Journal 23: An Important Message Regarding the Future of This Site
Greetings friends.
As you know, the past few months have been challenging as I'm still trying to rebuild with new payment system through Subscribestar, Patreon & Hiccears and support has been slowly rising though not at the heights of when I still had P**pal. I'd considered stopping but when I realized I still had a lot of ideas left in the tank, I wanted to give it another go and though it was slow getting back into the groove when a lot of my time was spent planning & thinking of sustainable options, I felt I was getting back to my groove again, back to my best or even better as you can maybe tell with my more recent posts since the break. The world of Tales of the Vanished feels vivid in my head along with the other stories that I plan to finish, like the dueling Aurael & Mandora tale, the occasional celebrity & superheroine peril etc and plenty of ideas of short stories that I was thinking of illustrating too.
But when I found almost my entire collection being pirated & shared, I've got to be honest... I'm now seriously considering quitting.
I've always relied on the trust from my customers & accept that I'm walking a tightrope by drawing this sort of thing. This fetish, being so niche was always very vulnerable to this as I knew my fan-base will always be very small family, private & hard to gauge any sense of support.
Yes, it's a twisted fantasy. I get it. It's the nature of the game. You put your works out there, something like this will happen especially when dealing with fetish or porn. It's one thing fighting outsiders who want to shut you down, those who are against free speech, art & the freedom to fantasize whatever fetish you have as long as you're not hurting anybody, such as credit card companies and people that's becoming increasingly sensitive to outrage culture. But it's another when you're dealing with supposed fans from within who are pirating your works & uploading them, they don't see that they're hurting the community as this only encourages the creators to stop and move on as what I feel compelled to do now.
I'm lucky lasting as long as I did. I've always waited for a reason to stop but somehow for some reason kept going for around a couple of decades thanks to the support. But sadly, the timing couldn't have been any worse as I'm reeling from my loss of income with P**pal, being unable to find a viable alternate processor to rebuild, let alone finish up comic #6. These past couple of events just felt like the last straw. The stacking amount of issues, it's opened my eyes to the reality of the situation. I'm fighting fires from too many sides, enough to think of retiring Dolcett/Stan Lee style from all this, maybe not cold turkey, but cool off, then return with occasional work once in a while but sadly not in the same regular frequency as before.
Which is why I need to see if this endeavor is still worthwhile before I decide to pull the plug. If you'd like to see this site continue, please subscribe & be a patron if you can for the next month at least, either through Subscribestar, Patreon or Hiccears. This site needs you more than ever to continue to exist. If you need to be anonymous, I don't know what to say other than that it's okay. I understand. If you can't try bitcoin or send a suggestion to me if you know of any alternate methods you can think of, I still thank you but sadly, that won't help me sustain this site.
One prominent creator in the fetish community & a really good friend have supported my idea to leave as we've both undergone the same situation. Maybe it's time to move on to something more fulfilling. And the more I think about it, it is making more sense. While many others, and I've seen the messages, have wanted me to stay. I appreciate the support. Maybe I won't leave entirely, I need some time to think clearly. I could archive the site, & spare myself the headache of regular updates... or keep the ecosystem either more open or more & insular by setting up a mailing list or a private discord room. I haven't decided yet. I'm open to feedback.
Anyway, I just thought you should all know what's going on. I owe you as much especially those patrons who have given me so much.
As it stands, I really hate to say it, but the planned Forbidden Feast Comic #6 will be postponed indefinitely until I find a convenient way to put it up for sale without being ripped off again. Subscriptions will go a long way to encourage me in doing this but as of now, I'll take a month to reevaluate before I decide. At the moment, I'm using this time to finish off my commissions, or post whatever artworks I've left on queue. And that's about it.
Hopefully this won't be one of the last bon appétit sign offs I'll say to you as I leave you with this montage of half done storylines & drawings which frankly, are a little hard for me to look at right now. You just need to look at this & the previews in Journal #22 to see how much I had in store. But as it stands, I don't know when I'll get to them again. Maybe some time off will grant me strength & inspiration to finish them.
August 19, 2019 @ 4:08 am
Twisted, I am sorry to see that you got pirated and ripped off. Have you tried contacting the admins at Gurochan to have your work removed? I know that once it’s up on the web, it’s nearly impossible to put the genie back in the bottle, but I hope you figure something out. It really sucks that this happened to you. I was actually looking forward to checking up on your progress with rebuilding your store, so I feel as if this is a tragic step backwards as well. I wish I could help suggest some kind of alternative. 🙁
August 19, 2019 @ 4:09 am
I’ve replied but no response so far. Thanks for your kind thoughts. It’s much appreciated.
