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.
Totally understood, and happy to keep providing you with those comics.
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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
Posting an opposing view is NOT trolling – it objectively adds more value the sea of ‘yes men’, because it forces introspection on the site owner. “if he wants to make money off of his comics so he doesn’t have to do some other mundane job” Absolutely agree – but the reality is that like everyone else it is a struggle, and when you are monetizing the public … the public has the right to an opinion on how you are exploiting them. And while I am not accusing Tim of anything nefarious, my ads HAVE changed as I do… Read more »
Mandatory reference to free culture:
https://9gag.com/gag/aOQRzQ6
If you are not paying, you are the product.
Moreover, if you are paying, you are not a CUSTOMER, but a CONSUMER. There is a difference. He is providing for both, but prioritizing the CUSTOMER, which is what he should do, imo.
He has been developing these comics for 20 years. Some of us support and not mooch. Some of us have read EVERY page.
I thought to myself… “whoa, do I really constantly whine about money?” So I did a quick search for the word “Patreon”. In 2025: -I made a post in February warning that ad revenue was in rough shape across the internet, and that might mean some changes here on the horizon. -In March I pointed people to the Starcaster Patreon, after issue #14 was over. -In November I announced the schedule change and reasons, and I posted this information in two places, so we’ll can call that two separate instances. -I then posted one more time to warn people about… Read more »
Tim, don’t let the trolls get to you. I followed your comics for >10 years, and they are the first thing I check whenever I need a moment of escapism, so I did not doubt a second to subscribe to the 3$ patreon -it was the right thing to do for you and the family you support.
Ads on the internet in general have become so problematic and intrusive that adblocker is basically mandatory just to surf the internet. So much so that our crappy government even recommends it. That said, your site’s layout makes them un-intrusive so I don’t mind white listing you (just no pop ups please).
The downvotes show that 77 (at the time of this comment) think he’s just being an ass and everything is okay as is. I have both the normal and starcaster patreon because I can afford it monthly, not everyone can and most of the time I still wait until it’s posted here as something to look forward to on the usual post days. If he doesn’t wanna see how many panels the controllerang travels to crack someone in the head that’s on him, you have way more fans and supporters than you do trolls and I’ve never once thought you’ve… Read more »
The website is free, we aren’t customers
If you aren’t paying, you are not a customer.
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.
Your reading comprehension aside, it makes perfect sense to start this now – at the beginning of December when people are in spending and gifting mode, rather than January when everyone is in saving mode.
It’s a well know thing to anyone who tried to sell pretty much anything: products, services, subscriptions… you name it.
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.
I think Starcaster stopped a year or two ago because it ended up being a giant repeat period for the Patreon subscribers. I wish it had gone 1 more month as I requested a Patreon subscription as a birthday/Christmas gift – as I wrote Monday, I am just personally extremely adverse to signing up for optional subscriptions. There are just far too many I’d want, and prioritizing would quickly get messy. Also, what if I don’t like where something went that I’m paying for? It is unfortunate the ad model has failed. Probably under its own weight, in the ever-escalating… Read more »
Yeah, Patreon is monthly.
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.
We’ll just be out of sync. For example: after 10 weeks, $3+ tier will have seen 30 pages, while free and $1 tier will have seen 20. So they will effectivelly be 10 pages behind. By week 15, free ones will get to page 30, thus catching up with $3+ tier’s week 10; but at that point those will already be on page 45. So you will lag behind, but see everything apart from Starcaster and that 1 exclusive stand-alone one shot (for $5+ tier). The comment section might become a hazard zone though, if someone decides to spoil the… Read more »
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.
Thank you, as I´m ordering to europe, I´ll wait for a couple of issues before ordering something physical, because shipping will add 50% to the cost. Print media at least doesn´t have any tariffs for import into the EU. Love your work and did so for the last 20 something years I think, hope you´ll continue until I´m too old to read.
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.
Also, with the change to allow Patreon supporters to view the comics they’re subscribed for on this site, is it possible to also have a private RSS feed for those supporters?
I also primarily follow this comic (and some others) via RSS feed, so if I support on Patreon I’d like to get those comics the same way.
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.
It’s going to be weird for me as well, and I fought this change for as long as I could. But doing nothing was not improving the situation.
Its understandable and although I dont like the change I support you being able to live. At the moment, I fear Ill be lost into the abyss of comics that are months behind, which is quite the turn of to keep reading. But hopefully one day Ill be in a place to support your art.
