Also haven't mentioned it in a minute but if you’re interested in finding more webcomics to read that aren’t the same ten you’ve been reading for years already/whatever’s winning webtoon’s algorithm, I highly recommend checking out the comicad website! It’s essentially doing what ProjectWonderful used to do before it got run out of business except it’s actually focused solely on webcomics with their own websites, so you’re bound to find some really cool shit.

Webtoon Canvas is pay-to-win now, I guess.

DISCLAIMER: All of the series I show here is for the sake of comparing statistics and criticizing Webtoons' Super Likes system. I have nothing personal against these series or their creators and I do not want anyone to get the impression that I am encouraging any sort of action against these creators. The following rant is merely my own observations and opinions concerning Webtoons itself as a platform.

I found out today that Webtoon has implemented a Super Likes ranking board.

This does exactly what it sounds like - it ranks Canvas series based on how many Super Likes they have. Whether or not this ranking board is on a weekly rotation (like the Originals rankings) or just overall, I don't know, but something immediately felt off with this system and it took very little time at all to realize what was really going on here.

When you actually click on the series listed here, it'll tell you how many Super Likes they've accrued overall. The first thing that made me raise an eyebrow was the fact that the Super Likes listed in the ranking boards isn't the same as what's listed in the comics' landing pages, but I chalked that up to a simple delay on WT's end as I can assume the ranking board doesn't refresh at pace with whatever Super Likes are coming in.

But the real red flag was this:

Limitless : Untold is a series with 1,657 followers and seems to get an average of 35-45 likes per episode.

But it somehow has 1,715 Super Likes?

Anyone who's run a Patreon, Ko-Fi, Ad Revenue, or any other sort of revenue-based system with their content will probably realize how that doesn't add up. The reality is that regardless of how many readers / followers you have, only a small fraction of them will actually spend money on your work or to support you. Not every person reading an Originals series is FastPassing. Not every person reading a webcomic is supporting the creator on Patreon. This ratio is even apparent outside of income-based statistics - for example, not every person who follows will read new updates each week and hit the like button (which is why you can have a comic with 1700 followers that only gets a few hundred views and a handful of likes per update). This ratio can be influenced by all sorts of different things, but one thing that doesn't typically happen is for the ratio to flip itself in this fashion.

To put it bluntly: how can a comic with a high of 45 likes in the past 3 months possibly accrue 1,715 Super Likes since it was launched just last week? You've probably already come to the conclusion on your own, but for those who haven't: there's very strong evidence to suggest that creators are buying their own Super Likes to get on this ranking board.

That's assuming the worst of this, though - after all, maybe some of these creators just have super supportive friends who are tossing them a ton of Super Likes? It costs $1 for 5 of them, in this example the amount of Super Likes comes out to approximately $343 (assuming my math is right lmao) which isn't massive amounts of money but it's, again, still really impressive for a comic with only 40 likes on average.

Bu Limitless : Untold isn't the only one in the rankings board that's like this. In fact, the top three spots are occupied by webtoons with the same tilted ratio.

But then, suddenly, after those top three positions, the following webtoons Super Likes totals that make a LOT more sense and reflect the usual ratio more accurately:

The Little Trashmaid, one of the most popular Canvas webtoons of all time and the first one to hit the 1 million subscriber mark in the Canvas section has only accrued 355 Super Likes so far... and you seriously want me to believe a comic like Limitless : Untold with only 0.08% of its readership is somehow genuinely earning five times the amount of Super Likes?

I want to make it clear yet again that I have nothing against the series that have managed to break the system in their own favor. None of this is meant to "slam" them or judge their work or anything of the sort, I'm simply comparing the numbers here and coming to a very reasonable conclusion as someone who's well aware of how ratios like this tend to work in webcomics and content creation. It's just not feasible for the top three comics in the Super Likes ranking boards to organically earn that many Super Likes relative to the sizes of their audiences, especially when compared to the bigger comics that are only pulling in a fraction of that amount. The ratios of Super Likes : actual likes for those bigger comics actually looks reasonable and expected, the ratios for the smaller comics that are sitting at the top are not.

If anything, Webtoons has created a broken system and these creators are simply using that system to their advantage. And I'm not necessarily going to fault them for that because I can get wanting to do whatever it takes to get eyes on your work.

But it does raise the question of what kind of system Webtoons has cultivated here - a system where creators are resorting to Super Liking their own episodes to bump themselves up in the leaderboards.

And before anyone asks me how I can be so sure that these creators are Super Liking their own works - I literally opted into the Super Likes system myself and proceeded to Super Like one of my own episodes.

(this is like the one helpful thing with my work still being on WT even though I'm not updating there anymore, it lets me test shit like this LOL)

So yes, this is a thing that creators can do and it would certainly explain the massive discrepancy in the ratio of Super Likes : regular likes for these smaller series.

