#Ripsinfest

[hypocrisyofandrewdobson]

Dobson's Patreon: An Addendum to His Monument of Sins

(The following is a submission from @soyouareandrewdobson, meant to be an addendum to the multi-post submission @ripsinfest made a while back. Ironically, this one also had issues when being submitted, so I’ll be copypasting it here with all the images and links originally intended.)

In 2018, user @ripsinfest wrote a multipart series of posts for THOAD, recounting Dobson’s attempt to establish a patreon in 2015 and how it resulted in failure on a massive scale, to the point that his patreon is arguably “a monument to all his sins”.

Personally I think the post series is extremely well researched, rather “neutral” in terms of tone (letting the posts provided as evidence speak more for themselves than the opinion of the writer) and gives a detailed but quick rundown on what went wrong. Primarily that Dobson overestimated his own “value” as an artist and did NOT attempt to give his few supporters what they wanted through his artwork posted around the time.

I do however want to use the opportunity to also point out at certain obvious things that in my opinion (and likely the opinions of others) added to the failure of the patreon account, that were not accounted for in detail and are primarily related to how the internet perceives popularity and Dobson’s inability to understand, how to “sell” and make himself look good to the public.

To begin with, let’s just point out a certain truth about making money via Patreon: To do so, depends a lot on your popularity as a content creator online. That is simply because the more popular you are, the bigger your fanbase is and as such the more likely a certain percentage of people may be willing to donate money to you and your work in hopes they get something out of it, even if it is just the altruistic feeling of having helped someone they “like”. It doesn’t take a genius to see, how e.g. internet reviewers such as Linkara or moviebob (around 2800 and 4400$ earnings via patreon each month respectively) can make quite some money, while other, more obscure content creator or artists barely make money to go by, earning essentially pocket money at best.

In addition, popularity is fleeting. A few years ago e.g. internet personality Noah Antweiler aka The SpoonyOne managed to earn 5000$ a month via patreon, just shortly after establishing his account. But his lack of content over the years AND his toxic behavior online resulted in a decline of popularity and with it people jumping off his Patreon. As such, Antweiler only earns nowadays around 290$ a month via Patreon and most of that money is likely form people who have forgotten they donate to him in the first place anyway.

And Noah is not the only one who over the course of the last couple of years lost earnings. Brianna Wu makes barely more than he does, despite having once been the “darling” of the internet when the Gamergate controversy was at its peak. Many Bronies who once made more than 2k via video reviews on a show about little horses at the peak of its popularity (2013-15) earn less than 300-800 on average nowadays because interest on the show as well as people talking about it has declined.

Heck, in preparation of writing this piece I found out, that one of the highest grossing patreons nowadays is “The last podcast on the left”, a podcast that earns more than 67k a month by making recordings on obscure and macabre subjects on a regular basis.

So there you have it folks: As the interests of the internet users change, so does the popularity of certain people online and -in case they have a patreon account or similar plattforms- their chances of making money via their content.

Which now brings us back to Dobson, who was not popular at all at that particular time and managed to become even less popular as the months and years passed by.

Sure, Dobson had his fans via deviantart, people knew who he was. But the later was more because of “infamy” than popularity and the number of fans he had accumulated online were representing people interested in him at least since 2005 and did not quite represent his actual present day numbers of supporters at the time.

And mind you, the number of supporters was less than 100k, most of them likely underaged deviantart users. And if my research indicates something, then that most content creators with a halfway decent patreon earning need at least 100k+ followers in total. Because of those fans, only around 1-3% will on average then spend money on you, if you actually create content they enjoy and on a regular basis.

Which brings up the next major problem: Dobson did not create content people enjoyed and that in more than one meaning of the word.

On one hand, as pointed out by ripsinfest, he barely released any content at all over 2015 after a few initial months, despite the fact that he was obviously active online a lot, as shown by his presence on twitter. On the other hand, the few things he did create were not the stuff people wanted.

