Serial Offenders: When Abandonment Becomes a Pattern

Some places and people don't abandon projects once — they do it systematically. This isn't about a single failure, but about structural patterns that make death inevitable.

Cursed Platforms

WirePop (2003-2012): The Subscription Trap

A paid subscription service for webcomics that promised regular updates and creator ownership. Almost every comic died.

The promise: Creator-owned service with regular updates that free comics couldn't match.

The reality: Out of 17+ launched comics over 9 years, only 3 survived to completion: Xamra, Realms Of Ishikaze, and Lunargyros.

What went wrong: The platform's own staff admitted authors weren't compensated enough to stay. The subscription model created a trap: promise of money attracted creators, but the platform couldn't pay enough to keep them.

Pattern of death:

• Authors got better publishing deals and left (NightSilver by Svetlana Chmakova abandoned when she got a deal with Tokyopop)
• Comics stopped updating mid-story (Eversummer Eve updated faithfully for years, then suddenly stopped; archives quietly disappeared in 2008)
• Some never really started (one launch title did one update and was quietly cancelled)

Petite Symphony (2014+): "Comics come here to die"

A webcomic hosting platform with above-average quality content. None of it survived.

July 2014 status: ~20 projects, only 2 updating regularly (Djandora, Chimaera High). One migrated away (Project Zero). Rest stopped in 2013 or earlier. Generation 17 officially cancelled by author.

November 2014: Same team launched Comics Break, promising to "become a community built around comics, not just a comic site."

2022 status: 1 active comic remains (The Legend of Lucy)

• Chimaera High stopped 2016
• Djandora stopped 2017 — author decided to reboot, deleted archives, vanished

TVTropes observation: "The site's comics are above-average quality with interesting long storylines. It's as if comics come to this site to die."

Quality doesn't save you from a cursed platform.

Serial Abandoners

David Gonterman: The Chapter-Dropper

Half his projects end after one chapter. The other half get randomly dropped. Most stories just meld into each other until the original is forgotten — everything becomes part of one endless "Gonterverse."

Pattern: Can't finish anything, so turns everything into an infinite meta-project where nothing has a real ending.

Kris Straub: Life Happens

Family + career shift to animation and LOCAL58 killed most of his webcomic work. Only Starslip was completed.

Abandoned projects:

• F Chords — attempted second volume, rebooted, abandoned
• Chainsawsuit — last strip (2019) shows author being beaten by "Webcomic Schedule God" for having so many abandoned projects (self-aware acknowledgment)
• Broodhollow — three attempts at book 3, all failed. Last canonical update 2014. First draft 2015. Final updates to third iteration one year apart: 2018, 2019. Copyright not updated since 2021.

Pattern: Natural death from time scarcity. When life changes (family, new career), old projects die from neglect.

Death During Production

Alice Comics: The Only Real Ending

Author: Michael McKay-Fleming
Volume: 952 comics
Last update: October 2, 2014
Reason: Author died while working

The site (alicecomics.com) remains online as a memorial: "This webcomic archive is dedicated to his memory and the wonderful world he created."

Last two comics published 2 days apart (Sept 30, Oct 2) — normal publishing pace, no slowdown. Story arc involving Future Alice, Future Dot, Future Joanne stopped mid-plot.

Difference from abandonment: Author didn't choose to stop. Project ended because he physically ceased to exist.

The Meta-Pattern

Systematic mortality is different from other abandonment patterns:

• Personal abandonment: one decision to leave
• Infrastructure death: technical failure of platform
• Systematic mortality: repeated behavior as characteristic of place or person

This isn't "why did this project die" but "why does everything die here / with this person."

The pattern reveals structural problems:

• Business models that can't sustain creators (WirePop)
• Platforms that attract projects but can't keep them alive (Petite Symphony)
• People who start but can't finish (Gonterman)
• Life circumstances that starve old projects (Straub)

Source

Documented by TVTropes community at OrphanedSeries/Webcomics — a 124KB community-maintained archive of abandoned webcomics. "The list is so long it's easier to count completed comics than abandoned ones."

Alice Comics verified by direct access to memorial site, October 2024.