This is literally pay-to-win. And who do we have to blame for this? Webtoons, full stop. Not only for implementing a ranking board for an optional monetization service while still allowing creators to use that monetization system to support themselves as a way to climb up that ranking board, but for creating this gross psychological dependency on the platform as the "only way" to build an audience, to the point that people are now paying Webtoons out of their own pocket just to have their thumbnail visible in a ranking board and maybe get some extra views (and 49% of their money back if they hit that $100 threshold). And on top of all that, further putting on the pressure of competition and 'exclusivity' among many budding creators who are doing what they do for free and for fun. Why are creators now being forced to compete in a metric that's solely determined by how much expendable income their own audience has?

Sure, at least this means creators can get themselves into a ranking board by their own power unlike the other categories that are hand-picked by Webtoons and / or determined by daily stats, but at what cost? The literal financial hit of paying for advertising with extra steps, and the ethical dilemma of essentially paying for potential views with microtransactions. This is no better than paying bots on Instagram to follow your profile and inflate your worth to those who aren't following you. None of it is real, it will not legitimize your work to throw money at Webtoons just to have your thumbnail visible in a ranking board. These are microtransactions meant to benefit Webtoons, not you, the creator.

The Young Ones (Hostess Fruit Pie Ad)

got my first comicad bid for an AI webtoon lmfaoooo

If you want some other cool indie webcomics to check out, I’ve added some ComicAd spaces to the footer on my site’s RL page. Take a gander and maybe you’ll find something cool. 👍

M.A.S.K. - German ads - Tom und Jerry Der grobe Fernseherfoig #138 & #139 - Condor Verlag 1988 #MASK #Hasbro #Kenner #MattTrakker #gator #vampire #slingshot #toys #germancomics #comicads #venom #maskvsvenom #illusionistheultimateweapon #cartoons #transformers #switchblade #rhino #ViciousEvilNetworkofMayhem #MobileArmoredStrikeKommand #thunderhawk #volcano #ScottTrakker #ToysOfInstagram #toyads #actionfigures #tomaandjerry #tomundjerry #condorverlag  (at Portland, Oregon) https://www.instagram.com/p/CMyUVB0hvKj/?igshid=1c014rk3s7znx

#JackedKirby - The House Ad that Sold a Million Comics!!!! 💥💥💥 Here is a house ad that ran in #Issue1 of the Incredible Hulk (published in May of 1962). It is referencing Fantastic Four #Issue1 which had came out a few months earlier but was still being milked for al they could get out of it. 💥💥💥 The book was becoming a huge hit, and by #Issue3 of the FF it had been given the title “The Greatest Comic Book Magazine in the WORLD!” By Stan Lee. As they began to roll out new comics (like the solo Hulk book this ad was featured in!) they began cross promoting their big sellers to broaden their appeal. This helped establish the characters as living in a connected company structure... something Kirby & Lee has envisioned for the future of their creations. 💥💥💥 Notice the ad for Amazing Adult Fantasy, an anthology book at the time that was facing floundering sales and Lee hoped to invigorate with an association to the more popular FF and Hulk characters. The magazine would continue to founder, but it would eventually launch Spider-Man with #Issue15... another monumental moment in the Marvel Universe! 💥💥💥 I recently saw this ad in the @twomorrowspubs book Stuff Said and then also found it referenced by @rand.hoppe of the @kirbymuseum in an online article. It is supposedly some of the earliest known existing FF art still around.... 💥💥💥 #JackKirby #KingKirby #Kirby #HouseAd #FantasticFour #FF #IncredibleHulk #AmazingFantasy #StanLee #LeeAndKirby #MarvelComics #Ads #ComicAds #Comic #Comics #ComicBooks #ComicBook #IGComics #IGcomicCommunity #60sComics #ComicsOfThe60s #TwoMorrows #StuffSaid https://www.instagram.com/p/Bs8ViQUh0c6/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=iui2uda2koyh

#ComicCorner

Friends! Please do not store your tiny sad dogs in shoe boxes like this ad suggests.

Did anyone ever receive a live animal in the mail??

-Zoe

Willie the Wiseguy #1

Keating DuGarm Collection

MsC1067 (still in processing)

Book Recommendation: Mail-Order Mysteries

This hardcover chronicles and reviews old comic book ads and mail-in offers. It is both hilarious and inciteful and is a very entertaining read. The author examines the implications and inaccuracies of the ads vs. the reality of what you’d receive (think sea monkeys). If you ever wondered what you’d receive if you ordered itching powder, then this book is for you. This is a great coffee table book for anyone remotely interested in comic books or pop culture.