As an example: If you go to a restaurant and pay for a pizza, you expect the cook to give you a pizza. If however for some reason he just gives you a soda, you get ripped off and never come back. In Dobson’s case, the thing people wanted was not pizza but comic pages. But what he delivered was mostly bland fanart, such as of Disney and Marvel characters crossing over or KorraSami. Sure, a few strips of “So…you are a cartoonist” were still released at the time, but not really many.

To give an overview: Taking the release dates on Dobson’s official SYAC site into account, he released around 16 strips of it between March and August of 2015, the last two being “No Leia” being titled “Zip line”

Afterwards, the next official strip released was “Anything at all” in October of 2016.

Now to be fair, there was at least one more strip at the time Dobson released via patreon, that is also save to see on kiwifarms and other plattforms, which has not been uploaded to his official SYAC page. Likely because he simply forgot about it.

But I think that in itself should tell you something about Dobson’s work ethics when it comes to his webcomics. He promoted his patreon in his own video as a way to ensure he can make comics in a timely fashion again for others to enjoy, but in an environment where certain artists are capable to create multiple strips per week at minimum, Dobson could overall not manage to produce more than 16 over a course of six months, which means an average production of 3 strips per month.

For comparison, Tatsuya Ishida of the infamous sinfest webcomic (a garbage fire of epic proportions from a TERF who I think should be put on a watch list) has produced on average 4 strips per week, including full page Sunday strips, for years and nowadays even releases stuff on a daily basis to pass the covid crisis. So a mad man who wants to see trnas people die, has better work ethics than Dobson.

In other words, people expected Dobson to actually get back into creating comics (with some even expecting a return of Alex ze Pirate), but he got in fact even lazier than before, releasing only SYAC strips and random fanart as a product. Which he then also tried to justify as his choice to make because a) he had mental health issues and b) no one can tell him what to do.

And sure, people do not need to tell you what to do. But when people pay/donate money to you expecting to get a certain product in return, they should get the product. Linkara e.g. by all means doesn’t NEED to review comics to have a fullfilling life, but he got famous for his reviews, people want to see his reviews and they pay him for those reviews. So obviously, he will continue those things.

Then there is also the fact that despite Dobson’s claims how he wants to create comics for everone to enjoy and that he aims to keep his artwork online for free so anyone can view it…(his exact words in his promotional video AND text on his patreon once upon a time)

…the reality was, that he wanted to use patreon as a paywall. Something I actually kinda pointed out at on my own account (shameless self promotion) once, but want now to elaborate a bit. Basically at the time Dobson opened up his patreon, he also was on the verge of leaving deviantart as a platform people could look at his work behind. Which he eventually did.

Meaning that the only major platforms for people to watch any “new” stuff by him were his patreon or art sites such as the SYAC homepage or andysartwork. Which granted, he did EVENTUALLY put his stuff on.

But unlike other content creators who would put “patreon exclusive” new content up on more public plattforms often within a few days, weeks or a month after making them “patreon only” at first, Dobson waited longer and did barely anything to promote his sites as places to look his stuff up for a public audience. In doing so creating a “bubble” for himself that hurt him more than it helped, as Dobson made himself essentially come off as a snob.

A snob who did not create content for everybody to enjoy, but ONLY for those willing to pay him at least one dollar per month. As evident e.g. by the fact that as time went by, certain content was never released outside of his patreon at all, such as a SYAC strip involving Dobbear screaming at the computer because he saw a piece of art that featured tumblr nose.

Lastly, there is the issue of his patreon perks and stretch goals.

See, his perks were essentially non existent. Aside of the beggars reward of “my eternal thank you if you donate 1 dollar”, two other perks that come to my mind were the following: If you donated up to 5$ at minimum, you got your name thrown into a lottery to potentially win buttons and postcards of his artwork. Unsold cheap merch from years prior he failed to sell at conventions basically. There was just a problem with that thing: That lottery thing, which he also was only going to initiate when he reached a stretch goal of 150 dollar a month? It was illegal!

Patreon itself has in their user agreement a rule that forbids people from offering perks that essentially boil down to “earning” something via gambling, which this lottery by Dobson was.

