Sinfest
Author(s)Tatsuya Ishida
Websitewww.sinfest.net
Current status/scheduleDaily
Launch dateJanuary 17, 2000 (2000-01-17)
Genre(s)Comedy, satire

Sinfest is a long-running American webcomic by Tatsuya Ishida. Updating daily, Sinfest started as a black comedy strip in January 2000. It covers such topics as American politics,[1] organized religion,[2] and radical feminism.[3][4]

Overview

Sinfest originated as a four-panel comedy strip relying on dark humor with frequent pop culture references. It evolved into a more serious work covering such issue as American exceptionalism,[1] slut-shaming, misogyny, and street harassment.[4] Wired.com stated that Sinfest "takes a very irreverent view of organized religion".[2]

Development

In an interview with Publishers Weekly,[5] Ishida stated that he knew he wanted to become a comics author ever since he read a Peanuts paperback as a child. "[S]omething about the simplicity and solitary nature of the medium appealed to me."[5] Ishida briefly served as penciller for Dark Horse Comics' G.I. Joe Extreme in the early 1990s. Ishida said that he botched this job, noting that "several [of his] pages were so poorly drawn they had to get another guy to redo them entirely".[5] Later on this decade, Ishida attempted to work in animation, but this path also did not pan out. In 2000, Ishida taught himself HTML, put together a Geocities web page, and started uploading Sinfest strips seven days per week. Ishida stated that he managed to sustain this strict schedule during the first seven years purely through "coffee and revenge".[5]

Over the years, Sinfest has gone through many changes.[6][4] Ishida views his older works as an indicator of his emotional state during that period, describing his early Sinfest strips as "unhinged, totally off the chain".[5] In 2009, Ishida claimed his strip was "still pretty wild, but there's also more warmth, more tenderness",[5] citing 2005 as a turning point. During the 2008 United States Presidential Election, Sinfest became much more politics-heavy. This was in part because of the "collective anxiety"[5] regarding the Financial crisis of 2007–2008 and the magnitude of the $700 billion emergency bailout proposed by the United States Congress.[5] Ishida stated that he switches between characters and situations in his webcomic "pretty much on a whim",[7] claiming that the longer storylines of his webcomic help to tie it all together. In 2011, Ishida started to produce colored strips as well, giving readers "something extra fun and engaging"[7] on Sundays. Ishida remains rather private and interacts little with his readership.[7]

Ishida self-published three volumes of Sinfest in print between 2002 and 2005. Two volumes of Sinfest have been published in print by Dark Horse Comics. The first of these was released in mid-2009 and reprints the entire first year of the webcomic. The second volume, titled Viva la Resistance, covers the webcomic's run from 2003 to 2004, featuring over 600 pages that were previously uncollected.[7] Sinfest has also appeared in the Norwegian comic magazine Nemi.[8]

On January 8, 2018, Tatsuya Ishida announced[9] that he had created a Patreon account for the webcomic.[6][10] Four years later, the Patreon account was removed.[11] Ishida's Ko-fi account[12] was also shut down.[13] On December 8, 2022, Ishida made a blog post stating that the reason for the Patreon removal was that Patreon had banned him.[14] Six days later, he tweeted that Patreon had removed his account for promoting "sentiments of discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation".[15] Ishida had previously posted on the Sinfest forums claiming to have been locked out of Twitter for "hateful conduct"[16] in reference to a Sinfest strip.[17]

Reception

PC Magazine listed Sinfest among the best webcomics of 2015.[18] Sinfest has been nominated for various Web Cartoonists' Choice Awards.[19]