Forgive me if this has been asked before but is there a “combo” patreon that includes both CAD and Starcaster? Or would I need to sign up for both?
The $3 tier of the Ctrl+Alt+Del Patreon gets you both the 3x a week update schedule as well as a steady flow of 3 Starcaster pages per month, starting at issue #15 (we left off on #14 here on the website).
You should probably clarify up in the main post or in a new post, maybe on Patreon too. I remember you pondering these changes earlier in the year and suggesting then that Starcaster would end up posted to the Ctrl+Alt+Del Patreon too, but when I signed up recently I couldn’t see anything about that.
It’s listed as a benefit of the $3 tier on the image above, as well as listed on the tier on Patreon… how much more clarified does it need to be?
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!
I might’ve missed a piece of news – but just to confirm – is Starcaster now solely Patreon content?
I think it has been for like a year or two now.
The Patreon get it first and votes were exclusive to the Patreon, but they’ve still been posted to the site, the last issue was in February/March of this year.
I apologize if this was answered and I didn’t catch it in the post: Will the completed issues of Starcaster still be included in the rotation (both the 3-day schedule and the 2-day schedule)?
The post says “all of the main comics,” but it seemed to me that Starcaster may/may not be included in that category.
Starcaster will be exclusive to the Patrons, though I will periodically collect them into a book which can be bought (physically or digitally) that way as well.
Even when I updated Starcaster 5x a week here on the site it still took over a month to get through one issue… 2 pages a week would be incredibly long, and delay other content in the process. And it was a somewhat divisive series- the people that liked it really liked it, and the people that didn’t just checked out completely.
Will the Starcaster chronicles still make their way onto this site, or will those be exclusive to Patreon going forward?
All I am reading is “here is how you can pay to make me burn out”. Dude, Have you looked at what happens if you have a single $10 and a single $2 Starcaster? You end up at 8 comics a week, and a poster, and voting to dictate what you do, for $12/mo.
You may need to step back and rethink this.
I think your math is off 😉 I currently put out an average of 5 pages a week of content. (12 regular pages a month, 1 Ethan and Lucas One-Shot, 4 Starcaster pages and currently 2 pages of a series called “Trajectory.”)
Though it is true that I am just about maxxed out on what I can produce without significant burnout. It’s why I had to turn to “make existing stuff into a Patreon benefit” and not “just make more extras for Patreon.”
Man’s gotta eat, but I can’t wrap my brain around the $1 tier. I’m clicking something to see the comic, be it a web site, an app or an inbox. There must be value in the last two that I’m not getting.
The $1 tier has always been an “I just want to pitch in a bit of support” level. For people that didn’t want to visit the site with ads, or wanted to visit with their adblocker guilt-free, or liked getting the comics emailed to them, there was a minor quality of life benefit. It has never been a tier with a ton of “extra stuff”.
Should have been the $1 tier
Guys,
I don’t know how many have been fans for a while, but I can say I was from the very start when I was in college – I still remember the penguin with fondness (bring him back!) for his epic save during the house fire. You guys, Penny Arcade, and TextsFromSuperheroes are my perks on M/W/F!
I can’t make the jump to Patreon for anyone though as that’s the gateway drug to OnlyFans, but I want to thank you for literal decades of entertainment and will support your decision. Now you’re my M/F perk only lol.
Does this mean the ads are going away since you’re changing the business model?
After the holiday season, I will likely ditch all but a couple.
So instead of keeping your word about riding out December comics you decided to give us a gift of riding out the ads instead, nice
Good for you! And I’m being absolutely serious. I’m an on/off Patreon supporter and if I had the means I’d always be subscribed- your stories and comics have been a source of fun for me for over two decades now, you deserve some financial stability.
‘Member when the comic was updated 4 times a week? Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Good times.
I remember when it was 7 days a week.
I remember that too. Then one particular Saturday no new comic appeared. Nor on the next Saturday. Nor any Saturday thereafter. A quiet discontinuance, I imagine due to increased time demands on his end as well as to avoid burnout.
Good luck on the new business model, Tim! Legitimately hope it works out. We’re all struggling out here and you deserve to make a living as much as anyone.
In a smidge of financial insecurity atm for myself so I will let it compile for abit and then upgrade on a day off and catch up on what is slowly creeping ahead. Just hope people are respectful of spoilers ;P
Thanks for all the stories over the years that you have given us.
