app in the first place, and they can't very well maintain that app on account of how expensive it is to do so.
in fact, i can even attest to this from experience! y'know Tapas? the friendly competitor to Webtoons?
this platform used to FUCKING SLAP and then guess what? they released their phone app. and in doing so, they immediately lost the entire fucking plot. their ad revenue program turned to shit, they started prioritizing their advertising and growth towards paywalled comics over the free to read ones, they started restricting the content that was allowed on the platform for the sake of 'brand friendliness' and most of all, they started caring more about what INVESTORS saw rather than what the average user experienced.
and i'm sure that's a heavily biased opinion in which i'm choosing to cast blame on one specific thing instead of all the various things that led to the downfall of this fuckass platform (and i could talk about all those things at length too) but guess what? i don't give a fuck if it IS biased, because i've been there and back and lived to tell the tale and the common denominator in the enshittification of all these major platforms i'm goddamn MEME'ING ON was the phone apps. and most of all, the normalization of corporate involvement which happens the MOMENT you build an app for the Google and/or Apple store.
modern phone apps are NOT about accessibility, they're about money and metrics. that's it.
again, big apologies to the person who left these tags in the reblogs because i know they didn't mean any ill will of it.
but EVERY FUCKING DAY i see y'all complaining that webtoons and tapas are garbage, that they don't let you consume NSFW content without censoring the fuck out of it or removing titles entirely from their platforms, how they progressively tighten paywalls and increase ads to force every last cent out of you, but never ONCE do y'all realize THE CALLS ARE COMING FROM INSIDE THE HOUSE.
comicfury doesn't have or need a phone app for the same reason that AO3 doesn't have or need a phone app. to put it simply - because it's pointless, a waste of money and effort, and it would just destroy everything that's great about the thing that i'm trying to promote to you in the first place.
this is what usage freedom and decentralizing actually looks like. this is what has kept comicfury populated and alive. nothing more, nothing less.
Never heard of it, but i'll try to check it out, thanks.
Admittedly, Tapas is still my go-to even though some decisions they've made piss me off (WUF no longer permanently unlocking, getting rid of watching ads for ink, increased prices, etc.) I'm strictly F2R by earning bonus ink now.
Webtoon however...is absolutely garbage, I agree. Used to be really good until they started paywalling everything and removing all the daily passes to make you watch ads or use coins...not even tapas is that bad, they go guns ablazing if heaven forbid you mention where else you can read a series, legally (with no links added) they'll delete your comment and restrict you and users have too much power over comments--bullying, reporting and getting ones removed that were harmless, only a differing opinion (ex. Shipping wars.)
Reblogging because I think this highlights and gets very close to what I meant when I said "Comicfury understands it's a webcomic platform".
Here's the thing. A lot of folks in the chat might be too young to know this, or maybe they've just built too much of their webcomic experience around Tapas and Webtoons over the years that now they've forgotten what webcomics were like without these spaces.
Webcomics are an inherently non-profit craft.
Webcomics might sound as literal as their name - comics for the web - but there's an actual culture and history to webcomics that goes beyond its literal definition. Webcomics were designed to be a non-profit craft. The people who often made them back in the day were hobbyists, art students, or just people with a story they really wanted to tell, and they decided posting comics online was the best format for them. They are an accessible, unrestrained medium and creative outlet for storytelling, like that of zines and animatics.
And that is still to this day what they are, but companies like Tapas and Webtoons are hellbent on re-packaging them as a new profitable frontier of "content" - and it's why their apps and websites inevitably become enshittified garbage rendered entirely pointless by paywalls and subscription services and ads, ruining the very thing you're using them for.
You know where Webtoons makes the bulk of their money? Selling IP's for merchandising and TV / movie rights. Is that webcomics? No, it fucking isn't! It's stock trading! And what is stock trading?
Anyone who's ever made a webcomic can tell you they are a notoriously awful business model. You couldn't make money at it 20 years ago before Webtoons was around, and you sure as shit can't make money with it now.
The 1% of folks who are making money from webcomics aren't doing so through the webcomic itself, they're doing it through intersectional revenue streams. They're making their money on Patreon. On Tiktok. On Twitch. They're selling merchandise. They're selling print books.
You see where I'm going with this? None of those things are webcomics. Webcomics are inherently non-profit because the only way to make them profitable is to make them into something else that is. Maybe that something else is making video content on Tiktok about your blorbos, maybe that something else is offering NSFW art on Patreon.
Maybe you could argue I'm splitting hairs, but my point is, in its purest and simplest state, the webcomic itself is not what's generating income, it's the things you can sell AROUND the webcomic that are.
And that's why companies like Tapas and Webtoons are being forced to take drastic measures. It's why Webtoons is publicly traded now, it's why they keep announcing TV show and film adaptions and then you never actually hear anything from those adaptions ever again. They are stock markets, and the currency they are generating and trading is content aggregation, IP's, and user traffic and data. I don't think I have to state the obvious at this point, but that doesn't sound like webcomics, now does it?
ComicFury is a webcomic platform. It knows it's a webcomic platform. It does not concern itself with driving profits, or signing on exclusive IP deals, it doesn't even concern itself with ads. You will literally never see an ad for ComicFury in the social media space like you would for Tapas and Webtoons. The only thing that speaks on behalf of ComicFury are the actual webcomics hosted through the platform.
And those webcomics aren't being shared there to participate in 'creator earnings programs' or build a bigger audience, those webcomics are shared there because it's what the site is for.
And so it comes as no surprise to me that every company and platform that has attempted to make money off webcomics is ruining everything that people actually like about making and reading webcomics in the first place. They insist on labelling the difficulties of monetizing webcomics as a bug, when in all actuality it is a feature.
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Back to drawing comics I go BYEEE!!!
I write these words with a broken heart. To those who read this and choose to ignore it, you can simply scroll past, but I am living through the most difficult moments of my life. My husband is slowly dying before my eyes. Due to a severe head and jaw injury, he has been unable to eat or drink for over a week, his weight has dropped to just 39 kilograms, and he is suffering from severe, life-threatening malnutrition.
I write with tears welling in my eyes and a trembling hand. I'm not asking for the impossible; all I ask is a chance to save his life. Please, donate now, and share our story, so that, thanks to you, our voice may reach everyone.
Please donate now. Hashim is extremely exhausted today. His voice was barely audible from fatigue and weakness, and I couldn't hide my fear as I watched him wither away before my eyes day by day. Please, don't leave Hashim to face this fate alone. 💔
I can’t believe I actually spent my time on this