(THOAD chiming in here to add that, in addition to all this, he fully admitted he would be excluding Patrons that he “knew were clearly trolls” from the lottery. Which made the already illegal lottery also fixed, so...yeah.)

The next thing coming to mind was his “discount” on previous books of his he offered online, if you donated at least 10 bucks per month to him. Or to translate it: You would get a bare minimum discount at pdf files of books such as Alex ze Pirate and Formera (you know, the permanently cancelled Dobson comics) if you paid up 50-75% of their original price on Patreon already. And considering the quality of his early works, he should have given you at least a book per month for free if you dared to donate him that much.

As for the stretch goals… lets go through them, shall we:

100$: A wallpaper per month. Something he did provide with eventually, but barely. And after less than five of those he stopped to make them overall

150$: Monthly Gift basket Lottery, which as I stated, was illegal and almost got him into serious trouble with his account. Also not an initial stretch goal he made up but instead came up with a few months into his accounts existence. Finally it got temporarily replaced by Dobson playing with the idea to use 150$ per month to open up a server and art site where people could upload stuff for free similar to deviantart, but under his administration. Promising a “safe space” for other artists. Which considering Dobson’s ego and inability to accept criticism or delegate responsibilities would have likely ended like this:

175$: Establishing a Minecraft server for him and his fans to play on. Meaning Dobson would have just wasted time he could spend on creating comics to endulge in his Minecraft obsession.

200$: Writing a Skyrim children book. Aside of the legal nightmare that this could have been (I doubt Valve would have been happy of someone else profiting of their property) I have to ask, who was even interested in Skyrim by 2015 anymore? Sure, Skyrim was a popular game and it had its qualities, but it was also a trend that had passed by that time. So in other words, there was not a market to cater towards here.

300$: A strip per week guaranteed.

… are you fucking kidding me? 75$ per strip essentially? Something people expect you to produce anyway if you want to be considered a “prolific” creator worth supporting online? Imagine if certain internet reviewers would do that, telling you that if they do not earn at least a certain amount of money, they will not produce anything, period, or less than usual. And Dobson had already proven that he can release more than just one comic within a few days, if he is motivated by enough spite.

600$: Starting a podcast with his friends to talk about nerd culture. In my opinion could only work under the assumption that people even like the idea of listening to Dobson and his opinions. Which considering how very little people like talking to him sounds doubtful. Also, considering how Dobson tends to be late to the party when it comes to nerd culture, likely tending to be out of date faster than he could upload. Finally... what friends?

700$: Returning the love, as he says it, by donating some of the money patreon users gave him to other content creators. This in my opinion is the most self defeating cause possible. On one hand sure, being generous and all that. But essentially Dobson admits here he would blow the money people give him to support HIS art on others, essentially defeating the purpose of HIS own account. He also does not clarify how much of that money he would donate, meaning there was a high chance that he would spend less than 10% of it on other creators, only creating the illusion of support while putting the actual earnings/donations into his own pocket.

2000$: A massive jump ahead. 2000$ per month would result in him getting better equipment (as in a new computer e.g.) and as such “potentially” make more comics. Mind you, only potentially.

This goal in my opinion is also the most fucked up one. Primarily for the following reasons:

Lets say Dobson would have achieved the goal and actually earned over 2000$ per month for at least a year. His annual earning would have been 24k, minus whatever he had to pay as taxes and payment for using the patreon service. And what would he do with this money? Get himself a better computer and equipment by paying a minor fraction of it once. Then he could use that computer for years to come while still having over 10k in his account, plus his monthly earnings. And he may still just produce 3-4 comics a month of a series that has as much depth to it than Peppa Pig if not less.

Sure, many patreon users have 2k+ as a stretch goal on their accounts to signify that if they could make that much monthly, they could have the necessary financial security to focus their time primarily on their content instead of a regular job. And if the content they create is actually well made, many people would support that or be okay with it.

