History OrphanedSeries / Webcomics

* ''Aether'' was a fantasy comic with a growing fanbase and reputation that came to an abrupt end in the middle of the strip's first real plot arc. The artist had never intended the comic to have lasted as long as it did, and had no real plans for the story or characters. The comic was originally intended to practice sequential art for another project. Thus Aether was ended before it became too convoluted. The website has gone and squatters are in place.

* ''Webcomic/SailorRanko,'' started in March 2008 and lasted a bit more than a year. In November 2009 it made a big fanfare of coming back and coughed up a handful of new comics before ceasing. In November 2010 it made a big fanfare about coming back and coughed up one comic. There were sporadic updates until February 2011 due to having artist difficulties and change thereof, along with not many people donating to keep updates coming in (the artist also does Ruby Thursday), and Burger Becky (the writer behind the comic) had surgery around early April whilst the artist had an eye injury around the same time. All this considering, it looked like an indefinite hiatus for the comic and the fanfic novels that the comic's based on.
** Then the comic came back in September 2021 and remains active as of August 2022, having released over 200 strips in less than a year, wrapping up the first volume and starting the next one.

* ''Webcomics/{{Tove}}'' stopped abruptly in 2019 with not much to go on aside from the author, Severin Piehl, warning readers of a ScheduleSlip ahead of time. Piehl is active on Twitter, but has not mentioned the comic's fate.

* ''Webcomic/FindersKeepers'' was put on "indefinite hiatus" on July 3, 2012, citing professional obligations that took priority over the comic. Garth Cameron Graham wouldn't use the word ended, but did say he would return in 2013 with a new comic.

* ''Webcomic/RPGWorld'': The strip was up to the final confrontation and near completion when the author, Ian Jones Quartey, finally broke into animation full time. He's since worked on a few shows you may have heard of: ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'', ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'', ''WesternAnimation/BravestWarriors'', ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'', that sort of thing.

** RPG World got a FullyAbsorbedFinale in, of all places, the 30th episode of ''WesternAnimation/OKKOLetsBeHeroes.'' (Of which IJQ is creator and showrunner). [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2py1czSRu0 See it for yourself here]] (Warning: Final Fantasy VII music will make it hard to hear the dialog), IJQ himself talks about it [[http://ianjq.tumblr.com/post/166049167579/here-it-is-the-final-rpg-world-comic-a-recent here.]]

* Pretty much every comic on subscription-site [=WirePop=] eventually fell into this while the service was online from 2003 to 2012. While the sight billed itself as a creator-owned service to entice subscribers and promised regular updates that presumably free comics couldn’t offer, almost immediately artists stopped updating and comics dropped like flies. The staff running the site admitted the artists weren’t being compensated well enough to incentivize them to stay with the service. Originally promising a launch of 20 new webcomics, only 17 launched initially. During the entire lifespan of the service, a grand total of ''three'' comics did not end with the being dropped entirely (''Xamra'', ''Realms Of Ishikaze'', and ''Lunargyros''). It's easier to count the aversions than list them all, but the most notable dropped series include:

* Pretty much every comic on subscription-site [=WirePop=] eventually fell into this. Most have been quietly removed from the site after enough time passes. Of the 17 series that launched the site, a grand total of ''two'' did not end with the author dropping it (those two series, ''Xamra'' and ''Realms Of Ishikaze'' have since had normal endings and no longer update). The real kicker is that people had to actually pay to read the majority of the comics past the most recent updates, and they ''still'' can't reliably expect the comics they want to read to continue. It's easier to count the aversions than list them all, but the most notable dropped series include:
** ''Automatic'' was a mecha series that fumbled without ever reaching its stated premise before the author, Hai, got a publishing deal with Seven Seas and took the comic down entirely. Ironically, the ''same'' author did a series called ''Blade for Barter'', the book for which he got the deal, and this too became an orphaned series after just one volume due to low sales.

** A number of Wirepop's startup strips didn't even survive a few months. One of them only did ''one update'' before getting cancelled.
** Wirepop itself shut down in 2012, thus turning all of its remaining strips into this (and taking down a few of the paid archives with it.)

** ''Eversummer Eve'' was a series that had been running for a few years before Wirepop got the series archive along with new updates. As a prominent comic at the time, it was used to promote Wirepop's launch. It updated rather faithfully for a few years until it suddenly stopped updates altogether. Eventually, even the archives departed quietly in 2008. The site for the comic bore an update of 2008 claiming the series would not continue until either a reboot or remake while the author pursued more lucrative endeavors. In mid-2011, even that site went down and what was left of the comic vanished with it.

* ''Webcomic/SailorRanko,'' started in March 2008 and lasted a bit more than a year. In November 2009 it made a big fanfare of coming back and coughed up a handful of new comics before ceasing. In November 2010 it made a big fanfare about coming back and coughed up one comic. There were sporadic updates until February 2011 due to having artist difficulties and change thereof, along with not many people donating to keep updates coming in (the artist also does Ruby Thursday), and Burger Becky (the writer behind the comic) had surgery around early April whilst the artist had an eye injury around the same time. All this considering, it looked like an indefinite hiatus for the comic and the fanfic novels that the comic's based on.
** Then the comic came back in September 2021 and remains active as of August 2022, having released over 200 strips in less than a year, wrapping up the first volume and starting the next one.