My #LaborDay #Sale starts now! #tiki #apes #monsters #tradingcards #prints #Originalart #tikidecor #pins #enamelpins #pinstagram #FearsomeWeirdos #creaturefromtheblacklagoon #vintage #comicbook #comicads #ads https://www.instagram.com/p/CEo41jcgfmu/?igshid=176gl5ckig8u2

By popular demand, I present to you a fat, middle-aged Sea Monkey. Just another childhood disappointment. . #childhood #seamonkeys #seamonkey #illustration #comic #comicart #retrocomiceffets #retrocomic #comicads #vintagetoys #distressedunrest #truegrittexturesupply #debaser #photoshop #illustrator #fatseamonkey https://www.instagram.com/p/B-aYsMulUFe/?igshid=26w4kvmwuewq

All the cool kids use ComicFury 😘

Hey y'all! If you love independent comic sites and have a few extra dollars in your pocket, please consider supporting ComicFury, the owner Kyo has been running it for nearly twenty years and it's one of the only comic hosting platforms left that's entirely independent and reminiscent of the 'old school' days that I know y'all feel nostalgic over.

(kyo's sense of humor is truly unmatched lmao)

Here are some of the other great features it offers:

Message board forums! It's a gift from the mid-2000's era gods!

Entirely free-to-use HTML and CSS editing! You can use the provided templates, or go wild and customize the site entirely to your liking! There's also a built-in site editor for people like me who want more control over their site design but don't have the patience to learn HTML/CSS ;0

In-depth site analytics that allow you to track and moderate comments, monitor your comic's performance per week, and let you see how many visitors you get. You can also set up Google Analytics on your site if you want that extra touch of data, without any bullshit from the platform. Shit, the site doesn't come with ads, but you can run ads on your site. The site owners don't ask questions, they don't take a cut. Pair your site with ComicAd and you'll be as cool as a crocodile alligator !

RSS feeds! They're like Youtube subscriptions for millennials and Gen X'ers!

NSFW comics are allowed, let the "female presenting nipples" run free! (just tag and content rate them properly!)

Tagging. Tagging. Remember that? The basic feature that every comic site has except for the alleged "#1 webcomic site"? The independent comic site that still looks the same as it did 10 years ago has that. Which you'd assume isn't that big a deal, but isn't it weird that Webtoons doesn't?

Blog posts. 'Nuff said.

AI-made comics are strictly prohibited. This also means you don't have to worry about the site owners sneaking in AI comics or installing AI scrapers (cough cough)

Did I mention that the hosting includes actual hosting? Meaning for only the cost of the domain you can change your URL to whatever site name you want. No extra cost for hosting because it's just a URL redirect. No stupid "pro plan" or "gold tier" subscription necessary, every feature of the site is free to use for all. If this were a sponsored Pornhub ad, this is the part where I'd say "no credit card, no bullshit".

Don't believe me? Alright, look at my creator backend (feat stats on my old ass 2014 comic, I ain't got anything to hide LOL)

TRANSCRIPTS! CHAPTER ORGANIZATION! MASS PAGE UPLOADING! MULTIPLE CREATOR SUPPORT! FULL HTML AND CSS SUPPORT! SIMPLIFIED EDITORS! ACTUAL STATISTICS THAT GIVE YOU WEEKLY BREAKDOWNS! THE POWER OF CHOICE!!

So yeah! You have zero reasons to not use and support ComicFury! It being "smaller" than Webtoons shouldn't stop you! Regain your independence, support smaller platforms, and maybe you'll even find that 'tight-knit community' that we all miss from the days of old! They're out there, you just gotta be willing to use them! ( ´ ∀ `)ノ～ ♡

THE TRIUMPH OF LICHTENSTEIN: the bottom half of the front page of today's New York Times--a Lichtenstein knock-off, of course, by an anonymous illustrator, and not a great ad either, but still. The beat goes on... #Roylichtenstein #Lichtenstein #comicart #comicads #comicbookart #arlenschumer

Image says all #Nerdscomic #comicart #comicbookart #comics #comicbooks #nerds #geeks #comicadvertisements #comicads #comicadvertising https://www.instagram.com/p/B2ehHd8gz2B/?igshid=zpj24rpoyt46

I’m out at @destinycitycomics and Arts Fest at Alma Mater! Today is the official release of Discount Demon Deals 2 and I still have some Home of the Headhunters book and tape combos available! If you’re in the area come yell at me!!! . . #comicfest #artfair #demons #comicads #destinycity #tacomaartist (at Alma Mater Tacoma) https://www.instagram.com/p/B0b0d4hhNwZ/?igshid=1ckuy515o0djb

Bugs Bunny - El Imperio Contraataca (The Empire Strikes Back) - 1 page Kool-Aid ad From Torombolo #21 Editorial Novaro - September 5 1984 #bugsbunny #bugsbunnycomics #koolaid #koolaidads #koolaidad #editorialnovaro #elconejodelasuerte #theempirestrikesback #starwars #esb #empirestrikesback #r2d2 #stormtroopers #ohyeah #darthvader #comicads #archiecomics #torombolo #ElImperioContraataca #jughead (at Portland, Oregon) https://www.instagram.com/p/CPo-IK_BmcC/?utm_medium=tumblr