References

  1. 1 2 Rosberg, Caitlin (2016-11-11). "Required Reading: 40 of the Best Webcomics". Paste Magazine. Archived from the original on 2017-02-02. Sinfest has recently become a more specific and pointed criticism of the most toxic parts of American exceptionalism. […] [Ishida's] sharp use of The Matrix as a visual metaphor for the ways in which people are blinded has proven particularly poignant during this current presidential election cycle.
  2. 1 2 Orndorff, Patrick (2009-08-10). "10 Great Webcomics You Should Not Share With Your Kids". Wired. Archived from the original on 2016-12-22. This comic takes a very irreverent view of organized religion and should not be viewed by the overly devout or by the closed-minded.
  3. ↑ Tatsuya, Ishida (2018-07-01). "Take The Long Way Home". Sinfest blog. It will favor the radical feminist perspective.
  4. 1 2 3 Polo, Susana (2013-08-14). "40 Webcomics You Need to Read". The Mary Sue. Archived from the original on 2017-07-07. Over the past year or so, however, the strip has gone through a revolution of sorts, tackling numerous feminist concepts like slut-shaming, misogyny, problematic porn, and street harassment, sometimes requiring great personal adjustments from its main characters.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Hudson, Laura (2009-06-09). "The Wages of Sinfest". Publishers Weekly. Archived from the original on 2009-06-15. The first seven years it was coffee and revenge. That's what kept me going. My attitude was, 'I'll show them. I'll show them all!'
  6. 1 2 Tatsuya, Ishida. "Tatsuya Ishida is creating Comics". Patreon. Archived from the original on 2018-03-10. Hi, I'm the creator of Sinfest, an online comic that's been running since 2000. Over the years it has gone through many changes, to the delight of some and dismay of others. I hope to continue polarizing audiences for many years to come. Your support is greatly appreciated.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Carlson, Johanna Draper (2011-01-24). "Tatsuya Ishida Speaks on Sinfest, Jesus, and Fans". Publishers Weekly. Archived from the original on 2017-02-04. Less socializing means I can concentrate more on the strip.
  8. ↑ Garvik, Bodil (2005-01-14). "Debuterer i Tommy og Tigeren". Bergens Tidende (in Norwegian). Archived from the original on 2011-06-11. Nå fremhever hun amerikanske Tony Millionaires Maakies og Sinfest av japanske Tatsuya Ishida, som går i Nemi [She now highlights the American Tony Millionaire's Maakies and Sinfest by Japanese Tatsuya Ishida, which appears in Nemi].
  9. ↑ Tatsuya, Ishida (2018-01-08). "This Is My Winter Song To You". Sinfest blog. Hi. I made a patreon. Happy New Year!
  10. ↑ "Tatsuya Ishida: Patreon Earnings + Statistics + Graphs + Rank". Graphtreon. Archived from the original on 2022-11-12. Launched Jan 8, 2018.
  11. ↑ "Removed". Patreon. Archived from the original on 2022-12-22. This page has been removed.
  12. ↑ "Tatsuya Ishida". Ko-fi. Archived from the original on 2022-12-08. Buy Tatsuya Ishida a Coffee.
  13. ↑ "Tatsuya Ishida". Ko-fi. Archived from the original on 2022-12-10. 302 redirect.
  14. ↑ Tatsuya, Ishida (2022-12-08). "Singing for my Supper". Sinfest blog. I got kicked off of Patreon so please support me at one of these platforms […]. Thank you!
  15. ↑ Tatsuya, Ishida (2022-12-14). "Patreon removed my Account". Twitter. Patreon removed my account for promoting 'sentiments of discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation.'
  16. ↑ Tatsuya, Ishida (2022-09-21). "Twitter Lockout". Sinfest forums. Just got locked out of Twitter for this comic [2022-09-03]. They say it's 'hateful conduct.'
  17. ↑ Tatsuya, Ishida (2022-09-03). "The Amazing Woman-Man". Sinfest. Wears a dress feeling cute / Punches TERFs for speaking truth.
  18. ↑ Griffith, Eric (2015-02-14). "The Best Webcomics 2015". PC Magazine. Archived from the original on 2017-10-09. Tatsuya Ishida's perfect line work is a beauty to behold […] as is his bravery to cover the topics of religion, patriarchy, sex, and drugs, all in a humorous fashion.
  19. ↑ "2004 Results". Web Cartoonists' Choice Awards. Archived from the original on 2014-10-27. Outstanding Black and White Art […] Outstanding Character (Visual) […] Outstanding Short Form Comic.
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