What happened to the Hiveworks Artists Guild? Are there any initiatives that you're doing to try and bounce back from what ended up happening? Sorry if this is super sensitive to bring up or comes off like an overreach. It's just that seeing something like that come out was just so overwhelming that I assumed there'd be more happening to try and help other webcomic and indie creators.
We eventually went our separate ways. After years of fighting for respect, missing payments, responsibility on hiveworks' part, and the hope for general change in the company- we decided that after the open letter, it was time to part. Many of us are still in contact with each other over at Chimera Comics Collective if you'd like to still support the artists who left Hiveworks, but a majority of what we could do was settled months before the open letter went live. We were in contact with Cartoonist's United to help our guild meet our goals (demanding missing payment, offboarding artists who needed help, setting up websites) and we're pretty proud of our efforts over the years. But that's kind of a wrap on how it all went. There were many artists who probably were owed money from hiveworks, and as far as I know, the two leaders are back to doing their usual thing. I suppose if I could implore anything, it would be to avoid associating professionally with Xellette Velamist or Isabelle Melançon (Crow Time/ Namesake), those two were the root of all of the issues. And also to listen to your fellow comic creator when things seem off. Unfortunately this isn't JUST a hiveworks issue- it's an industry wide problem. Lots of folks in creative fields getting taken advantage of, and only so much we can do. If we have more voices and demands for better treatment, it would help avoid situations like the CEO of a comics publisher using someone else's kickstarter money to buy a car with.
