The Toonsup Community

What is toonsUp?

In November 2017, little toonsUp saw the light of day for the first time. Since then, it is a constantly growing platform for comic artists, cartoon artists and various other artists from different styles of illustration. toonsUp is a melting pot of creative ideas. The community unseals a variety of opportunities for you, which you wouldn’t have in the jungle of the free market. Moreover, you can use our platform just for the presentation of your work.

Since April 2015, toonsUp is a registered non-profit association, that supports the interests of it’s community through the active members.

On our platform, we cultivate a friendly and constructive communication. For this purpose, we developed a sophisticated netiquette. You’ll find it below our GTC.

toonsUp is international. All functions are available in German and English, with more languages to come.

The usage of our platform is for free, due to the financial support of our members and donators. You – as an artist – do not have to pay any provision or vest the rights in us (or anybody), for the case that you conclude any contract through our platforms.

What are the advantages of using toonsUp?

As a professional cartoonist, why should you post your comics and cartoons?

toonsUp makes you more famous!

toonsUp makes sure that you and your work will be found more often on the web. We achieve this by constantly optimizing our artists' pages for search engines like Google. Through this so-called Search Engine Optimization (SEO) your works appear at the top of their search results.

toonsUp is not time-consuming!

Uploading a few sample works will only cost you a few minutes. If you want, you can leave it at that and have another valuable page link through which many new visitors will find you.

toonsUp gets you more jobs!

toonsUp has become a permanent contact point for clients from the various media sectors. Artists who present themselves here increase their chances of being found more quickly and of receiving commissions. In the very active toonsUp forum, there is a special board where clients can post their orders. Everyone is welcome to apply here. Many orders are also awarded by private request to the artist(s).

toonsUp is international!

toonsUp is popular not only in German-speaking countries but also internationally. Our artists and users come from all corners of the world, from New York to Bangladesh. Thus, the platform offers you the opportunity to present your work to an international audience. The whole website is completely available in English and will be translated into other languages step by step.

toonsUp leaves you all rights to your work!

In comparison to other popular platforms, you completely keep your rights to your work. You do not vest any rights in us or anybody, when uploading your work. We also do not take any commission if publishing contracts or similar opportunities are realized using toonsUp.

 

Why should you as a beginner or hobby artist publish your comics and cartoons here?

On toonsUp you get an audience!

We are a highly active community where you will get a lot of feedback on your work. You'll be amazed at how quickly and how many comments other members post about your work. This is much more than you will receive with a private blog or homepage page.

The platform is characterized by the pleasant atmosphere between the artists. Everyone benefits from the well-meaning and constructive criticism that is exchanged via toonsUp.

toonsUp publishes your comcis and cartoons!

We also publish your work in traditional media like magazines and comic anthologies. Periodically, we print booklets to certain topics. You can browser our store for our latest publications if you’re interested.

We also organize exhibitions, meetings and stands at the most important trade fairs of our profession.

toonsUp offers you your own homepage!

You do not have your own homepage? Then toonsUp is your solution! Here you get your own page without any additional effort when you upload your first work.

toonsUp inspires you!

Our community is a melting pot of creative ideas. No more fear of a blank sheet! The work of hundreds of artists encourages you to new creative approaches.

toonsUp lets you shape the community!

We constantly enhance toonsUp – and you are welcome to help shaping the community! Much more than most other platforms, we involve our cartoonists in the further development. toonsUp itself is the result of suggestions from users and moreover our forum invites you to actively participate in discussing new ideas. So don't hesitate and write us what you like and what is still missing to the artist’s platform of your dreams!

toonsUp is a strong community!

...and much more than just a presentation platform for comics. Besides the various possibilities to interact online, we also organize regular meetings. There you can get to know each other ‘in real', talk about whatever you want and, above all, draw a lot together.

toonsUp is very easy to use!

Uploading comics is very easy at toonsUp. We put a lot of work into making our site easy to use. After all, cartoonists are not computer experts and so you have your first comic online in a few minutes.

Were those enough convincing arguments? Be part of our community and try it out for yourself!

Why should you register here if you are interested in comics or are a fan of comics?

You can set up toonsUp according to your preferences!

Once you are registered, you can create your personal profile and subscribe to your favorite artists. Their new works will then be displayed on your home page. You can also add cartoons and comics you particularly like to your private collection. Contrary, you can also completely hide artists you do not like.

toonsUp becomes the perfect place to relax and have fun especially for you.

toonsUp is original and inventive!

You will hardly find a more diverse collection of comics & cartoons than here. Anyone can publish on toonsUp. The works are not subject to any kind of selection or censorship. In addition to works in the style of classic publishers, you will also find absolutely unusual, incredible, abysmal or playful comics on toonsUp, which you won't find anywhere else.

Okay, we already have a few rules: You can find them in our GTCs and netiquette.

Surely there is something that appeals to you in particular!

toonsUp is inexhaustible!

Thousands of great comics, cartoons and illustrations are waiting for you to discover on our site - and every day several new ones are added. Browse through this treasure and let yourself be surprised again and again. Use the convenient search mask to find cartoons and comics on specific topics and search terms in a flash.

There's pretty much no topic in our works that doesn't have a comic. Try it out!

toonsUp puts you in touch!

Once you are registered, you can send any cartoon to friends and colleagues. Surprise them with an original cartoon and your own saying.

After registering, you can also comment and rate each work and give feedback to your favorite artists. You may also have suggestions on how individual stories could be continued, or you may want to ask how on earth someone came up with a certain idea.

Or you can exchange ideas with other readers.

Chatting on toonsUp is simply fun!

Who invented toonsUp?

Inventors, administrators and programmers of toonsUp were the childhood-friends and comic enthusiasts Martin Sander (Made) and Ronald Markworth (Ron) from Berlin. They are themselves enthusiastic comic and cartoon artists, although they have never made this their profession.

"For us, the question at the beginning was: Why is there no internet community where a lively exchange between cartoonists and readers can take place, where new ideas can develop, where everyone can create their own homepage with a few clicks, where everyone can participate at all?”

Instead of waiting for someone else to do it, we took this project into our own hands. With all the know-how of long-time web developers and project managers, we developed toonsUp from scratch for over a year until it went live in early November. Soon artists from all over the world, both amateurs and professionals, were gathered at toonsUp and have been engaged in a lively and procreative exchange ever since.

We are constantly enhancing toonsUp, guided - democratically minded - by the wishes of the artists and users. The great positive response that toonsUp is getting from more and more artists and comic readers confirms that we are on the right track with the platform. We would like to thank all those who have found a comfortable home for themselves and their art at toonsUp. You are the ones who fill toonsUp with creativity, communication and life!"

Since April 2015, toonsUp.com is carried by the registered toonsUp e.V. The reboot of the platform was programmed by the web developer and artist Ingmar Decker (www.webdecker.de).