Queer Webcomic ‘Slice of Life’ Joins a New Platform for a More Creator-Friendly Revenue Split

The digital comics marketplace continues to shift, and creators are being left in a lurch more often than not. Amazon continues chipping away at Comixology and Webtoon has ended its Creator Rewards Program, leaving many creators out of a potentially significant source of income.

In light of these changes, some webcomics creators are seeking new platforms and friendlier revenue splits, including the creators of Slice of Life. This webcomic explores the relationship between a sweet cheerleader and a sword-wielding anime hero who’s brought into the real world.

On January 30, writers Kat Calamia and Phil Falco AKA Kat and Phil published a new chapter of the comic exclusively on Zestworld, which will be a new home for series content drawn by Valeria Peri and lettered by Garth Matthams.

“Every platform has its pros and cons. But no platform we’ve published on has been as creator-oriented as Zestworld,” Falco tells us in an email. “The decision-makers on the platform really want to see all of their creators succeed and are willing to put in the time and effort to make it happen. It’s so refreshing to work with such an involved team that truly wants to listen to their creators!”

Calamia explains that the team will continue to publish new Slice of Life content on both Webtoon and Tapas, which currently host the first 21 chapters of the series. However, they will also publish “exclusive goodies” on Zestworld, including the five-page short story posted today.

“It’s our take on action anime’s chibi spin-offs,” Calamia explains. “Since our comic focuses on the small moments of life we wanted an ALL OUT ACTION story celebrating our favorite anime tropes.”

Zestworld differs from other digital comics platforms in that it combines aspects of Patreon, Substack, and other subscription services for a one-stop shop where readers can support their favorite creators. All users can read comics for free on the site, and subscribers get behind-the-scenes content, invite-only events, early access to new comics, virtual drawing sessions, and even messages from creators.

Additionally, Zestworld has created an IP Rights Tool to help creators protect and adapt their content more seamlessly, and creators can choose to offer digital commissions through the site in a direct and easy-to-use pipeline.

Both Calamia and Falco praise Zestworld’s model for combining aspects of digital and print comics to create a new type of content creation and reader platform.

“There are so many untapped readers in the webcomic space. I mean there are MILLIONS of people on Webtoon alone,” Calamia says. “I want Wednesday Warriors [a term used for comic readers/buyers who venture to their local shop each Wednesday for new releases] to find Webtoon just as badly as I want Webtoon readers to find the direct market [which distributes printed single-issue and collected comics].”

“There seems to be a conventional wisdom that the reader-base for webcomics versus print comics are completely separate with little-to-no overlap. As a fan of all types of comics, I find this to be pretty incredulous, which is why it’s so refreshing to see a platform like Zestworld that marries the two markets in such a cohesive way,” Falco adds.

“That’s the entire reason that Kat and I created Slice of Life in the first place,” he continues. “We wanted to take the opportunity to introduce our existing fans to the wonderful world of webcomics—as well as to introduce our then-new webcomic fans to the world of traditional/print comics.”

Slice of Life updates weekly on Tapas, Webtoon, and Zestworld.

(featured image: Zestworld)