I’m glad to see Starcaster will still be making its way here. I know it isn’t that popular for some reason but I really enjoy it.
Well, this turned into a shitshow of divisive comments. Did Thanksgiving come late here?
I feel like there is a distinct root not really addressed. People are not comfortable with any ads because of data harvesting. Data brokers sell that shit around, unscrupulous people scoop that up. We live in trying times. You don’t know if you could get scooped from the streets and thrown in el Salvador, citizen or not. Raids are almost a show in excessive violence, and you have no intention of being their next episode. If you do not agree, you get labeled a dissenter with less worth than someone who has actually attacked the capitol. SCOTUS made it legal… Read more »
Okay? I mean, ads suck for a variety of reasons, but the end result is the same. Not sure what that “distinct root” has to do with the topic at hand.
fully unhinged
Found the red hatter
Been reading since 05. I get why you are changing it, 20 years of entertainment has been awesome and i still have Ethan saying “this doesnt happen often but i am the most normal person in this room” as my profile picture. good luck in the future, ill miss analogue and D pad and the star casters.
So…. I now how to pay $3 a month to get the same amount of content I used to get for free. And if I don’t pay I only get 66% of the previous amount of content?
You’ll get the same amount of content you got for free before, it will just take longer to get it.
Comics are going from MWF to just twice a week. How is that not less content?
Or do you mean if don’t pay I’ll get the paid Wednesday comic on Friday then the paid Friday comic on Monday?
That would mean that to get two months of “paid” content will take three months. And if someone pays for four weeks but stops they have to wait a full month to see anything new. After just a single year, the free readers will be a full 36 strips behind then (over four months).
If I have 100 pages, Patrons will get a page every M/W/F. The website will get a page every M/F.
Both places will get the same 100 pages in the same order, the website will just get them slower. Yes, the gap will grow larger as time goes on.
You have Netflix? Don’t you have to pay a lot more for your subscription now than you used to do?
I can afford $3. I gotchoo, big dawg.
I already pay for the $2 Starcaster, it’s unfortunate the $5 tier wouldn’t cover the $2 Starcaster and the $3 CAD-comic, all voting included, since that’s what I’d be paying for anyway. I just hope that signing up for the $3 Cad-comic doesn’t screw up my $2 Starcaster benefits.
They are two separate Patreon accounts. The reason is that I often pause the Starcaster Patreon in between issues to take time to write and prep the next issue. I can pause the entire Patreon so it doesn’t charge people while I’m on hiatus for a month or two.
However I cannot pause a single Patreon tier, which means if I combined them into a single Patreon, I’d be pausing ALL of my income every time I wanted to take a break from Starcaster.
I’d love a $5 Starcaster+ Ctrl+Alt+Del combo where there’s only one debit but I get the most recent pages of both. I’ll sacrifice the One Shot if necessary. Also very unlikely to access the Discord channel. $5 for all the comics all the time and nothing else.
I intend to join the patreon but unfortunately I can’t right now, course that just means I’ll have more backlog comics to check out when I do join.
No more ctrl alt del on Wednesdays? My heart is broken Tim, been reading these for 19 years. I do understand, just sad.
Tim, I’ve been reading the comic since I was a teenager. I was huge into DDR and the comic of Scott talking about DDR being a problem and needing intervention got posted to some other website. It made me laugh so hard, I followed where it came from, and found CAD. This was back when Zeke just got created.
I’ve followed since then, for probably 20 years now.
You can gladly have my money via Patreon since the ads are cutting it.
✌🏻
As much as it’s unfortunate. I get it. I’m glad you aren’t burying all of the content under a paywall though. Frankly 3 bucks a month is nothing.
Recently joined the $3 Patreon tier. Is there any way to view the older Starcaster issues that came out after they were discontinued from the website?
Issue 1-14 are on the website. Issue 15 will start on the $3 tier this month.
so…the free guys are missing one comic. is that gonna make following the story harder? or is that comic just like a freebe and not related to the story?
Understandable. Digital advertising has gone downhill. Most smaller sites like here seem to mostly get ads for scam products. The kind you expect to find on wish. Highly doubt those pay a lot…
Right now i’m dealing with a small backlogs of bills after a period of unemployment so i gotta hold off a month or two before i can start putting aside a small budget for subscriptions again. Should definitely be able to pitch in then.