Tapas

i expected better i probably shouldn't have but i did

yeah and last bummer piece of news of the you will don't you will own nothing and like it since Um, the Webtoon platform Tapas is going to end its service on March 31st, 2021.

Sorry, 27.

Uh, yes, they retroactively did the past.

No, uh, March 31st, 2027.

Um, this was a platform that various American, uh, American and translated Korean artists used to post their Webtoon work.

Um, Of particular note, one of the series that was on there was a series called Let's Play, which got adapted into an anime not that long ago.

I watched some of it.

And they're making some big changes because they're losing money.

And everybody who currently has a comic on Tapas, especially people who had built significant audiences there, are feeling a little bit panic when they wake up this morning.

Yeah.

And my understanding of it is that there was a $33.9 million write down for this rolling in of tapas.

It was a goodwill impairment.

I was going with that joke.

Anyway, so there is the potential that Tapas is going, some of these are going to be rolled into, they're consolidating their Webtoon and web novel operations into their single platform, KakaoPage, right by the end of 2026.

What a

No, there are actually two major changes to the ever-changing digital comic marketplace that is just like – cannot seem to penetrate like the US market very well.

One of them is the Korean-owned Kakao, which is like the parent company, but Tapas is the Webtoon platform that was used for a lot of, obviously, Korean stuff, but also a lot of English language stuff on there as well.

Yeah.

This is one of those things where it's like millions and millions of viewers and I don't know of a single person that uses it.

Well, I didn't have them.

And digital comics, 2011, when New 52 went day and day digitally.

Fucking how'd that go? How'd that go? How'd Comixology do? Tapas, gone.

Marvel shuts down their own service and licenses it out to Webtoon.

right um Funny addendum, I just got an email that Marvel Unlimited is being sunset and wrapped into Webtoon.

So based on our previous episode about Tapas, thankfully, like Marvel Unlimited is not a purchase system.

It is a subscription system.

But...

Is that still going on or did it take a hiatus or anything? You ain't said nothing about it in a while, so I kinda figured.

Nah, they really didn't have, uh, much news on it except the, uh, studio that had, um, what were they called? Uh, Tapas, where they, where you can read the mangas at, they're shutting down.

Oh.

So that's the, that's more recent news that they had.

And then-

Mm

... after that, I think that's when they had, uh, [sighs] I think said 2027 Tapas is actually shutting down.

Tapas is the platform on which they were able to read the Solo Leveling manwhas.

Hello, and welcome to Screen Tones, where we talk anything and everything webcomics.

Today, we're going to be talking about the recent developments with Tapas.

I'm Verithane, my pronouns are she, they, and I make the webcomics Geralt and Witchwood.

And I'm Star, my pronouns are she, her, and I make the comic Castoff.

So at the time of this recording, the official Tapas announcement about the closure has just gone up.

Literally, it just went up like a couple hours ago.

But the word got out last week and the community is still reeling.

A lot of webcomic creators have built a lot on the Tapas platform.

I was saying today that, you know, Radish is defunct, but they're ...

The other serial is, Tapas, is also closing down.

Wow.

But places over at like Ream and Substack seem to be doing okay.

which shady as shit if they had warned people even the day before people would have spent a bunch of their money to get some more points and then bought some more stuff but it really does effectively say fuck you guys and fuck the authors too fuck all you motherfuckers until we end service on March 31st.

If you or someone that you know hosts a comic as part of a partnership program or revenue sharing, anything like that, anything but you are individually hosting it for funsies on Tapas, anything above that tier, you will need to contact Tapas directly because they haven't made it clear that they're going to reach out to you.

In fact, from what I could read, they were like, oh yeah, if you have questions, you have to reach out to us.

Because they say they're going to handle it, but they were not specific about how they were going to handle it.

However, you can read Wild Dog Misfire by the author Young Hyun on Manta Comics.

That one I believe is just a tale of two dudes kind of figuring stuff out in a very violent way from what I can tell.

Not romantic at all, just two guys being dudes, you know? For more from the artist, Hyun Hyun, in a drawing and writing capacity, you can check out Marriage of Convenience 1 on Tappytoon or Tapas and Marriage of Convenience 2 on Tapas.

And Kiels can attest that these are good.