let’s make some friday night plans

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Right around the new year I got a Mari kick (in which I was driven to draw as many Mari Lwyd as possible). Dunno exactly why was that, except that drawing horse skulls is fun 😅😂🙈.

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This should have been posted right around new year day, but then again better late than never 🤷🏽

👀

#maddie nuzlockes ruby

Clam's Quick Tips for Starting Your Very First Webcomic

Howdy! Here are the three bits of advice I tend to give people who ask me about getting into webcomic-making. Maybe they can help you jump into the fray with a little less fear.

1) Make Your First Chapter a Pilot Episode

You will be told by webcomic veterans to start with a short, simple comic idea first - which is wise - but if all you can think about is your big magnum opus, then you might as well hop in, right? Otherwise you'll just be glancing back at the other cooler project forever.

But if you can't start with a small simple story, start on a small, simple part of that larger story. Your first chapter should be a snapshot of the main conflict - show us a simple scene with few characters, ease us in slowly, keep things clear and focus on emotion/impact/clarity. Get the audience to care by offering something easily digested, but full of promise.

Once you're done with that 'pilot' chapter, and you're feeling more comfortable with the whole comic process, you can open the gates and show us the larger world. At that point, you'll be way more ready.

2) Simplify Your Art Style For Your Own Sanity

Always try to make your webcomic's art style as simple as possible - the standard rule is to use only 75% of your artistic skill for every comic page you make. Otherwise you will burn out quickly and terribly.

But you also need to be PROUD of your art style. If you're really feeling itchy, add a couple bells and whistles to your style so you can look at the finished page and say "Yeah, looks cool." You'll find the right balance the more you draw.

Also, don't be afraid to change your art style as you go along. Ultimate consistency is often impossible in webcomics anyway - so embrace your desire to try new things, streamline your work, whatever you feel needs to happen to be happiest. Sometimes the coolest part of reading a webcomic is noticing that style change - so don't hesitate to embrace it!

3) Resist the Reboot! RESIST!

The curse/blessing of drawing the same things over and over is that you'll inevitably get better at drawing those things. The trouble comes when you look back at old stuff and start thinking "Damn, I could draw that way better now."

You must recognize that this feeling never goes away. Not after a hundred pages. Not after three hundred. Not after a thousand.

I think everyone should be allowed one soft reboot for their first webcomic. Redraw some panels that bother you. Change up some dialogue if it doesn't make sense with your new story ideas. Do maintenance, basically. One of the beauties of webcomics is that they can be easily edited, without reprinting a whole book or remaking a whole game.

But if the ultimate purpose of a webcomic is to tell a story, then constant reboots will just be retelling the same story - slightly better each time, but the same at its core. We've heard it before. Most audiences would rather you save your strength and just keep going, rather than circling back year after year and going "Wait wait wait! I'll do it better this time."

Reboot early, not often, and only when you absolutely must! You're a storyteller, and you're constantly getting better at telling your story. Don't be ashamed of it - look back how much ground you've covered, and keep walking!

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That's a good start. Happy webcomicking - don't be afraid to jump in, but be prepared to learn a lot very quickly. And if this advice doesn't work for you or adhere to how you did it, that's absolutely fine - webcomics are diverse by nature, and so are their creation processes. Feel out what works best for you, and good luck!

A little help please

update: we did it!!! (you can read in my reblogs)

Greetings

I'm not one to write or tell things about my life here, but I'm here to ask for a little help.

To explain myself, I would have to tell you that the computer I currently work with art and comics is not mine, it belongs to a friend of my father who lent it to him during the pandemic (2020) so that he could work from home and I would have a place to do my University's homework. It's not a super-cool computer but it got us out of trouble back then.

It's been a while since then, but last year my dad has mentioned the idea of ​​returning it soon. The problem with that is that if he does then I won't have anywhere to draw or work or study.

My current job as a graphic designer and illustrator from home depends entirely on this computer, which in itself is not very good…

The monitor burns my eyes after a certain time, the memory and processor is limited so it does not support several programs, it does not have a graphics card and even the mouse has started to fail recently.