But 2000 dollars to buy ONE computer and not account for how this money will add up over time? And that in light of such profits people may actually expect you to create more than you barely do already? That is either a case of narcissism, plain stupidity because you can't look further than 5 feet or just shows how Dobson did not understand at all the tool he had at his disposal.

Bottom line: Dobson, like many times before, fucked it up. He overestimated the potential support and resulting profits he could make, he expected that his name alone would be enough to assure gainings instead of creating content to justify support and he was unwilling to really give his supporters anything worthwhile back.

And while I am sure that there were also many other factors guaranteeing his failure, those at least to me, were his "common" mistakes most other people familiar even with the basics of internet popularity would ahve avoided.

#long post #patreon #syac #submission #very long post #andrew dobson #adobsonartworks #tom preston #adobsonart #soyouareandrewdobson #ripsinfest

[ripsinfest]

Aunt Kate: How not to write a character (part 3)

Previous

How not to add value to a character

Ishida wasted no time trying to make Kate relevant to the story. The first thing he did was create a new setting, a Witch Academy, where Kate, Nana and Lilith used to be friends.

He probably did this so that Kate could interact with Lilith, a very relevant character to the story.

Backstories can be very effective to add value to your characters. When used correctly, they can offer a lot of valuable insight to the character’s current predicament, explain motivations, etc. Problem is that instead of drawing/writing more meaningful interactions between Kate and Lilith, Ishida makes them as trivial and unremarkable as possible, just a bunch of forgettable jokes.

I guess the type of conversation they’re having implies that there’s a level of trust between them, but honestly, of all possible scenarios, this is the best he could come with?

Unexpectedly (and unceremoniously), nearly three years after her introduction, Ishida revealed that Kate is more than a witch, she's actually a Greek Goddess: Hekate.

Sadly, this revelation doesn’t make Kate any more relevant or important to the plot, and while it may explain why the character is so powerful, there are more urgent matters Ishida should focus on.

You can’t just make your character a Goddess and expect that to automatically benefit your story, you need to do something with it! 

Ishida fails to understand this, and makes the same mistake again: 

You know what would be interesting? To see Kate interact with her son. Instead, Ishida simply draws a portrait of Kate and a young Vainglorious and calls it a day.

That strip was posted back in August 25, 2019. It would take at least 9 months for this to be addressed again:

It’s frustrating to see ideas that have potential to be good storylines being executed so poorly (if at all). 

Honestly, all attempts to make Kate relevant to the story can only be described as childish. Like a little kid trying to prove that his/her character is the best by making it super powerful, giving it a shallow title and a relationship that has yet to be explored.

#Sinfest #Tatsuya Ishida #Aunt Kate #Ripsinfest #How not to write a character

[thewebcomicsreview]

ripsinfest said: [Hecate being Vainglorious’ mom] was revealed back on August 2019.

Ah, son of a bitch, it was. I should have checked the Sinfest forums, which are so dead (no one has posted anything in over a month), that the thread for this comic and its two replies are still on the front page.

#Sinfest

[hypocrisyofandrewdobson]

I think he made calculations about how much money those people said they'd pledge and figured it would be enough money. Of course that's assuming those people actually DO pledge, which considering had only about 14 Patrons I think it's safe to assume they didn't.

To be entirely fair to Dobson, he was making about $125 on his Patreon for the first few months. I had a set of submissions that went over his whole time with Patreon, I recommend giving them a read.

#andrew dobson #tom preston #patreon #ripsinfest #submission #adobsonartworks #adobsonart #ask #anonymous

[ripsinfest]

Aunt Kate: How not to write a character (part 2)

Previous

How not to resolve a conflict

Steal: to take (the property of another or others) without permission or right, especially secretly or by force.

At one point in the story we learn that Kate is having financial issues.

Now, a competent writer would actually show Kate struggling financially. Maybe have The Witch Inn in a state of decay, or Kate unable to buy stuff (like a broom, a cauldron, anything) because she can’t afford it.

Unsurprisingly, Ishida uses a lazier simpler approach:

What does Kate do in order to save her business? She starts stealing from any unfortunate soul who happens to be in her forest. 

