Last Thursday, we received an email from CoolStuffInc that because of shifting priorities and budgets they wouldn't be sponsoring the extra comics, or Sketchies as we like to call them, any longer. Since the deal never included a fixed end date the email announcing its sudden end caught us by surprise. In this blog post, we want to tell you what that means for you as a reader and for us as creators.

First of all, we want to thank CoolstuffInc for the sponsorship. About a year ago, they contacted us out of the blue that they wanted a weekly comic, offered us complete creative freedom and loved the idea of a smaller black and white comic for in their newsletter. We would have never made these extra 65 comics without them and their platform helped us gain a lot of new readers and allowed us to expand Semi Co-op into a part-time job. It was the sort of agreement that you dream of, so thanks again CoolstuffInc for offering us the opportunity. <3

We love the Sketchies and several people have told us they think it's the best work that we do. Unfortunately, we won't be able to continue them without financial support at the moment as this means we've lost Semi Co-op's main source of income. So for now, you'll only get the full-color comics on Monday and sponsored comics from time to time.

We would like to bring the Sketchies back ASAP. There are several ways to make that happen, we could reorganize our Patreon and make it a Patreon goal or we could find a company that wants to partner up. Both approaches have their pros and cons or could even be mixed, we want to take some time to figure out what is best for us and you. 

In the meantime, we want to keep Semi Co-op going as a part-time job and we really could use your help while we figure things out.

How you could help:

Sharing our comics
Loads of people read our comic through the CoolStuffInc newsletters and website. Because of the sudden ending, we weren't able to make a farewell comic leaving those readers without an idea we're no longer featured over at CoolstuffInc. It would be lovely if you could share our work anywhere and link to our websites or social media accounts so those readers know where to find us.

Help us financially
We have a store full of cool merch and you can always become a Patreon! I'm mean you're already here... 😉

Are you a company, or do you know a company?
Maybe you're interested in a sponsored comic, or maybe you have a newsletter or website that would make an excellent home for the Sketchies, even if it's just once a month! Contact us at [email protected]

Sorry to start the new year on such a downer of a post. Generally, we had an amazing 2019 with lots of lovely friends, your fantastic support and great games. This Friday will be the start of a new collaboration that we've been working on for a while now, so we have full faith that 2020 will end up being a great year for everybody that enjoys silly webcomics about board games.

And for our current patrons, thank you so much for your support. <3