This is why I come here to ask for a little help… I have a goal of approximately $400 to buy a new computer (including a good monitor, but not a keyboard or mouse). The budget is not fixed due to the constant changes in the country's economy that make it difficult to save in the long term. But if we get over that line I admit it would be something great…

I am willing to work on commissions to reach the goal, I plan to organize my time between work and studies for that. Unfortunately I am in the process of writing my thesis so sometimes it will take time, but if you are willing to wait I promise to put all my heart into my drawings.

I'll be doing special commissions, some discounts, YCH, adoptables and maybe giveaways… Whatever comes to my mind at the moment, so stay tuned.

Donations are also highly appreciated!! If you do I will give you a huge hug.

And that would be all. For now you can check my pinned post to see my commissions, or check my Kofi page directly and check if they are open. If you don't have the opportunity to contribute monetarily, don't worry, sharing this post is also a great help.

I hope you have a beautiful day/afternoon/night :)

haaaaaappy new year everybodyyyyyy ✨️

thank you for a wonderful 2023!!! it started out a little rough being let go from my full-time due to budget cuts, but 2023 ended up being a year full of opportunities 🥹 i got to:

- make and sell merch

- booth for the first time

- open an online shop

- draw enough comics to print two booklets

- become an editor for a CC i liked

- meet so many new like-minded people

- have one of my merch get 2m views on tt 😂

and definitely others that my 2am brain can't remember.

there were and are plenty of struggles but i'll be counting my blessings and looking forward to 2024 💖

some new things i'm thinking of for 2024:

- open commissions 👀

- maybe.. bigger scale scara&nahi merch like pouches....?

Doctor Who report!! We are all caught up with NuWho and in time to watch the new season when it comes out!! mission accomplished, It took us around 6 months total and we loved every minute of it 🥰

Now that we have watched all eras I can share our tastes and opinions nobody asked for under the cut 😌

We can confidently say RTD's era is our favourite and for Doctors 10 (and 14) followed by 12, but honestly there isn't a single Doctor (or Master!) that we didn't love.

We've also started rewatching the first four seasons now with more context and there is just something so special about them. They almost feel like a different show from all the later ones. The silliness and the way the story doesn't take itself seriously at all until all of a sudden it does and then the pain hits you twice as hard because of it. How with just with a line or deed and it's implications the Doctor can be so unbelievably inspiring. The way the narrative seems to place you in the role of a companion trying to catch up with the Doctor and figure him out yet never quite managing to do so creates this distance but also admiration and reverence in you too and you can't help but adore him flaws and all. It has just the right amount of room for every side character and relationship to develop and feel human and the right amount of exposition to keep the pace quick and don't hold your hand. The glimpses behind the doctor's cheerful childish façade into an unsettling calculating alienness and immeasurable trauma but also a weary wisdom. The complete selflessness to the point of martyrdom. The reckless irresponsible acts of devotion from both the companions and the Doctor. The near apotheosis of the companions the closer they get to him. The contagious feeling of awe and wonder and hope for life. The way it's so unabashedly centered around love of every kind 😭 ARGHH I don't know man there is nothing like it!! Ultimate comfort show for us, just.. healing really. There is so much more I can say and gush about but I'd be here typing all day so I'll draw more about it instead!! We would also like to get started on classic Who soon! and try to get our hands on the audio episodes and comic books and all the extra stuff as well 😊

We also watched more David Tennant works since the last report!

Blackpool was hilarious, infuriating and horny, the singing was a choice but overall so fun!! The Escape Artist was great, very sad and tense, would have loved for it to be longer, these miniseries are always so good but so short!! Mad to be Normal is so underrated? we enjoyed it a lot!! RD Laing's portrayal was so compelling, it's beautifully shot and the 60's setting is really immersive and well done. Einstein and Eddington was also really good, incredibly accurate historical setting!! the costuming was fantastic, one of the best I've seen!! These last two films are biographical and sort of no plot just vibes so maybe this is why they are not everyone's cup of tea but we enjoyed them very much. David just never misses, I'm sure we can watch anything with him in it and we will love it no matter what lmao what a guy 😭

Anyway that's all for now! I hope you are all doing well, spring/autumn is almost here! best bits of the year 😊

hello!! I'm the one who asked the question about when temp 5 will come out recently, I just wanted to ask, how are you feeling? Has sometimes the pressure from your audience or inconsiderate people who don't think that a human being is doing this made you want to abandon the project? Sometimes I fear that at some point people will end up breaking you and you will abandon everything :( (again, Sorry if there are errors or this just sounds strange, I'm using a translator!!)