You know, things you’d expect from a villain/bad guy, not a character the author wants you to root for.

It’s impossible to justify something like this, and yet, Kate never suffers any kind of repercussions for her actions, she gets to keep all of her victims’ money while the three Fembots mock their victims and celebrate. To make matters worse, the ending implies that there will be more victims. What kind of messed up conclusion is this?

After further analysis, there may be more to this story than Ishida is willing to admit.

AdmiralTigelle sums it up pretty well:

As I put this in, I realized something I hadn't before which is an even harsher slap to the face of anyone who ever donated to Tatsuya's patreon. Keep in mind he started his Patreon in January of 2018. Tatsuya, portraying his former supporters as Johnbie's, wrote these strips:

https://www.sinfest.net/view.php?date=2018-08-14 (His fans telling him what to change)

https://www.sinfest.net/view.php?date=2018-08-15 (Tatsuya denouncing his old fans via mouthpiece)

https://www.sinfest.net/view.php?date=2018-08-16 (Tatsuya taking the money from his former supporters)

https://www.sinfest.net/view.php?date=2018-08-17 (Another mock)

https://www.sinfest.net/view.php?date=2018-08-18 (A final diss to his former Patreon supporters and a command to leave)

What a douche

Source

Coincidence or not, this is a terrible story and a good way to make your character unlikeable. Up until that point I simply thought that Kate was merely unremarkable/forgettable. This story is what made me dislike her.

In a shocking twist, Kate would eventually find success. 

Despite struggling to land customers for nearly three years, The Witch Inn suddenly became popular among witches. No explanations offered.

I’m sure this was done intentionally by Ishida as some sort of damage control after that childish outburst. I believe he realized (a little too late) that stealing is wrong, or maybe he was advised by his fans that stealing from innocent bystanders didn’t paint his characters in a good light.

The reasoning behind this decision was most likely to absolve Kate from her crimes. He returned back to the root of the problem (money), and gave Kate the customers she needed (which is what he should’ve aimed for in the first place), that way there wouldn’t be any need to steal.

Sadly for Ishida, that’s not how things work. You can’t just present a conflict and resolve it offscreen without offering any kind of explanation, that’s not how storytelling works. At the same time, this doesn’t absolves Kate for her crimes. Yeah, I can assume that she no longer steals from Johnbies because there’s no need to, but that’s not enough to redeem the character.

Overall, Ishida had the opportunity to paint Kate in a more sympathetic light (2 years late) by creating a conflict a lot of people are forced to go through. Sadly, due to his pride and ego, rather than make a satisfactory story where he could make Kate more relatable/likeable, he chose to resolve the conflict poorly just for the sake of mocking his own fanbase. 

To quote AdmiralTigelle, what a douche...

Next

#Sinfest #Tatsuya Ishida #Aunt Kate #Ripsinfest #How not to write a character

[ripsinfest]

Aunt Kate: How not to write a character (part 1)

Ever since her introduction, Aunt Kate has been a baffling addition to the cast and I do not understand why she’s in the comic.

I have a theory that she’s merely a replacement for Nana, Xanthe’s grandmother. Ishida had toyed with the idea of adding witches since 2015, but I guess he thought that an old lady who owns a bakery seemed too bland when compared to a younger, more attractive witch who lived in the middle of the woods.

It makes sense when you think about it, both characters are witches, they have their own respective businesses (Nana a bakery and Kate an Inn), and both characters have hosted characters who were running away (Nana hosted Fuchsia when she escaped from the mansion while Kate hosted Liberty and her Fembot after an accident).

Replacement or not, spooky Aunt Kate is easily one of the worst additions to the comic and a very good example of how NOT to write a character.

In this article we’ll explore three very important subjects:

How not to introduce a character

Ishida gets two things right during Kate’s introduction: the setting and her design. He does a good job creating a creepy atmosphere that would scare anyone, and I think he did a good job with Kate’s design, she looks pretty cool.