August 19, 2019 @ 8:38 am
I’ve only recently discovered your art, but I’m now a huge fan of your talents. It would be a great shame for our community if you left. To be honest, you are the only one that can do this kind of work to such a high standard.
Any decision you make, I’m sure we will all understand and support. Even if it means taking a break or just cutting down on the work load. Regards
Max
[email protected]
August 19, 2019 @ 2:54 pm
THis is really sad and distubing maybe you can some how encrpt the files and not alloew ppl to download your content and only simply view it online
August 19, 2019 @ 3:22 pm
I do not understand why people do not go through patreon or other solutions. Off course, the price has increased, but to access all this work that is unique, it is well worth the cost.
If you leave, we will not find other artists offering work of this quality, people must be aware of it.
August 19, 2019 @ 8:11 pm
hope to see more cooked feet
August 20, 2019 @ 8:51 am
Sad to read this. I know I saw some of your older stuff some year or so back and told you about it but sad to hear the newer ones have leaked.
I hope you find a way to keep going, I love your beautiful done art and the site. Can´t support you just now. studying without any income.. I will as soon as I can however!
August 20, 2019 @ 8:59 am
That is so sad we might not be able to see your further works.
There’s so many interesting works I have not seen yet. Hope you can solve it and we can support you again.
August 20, 2019 @ 9:16 am
Thanks for your encouraging words Icarusmo. I still have a month to think about it. Even if I don’t draw as much as before, I’ll still think of fans like you & many others who are genuinely supportive of my work & see what I can do to bring you more art old and new. I remember your email, if I have your permission, I’ve added you to a mailing list I’m building, if I ever manage to come up with some better more exciting news & art, you’ll be the 1st to hear about it.
August 20, 2019 @ 2:46 pm
Thank you so much, I wish you all the best to your health, work and happiness.
August 21, 2019 @ 12:04 am
Well, you always have been ripped, it is how most if not all of us got to know your art, right?!
Unfortunately it is the spirit of the time and happens to everybody. You will never be save from this. It even happens to Fansadox with their extended security.
When it is being displayed on a computer screen, it can be ripped, no matter what!
And it will be very difficult to approach certain sites, who operate “out of the dark and don’t care about copyright” anyway.
Some people are just too stupid to understand the simple sentence “you don’t bite the hand that is feeding you”.
The worst you can do is stopping to publish now, and punish your loyal supporters who just renewed their support on a new platform.
The reduced speed of publication was an “endurance phase” already, fueling the question “do I get enough back for what I pay”.
So maybe you should relax a bit and focus more on what pleases you: Drawing, putting your fantasies to paper FOR THOSE WHO LIKE AND SUPPORT YOU…. AND FOR YOURSELF!
August 21, 2019 @ 9:55 am
You’ve made a good point. This event has made me think about building a community of my own fans & followers instead of relying on D-Cett. I’ll put out another update soon and more news on the next stage soon. I remember your contribution & I’ll do my utmost to not let folks like you down.
August 22, 2019 @ 1:03 pm
Hm, not sure if a closed community is changing the problem of leaks and reposts somewhere on the internet. It is fair and OK to generate income. You make great art (from an artistic point of view) and serve a very small community with your special area of interest.
Unfortunately this special interest is unlikely to generate enough income to really live from it.
I didn’t subscribe to get your art, I did subscribe to support what you do, because I like your imagination and I like the artistic value, rare these days!
The bigger part of humanity have yet to understand (if they ever get smart enough even) that all what this “everything is free” mindset is achieving is “a lot of free crap not touching our soul, but less true artists”.
Where have all the great names gone?
Thousands of pages of “beginners renders” instead of erotic art by Manara for example.
But who never ate a sweet strawberry probably will never miss the taste of a real strawberry and think that the stuff that is sold at the supermarket “is it”, right?
One other point: Don’t (overly) feel obliged! The muse cannot be forced, it has to kiss you. I like to see what you draw “in joy and arousal”, not what you draw “because a few drawings are due”!
If the muse doesn’t kiss you for a couple weeks, just extend peoples subscription and call it an artistic pause! Much better than forcing yourself and loosing joy over it. My 2c
August 23, 2019 @ 12:08 am
This is valuable insight. Thank you.
April 6, 2022 @ 7:14 am
Reading all of this now, a few years after it has happened and having some emails in-between, really makes me worry that someone of this caliber of quality and attention to detail would quit.
Shame to those who disrespected Your author rights, but maybe “thanks” to some of them, I found You!
Your art and stories are fantastic! One compliments the other and together they become masterpieces.
I will support You wholeheartedly, and much more when my financial situation changes. Thank You so much for Your work, Twistd! Any connoisseur is blessed to have met Your art!