Hello! I don't know quite which anon you are, because actually, MANY people ask me about season 5 almost every day - but I am hoping to get it ready soon. Maybe by the end of December? Right now, I'm still drawing some new chapters.

To tell the truth, I haven't actually ever considered QUITTING full out.

Many people have definitely come very close to pissing me off - there are some 10 years olds hanging around that have way too little chores to do, and instead end up using their energy to send me messages:

(shout out to this tenacious child who sent me not one but 14 messages just like this one) ....buuuut I usually don't think about just stopping the comic

Most of the time, I just think 'I want to stop posting on tumblr/tapas, and just post on Patreon, where people are nicer'.

The thing is, I still WANT to make this comic. I love this story, and want to continue it, so to quit completely would be sad for me as well, not only you guys.

Most likely, if my patience ever snaps, I'll probably just stop posting the comic publicly, that's all. And instead, the only way to read it would be to join my Patreon. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ But hopefully we never come to that. Because I want to keep sharing it with everyone!

I think I'm starting to find myself again.

I'm going through a rough part of my life rn because I got let go from my job that I worked YEARS to achieve. I have rent to pay and two kitties to care for, and finding another job in my industry is difficult right now.

But recently I found a new passion and that's drawing Transformers erotica. Seeing the joy that my Transformers/human art (even non-erotic) brings people has given me more joy in my work than any gig at a studio. I've felt more fulfilled too, and can't help but wonder if this is what I was meant to do.

At first I worried that it would ruin my hard-earned career in games. But honestly? Fuck my career. The games industry is a roiling inferno right now and it's not gonna get better anytime soon. So yep. Fuck it. I want to draw romantic Transformers/human erotica and draw/write Botmom stuff full time. Which was why I set up the Patreon and the SubscribeStar. If I'm able to achieve my goal of at least 2,000 USD a month, that will cover my basic needs (including rent) and will allow me to devote myself to my TF art full time. It would even allow me to start that Botmom TFP comic I've wanted to do.

It'll probably take a while for me to reach that goal. And that's okay. Hell, I'll gladly flip burgers in the meantime if it means I can focus all of my artistic energy on this pursuit. Because for once in a very, very long time, I've found genuine fulfilment and joy and love in the art I'm doing. It feels like it has a soul again. And I have the Transformers fandom and my friends to thank for supporting me on this ride.

Would it be corny for me to end this blog post with 'Til All Are One'?

Or, maybe, in this case--

Tits All Or None <3

What advice would you give to someone who really wants to get into writing/drawing comics, but doesn't know how or where to start? What would you recommend? Even if/ especially if they already have a decent history in writing and drawing

SHORT ANSWER: Don’t do what I’m doing with Replica haha! I’m breaking all my own rules with this comic but maybe we can use it as a good example of what not to do in my rant below…

LONG ANSWER: (below the cut)

Hoo boy… there are so many avenues this question could take. I assume you don’t necessarily mean entering the comic industry as a professional (there are far more experienced people you can ask about that). But simply drawing your own comics? I'll try my best to break down some of the basics I've picked up over the years. Note these are just my opinion and there is always room for other methods...

1. ASK YOURSELF WHAT KIND OF COMIC AM I DOING?

The first thing to consider is what is your intention with this comic? Do you want to tell a story centered around a preexisting fandom or tell a completely new story you came up with? What genre do you want to focus on? I'd recommend finding something that really sparks your interest, because you're going to be working on it for far longer than a regular art piece. Plus if you like it, someone else is bound to like it as well!

2. ASK YOURSELF DOES IT NEED TO BE A COMIC?

This may sound silly... but often times I find people fail to take into consideration whether or not the story they are telling works best with the medium they are considering. Had I done Replica as a fan fiction, I would be much farther along with it... but with comics there comes a wide range of subtle visual cues, parallels, and symbolism I can use that I wouldn't be able to show through writing. The written word also has many strengths that comics lack... it just comes down to what you want to be able to show in your story.

3. KEEP IT SHORT AND SIMPLE

If this is your first time doing a comic, I recommend not overextending yourself with some grand epic that is going to take you forever (like Replica haha.)