Generally speaking, when introducing a new character you need to give your audience a reason to like it, root for it and look forward to future appearances. At the same time, when writing a story, the last thing you want to do bore your audience, make them feel that you’re wasting their time. Ishida fails two achieve any of this, as he does a bad job making Kate interesting or even likeable, and the pacing is a complete mess, this introduction didn’t need to last two weeks.

Like I mentioned, Ishida does a good job in the first half of the strip setting up the spooky theme, however the second half is wasted on Kate walking down the stairs. He probably wanted to build tension and give the three Fembots a reason to fear her presence, but the setting alone was more than enough to get that reaction.

While Kate does have valid reasons to distrust the three Fembots, a single strip was more than enough for her to inspect them. Instead, Ishida makes this whole sequence as excruciatingly slow as possible. Things go from bad to worse when we get this:

I’m not kidding, it’s been only three pages,and Ishida decided to move the story somewhere else. The fact that Kate wants DevilTech destroyed does not justify these pages as they have absolutely nothing to do with the character. It would take an entire week to get back to Kate. Was it worth it, though? Not really, all she does is prepare some tea while her Fembots look for a charging station. Easily one of the most unremarkable introductions I’ve seen in my life.

I mean, does anyone remember when the character interactions were actually funny and/or interesting?

Back when their actions revealed more about their personalities...

Instead, now we get this:

I mean, what the hell am I supposed to get from this? That she likes tea?

When you think about it, even Xanthe’s introduction was better handled...

... in a single strip we’re told everything we need to know about her character: a little girl who is passionate for feminism.

Next

#Sinfest #Tatsuya Ishida #Aunt Kate #RipSinfest #How not to write a character

[hypocrisyofandrewdobson]

You should add the 'I am a Monument For Your Sins' multipart submission post by ripsinfest to the masterpost! I was reading this the other day and am not sure I ever had before, or it had been a while. Itdoes a great job chronicling Dobson's bumbling of himself, ill treatment of fans, and of course, his Patreon, and does also do a great job showing the kind of person he is; lazy, stubborn , unappreciative and going no where, all by his own choice.

That’s a good idea. @ripsinfest did a great job with the whole thing. It’s definitely worth a read to see how things typically play out for Dobson when he’s trying to do something for fame/attention.

#ask #anonymous #andrew dobson #tom preston #adobsonartworks #adobsonart #ripsinfest

[ripsinfest]

When your TRUE and HONEST fanbase doesn’t give a damn about your comic.

#Sinfest #20th anniversary #Tatsuya Ishida #RipSinfest #Beerus #Whis

[ripsinfest]

A convoluted story versus a simple story

As per tradition, year 2018 ended with a story featuring a personification of the current year. Unsurprisingly, despite being highly inebriated, XVIII managed to easily defeat her enemy, a giant pimp robot.

Despite the damages it suffered, the robot was still functional and, due to the amount of resources they invested on it, a very valuable asset for DevilTech. They immediately dispatched some Drones to recover the remains of the giant robot. 

The Rogue Fembots also took notice of this and, knowing full well that they could use it for their own purposes, arrived for their prize.

Those strips were posted back in January 2019. It’s been a year already and there hasn’t been a single mention or even a reference of this incident. No News Channel reporting this, no reactions from the witnesses, nothing at all.

Even Seymour, who was at the scene, seems to be unaware of this. Next time we see him he’s making crispy treats for Lil’E and Tangerine.

I’m willing to bet that most readers don’t even remember this happened. I’d hardly blame them, at this point the story is so convoluted it’s easy to forget/dismiss events like this.

One of the biggest issues with the current Sinfest is the amount of storylines it has to deal with at the same time. Back in the day Ishida focused all his attention in a single storyline and concluded it satisfactorily. 

A good example is Slick’s first date:

No pointless distractions, no additional storylines, no frustrating cliffhanger, from December 24, 2001 until January 13, 2002 it was all about Slick and his date.

