Bi-weekly blog post #14: Our first "real" Patrons! (Patreon)

DISCLAIMER: If this blog post makes me seem ungrateful: I'm not! I'm really thankful for each and every one of you!

When Christiaan and I started this Patreon, our expectations were high. A bit too high maybe. We expected tons of people to read our comics somewhere on the internet (that happened) and flock here to support us financially (that didn't happen).

We did get some support right off the bat though. Our early Patrons consisted of few groups of people:

- Two of them are our girlfriends (love you Suzy, love you Hanna)

- A few of them are family (generous parents and uncles)

- A few of them are friends (among my close friends, "Supporting Abel" has become somewhat of a status symbol of awesomeness and wealth)

We'd like to, once again, tell these people how grateful we are for their support. Really, you guys rock.

But do you notice anything about this list?

These are all people we know. There was not a single supporter who started supporting us just because of our work. Which we thought was kinda weird, to be honest.

Why? Well, let's put things into perspective:

Our comics were on the front page of Reddit (/r/pokemon, /r/comics, even /r/funny and /r/all) almost every week. Some of the went viral on Twitter. Some of them reached the Discover page on Instagram. Lots of comics were reposted by websites like 9GAG, iFunny, Cheezburger, et cetera. We were featured in an article on Dorkly. We've had THOUSANDS of weekly views on our website.

That's MILLIONS of views. MILLIONS of eyes who read the little "support us <3" in the footer of the comics. And not a single one of these viewers decided to actually support us.

This is probably just an example of how massive (and passive) the internet is. People scroll past our stuff, they laugh, and they keep scrolling. People just don't have the money, time, or both, to stop and support something they like. Which is fine.

But still, since I'm the artist of the comic, I often interpret this as a sign that my work sucks. The fact that the comics go viral in the first place should debunk that, but still. The nagging feeling is definitely there.

HOWEVER!

Last week, the Wooden Plank office was in a huge uproar because of a new Patron. His name is TheChrisD, he's a Youtuber, and he was unknown to both me and Christiaan. It turned out that Chris actually supported us because of our work. He pledges $1 (so he won't read this), but if felt like he pledged $100. I decided to make an over-the-top tribute to Chris and his $ 1 pledge, which you can find on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Shortly after that, a dude send me a private message on Reddit. He asked me if I did commissioned work. We agreed that I'd make some cool fanart featuring him and his Charizard in exchange for his support on Patreon. So okay, technically I asked him to become a Patron, but still, I don't know him personally and he's now supporting us because of our work. I hope to show the result of his commission soon!

So I'd like to believe we have passed a modest milestone. Our Patrons aren't just friends and family anymore. They're fans as well. And that makes the nagging feeling just a little bit less nagging :)

THANKS!!

- Abel