Example: Years ago a close friend and I did a webcomic called Perpetual Flux that we were unable to finish. It went for about 2-3 years, was over 110 pages long, and yet we had only managed to get about 3 chapters into what would have probably been a +30 chapter story. We came up with this huge epic we wanted to tell and while it was a story we still wanted to finish, it just became impossible to continue as our lives and availability changed.

So start small! And take that experience you gain into bigger, future projects. Obviously I have not learned my lesson with Replica, but at least with this project it's something I can do on my own time and is supported by a wonderful community who keep me inspired. Speaking of which...

4. FINDING AN AUDIENCE

If it’s a story based off something with an existing fandom then half the work is already done! You just need to start interacting more with people in that fandom, and I mean really interacting. Talk to other artists, join Zines, leave comments, and share other people’s work. It can foster a community and help you be a part of the fandom so that people will be interested in what you have to share.

If it’s a new story you’re going to have to create your own community. Nowadays it’s easier than ever to get your work out there, but the competition for eyes is much steeper. What I find that works is rather than starting the comic cold turkey, draw out some highlights from your future story. Moments that have yet to unfold that might wet a random viewer's appetite for more. Kind of like… a trailer for what’s to come. Keep dropping those little crumbs of interest as you prep your comic to garner some interest and that way when you do start you may already have some followers who might share your work around!

5. CONSISTENCY IS KEY

Get into the habit of drawing and writing regularly. I know it can be a hassle and the last thing you want to do is make it a chore, but like exercising I find that the more I do it, the easier it is and the better I feel about it. Nowadays I feel weird if I'm not at least writing some script or drawing a few sketches towards my comic/projects every day.

Also, if you can make sure to update fairly regularly (something I also fail at with Replica haha, but at least I try to post little things here and there when time allows). It's important to let your followers know that you are still there and you care! It also helps keep you at the front of their minds. My fellow Apocalypse AU creators Cass and Tapakah0 are GREAT at this as they post a ton! It helps garner a strong community and a lot of continuous excitement! I wish I had that same energy and time but you'll have to make do with my old-lady pace of things, bless you all haha.

6. GRAPHIC DESIGN

Obviously as a writer and artist you're used to doing both... but with comics there's another aspect that can come into play. Graphic design! Whether it's your title, your font choices, the word bubbles, or the way you break down the panels, these area all things you should take into consideration. For example, every webcomic has panels, but they can vary tremendously in style. Because of Tumblr and the nature of the scroll method I chose to forgo the typical "comic book style" for more of a... loose storyboard feel where I care more about the angle of the shot within each panel rather than how these separated images link up to one another. Where as with Perpetual Flux, it was laid out on actual comic pages so we had to take serious consideration into how they fit together within each page. IngunnSara is also a great example of this more traditional method of paneling and it's gorgeous and difficult and they have my utmost respect for pulling it off with Hamato Wanderers! So I recommend looking to some of your own favorite comics and see what jives with you.

7. FIND A STYLE THAT WORKS FOR YOU

Also failed this with Replica haha, but to be fair I went right into it with the intent on learning the style as I went. But I recommend having some grasp on the style you want to use and whether or not it's a viable to be drawing over and over again for your comic (for example, if you make it too detailed it will take you far longer to draw!)

8. FORGET ABOUT PERFECTION

Perfection is a lie. There is no place for it in art, especially if you're just doing this for your own pleasure. Don't strive for it. Don't worry about it. Don't compare yourself. Just keep doing what you're doing and keep learning from it. You'll get much farther!

Ok... hopefully that helps a bit. I'm sure there's plenty more to talk about but I feel like I've talked enough for now. Thanks for listening to my TED Talk and lemmed know if you manage to get your comic off the ground :)

Tiny Update - WWL/TDDU + PINS

First off - thank you SO very much to all of you leaving lovely comments in the tags on the last (and any other) part(s) of Til Death Do Us / Wolfwood Lives AU.

How's the comic doing?

I decided to favor myself enjoying the work on it instead of spitting it all out asap and having it finished for May. No more zine ready in May for Animefest happening, unfortunately. It's too much pressure and I just. I wouldn't like it. The comic would suffer - both in terms of writing and art. Not to mention I don't ever want to pressure one of my best buds and my personal editor @Squeemu.

