Jelly Creations: New(er) Free Hosting for Webcomics

Jelly Creations appears to be in the mold of Keenspace and Drunk Duck although quite a bit smaller at the moment. I have no reports on its service or reliability yet but it looks like they just signed up their 100th member comic.

Xaviar Xerexes

Wandering webcomic ronin. Created Comixpedia (2002-2005) and ComixTalk (2006-2012; 2016-?). Made a lot of unfinished comics and novels.

8 Comments

  1. I think it would be more fair to say “unskilled” art. I suspect most of the artists on that site (as on Keenspace) are probably tweens and teens with no formal art training. Most probably just want to “give this whole webcomic thing a try” and will likely become bored with it in a few months when they still haven’t gotten any significant number of readers. You never know, some of those kids may get hooked and over time with practice and careful guidance from superior artists they may be the pros of tomorrow.

    We all produced “bad” art at one time or another. He’ll I’m still some ways away from being able to say my days of producing “bad” art are over. Now I’m a grown up and harsh criticism doesn’t bother me. Constructive criticism that identifies my flaws and shows me how to correct them (anyone can say “your hands look fucked up” but that doesn’t do me any good unless they also show me how I could have made then unfucked up) is gold. I love that stuff. Can’t get enough. Constructive criticism and practice are the only ways I’ll get better as an artist so it doesn’t crush my ego when my mistakes are pointed out to me. Usually I spot them myself but lack the training to understand why I made them and how to fix them (which is why just saying “your hands are fucked up” etc. doesn’t do me any good, it’s not giving me something I don’t already know).

    Also, because I’m a grown up with a healthy sense of self-worth and a very happy, fullfilled life, the “asshole” criticisms (“OMFG!!! UR t3H suxx0rz!!! LOL!!!!! U cant drawzz0rz!!! ROTFL!!!!!111onedittyone!!!!1) just make me roll my eyes and pity the commentor.

    Kids, it should be remembered are generally already pretty insecure and easily intimidated and discouraged. One should always take care with the way they criticize the work of children.

  2. I’m sorry, I don’t mean to. I have a thousand excuses for saying it, but it won’t worth it.

    Hopefully, these kids, given chance, should take up some formal art lessons, or God in heaven if they become another Rob Liefeld.

  3. Agreed. They won’t know if they’ll succeed until they try so I say more power to them.

  4. Looks very stripped down. No archives, no forums, no cast pages, no gallery, no guest strip / fan art sections. No real features just back, forward, 1st and last comic. Comes nowhere near to matching the features offered on Keenspace, or even on Drunk Duck for that matter. No business model that I can see to even keep it running. Still, you never know. If they get a good programmer on board and figure out a way to make it at least pay for itself maybe someday they’ll be the next Keen. That’s going to be a long ways off though.

  5. “If they get a good programmer on board and figure out a way to make it at least pay for itself maybe someday they’ll be the next Keen. That’s going to be a long ways off though.”

    So in short they need a Kisai?

    I hope this works out. DD and KS both need a little competition.

  6. If anything, this new hosting site shares more similarities with Drunk Dunk than Keenspace. There is a voting/commenting system- something Keenspace does not provide. And while Keenspace has the guide, it doesn’t list the most recently updated comics on it’s main page. While it doesn’t look like they provide foums for their hosted comics yet, it’s not like these comics couldn’t find a place to host a forum somewhere else. It also looks like they allow some page customization with the free hosting (at least one of the comics does have links right on their main page to a gallery, archive, links etc… And there are no advertisements (as yet) on the hosted comics, which will probably change sooner rather than later.

    I wish them luck though. It’s at least another option for people who want to have free hosting somwhere for their comic.

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