Update Post

I did a discord stream covering the events of the past year or so but not everyone was able to make it. So I will kind of touch on the stuff that we covered last night. 

Background Kupaa Stuff

Kupaa was founded by two people: Hizzacked and Bobbq
Myself and AnimeFlux came on shortly after, followed by DSan and others.
The main artists of Kupaa were part of "Tier 2" of the company.
Tier 2 Artists earned their keep with company chores as contractors.
My main thing was community based stuff.
Hizzacked makes Sequoia State comic on a whim, it's a banger.
Tier 3 were artist who paid for sites and did their own thing.
Tier 2 sites were all networked to one another.
Tier 1 was going to be a site called Hentai Gogo that was public to all.
Gogo was going to allow for shop integration and commissions.
Gogo got stuck in development hell despite me securing funding for it twice.
I was to be the community admin for the site once it launched. It never did.
Kupaa pivots away from art focus to making games.
Jiangs failed game is offset by CyberUnique's crazy success.
Multiple games are put in queue, one of which is Sequoia State by hizz and DSan.
Kupaa brings on writers, editors, and Voice Actors for projects.
I write a book and begin process of getting it edited.
Kupaa grows, has its own discord with Volunteer mods, including Nero and a few others.

Kupaa Fractures

Hizzacked experiences immense burnout personally and professionally.
I try to take some things off her plate, but there's just too much.
My brother dies and I have to go out to Maine to set things in order.
Hizz struggles to keep up, Bob begins micromanaging instead of delegating to staff.
I'm struggling to focus on work, anxiety, and depression.
At the same time, Hizz examines her situation to alleviate her own anxiety and depression.
Hizz having fallen so far behind has stalled a few projects, but company is still doing ok.

Shit hits the Fan

Hizz breaks up with long time partner, starts seeing new guy.
Bob flips out because he has a thing for Hizz and hates new guy.
Bob goes on a rampage, Bans Nero over argument on mod action he took.
Nero sticks up for Hizz and calls out Bob, bob threatens legal action.
Bob meets with multiple people in the background, trying to get people to turn on Hizz.
I try to mediate the situation and heal the rift.
I get overtly threatened with being shitcanned and blacklisted for something I did.
I consult with people on how to move my things over and go solo.
Despite not doing anything to provoke it, I get shitcanned anyway.
I'm given til the end of July to have my things in order, already did it without him knowing.
Bob now actively trying to push Hizz out of the company without me there.
Hizz pushes back, despite her slump the company was essentially built on her work.
Bob offers DSan 100% of Sequoia State if he turns on Hizz, DSan refuses.
DSan gets shitcanned.
Someone, somewhere (we don't know who) reports my wife to child services.
Child services begins investigation of us over a black eye our kid had last winter.
Black eye was from a kid at school, we have documentation for this.
New van suddenly dies, turns out the alternator and battery are fried.
Problem stems from a coin making contact with an electrical point in the door.
Drop several hundred dollars getting issues fixed.
Child Services admits there's nothing to investigate but have a process they have to follow.
Ridiculous levels of stress make it insanely hard to do any art.
Multiple commission files become corrupt during a power outtage, can't recover.
Able to retrace two things from WIPs I had, others I can't.
Myanna pic comes from traced pic.
Rogue pic comes from small piece of larger pic that was planned.
Kalina pic is redone from old WIP.
Ridiculous levels of stress make it hard to keep up with anything.
Lose all access to contacts and resources from Kupaa due to Bob's shit.
Editing on book is back to square one, need to find new editor.

Moving On

After spending time to diversify before getting tossed, I have options.
Legends & Lore Podcast with Tom Sweeny (great guy!)
Legends & Lore: After Dark with McBoggan, focusing on original content.
Different D&D podcasty adjacent thing that looks promising.
Some work here and there for youtubers who need art assets. (Good people)
Other projects I can't talk about yet.
Mini Trial event with Myanna and Kaethe gets decent response.
Event will function as template for how we handle Celestial Tides.
Celestial Tides event is coming, feels a little overwhelming because Sci-fi.
Special Cuirizu Event slated for October, using characters from the spring.
October event is gonna be spooky themed.
Going on vacation til end of august to reset, back to work in september.

So this has been my last year or so, insanely stressful and difficult to balance and manage. Personal and so-called "professional" issues all aligning together. But I think I'm mostly through it now, Bob has nothing he can threaten me with any more so I can speak on it relatively freely. The issues between him and Hizz go much deeper but are more for Hizz to tell. There are active legal issues at play here so she can't speak on it at the immediate moment. But its... atrocious to say the least. One of the reasons myself and DSan were tossed was to hurt her and because we were in the know on what happened. 

It's likely to get messier there before long, but thankfully I seem to be outside of it with the exception of my friend suffering through some immensely shitty stuff while it all plays out.