Avencri
patreon
About the future of my webcomics and The Katbox
🕑 Added 2019-08-01 03:48:02 +0000 UTCHello everyone!
If you have been following my twitter you might already know of this. But for those that have no idea there is something important i need to tell everyone.
The weekend after Anthrocon ended, i was just resting from my trip when we got some rather grim news regarding The Katbox. Due to a series of problem that have been boiling in the back end of the site for years ending up cascading into each other, ID decided to step down as the head administrator of the site. With this the news came out that The Katbox was ceasing operations as a comic hosting site. This meant that every single webcomic on the site would need to find a new home, including mine.
I have been posting The Eye of Ramalach on The Katbox since 2006 and these news hit me like a truck. I had no idea of what to do, i have never posted my comics on my own before. I was afraid i might not be able to survive on my own. I also suddenly was in need to find a new host and a someone to take care of managing the backend and coding. I was really scared and as everyone on the site, we were pretty much aimless.
Nekonny then tried to take the steering wheel of the site and after a week of talking to everyone about what they wanted and/or needed from the site came to the sad conclusion that he couldn't correct course about it. And that was it.
It was then decided that The Katbox would be a link network that would redirect each of the comics to the new host and the Discord server would stay as a community hub. But the site as a comic hosting place would be gone. I am not gonna lie, i was angry and looking for someone to blame for all of this. Then i got depressed for a whole week, barely able to get out of bed since i felt like i invested more than 10 years on something just to see it go up and vanish after so much effort. My insomnia spells came back on full force and i was lethargic to the point where i began having some irate discussions with people and even the cleaning lady asked me if there was something wrong since i looked really sick and tired. Due to this i have actually started looking into seeking a therapist about this.
In the end, i managed to get at least 5 invitations to different hosting sites to start from scratch. I was sad since i didn't want to say goodbye to anyone on The Katbox crew. So after some pondering i decided to accept two of the invitations and host both "The Eye of Ramalach" and "Tina of the South" (which i was finally working on resuming since i got a new logo done and a website design made) on two different sites at the same time.
The first option will be at "Kemono Cafe" with Nekonny. This site was originally designed to only be a mirror site for Nekonny's webcomics, but ever since the events at Katbox happened, Nekonny decided to do his best at hosting some of the webcomics on this site. My comics will be here along with all of Nekonny's webcomics, Las Lindas by Chalosan and Rascals by Master Godai. Nekonny, Chalo and I have a long history with webcomic together and i honestly didn't want to lose touch with both of them due to this.
The next option will be at "Studio Khimera", this is a whole new website for comic hosting that we are starting from scratch. Skidd and Phuufy got the initiative to create this site to host "Uberquest" and their other webcomic. Along with me they also invited Hiorou to host "Eorah" and Razorfox with "Draconia Chronicles". As i said, we are working on this size from zero and we ended up hiring a new developer to code and create all the framework to have content and future content to be fully customizable. We had to invest from our own pockets with little warning to pay the developer fees and also had some help from ID to get this done. At the moment we are just having a basic framework and everyone is working on their assets. Hopefully this will go smoothly and we will be able have something to show in about a month.
But what about the webcomics? Well... i guess i could still post at The Katbox while it still exists... but i feel that posting the new pages only for them to be removed in some weeks or months is not worth it. Kemono Cafe is the earliest place where i could post them, but the site is still being worked on to get the new webcomics (all not made by Nekonny) ready to run. And Studio Khimera is still in the oven. So i guess i will be posting the updates on Patreon for now.
I was told by some of the people involved that i seem to have taken this whole debacle the hardest. It seems to be the case to be honest. Most of the other crew don't seem to be as affected and some even don't seem to care at all. I honestly don't know why i took this so hard in comparison. Back in the days before ID became the head of the site, i took it into my own hands to try to promote all the webcomics and the site as a whole on different sites. I made a Katbox club at DA (Back when DA was the big place to go post art at), TV Tropes (a great place to spread awareness) and others sites. I didn't get much support from the Katbox people back in the day and it was disheartening. When the Uberquest crew arrived, Phuufy revitalized my drive to get things done on the site, and well... now it will be gone.
I am now a bit apprehensive about getting attached to the new places... but i will try my best to put my all into them and continue trying to spread the word about the webcomics hosted i guess. I am just kind of beaten and bitter at the moment i guess.
Anyways... to reiterate:
1- The Katbox will stay as a place to link to the comic's new hosting sites but will not host comics itself anymore.
2- The community is gonna stay as much as it can and the Discord server will stay as a general discussion place for anthro work and webcomics.
3- For now, i will be posting my webcomics here on Patreon until the two new homes are ready.
4- Gonna be making "Kemono Cafe" and "Studio Khimera" my new homes and hopefully will be able to cultivate a new community on both sites and maybe even get new readers. Clean slate i guess.
5- I have not been doing the best emotionally in the last few weeks. I am seriously looking to get some therapy.
6- I finally got my art drive going last week after weeks of insomnia and depression, so i will get to work. Sorry for the inconvenience.
This is all for now i guess.
Thanks a lot for your time.
Comments
ghostbane
Everything will be okay :) while it's hard now you've already invested the time and you'll be able to maintain the comic and your stories. I know you got this
Kaelgren
*hugs*
