Moving on

Hi everyone. I am going to quit Wooden Plank Studios on July 3rd. That means that there won't be any Wooden Plank Studios content posted after that date. I know this is rough news for some, so I created a video in which I talk about why it's time to call it quits, please watch that for the best explanation I can give (if you can stand 17 minutes of Dutch accent of course). For those who can't watch the video right now, I'll try to give a short-ish summary right here:

Final Pokémonday: July 1st
Final Tuesday Chooseday: July 2nd
Final webcomic: July 3rd

Why I'm quitting

The biggest reason by far: I just don't have the energy anymore. I've been doing this for 11 years and it has been an amazing experience, but the 12 hour workdays, no weekends and constant stress have been slowly killing my social life and having a negative effect on my mental health and physical health. I've been been able to make it work with the help of interns, but a solo trip to Spain last year made me realize just how much I have been missing over the past 11 years of locking myself in an office every day, which is: life.

It has pretty much always been this way from the moment we've started making webcomics, and I've had moments of doubt like this before, but I've always managed to convince myself to keep going and power through the never-ending stress, because it felt like I was building something great. But this time it felt different, because it actually hasn't felt like I'm building anything anymore for a while now. Numbers and engagement are dropping everywhere and the lines are going down, especially on Twitter (since Elon Musk took over), but also on Instagram, and, most importantly, Patreon.

I don't want to blame changing algorithms too much. I do feel like the internet is less welcoming to traditional webcomics these days, but maybe I have just gotten worse at what I do, which is entirely possible. I've definitely seen more critical or downright angry comments in recent years. But it doesn't really matter where this decline is coming from: it all boils down to the fact that I'm getting clear signals that I might have peaked. And I don't want to be in an MCU situation where you've clearly peaked years ago but you're still desperately pumping out content in an effort to remain relevant, you know?

Another reason why I can't go on anymore: there's barely any creativity involved with making the comics anymore. The interns and I have turned Wooden Plank into an incredibly efficient comic-making machine, but there's no time for experimentation at all anymore. It's too much of a risk given the tight deadlines we have every week.

We've also moved offices a while ago, and now we're surrounded by a bunch of incredibly talented artists that make beautiful (and meaningful) work that I've subconsciously been comparing to our silly little Nintendo fancomics and it made me realize that maybe, just maybe, silly little Nintendo fancomics is not where my heart truly lies.

So to summarize: sheer exhaustion + the feeling of a sinking ship + no creative satisfaction + comparison to other artists = lots of doubts about whether I wanted to continue doing this, and I decided that it might be time to pull the plug.

And once I this thought had taken hold in my brain, I quickly lost all remaining energy and passion, which made work even harder. Stuff I had been able to deal with just fine (mean comments, weird things being posted in the Discord, DMs harassing me about how I'm treating someone's favorite fictional character, et cetera) suddenly started hitting me harder than ever and it became very hard to deal with every day. So because of this, I haven't been doing too well over the past year, to be honest. Which probably means that it is indeed time to stop.

Wrapping up

I'm not just suddenly quitting out of the blue though. I'm going to continue making content until July 3rd, which is the day the final comic will be posted. This battle royale arc will be the final arc we'll ever do, and I've chosen this arc intentionally. I wanted to please as many people as I could by giving myself the chance to draw as many different characters from different franchises as possible. A little victory lap, if you will. I'll do my best to end it in a satisfying way.

The final Tuesday Chooseday will be posted the day before, on July 2nd. We worked our asses of to get the mascots done in time so we can still have a bit of a betting competition going on before this is all over, which, admittedly, has made my work a bit more fun in the past few weeks. I'm really enjoying this game mechanic-expansion. There will be six more Tuesday Choosedays to bet on, so if you haven't done so yet, join our Patreon, get in our Discord and become part of one of the three betting teams! I'll make sure to come up with a cool reward for the winning team, maybe a signed print or something neat like that.

