One of my favorite web comics got canceled
A few days ago the author of the web comic "Wind breaker" announced that the comic was being canceled. I didn't expect any of that, I wasn't aware of any news happening in that world, I don't usually am and that's why announces like this always surprises me. They are cancelling it because he got caught tracing other's work.
Reading that announcement gave me a heartbreak, I've been following this comic for years, I grew up with it and it was part of my routine every weekend, seeing it leaving like this without a proper ending it's sad for me. I feel bad for the author too, obviously he made bad decisions but I also understand that he was probably overworked with very tight uploading schedule as many web comic artist are. It's very unfortunate that it reached that point. It's good that he recognized it and apologized for it, but I know that this leaves a huge mark in his work and himself, a lot of criticism that would be hard to move on.
What shocked me once more is that they will remove all the content from the platform soon, they're erasing it as it never happened, it feels like they are hiding it under the bed and hoping that the room would look cleaner and no, it doesn't. It was a very popular web comic with a lot of fans and more than 500 episodes, I doubt it'd be forgotten, I won't forget it. Are there better options to deal with this? removing or changing the panels? compensating the traced artists?, I don't know, erasing it all feels like a very extreme decision. Maybe it's my love for the comic talking, tracing it's bad after all.
When this kind of thing happens to creators I always have a mix of emotions. Usually I don't know much about their persona, I only know them through their work so I don't know how they really are. The intentions behind the actions are hard to tell, in this case I hope it was just an error caused by the stressing deadlines and not out of bad intentions but I'd never be sure. Even what it's said officially could be not the full truth, it's hard to know for me when something it's sincere these days.
What also bothers me is that there are more cases out there of authors being push to create, create and create at a overwhelming pace without much rest, that at the end, they opt for tracing or other bad choices. And I'm clueless about it, the fact that I was reading and watching something made out of stress and desperation with a smile on my face makes me feel worse. Sadly, overwork it's been trendy for a while now.
Thanks for reading (●'◡'●)