History
The formation of Keenspot was triggered by the collapse of an earlier webcomic portal, Big Panda.
Following the portal's creation in March 2000, Keenspot was serving over 23 million page views monthly by February 2001 and had 47 cartoonists. Also in June 2000 they had launched the free comics web hosting service Keenspace (later renamed Comic Genesis). In 2001 Keenspot launched its own printed comic book line and launched graphic novel collections in 2002 both at Comic-Con International. By August 2002 Keenspot had opened a retail store selling brandname toys and comics, had 50 million pageviews monthly and 600 paying members – who can read the comics without ads – and had published 26 titles.
Keenspot gross revenues grew from $103,976 in 2002 to $188,475 in 2003 with the number of pageviews largely unchanged from mid 2001. As of October 2007 it claimed to be home to more than 50 comics covering several genres and artistic styles.
In December 2009, Keenspot officially stopped accepting new webcomics into its collective. Shortly afterward, a leaked internal e-mail outlined a new objective for the website and encouraged current members of the collective to leave: "On July 1st of 2010, Keenspot goes back to being solely a publishing company... The facts are, you do not need Keenspot. For members on the 'New System' contract, everything you're doing on Keenspot can be done on your own. You should go independent."
Read more about this topic: Comic Genesis
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