Another good example is Criminy’s date with Amber:

There are some strips featuring Monique and Slick discussing the possible outcome of the date, their expectations, etc. It’s actually funny to see these two argue and it doesn’t feel like a waste of time because their discussion is related to Criminy’s date.

To quote Mr. Plinkett in his Star Wars: The Phantom Menace review:

“Ironically the simplest endings of the first two movies (A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back) with the least locations and events are vastly more interesting because the plot is built up to them and we can focus on the one thing.”

It’s not impossible to have multiple storylines in a comic, with good organization a competent writer can make it work, but the way Ishida is handling it is beyond awful. 

Like I mentioned at the beginning, we have the rogue Fembots with their new acquisition, Woke TV (which even to this date I don’t understand what’s the point of it), Lil’E and Tangerine at the mansion, Vainglorious preparing his personal army, Lilith’s ghost appearing at Lil’E’s house, Lil’E’s puppy getting captured and sent to the city pound, Amber offering Fuchsia an opportunity to host her own show, a zombie prostitute, the new pimp trying to capture Liberty, XIX fighting a zombie pimp... it’s just a mess.

There’s simply no way Ishida will wrap all these storylines anytime soon. He’ll probably create even more boring characters, introduce themes that won’t matter at all, write even more storylines with tons of pointless strips, you know, things you’d expect from an amateur, not a man who has been in the comic industry for more than a decade.

#Sinfest #Tatsuya Ishida #Ripsinfest #Story

[ripsinfest]

Master List

1. Introduction

2. Slick

3. Sleaze

4. Seymour / Xanthe

5. Miko

6. Vainglorious

#Sinfest #Masterpost #Ripsinfest

[ripsinfest]

Today Sinfest is officially 20 years.

#Sinfest #Tatsuya Ishida #Ripsinfest #20 years

[hypocrisyofandrewdobson]

So, I know this whole blog is about warning people about Dobson but...you mind letting people know about how fucking horrible Sinfest has become, what with Ishida revealing he's a TERF?

There actually used to be a tumblr dedicated to doing that under the name “ripsinfest”, but it appears to have been deleted recently.

But yeah, I’ve heard how that series just took a hard drop in writing quality all of a sudden.

#ask #totallynotfour #andrew dobson #tom preston #adobsonartworks #sinfest

[hypocrisyofandrewdobson]

I am a monument to all your sins - Part 1

If you asked Andrew the reason why his Patreon failed, no doubt in my mind he would blame the trolls. His most likely excuse is that since trolls leaked all of his art, he lost all his potential customers.

Andrew noticed that many artists on DeviantArt started earning a good amount of money on that platform, so it was only a matter of time for Andrew to take interest on it.

He announced his intentions to start a Patreon on January 12, 2015, something that was met with disbelief and skepticism. It wasn’t even a year since the commission affair, so people immediately voiced their opinion, seeing that Dobson had learned nothing from that past experience.

Alternative pic link

Dobson already had a shady reputation when it came to commissions. 

What made the Samus/Ridley commission so unique is that it truly exposed Dobson’s lack of commitment with his customers. Dobson tried to do some damage control and paint himself as the real victim, but at that point it didn’t really matter, the damage was already done.

In recent years, Dobson has revealed that he was going through a lot during that period of time. Apparently he lost a job and at the same time had a trip which he couldn’t reschedule. The authenticity of those claims is debatable, but even if that’s the case, why did he accept to do commissions if he was going through so much? Even being kind to him and assume that all those events happened AFTER he accepted the commission, the fact that he barely bothered to communicate with his customer and explain that there could be some possible delays came as unprofessional.

After the Patreon announcement, people explained to Dobson that in order for him to succeed, he needed better organization, commit himself to make art on a regular schedule. Sadly, all that advice was swiftly ignored by Dobson. 

Alternative pic link

People were already making money, why shouldn’t I?

