What a week.

That is not a compliment.

Let’s get into a frankly rough stretch in another edition of Comics Disassembled, as I write about the things I liked or didn’t like from the week of comics, led by a couple major losses.

Tapas, Closing Up

In wild, and wildly unexpected news, the second biggest name in vertical scroll comics — Tapas — is shutting down. Like, completely, and pretty much as soon as its parent company in Kakao Entertainment gets the word out to everyone involved, although I’m pretty sure they’ve already heard of it given how fast this story spread after it broke online. Heidi MacDonald at The Beat covered the story in-depth afterwards, but it’s a shocking turn for the vertical scroll space as it has struggled to continue its growth, and god only knows something can never max out at “enormously popular” like Tapas with its over 10 million users.

This is a terrible turn, and it’s for two main reasons. One is that it basically leaves the platform’s creators lost — of which there were many, as there were said to be about 75,000 creators on there — each of whom relied on the structure of Tapas to publish their work, deliver it to an audience, and profit from it. Now, who knows where they go? As many people online suggested, this is why it’s useful to maintain your own presence online. Relying on massive corporations who can ruin everything for you in a second is a tough thing to do. But that can provide its own challenges. I understand why so many rely on these platforms.

The other relates to this being even further proof of how destructive the endless acquisition game by giant companies really is. Kakao Entertainment just acquired Tapas in 2021, which was the same year it picked up the web novel platform Radish. The latter was closed last year. Now, Tapas is following right behind it. In five years, Kakao managed to acquire and then eliminate two platforms that once upon a time were perfectly successful, and they closed simply because they weren’t successful enough.

Of course, Kakao still has Kakao Webtoon, although that’s being integrated into Kakao Page for those who are scoring at home. But who can really say how long that will be the case? Ultimately, though, this is a massive deal even if you’re unfamiliar with Tapas overall. While it’s outside the radar of many direct market and even book market readers, it and the efforts of its primary competitor in Webtoon have been a gateway to the medium for many, many comic fans. Combine that loss with how it leaves its creators in a lurch, and this is a painful story across the board.

Popverse, At Its End

In more terrible news that really speaks to the challenges of the pop culture and comics journalism space, it seems that everyone at the website Popverse has been laid off by its parent company ReedPop. That doesn’t mean the site is going away, of course! Who needs people for a website, really? In an official statement given to a number of sites, ReedPop said the following:

“Popverse is not shutting down. While Popverse will no longer serve as an editorial news platform, we remain committed to our original mission to provide our passionate fans with a hub for content, community, and fandom in all its forms. We will continue serving fans through streaming access to panels and members-only content. Popverse Superfans will still get exclusive access to presale tickets, photo ops and autographs, as well as merchandise discounts. We will continue to develop the platform to find new ways to delight and inspire our fan communities.”

So, it’s basically Popverse, but hold the Popverse.

This is a bewildering turn for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that Popverse is, by design, at least in part meant to be a coverage wing of ReedPop’s comic conventions. Oh, and it has one of its biggest coming in two weeks. We’re on the eve of New York Comic Con, a massive event that Popverse has tirelessly covered for years now. Of all the times to scrap their efforts, this one makes maybe the least amount of sense.

One of the biggest frustrations of it all though is Popverse was once a shining beacon in the world of comic sites, the rarest of beasts — an actually fully funded site that would cover comics! — and one that offered so much promise. Headed by comics journalism veteran Chris Arrant and (initially) flanked by aces in Tiffany Babb and Graeme McMillan, the site did cool things up until its end, even with Babb bouncing a couple years ago. It had a deep lineup of contributors that added a lot to the site and the overall conversation, and their coverage of comic conventions was second to none in its depth.

But now Popverse gone — in spirit, if not actuality — leaving its contributors without work and the internet down yet another website that once had so much potential. It’s a shame, and all for reasons that are unclear beyond the obvious hypothesis of saving a giant corporation money when they have plenty of it. It’s ugly for these reasons and what it means about the state of the internet as a whole, which continues to morph into something that would have been unrecognizable to the online denizens of even a decade ago. Who knows what comes next, but my thoughts go out to the entire staff of former Popverse contributors. I wish them the best in finding their way in this increasingly challenging world.