It's popular, it's prestigious, it's diverse, it's entertaining, and best of all, it's completely free. Advertising aside, if you're a webcomic artist, Keenspace is the place to be.

But it's one thing to think to yourself, "Hey, I should start a webcomic sometime," and another thing entirely to make it work. Many comickers apply for a Keen account and then, having acquired their very own subdomain, immediately abandon it for no apparent reason. Others post more filler comics than actual comics. Some comics cling to old, cliché ideas that have been done to death a thousand times over, rehashing old characters over and over again. More prestigious Keenspacers, artists that have managed to beat the odds and survive the first few months of updating, make ridiculing any new applicants a regular practice.

When an artist applies for an account at Keenspace, their art submission and a description of their comic are displayed for anyone to see-and to make fun of. Regulars to the Keenspace forums point out to each other dismal art and boring descriptions, quickly weeding out the worst of each bunch of submissions and, ironically, giving each of these 'comics-to-be' more attention than they might ever receive after getting their 'Space account. Oversized images, badly drawn figures, dismal descriptions, and sprite comics receive most of the criticism, as the authors and artists of well-established webcomics peruse their would-be competition and generate pages and pages of ridicule in every thread based on the 'new submissions' topic.

On the other hand, these forum threads aren't just flame-fests. Regulars are quick to take the opportunity to share trivia about such-and-such an applicant, whose style they're reminded of by such-and-such a comic, and most significantly, whose comics might actually stand a chance of becoming popular somewhere down the road.

And it's not just the 'rich and famous' of Keenspace that join the discussions. This is where newbies can personally introduce themselves and their comics, respond to critiques, and give 'Spacers a first impression of the people behind the submissions. Getting started on gaining respect in the forums is almost as challenging as keeping the webcomic itself running, but everyone has to start somewhere.

Not all forum regulars are abusive towards the Cadets, however. If you're despairing of ever finding politeness between regulars and newbies, look no further than the Help forum, where experienced Spacers go out of their way to help each Cadet through whatever tight spot he or she might be in. In fact, any newbie that's polite to the other forumgoers will be welcomed into the Keenspace fold with a great deal of tolerance.

"I'd say the forum is actually very accepting of newbies," says Warren of Spare Change, "and most teasing is of the sort where you'd tease a younger sibling. Unless the sibling is a real jerk, and then we will put them in their place. But it's mostly done with open arms."

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