As I discussed last month, the update schedule for the website has now changed for the first time in over twenty years. The new update days are Monday and Friday.
The Ctrl+Alt+Del Patreon will continue to get the comic three times a week, along with other additional content, so I’ve made the above graphic just to help be very clear about where content is being released and when (as of this posting).
Importantly, the website will still get all of the main comics for free, just at a slightly slower pace (ex: Patrons will get Showdown p23 today, but the website won’t get it until Friday). I don’t want to prevent anyone who has been reading and enjoying these stories from continuing to do so. I just have to change the business model a bit to hopefully find some stability in patronage that advertising no longer seems able to offer.
Personally I’m on the “affording food and rent on diminishing savings and no pension” patreon, so I’ll stick with the free version.
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Though I support your survival, earlier you said “My intention is to ride out December with the current ads on the website”, and changing it in the middle of a high stakes situation feels cruel. This could have waited until the end of the comic.
Eh, he can do that if he wants, it’s his comic. Especially when it has to do with how much of it and often he’s willing to let us see for free. And it’s not that mean; You’ll still get to see the ending for free, just maybe a week or so after those who are paying will see it, presuming we’re getting to the tail-end of this issue.
“he can do that if he wants, it’s his comic.” Sure and we as his readers (i.e. CUSTOMERS) can tell him to fuck off if we fee that the value diminishes too far and his near constant whining about money on the site gets too annoying. As for the “high stakes” … these comics with the battles are INCREDIBLY low-content. Most are basically one person throwing a punch or item spread across 4-6 panels. That is it, the entire thing. “how much of it and often he’s willing to let us see for free. “ Having DOZENS of ads thrown in… Read more »
If you don’t like it, then don’t read it. I hope you fuck off.
It is free, because you didn’t have to pay a cent for what you’ve gotten to see up to this point. Though the ads are incredibly annoying(Tim hates them too), the fact that you had to see one or two with each page doesn’t diminish that fact. And if he wants to make money off of his comics so he doesn’t have to do some other mundane job to make a living for him and his family, he has that right and frankly more power to him. It kind of sounds to me like you don’t really like the comic… Read more »
Brother, why are you here? There are far more volatile communities you can troll and get more interesting results
Mandatory reference to free culture:
https://9gag.com/gag/aOQRzQ6
If you are not paying, you are the product.
The author wrote 3 times about it, and every single time it was saying “STARTING in December”.
I don’t know how you got the impression that the change would start at the END of December instead of the BEGINNING.
Doing in the change in the middle of a chapter does feel a bit odd, but we don’t know how is the financial situation of the author, and maybe it couldn’t be delayed any further?
I got the impression that he “will ride out the month”, because I literally went back to his post saying that and copied that part of the text.
And if you’d read the rest of the text around it, you’d have seen that was clearly referring to tidying up the website by removing some or all of the ads, not least because it goes on to say, “and then in 2026 I will look into decluttering by removing some or most of them.”
The bit about changing the release schedule was always starting in December. It was literally the first sentence.
You might want to check that again, and this time pay more attention to what you are reading. Showdown, p19 – Ctrl+Alt+Del Comic Ctrl+Alt+Del My intention is to ride out December with the current ads on the website, since this is the season where ads typically do the best (even if the best of shit is still shit), and then in 2026 I will look into decluttering by removing some or most of them. I hate them on the website as much as you do, and if they aren’t making themselves worth the eyesore, may as well get rid of… Read more »
Might want to go back and read the post after improving your reading comprehension skills.
I’ve probably been reading this comic close to 2 decades now for free, starting as a university student in Belgium. I’ve always read for free, and I appreciate that I was able to do so. But for the value I have had, and that’s still there in the archives, I have taken take a yearly subscription. Thank you Tim, for making my monday, wednesday and friday always a bit better. I hope you are able to keep doing that for at least a decade more. Although if possible, I would appreciate removing the commercials as paid subscriber. As I am… Read more »
He is apparently looking into it :
Showdown, p19 – Ctrl+Alt+Del Comic Ctrl+Alt+Del
Will it be possible to buy the different issues as digital books?
The shop have hardcover + digital, but everything is sold out.
Would like to be able to read the issues as digital versions, without jumping through the archives.
Yes, you can buy the books as digital copies. If you see the Hardcovers as sold out, it’s because I’m not currently shipping to your country. But if you go to the digital books section, you can buy the PDFs no matter where you are.
Does this mean that the website will no longer get Starcaster comics? Or will we still have the monthly block when Tim goes on holiday to see that story on the website?
Looking back at what is written in “Showdown, p19”, it seems like yes, Starcaster is now going to be exclusive to Patreon.
So between the Free and $1 Tier being twice a week, and the $3+ tiers being 3 times a week, will that mean that the Free/$1 tiers will just be out of sync with the higher tiers, or will the higher tiers have extra content? If the latter, I may be out entirely, after all of these years!
Out of sync from the main comic. I don’t recall if that’s all, but that’s the main crux of it.
I have a question though, will there be more physical hardcovers of Analog & D-Pad as well as the Starcaster Chronicles? While I completely understand the necessity of continous funding through patreon, I have a deep aversion to sub models and I´d rather buy the hardcovers later without deciding the story or being completely up to date on it. Ikik total boomer energy, but I´m still hoping for a #3 on both series as hardcover.
That depends on a lot on the direction the world goes. The last round of books I did had to jump through a bunch of extra hurdles because of US Tariffs and EU regulations making it harder and more expensive to move product around the world.
At the very least I’ll always do digital collections, but doing hardcover print versions will depend a lot on whether I can do them and keep the costs reasonable.
Does this mean with the $3 tier recieving 3x comics a week, that in 3 weeks time, the free/$1 tier will be 1 week behind (having recieved 6 comics not 9), and in a years time the free/$1 tier will be over 3 months behind the main story?
Yes, that is what it means.
Webcomic Journal, date unknown… First day without Wednesday update of CAD comic… can feel how my customs and habits are already crumbling…I should know what day it is, but I can’t…is like something that helped bear the day is missing… I don’t know if I would survive this day, all I feel is disorientation and…oh wait, Ehtio! has updated is 3rd. No doubt I will miss this update but understand Tim and understand how the world is becoming more an more expensive. The economic stability forces us to do changes we don’t like, I would like to pay the Patreon… Read more »
This is like on Bob’s Burgers where Bob is hesitant on raising the prices for his burgers.
Sometimes you have to adapt to the times and change things for the better. If people actually cared about your comic, they’ll understand. I know I will.
And so it begins…
If the comic will no longer be ad supported, could we get the free tier comic as embedded images directly in the RSS feed? We save some clicks/taps, you save some bandwidth which isn’t serving ads anyway, everybody happy.
It’s going to be weird after 15 years of opening this website almost daily to suddenly have this change. For anyone that been on this ride for awhile I think the new schedule is going to kill the momentum and that within a few months the different tiers are going to be so far off its going to become a bit of a mess.
I’ll stay on the free ones and am disappointed that you’ve had to do this but no shade to you. Life is hard, do what you need to to survive, and hopefully thrive. I hope this change helps you find that stability!