ThoseCloudyDaze

I’m expecting an urgent care bill for the situation at the beginning of this month.

Offering quick turnaround portraits commissions for $35 to help cover it.

#commissions #ArtCommission #ocsky #art

Having said all that- Gonna keep throwing my YT audience at people with comic promos when I can. I feel like it's something I can do to make a difference, even if it's a small one.

I don't have access to people's analytics, so it's hard to tell how much it helps. I hope it does, though. 🌸

Making a 🧵 to help people get context on Hiveworks:

The Hiveworks Guild statement from Cartoonist Co-op. Make sure to check the "How You Can Help" tab

Hey. You know those cute little crow time comics everyone loves so much? That's Isa. That's who everyone is talking about. I think that needed to be made clear since I noticed some confusion and a lot are actually rather unaware of this fact because she's great at separating herself from this.

Keep hearing devs say that they only use ai for "pre-concept art"

There is no pre-concept art. There is concept art. That's where the idea starts. With the concept.

You're using ai for concept art.

My take on a final version of Shadow the Hedgehog

Human Shadow
#art #SonicTheHedgehog #scythgrizzart

a bee with an evil smile that says YOUR COMIC SUCKS, GIVE ME A CAR

I send strength to all the comic creators and collegues that had to endure this treatment.
I never talked about it publicly before, and it kind of makes me tired and brings the burnout back to think about it now, but Four Leaf 1 (which was printed in collaboration with Hiveworks) was also affected:

Y'all this is some actual criminal behavior that the CEO of Hiveworks had done unto their creators. This is heartbreaking.

Should probably stress that it's 100% possible to do this and appear anonymously in the video if you so desire.

We interrupt your *waves at everything drama* for some good ol fashion webcomic drama which used to be about people saying stupid shit but now is more about owing a shit ton of money!

This had been a long struggle for a lot of my friends that are wrapped up or have been impacted by this group. Please read the full statement to get an idea of what these creators have been dealing with for years in light of making stories that many people love.

All this to say: Don't work with these people. I hope that Xell takes this as a hint that she should retire from the comics scene completely and we never hear another thing from or about her. If you see Xell starting a new comics-adjacent or creative collective or venture, RUN!

Even though they (eventually) got paid for & shipped to my house, I didn't get to see the print proof--it was sent to Isa & she didn't tell me she got it until I asked, was told she approved it weeks ago. Never got to see it! There were issues with the book that could have been fixed if I'd seen it!

I was told over and over that I would need to wait, excuse after excuse. It was like pulling teeth to do shit like get her to pay for some bookmarks or keychains, and then later the books themselves. In the meantime, I was in the dark about our books!

Keeping in mind that, going into the kickstarter I had the book basically done outside of a few bonus pages I'd set aside room for in our initial quote and finished over a couple of weeks, everything should have been good to go as soon as Xell sent the money to the correct vendors.

Not to mince words, the survey was shit, didn't ask anything useful, and as a result of what would follow, caused us basically endless misery for the next several years in regards to changing addresses, dead email addresses, unresponsive backers who I just wanted to give what they paid for!

When our campaign ended, I knew I had to send out a survey & was trying to figure out what I wanted to put on it so that I could get the info I needed re: some custom art tiers. So when I messaged Xell about what I should include in a survey, she was like "I already sent one out! You're welcome!"

With so many people needing to access the same account, it was impossible to keep track of alerts and messages. Questions were directed to all 3 of us, and the odds that we found out about them right away were basically zero, making all 3 of us look like total flakes.

Managing the kickstarter was immediately difficult, because there were two others happening at the time, Go Get A Roomie vol 1 had just wrapped, and Yamino launched Sister Claire vol 1 the second ours ended.

I set up the kickstarter, messaged Xell for feedback because I was unsure of the campaign's structure and formatting, and with a tentative date that I wanted it to go live. Her response was to launch it immediately, and not...actually tell me she had done that! Found out it was live hours later.

(Ironically, if we'd waited just a little longer, Kickstarter opened to Canadians soon after that and we could have handled everything on our own, which is what we both would have preferred)

Way back in 2014, Xell basically bullied us into doing a kickstarter. We didn't feel ready, but we felt pressured to accept because Kickstarter was not, at that time, open to allowing Canadians to run campaigns. The problems started pretty much right away.

Heeeyy, we can finally talk about this! So, I would like to co-sign everything in this open letter. I would also like to tell everyone about a specific grievance that @femonologue.bsky.social and I have with Xellette after the mishandling of our kickstarter. Screencap/receipts in🧵 to follow!

I've spoken about my time with Hiveworks on Patreon in the past, but I'm struggling to get my thoughts together succinctly today.
My experience is on par with what has been described in the letter. It ultimately led to the long term hiatus of Anarchy Dreamers. Please support the former HW creators.

While not in HW myself, I have close personal friends who have been affected by many of the things listed here, and have heard numerous other stories from those who spent time with the company.

Worth the read, and please support the artists/writers affected.

Not sure I have too many Hivework followers, but I can safely vouch for Riiser. He does excellent YouTube documentaries