Keenspot

Keenspot is a webcomics portal founded in March 2000^[1][2] by cartoonist Chris Crosby (author of Superosity), Crosby's mother Teri,^[3] cartoonist Darren Bleuel (author of Nukees),^[1][2] and Nathan Stone.^[4]

History

The formation of Keenspot was triggered by the collapse of an earlier webcomic portal, Big Panda.^[5]

Following the portal's creation in March 2000,^[6] Keenspot was serving over 23 million page views monthly by February 2001 and had 47 cartoonists.^[7] Also in June 2000 they had launched the free comics web hosting service Keenspace^{[6][8][9][10]} (later renamed Comic Genesis^[11]). In 2001 Keenspot launched its own printed comic book line and launched graphic novel collections in 2002 both at Comic-Con International. By August 2002 Keenspot had opened a retail store selling brandname toys and comics, had 50 million pageviews monthly and 600 paying members – who can read the comics without ads – and had published 26 titles.^[12]

Keenspot gross revenues grew from $103,976 in 2002 to $188,475 in 2003 with the number of pageviews largely unchanged from mid-2001.^[13] As of October 2007 it claimed to be home to more than 50 comics covering several genres and artistic styles.^[14]

In December 2009, Keenspot officially stopped accepting new webcomics into its collective. Shortly afterward, a leaked internal e-mail outlined a new objective for the website and encouraged current members of the collective to leave: "On July 1st of 2010, Keenspot goes back to being solely a publishing company... The facts are, you do not need Keenspot. For members on the 'New System' contract, everything you're doing on Keenspot can be done on your own. You should go independent." ^[15]

Impact and Policies

One of Keenspot's most notable traits is that it has been a starting point and steadfast supporter of many successful webcartoonists over the years. More than a dozen comics originally and currently hosted at Keenspot have branched out to become substantial full-time jobs for their creators.

The company says that it keeps exclusive web publishing rights to its comics, including archives, but that other rights are left with the creators. Side projects, particularly merchandising deals, are covered separately. KeenSpot Entertainment is based in Cresbard, South Dakota.

The majority of titles published by Keenspot have been distributed to comic book stores worldwide by Diamond Comic Distributors and to bookstores and other returnable-based retail outlets by Client Distribution Services. Keenspot has also launched 2 podcasts, a cartoon podcast, called Keentoons Video Podcast Network and an audio podcast called Keencast. Until 2006, Keenspot published the Keenspot Comics Page in collaboration with the Turlock Journal and several other small newspapers.

Comics in Keenspot

Active

On hiatus/sporadic

Ended (archived)

Former members

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

• Checkerboard Nightmare: creator co-founded Blank Label Comics
• Darken left in January 2010
• Dominic Deegan: Oracle For Hire moved to ZeStuff on 31 October 2005
• El Goonish Shive joined with 910CMX
• Errant Story became self-published on 29 August 2005
• Help Desk became self-published in July 2007 when the Keenspot servers could not handle the data-based site the author wanted to use
• General Protection Fault returned to self-publishing in March 2008
• Goblins left August 2010
• Greystone Inn: creator co-founded Blank Label Comics
• It's Walky: creator co-founded Blank Label Comics
• Krazy Larry: creator co-founded Blank Label Comics
• Life At Bayside was removed from Internet; later reformed on Comic Genesis
• Melonpool: creator co-founded Blank Label Comics
• Ménage à 3 created by Gisele Lagace and now part of pixie trix comix
• Nukees: creator sold his share of Keenspot^[16]
• Real Life Comics: author no longer felt compelled to be a part of Keenspot, later moved to Blank Label Comics
• Life's So Rad: author took archives down for personal reasons; later released a book [through Young American Comics] containing the comic's full digital archives and all the self-published print comics
• Schlock Mercenary became self-published, later joined Blank Label Comics
• Sheldon joined United Features Syndicate, later also affiliated with Blank Label Comics
• Sinfest became self-published on July 9, 2006
• Sorcery 101
• The Suburban Jungle
• Wapsi Square became affiliated with Blank Label Comics
• Zebra Girl announced its affiliation with 910CMX on July 2, 2010

References

External links

• Keenspot (homepage)
• Comic Genesis (formerly Keenspace)
• Keentoons (animation division)
• Keenswag (print volumes/collections and misc. items from their hosted comics)
• Keenspot Pressbox (incomplete collection of major newspaper and magazine articles about or featuring Keenspot, includes Daily Variety, Editor & Publisher, Comics Buyers Guide, etc.)