This way I can still think of the script a bit more, add new little ideas, enjoy preparing the layout and draw each of the faces in my own time. And maybe splash some colours into some other parts as well again. 👀 I MISS COLOURING STUFF SO MUCH.

The slower pace will also let me rest from time to time, maybe play a videogame and maybe not go crazy when 7R2 is out and I'll be biting table about it, bc I SHOULD BE DRAWING THE COMIC, bc I only have xy days til the end of April. (Trust me, it did happen, I went to bed counting pages, matching them to days in my head over and over and over.... and then broke down.)

So. That said - we are progressing quite nicely now! Even with the crazy amount of storyboarding work I had in Jan/Feb. I am having fun, I LOVE drawing the part I'm working on rn.

What about the PINS?!

Good question! The data's in the manu atm. However, as China's still celebrating Lunar New Year, the factories are closed. But - the break should end on 20th. So we should get some news soon. :)

LOFAM 5 ACT 2 - COVER ART

recently i had the opportunity to contribute to the new lofam so i thought i'd share the album covers i did here! (with commentary)

starting off with probably my favorite cover art for what might be my favorite song: sburban juxtaposition. the track is so good i basically drew the whole cover while listening to it on loop. coloring the meteors was a lot of fun too. rose's pose is actually inspired by miles' leap of faith from spider-man: into the spiderverse (the spiderverse movies have consumed me ever since i saw atsv in theatres, it can't be helped).

next up we have celestial company. the track is very relaxing, i figured it would make sense to replicate that feeling in the art itself through adding pleasant shades of blue to skaia and john's hood. i also added a yellow spirograph for contrast. i think it worked out pretty well!

sunbumper! a very upbeat and energetic jade track. there's two cool things about this image: one thing is a rather obvious nod to the neverending story, while the other thing is hidden in plain sight. it's a reference to outer wilds, i'll say this much.

caliborn's lament. look. i couldn't not jump at the opportunity to draw art for a song that adapts act 6 act 6 act 4. i just love caliborn, and that's all there really is to say on the matter. his comically sad face is probably the best thing i drew for this project.

karkat loses his mind and learns holy c. i tried a different style for this one, since it's for a song referencing templeos. editing the logos and all was a really funny experience. there's also this Pleasant Hoofbeast Drawing, which i never really got to use:

maybe it'll turn out better this time is a title that immediately reminded me of the retcon. in the cover art, i decided to highlight how the joy of the post retcon timeline almost completely overshadows the suffering of characters that we actually followed for years. idk, replacing these guys with slightly different versions of them always felt weird to me.

aaaaand that's it! hope you guys enjoyed these covers (and the lengthy commentary) just as much as i enjoyed making them :3

Have u ever posted your comic or animation workflow anywhere? Im super curious on how you tackle the process, especially not using a drawing tablet. I know you have a very simple (and adorable) style so that probably helps in terms of workflow -- Im just curious about the steps you take.

Thank you! With both comics and animation my key thing is to not spend too much time on any particular thing, just draw loose and fast. Honestly the only downside to drawing with a mouse is that I can tell my arm has extremely specific muscle memory regarding it- if my mouse breaks and I get a new one I have to spend a good month or so just letting my hand get used to it again lol. Same with if my setup gets readjusted too much- right now my setup is my mouse on one of those padded mousepads, on top of 2 books, with my elbow resting on my 3DS case (I'll get an actual pillow or something for it eventually lol). But luckily thanks to this I suffer very minimal wrist pain 👍

(...Okay I started to go really in depth in my process here, so sorry if this is way more than what you were asking. Putting it under a readmore just to save space lol)

With MFM in particular, I start by writing out the entire script for the next story arc, which really is just all of the dialogue and vague notes about any important actions. Then I do the paneling with very loose stick-figure like sketches of where the characters are and what they're doing. I prefer having very little planning when it comes to character poses and panel shapes, coming up with those on the fly makes things much more exciting and faster to make. But it's the opposite with dialogue... it needs to be 100% FINAL before I draw a single line lol.

