Our History

Where We Came From, but where I'm from

  • Gale Infinity 2013
    Gale Infinity was my first comic, my first attempt to build a word. Around 2013 I began my earliest drawings and a rough idea what I wanted it to be. I tried to imagine all the possibilities that could come from my world; plushies, animations, games? It felt like the possibilities were limitless. I wanted to brand my creativity under a label, in case we wanted to work on other stuff... that's where ChocoBento came from!
  • The Manga / InkBlazers 2014
    After my first year trying to get help writing the story, it seemed better to focus on bring the story to life. I spent a year trying to learn to draw to be able to turn my written stories into illustrations. With the help of somebody close I was able to turn rough sketches into a actual small 2-page short, during that time a way to publish independent comics existed called "Inkblazers". It was smilar to Webtoons today except anyone can apply to earn money, I will never forget the $0.83 I earned from 2 pages, it motivated me, made me feel that there was value in my work.We quickly began working on sketches to complete the chapter, we made friends with fellow creators. But this ERA was about to sunset and the platform would soon shutter it's doors and end entire artists careers in the progress.
  • 2015 Inkblazers Shutdown / Creators
    In December 2014, we received an email announcing that Inkblazers would be shutting down. We realized that this vibrant community of artists—our creative home—was about to disappear. At the time, I had never felt such a strong connection to an online community, nor experienced the loss of one that was so dedicated to growth and collaboration.
    Despite the site's closure, we made efforts to stay connected. Some members formed Facebook groups, while others migrated to DeviantArt. There were significant attempts to recreate that sense of community, but for many, it was never the same. Over time, the bonds between us grew weaker, and as artists faced challenges in showcasing their work, many gradually moved away from their comic, manga, or art projects altogether.
  • 2016 ChocoBento from Presence to Platform
    After witnessing the challenges I faced in showcasing my own work and seeing close peers struggle just as much, I decided to build a platform where we could all share our creations. My goal was not just to create a site, but to develop a platform that could endure long-term, even beyond my own involvement. With a foundation in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, I thought building a social media platform would be manageable with my hobbyist-level front-end skills, but turns out, it was far more challenging than I anticipated!
    Despite the difficulties, I persevered. Initially, I created ChocoBento as a label for my projects, but I soon realized it could evolve into a fully-fledged platform. I began by developing a Progressive Web App (PWA) reader that could be deployed locally on a phone offline or run on any hosting site. Simultaneously, I explored ways to create social networking that could display this work in a catalog like format, tailoring the design and functionality to fit my vision for a unique, community-driven space.
  • 2017-2018 The Rise of Webtoon
    During this period, I had just relocated yet again, adding another chapter to what seemed to be a stable life. Adjusting to the new environment required putting much of the project on hold, as I balanced working and saving in order to settle in. During my limited free time, I continued development and posted updates, but it was then that I saw many of the artists I knew gradually leave the field altogether. It was painful, I felt as though I had failed to sustain the momentum we once had, for our platform. I had underestimated the difficulty of building a platform with limited time and solely personal funds.
    By this stage, most of the design elements I envisioned were nearing completion, but my updates began to go unnoticed, with little response from followers. Around the same time, Webtoon started to gain popularity, filling the void that Inkblazers had left. However, the memory of Inkblazers served as a reminder that even the best communities may not last. Eventually, I took a hiatus from development, shifting my focus toward rebuilding a social presence and prioritizing my personal projects.
  • 2019-2022 Chocobento lives on!
    From late 2018 through 2020, development on the project was sporadic, and even I had shifted away from art. Occasionally, I would have an idea and implement it into the site or app, hoping I’d eventually return to it fully.
    It wasn’t until the end of 2020, driven by a growing dissatisfaction with closed-platform ecosystems and my job, that I felt a renewed commitment to continue developing my own project. I aimed to at least create a space where my work could be showcased and bring the project to completion. Although progress remained slow, development continued, moving steadily forward, one step at a time. The main social site completed around 2021, my focus then shifted to finish the PWA (App) and I was able to understand saving "WebClips" on iOS and PWAs on Android to have a universal app that can be offloaded without depending on appstores. This was meant to make the reader app deployable by anyone, PWA would make it for you to have an app without needing a developer account to publish an app. The control in your hands. I finished the PWA's main features on July 2022.
  • 2022-2024 Feature Creep = Bugs Galore
    My heavy focus on adding all the features that I wanted added a lot of wow factor. However, as I used these tools daily, bugs and issues surfaced that hadn’t been apparent in the early stages of development. Additionally, some of the code I had written early on was unnecessarily complex and began to hinder later design decisions. This prompted me to start making gradual quality-of-life improvements whenever I could find the time.
    Meanwhile, my family was dealing with a financial hardship, which made the usual quick bug fixes feel like prolonged tasks, as I had to reorient myself each time I resumed work. Yet, eventually, the platform and tools came together just as I had envisioned. Although there’s always room for refinement, I had gutted old code, fixed bugs, and polished the user interface to bring the site to its most complete, polished state yet. It was everything I set out to build—except that those I had hoped to celebrate this with were no longer here. Most of those careers sunset alongside the community that once existed around InkBlazers.

2024, The Future, and Us

In what should have felt like a time to celebrate, I found myself feeling more alone than ever—posting alone, creating alone. Since I began, the internet has transformed dramatically. ActivityPub introduced a new alternative, and creators became increasingly frustrated with low returns on comic platforms. The lines between open source initiatives and profit-driven platforms have become more blurred than ever, leaving me uncertain about where I fit in this landscape. I had considered making my tool open source, but to protect what I’ve built, I realized I can’t. I want to use this platform to genuinely support others, but I’m wary of companies that might adopt it, modify it to their advantage, and ultimately push it out of existence. I am committed to helping those I can while guarding against the exploitation of this work. Because, in the end, if all other platforms fade, we’ll still have each other, and that’s worth preserving.

It'll just be us.... 🙂