I post my comics on Comicfury.
Comicfury is... well it's pretty self explanatory what comicfury is! You post your webcomics there, and unlike Tapas and Webtoons, you get your own isolated site, no ads, (little to no) moderation, a functioning schedualing feature, and a welcoming community.
With the untimely demise of Smackjeeves, a lot of old comics found their way here. It's not uncommon to find some real relics laying around. It's even less uncommon to just find... really weird stuff. Thanks to Comicfury being one of the few places left that let you post just, whatever the hell you want, it's also pretty common to find shit that's just unheard of in the modern age. Stuff you just wont be fed via algorithms. Webcomics made with photos of toys, or figures, or screenshots of an existing movie. Porn comics made with some uncanny 3d modeling software. Webcomics that look like they came right outta the 1990s... for better or for worse... I seek these things out, study them with fascination. My love for unconvential webcomics is boundless.
On October 1st, I'm browning the recently updated tag, which is how I usually find new and interesting webcomics, and I see this.
'Tangents Classic Webcomic.' Oh, huh! Must be an archive for an old webcomic! Weird that they have such a modern looking logo though, usually they don't bother to update it. Maybe this time they did?... Whatever.
So I click on it.
This is obviously AI generated.
I groan. There isn't a policy here against AI. The only discussion on AI art we got is a lengthy debate in the forums that went nowhere. I'm about to click off and block the comic but then.. my eyes glance up at the header...
"One of the oldest webcomic cartoons"
Huh??? What do you mean 'oldest webcomic cartoon'??
Late 90s?? Your first post here was in September of this year, about a 2023 headline!
Absolutely nothing here makes any sense
Who even ARE YOU anyways?
If youve been an author for years why is all of your art AI generated? Shouldn't you know how to draw?? What defunct company?? What COWORKERS?? WHAT COMPANY???? YOU NEVER MENTIONED A COMPANY UNTIL NOW. (if youre a company why are you posting on comicfury? can you not afford a website?)
I decide to comment, thinking for a moment. Should I point out the obvious lies? Try and warn the 0 people reading of this very obvious fraud?...
Or...
I can play along and see how long ittle take for the really thinly veiled lies to unravel.
A day passes. I check my notifications the morning after, having almost forgotten what I discovered that night.
Took the bait. Hook, line, and sinker. He's decided to keep this up, linking me to more of his work on facebook and now calling Tangents Classic Webcomic a 'reboot.' A reboot of.. what? Also if this is a REBOOT. Why is this being listed as a CLASSIC. Classic implies that this is the ORIGINAL version of the webcomic. I guess he just means Classic as in Timeless Classic... Which.. nobody fucking does but okay!
I ignore the facebooks links. Instead, I tell him to prove it.
An hour later he replies.
He avoids the question entirely. Instead telling me about the old comic and the company he used to work for. I think he's bullshitting but.. he namedrops a company, and a movie that he has a credit underneath. That's.. oddly specific.. So I start to dig.
And what I found shocked me
Gravitywell productions is a real company. Currently, they make movies.
Azimuth is a real movie.
The composer is Brandon Montoya
Gravitywell Productions used to publish webcomics, according to their old site, and this website that would archive old webcomic posting sites. The old site however, is gone.
So I dig deeper.
Tangents is a real webcomic. It ran from 1996 to 2011. While that does not make it one of THE oldest webcomics, it is still. Old.
With convention specials, made by drawing over pictures taking at the convention.
The author is-
Its him.
He's been telling the truth the entire time.
I immedietly go for the throat.
Looking for my "GOTCHA" moment. In that moment I think that I caught him red handed somehow. But, looking back now, I can see..
He didn't make the art. Somebody called Gravity Works did. The art team at Gravitywell? I don't know.. I can't find any information about them anywhere!
The truth is probably lamer than fiction. An old writer at a production company still has an urge to create, and without anybody to draw the art for him, he just turns to AI. Kind of lame. Kind of sad. I wonder who Kevin is?..
I guess I'll have to wait for his reply...
I eagerly awaited his reply, almost worried that he wouldn't reply at all.
My theory was pretty close apparently. Old nerd looking to create, uses AI.
I could rag on him further for using AI art. I could agree with the other Transformers geeks in that he shouldn't be using it to make fan art, or even comics.
Or...
I think I'll just let this one go.
It is with a not so heavy heart that I must announce that AI comics have been banned from Comicfury
I'm suprised that it took this long, but happy to hear it none the less. At the same time, however, I feel bad for Brandon. His attempt at making comics again has failed.I will most likely never see Brandon again. Which isn't that much of a drag, as the only times I see him is on the recently updated page (he's always there, he posts several times a day from two seperate comics.) Genuinely never talked to him again, but sometimes I wish I did. Just to check up on him. A "hey man how's life?" with the same kind of familiarity as the greetings I give to my coworkers. I hope, whevever he goes, whatever he does, he can still find some peace. Maybe he'll find a different, more ethical way, to make his comics. I hope he can continue Tangents in some way.
I'll see ya never Brandon. What you've accomplished will not be forgotten. Your legacy will live on as a blog post made by some queer furry who wanted to document this weird interation he had with somebody. Nobody is gonna read it but, it's ok.
I'll still remember.