That's part of my script for my most recent chapter, as well as what my extremely loose goofy thumbnail sketching is like. I write the script as one big thing and don't separate it into pages until I actually start drawing- then I go and color change it just to keep track of what dialogue goes on each page

After that, I go back and do the ACTUAL sketch, as well as the lettering (I don't believe this is how it's done professionally. I used to do lettering as the very last step in the process... but then found it hard to cram speech bubbles in the right places lmao.) After that is lineart, coloring, background flat colors, then shading/rendering for all of it. I do each step in batches, as in I sketch out ALL pages of a chapter before moving to lineart, I line ALL pages before starting coloring, etc. I find it way easier to be productive when it's broken up like that, though when I first started the comic I used to draw each page to completion before starting the next (but also, the comic's style was DRASTICALLY simpler back then haha)

(Unfortunately I merged some of the shading to the background flat colors so it's not entirely accurate... oops) FireAlpaca has a sand texture feature that I only found out about last year- adding that to the backgrounds makes them look 10x better with WAY less effort.

With animation, it depends on the project. For simple 5-10 second animation I make for fun, there's very little planning lol. I skip some steps in the process- I'll sketch out the keyframes (and maybe any difficult inbetweens if necessary), line those, then go straight into making linework inbetweens. I'm not a cleanup artist and have no experience in that, so I always find trying to line my rough animation makes everything jittery and wobbly. If I do it with a clean line from the start then I can avoid that and save a lot of time 👍

For my bigger projects (such as the Parvey cartoon and the MFM Kickstarter trailer), I do the whole animatic with final audio first and foremost, with the animatic being almost like the keyframes. I split them up into individual shots, .mp4 files anywhere between 1-30 seconds usually, and animate those one at a time. I'm a huge fan of free to use programs and try to use them as much as I possibly can, here's a list of the ones I use:

FireAlpaca- for the actual drawing part itself (storyboarding/animating/etc). FireAlpaca has a feature that lets you export every frame as it's own drawing, as well as an onion skin mode

Windows Movie Maker- for compiling all of those frames into video format, creating individual shots. If you upload all of your frames and set them to around 0.08 seconds, it equals about 12fps (I usually animate at 0.10 seconds/10fps, its a bit slower but looks nice)

Onlinesequencer.net- for making music. It's the place I've made all of my songs on, like the timeloop song, hyperworkaholic, and the background music for the MFM Kickstarter trailer.

Audacity- for editing audio/music. Also great for recording things directly from your desktop

DaVinci Resolve- for editing and putting together all of the shots into one big video. Can get kind of intensive on the computer during rendering, so watch out.

YouCut (app)- also for editing and compiling shots, I used this one a lot a couple years back but I'm not sure how well it holds up. Doesn't need much phone storage to download but needs a lot to render videos.

MS Paint (yes really)- for typing up text. FireAlpaca has a text option but I don't like it as much as Paint's.

...The only thing I genuinely can't do alone is voice acting. Luckily there's a big voice acting community on Twitter and they're all amazing to work with!

This got... way more in depth than I planned for it to be, so sorry if this is way more than what you were asking lol. But that's my general process when it comes to my art 👍

Not a request, but a question! I really want to post some TMNT writings again. However I noticed that 18+ (gore, smut other dark themes) seem to be a matter of heavy debate. Such as you can't age up character or if you're now an adult you cant interact/write/draw for the fandom anymore. I left years ago because of how bad it got. Do you get a lot of hate for your writings? Or has it died down after all these years?

No, I get no hate. I've only gotten two mean-ish comments, and none of them had anything to do with my 18+ writing.

Dark themes, and to a certain degree, gore, has always been part of the TMNT universe. Leo's PTSD pattern in the tv shows, Raph's homelessness in the IDW, Donnie gradually becoming more and more robot in both comic and tv, and of course Mikey in The Last Ronin. And then there is the ROTTMNT movie. That was some dark stuff, and if you think about it, there was body horror as well.

Sex is not new to the TMNT comics either. Donnie is the only turtle that haven't lost his virginity in cannon. We have to remember that the turtles have been in relationships and have had crushes ever since the Mirage days, so sex doesn't seem that far off.

I'll say it's all about being comfortable with what people are reading. That's why I put warnings and try to put it into a genre. There are people that just don't feel comfortable with these themes, and that's perfectly fine. At the same time, some people find that by interacting and inserting themselves or other people into the story, it ruines it, and that too I understand. To me it's almost an art form to write fan fics and inserts that does not mess to much with the story and plot, yet at times it's fun to play around with "what ifs".