“This post along with a few following were all a submission by ripsinfest chronicling the beginning and essentially ending of Dobson’s Patreon. I will do my best to add links at the top and bottom of each submission to like to the previous and following. If anything else needs correcting, please let me know.” -THOAD

Part 2

#submission #andrew dobson #tom preston #adobsonartworks #patreon

[hypocrisyofandrewdobson]

I am a monument to all your sins - Part 6

Part 5

“This post along with a few following were all a submission by “ripsinfest” chronicling the beginning and essentially ending of Dobson’s Patreon. I will do my best to add links at the top and bottom of each submission to like to the previous and following. If anything else needs correcting, please let me know.” -THOAD

Following his exile from DeviantArt, Dobson would continue to post fanart on his Patreon. He would also post his first wallpaper as per his obligations with the site. Despite blaming most of his problems on DeviantArt, he would continue to paint himself as a helpless victim on Twitter. 

Things took a turn for the worse when he posted some disturbing tweets where he implied that he would commit suicide. Fortunately nothing happened, but his lack of remorse for scaring everyone and his refusal to apologize for suicide baiting left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth. This would be the last time his fans patience would be tested.

It’s on August when Dobson reached his $150 dollar milestone goal. For the first time in 6 months he would try something new: an animation where Korra proposes to Asami. The animation received mixed reviews at best, but trying something new was appreciated. Too bad this would be the last animation he would do in years.

To make matters worse, this would be the last time he would reach a milestone on his Patreon. Taking his fans, early success and art skills for granted would finally take a toll on Andrew.

Dobson’s donations going up and down was nothing new to him, those were normally trolls pledging to his Patreon. To his horror, September 2015 marks the first time actual fans/supporters would remove their donations. Despite his best attempts, Dobson’s Patreon would never recover from this. This also marks the first and only month where he would send a gift basket to a random fan. According to him, the gift basket would contain stickers, sketches and some of his merchandise.

It was on October 2015 when Dobson tried to test his luck with Inktober. While his pieces were met with positive reactions, he couldn’t help but express his frustration towards the positive reception he got. The fact that “mere sketches that only took a few minutes” would receive better reactions when compared to other pieces where he spent more time and effort was insulting to him. His opinion didn’t sit well with the fans.

Dobson chose November as the Korrasami month. 

This particular piece caught the attention of his critics:

Back on May, Andrew drew SYAC – No Morals, where he mocked one of his customers for the mere suggestion that he grabbed a background from the internet instead of drawing one himself. When analyzing this Korrasami fanart, users noticed that the background wasn’t made by Andrew, he just grabbed an image he found on the internet and added some filters on it. Unable to defend his actions, Dobson responded furiously by telling everyone to “GO OUTSIDE”.

December 2015 is the last month Dobson would ever make a wallpaper for Patreon. He also announced that commissions were open, but it’s unknown even to this date if anyone bothered to contact him.

With his Patreon earnings slowly disappearing, a demoralized Dobson would only post a single Star Wars comic on January 2016. By the end of the month he would feature Mayberry, a Minecraft map he had worked on. All the warnings he had received a year earlier would return to haunt him.

By February 2016, his Patreon would drop even further, he was no longer earning $100 dollars per month. Trying something new for that month in an attempt to recover from the stress, he chose to upload some Video Blogs where he would play some video games and discuss several topics. He would play games such as Skyrim, Minecraft, Firewatch, a TLOZ ROM where you get to play as Zelda, etc. After uploading the first batch of videos, some users provided him with advice on how to make his videos better. Dobson made it clear that he wasn’t doing “Let’s Play” videos, they were personal Vlogs, and he promptly ignored their advice.

During the following months, he chose to try new things, like 3D Spaceship models from Star Trek, his dream Arcade Shop, some Minecraft shorts, etc. Sadly, this wasn’t enough for him to recover his former Patreon supporters and gain new ones.

In August 2016, refusing to take any responsibility for his current predicament, Andrew had a short meltdown on Twitter.

Determined to succeed, Dobson would try one last time to earn his former supporters by participating on Inktober 2016, but not before announcing his hatred towards that activity, and making it abundantly clear that he would break all the established rules. Enter Plebcomics…

Conclusion

#submission #andrew dobson #tom preston #adobsonartworks #patreon