The final Pokémonday entry will be posted on July 1st. We're actually really close to having a full dex, so I have been increasing output lately to get it finished in time. I might make some extra Pokémon in my spare time if we don't make it in the regular way, but we'll see. I'll make sure our dex is finished by July 1st one way or another.

As for this Patreon and the Discord: they will remain online for a while longer. This Patreon has A TON of exclusive content in it so I want that to remain available to people for as long as we can. Likewise, we'll keep the Discord up for the foreseeable future as well. When we think it's time to close them, we'll let you know, of course.

This also means that this is your final chance to be part of a Wooden Plank Studios comic through an Instagram shoutout portrait, so if you've ever been thinking about getting yourself one of those, join that $5 tier while you still can!

There might be some random posts after July 3rd to wrap things up, but no truly new content.

What's next for me?

I don't have a fucking clue. Frankly, I'm terrified. I'm destroying a unique job that has taken me 10+ years to create and I'm probably nuking my only source of income as well, so I have no idea what's about to happen, and that's scary as fuck. What's even scarier - but also exciting - is that I'm going to live in Nagoya, Japan for a year (if I manage to get my visa). I've saved enough money over the years to afford a year of language classes, so in October I'm leaving all my family, friends and pets behind for a year to study the Japanese language. I've been doing that on a low level for a few years now, and learning the language is quite a challenge, but I like that, so I'm excited to focus on that for a year. I'm hoping that this will integrate with my post-Wooden Plank career; I'd love to work for Japanese clients or work with Japanese fellow artists. I guess we'll see!

I will also continue to make comics. They just won't be (as much) about Nintendo characters anymore. Right now, I feel a really strong urge to experiment and learn new stuff and discover what I can do when I'm not forced to create the same kind of content every week. But comics will always remain a focus of my work. I can only speculate what kind of comics I'll make in the future. I kind of feel like making more autobiographical, personal stuff, but I'm not sure if my life is interesting enough to make fun comics about, haha. I'd also like to tackle some more... important issues that I really care about, like animal welfare, LGBTQ+ rights and feminism. But as I said, this is all speculation.

Follow my personal account, @abelhagen (on everything) if you want to see what I'll make next!

If you decide to keep supporting me on Patreon as I face this scary and uncertain future, I would, of course, be incredibly grateful, but I totally understand if you want to cancel your subscription after July 3rd as there won't be any new content. I do have to survive somehow though, so continued support would be amazing. I'll also be looking for paid work, so if you have any leads, send me a DM on one of my personal accounts! Hey, maybe I'll even start doing commissions for a while! What I'm trying to say is: after July 3rd, I'm available. Which is something I haven't been in 11 years.

That's about it. Which brings me to a big...

THANK YOU!

First of all, I want to thank all the amazing interns that have helped me run this company over the past 10 years. Fazile, Shewani, Eline, Olivier, Merel, Janika, Luuk, Coen, Hugo, Arnold, Felicia, Laura (1), Cecil, Nina, Jamie, Erik, Bakita, Charlot, Sarah, Elias, Celesta, Milla, Levi, Cyril, Kim, Mink, Laura (2) and Tigran: stress would have killed me years ago if it weren't for you guys and I'm proud on each and every one of you. It's been a privilege to work with talented artists like you.

Another big thank you to co-founder Christiaan, who played an integral part in getting the company up and running and kept helping me with stuff I was bad at over the years. Glad I didn't have to do everything on my own.

And lastly, thank you to YOU, followers and supporters. I still can't fathom why so many people like my silly drawings, but I'm incredibly thankful for your support and humbled by all the kind words you've said to me over the years. I would have never continued for this long without you all. I really don't have the words to express my gratitude. It was my absolute privilege to entertain you each and every week.

If you have any questions you want to ask, I'd recommend doing so in the Discord, because I don't have time to read all the comments on here and other social media platforms.

And once again, if you want to stay in touch, please follow my personal accounts (@abelhagen), I'll be there. And I'd like that, because if you do, this won't be a goodbye at all and I can finish by saying: thank you for-a reading my comics, and we'll meet again!

Love,
Abel