With all that being said, I too do have things I don't feel comfortable writing about, with non-con being a BIG no for me. At the same time I don't mind writing about age gaps, as long as the youngest person partaking is at least 18. But with fictional characters that we know age over time, I don't see a problem with pushing their age so it matches the theme of the story. That's also why I often by my smut a few year after the main events took place (unless people want me to write about a specific scene, in which I still push their age up to an acceptable place that I too would feel comfortable with).

Maybe TMNT fans are adults today, so it would be strange not to let adult have a go and make fan content, even if it's 18+:)

Announcements and Updates

I already mentioned this with my anniversary comic this morning (I'm glad people seemed to like "it's back on air"), but Dungeons and Daddies the Manga is a whole year old today and I wanted to talk about a couple things!

For starters, thank you to everyone who's been on this journey with me, from those of you who have been here since lesson 1 to those of you who only just discovered lesson 42 yesterday (you probably don't exist because the tags hated lesson 42). Whether you like or reblog every single lesson, you silently read the updates without ever interacting with them, and even if you fell out of the fandom but you read the manga at some point, I appreciate you all so deeply.

I might be making this a bigger deal than it actually is, but Dungeons and Daddies the Manga is a really special project to me. I'm so proud of my growth and I've put a genuinely crazy amount of time and effort into this. There was a time when I was trying to catch up when this was basically a second job. I would come home from work and draw manga pages until I went to sleep, it was all I did, it probably wasn't healthy tbh. People in the discord know, I've gotten crazy efficient at making these, if I don't have anything else going on, I can pump out 2-3 of these a day when new episodes drop. I've never undertaken a project this big before, I'm more the kind of person with a million abandoned first chapters, so to actually still be keeping up with this is huge for me, so I'm hyping this up a little bit.

If anyone has ever thought, "wow, I would love to support cereal financially! They seem to work very hard and would probably really like some money! I would also love some of cereal's cute art to plaster on my belongings," please keep your eyes open, I'll be dropping stickers in near future (Taylor in the trash can will be one of them)! I meant to have them ready for today, but I've never sold anything online before, and I'm kind of stumbling through the process. I'll try to have them up soon! So keep an eye out in the upcoming weeks.

For those of you who only care about Dungeons and Daddies the Manga, you can stop reading here, thank you so much for enjoying my manga this past year! For anyone interested in some personal updates and projects, please keep reading, I've been working on something I'm finally ready to announce.

I've learned a lot from my work on Dungeons and Daddies the Manga. My art has improved a lot, and it's still improving all the time, and I've really come to love making comics. Which is why maybe it won't be so surprising to learn I've decided to start an original webcomic. This webcomic won't interfere with my work on the manga, no need to worry, but as much as I love the manga, and the DnDads community, there's only so much I feel like I get back from it. I've been pouring so much time, energy, and love into Dungeons and Daddies the Manga over the past year, and I'm so proud of my product, but I want to start putting some of all that into something that's actually mine. I've been through a weird past couple of months where I went through some really bad burnout, looked around my life and realized "oh wow, this ALL sucks! I don't like a single thing I have going on here!" So, I quit my job, moved, and while I've been restructuring my life, I started dusting off some of those old abandoned first chapters I mentioned earlier and getting back into original work.

The webcomic is called The Rotting Things, I've teased it a very little bit here and there. It's about a boy with a power that is slowly but surely killing him and a man said to be unable to die trying to maneuver through a world of magic that hates anyone unlucky enough to be able to wield it.

I'm kind of nervous about starting a webcomic, but I've been waiting to be "good enough" to put something out there for a very long time, and I'm trying to come to terms with the fact I'll never be fully happy with my own work and just diving in. It would mean a lot to me if anyone wanted to give it a chance.

An eight page prologue will be dropping next Friday, September 29th, after which pages will start to drop one at a time every Friday. We'll see how I handle the one update a week schedule, it might go up to two pages a week depending on how confident I feel. Just like the manga was, this will be a learning curve for me, but I'm eager to try it out! Please give it a shot!

in other news i'm getting top surgery in a few weeks so i'm gonna be uuhhhhh pretty busy for a while and i might be Very Slow to finish this lil comic. Or maybe i'll just do nothing but draw while recovering who knows. anyways thanks y'all for being so nice to me while i transed my gender over the past few years i do love you with all my heart (real)