Our apologies for the block of text, but the rumors about the project have begun to significantly impact our recruitment efforts. Here are the formal three principles behind the group that brings you Ask Pun.

1. We will use our popularity for good. This project was started with a goal of “Get popular, then use that popularity to introduce our followers to other great Tumblr comics.” This comic project began when the project manager found some amazing Tumblr pony comics that had fewer followers than updates, and decided to take steps to "fix” what he felt was an injustice to the magic of pony. If a crossover introduces only 10% of our followers to a new Tumblr, and only 10% of those decide to follow it, then a crossover can currently bring 70 new followers to a Tumblr that might only have a few hundred. The greatest successes in the project have been not the spikes in our own follower count, but rather the spikes in the follower counts of those Tumblrs we’ve introduced our followers to.

2. No monetization. There will never be any sort of revenue on Ask Pun, as the flow of money is strictly from the project manager to the artists out of his personal funds. The project could afford to pay more but if it did, it would attract artists who are ‘just in it for the money’ rather than believing in the project mission. The payments exist to put the project at the “Bottom of the commission stack, rather than the top of the freebie stack.” As the project manager says, “Better the slowest car in the race than the fastest car in the parking lot.” If the pay went up and people were doing this project just for the money, then the quality of the comic would go down as some would do the ‘minimum necessary’ for a comic instead of creating something they’re happy with.

3. Everyone involved in the project will have fun. We can’t be expected to produce entertainment for others if we’re not having fun ourselves. We’re creating a comic about cartoon ponies from a cartoon marketed to little girls. If we’re not having fun with it, then something has gone horribly wrong. When artists submit their comics and say “Is this good enough?” the answer from the project manager is: “Are YOU happy with it? That’s all I care about.”

We’re still doing some damage cleanup from statements made about the project by those who may have misinterpreted our mission and methods. One of our (rather famous) artists made an amazing rebuttal to some of the accusations, which you can read here. If you’re interested in joining the project as an artist, you can find more about how we produce the comic and how to apply here.

Artwork by AniRichie

Script #199