* ''[[http://www.smbthecomic.com/ Super Mario Bros. 2]]'', the (more or less) official webcomic sequel of [[Film/SuperMarioBros the movie]], which famously ended with an unresolved SequelHook. Unlike the parent movie, the webcomic didn't even manage to get an ending: it was supposed to last ten chapters and stopped abruptly in 2015 during the fourth one.

* ''Webcomic/SuperEffective'', a ''Pokémon Red/Blue'' parody by the same artist of ''Webcomic/VGCats'' (and hosted on the same site), has been on indefinite hiatus since 2014, [[https://www.vgcats.com/index.php#MAY-12-2020 and was officially declared dead in 2020]]. The site hosts yet another comic named ''Adventure Log'', based on ''Final Fantasy XI'', whose fate was even worse, since it was abandoned after a measly 7 pages.

* ''Webcomic/SailorRanko,'' started in September 2008 and lasted a bit more than a year. In November 2009 it made a big fanfare of coming back and coughed up a handful of new comics before ceasing. In November 2010 it made a big fanfare about coming back and coughed up one comic. There were sporadic updates until February 2011 due to having artist difficulties and change thereof, along with not many people donating to keep updates coming in (the artist also does Ruby Thursday), and Burger Becky (the writer behind the comic) had surgery around early April whilst the artist had an eye injury around the same time. All this considering, it looked like an indefinite hiatus for the comic and the fanfic novels that the comic's based on.
** Then the comic came back in September 2021 and remains active as of August 2022, having released 6 chapters in a year.

* ''[[http://sailorranko.com/ The Adventures of Sailor Ranko]],'' last November it made a big fanfare of coming back and coughed up a handful of new comics before ceasing, this November (2010) it made a big fanfare about coming back and coughed up one comic.
** The comic has had sporadic updates between November 2010 and February 2011 due to having artist difficulties and change thereof, along with not many people donating to keep updates coming in (the artist also does Ruby Thursday), and BurgerBecky (the one behind the comic) had surgery around early April whilst the artist had an eye injury around the same time. It is currently unknown what's being going on for the past few months though. All this considering, it's more like an indefinite hiatus for the comic (and fanfic story that the comic's future will be based on).
** The comic came back in September 2021 and remains active as of August 2022, having released 6 chapters in a year.

** Update: The original ''Dreamwalk Journal'' site went offline, but not before Kline and Danielle began a series of spinoff stories, eventually titled ''Nightshade the Merry Widow''. Danielle sadly passed in 2014, but the comic continued. The original series was subsequently rehomed, eventually continued with a new co-writer, and tied in to the rebooted version. As of late 2016 the powers that be still appear to be under the impression that ''Nightshade's'' sexual content render it unsafe for a Wiki/TVTropes article.

* ''[[http://sharingauniverse.comicgenesis.com/ Sharing a Universe]]'' 1-20-03 to 8-10-08. The author just up and left in the middle of and arc, with no warning or note - or they died..

* The once popular webcomic ''Webcomic/OffWhite'' gradually begin updating less and less frequently, to the point fans estimated that going by the average upload rate, it would take past ''2050'' for the comic to finish. The comic was finally canceled.

* ''Webcomic/OlympusOverdrive'' went on hiatus in 2015. According the the writer, "Olympus Overdrive wasn’t intended to be a full comic project, and was mainly for practice on art/writing/editing and getting the technical details sorted for a larger un-decided future project.". The website is offline and no archive is currently available.

** Eisu, artist of ''Webcomic/MarryMe'', ''Webcomic/NoPinkPonies,'' and the long completed ''Maid Attack'', briefly ran a [=WirePop=] series titled ''Webcomic/RumbleFall'' that didn't get out of the initial introductions of the cast before dying.

* [[https://pensandtales.com/ Pens and Tales]] was once host to a handful of comics, but one by one they entered indefinite hiatuses[[note]]''[[http://evilish.pensandtales.com/ Evilish]]''[='=] last news saying "Keep an eye out, I'm going to start updating again soon." in 2008[[/note]] or were outright cancelled. Eventually some subdomains even collapsed, taking ''Those Destined'' offline. In the end, only ''Fortissima's Treasure Hunters'' and ''Webcomic/FireflyCross'' survived thanks to having alternate hosts, with the former limping along from one extended hiatus to another and the latter running to completion.

** ''[[http://www.webcomicsnation.com/prankster/lemuria/series.php Lemuria]]'', a series about a {{BBW}} barbarian/thief and her semi-voluntary magic-user sidekick, hasn't updated since December 2012.

* ''[[http://www.aoihayashi.com/your_wings_are_mine.html Your Wings Are Mine]]'' by Aoi Hayashi (late 2000 to early 2010) has ended for no full reason given. A message was given from the author in mid-2012 to confirm that the series was most likely completely dead (having not be updated in over two years - leaving a bunch of cliffhangers) and that while all of the pages would be left on the site everything else would be shut down.