“Never Satisfied” being discontinued feels like the end of an era for me.
Specifically web comics with privately hosted sites. All the webcomics I read at that time of its production are all “dead” now: Monster Pop by Maya Kern, Monsterkind by Enenkay/Taylor C, Cucumber Quest by GiGi, Paranatural by Zack, and I thought Sakana was gonna be but it came back after a 3 year hiatus. (There are more, but I can’t remember their names. There is one where I distinctly remember the alt text on a page saying how another artist “lovingly redlined Avery’s ass”) A lot of newer comics are hosted on apps, like webtoons, now. Not that there is anything wrong with that. I think it’s convenient that they are all here together, but I do miss how incredibly personalized and charming browser experience each comic had. It’s just kinda odd to feel the passage of time and how things change in this way
Majority of the comic artists I follow have shifted away from comics and instead have taken to writing novels because they hell of a lot easier. Which is great for them and I definitely encourage doing whatever it takes for your mental and physical health. I think having the ability to write novels are an incredible skill and feat in of itself! However, I can’t help but feel a bit dejected. Because of my reading disability and vision impairments, I can’t enjoy these stories when they are converted from a comic into written form. It’s difficult for me to read walls of text, and even harder for me to retain it. Even typing this is difficult. I just have to pray that I didn’t make any typos and that this shit is actually coherent! And since these books are all very small productions, none of them are on audible so I can’t even listen to it. Sure, there is text to talk, but BOY is it hard for me to retain anything I’ve heard when the Stephen Hawking synthesizer is reading to me. Maybe it’s the cadence? Regardless, a lot of the comics I listed above have an ending written out that I will never be able to know of because I suck at reading. Hell! I’d be more willing to “tough it out” and struggle for long periods of time, but reading fatigues me something fierce. I got maybe 5 minutes max before I have go lay down. I don’t even get to retain what I read either! I just get exhausted, and I’m useless for the rest of the day.
For some reason, comics don’t seem to do that. I have absolutely no idea why. It is the only written media I can consume with ease. All I know is that I hate it, and it fucking sucks to be this way. If I know how I could fix it, I would. But so far, nothing seems to do anything,
I know it’s selfish of me, but I am curious if artists would be more inclined to finish a project if there was better system for comic artists. Of the comic artists I have followed years ago and still continue to make comics usually have a partner that they work with. Perhaps if there could be some kind of business platform where there was a team of artists working on an idea, like what they do with animations. ….However, considering how underpaid and overworked artists in general are, I’m sure the only improvement would be the rate of production. I know that is especially bad in other countries. They overwork and underpay their employees, which doesn’t really help resolve burnout, the whole issue I’m trying to address. Not that I have any right to say anything on the matter. My stupid ass can’t make more than 6 pages of a webcomic before hitting an art block.
Unrelated, but something I think is kinda funny is how many artists and comic artists I follow that have come out as trans within the last couple of years. In hindsight, it is probably why I liked and connected to their work so much.
