March 2023 - Fine, I'll Do It Myself
Hello, and welcome to the shitshow my first newsletter!
I'm doing this pretty much from scratch, no drag and drop, just HTML and CSS, and you can only sign up through RSS, because I don't feel like collecting anyone's email addresses.
RSS is also anonymous and I don't have to look at stress inducing analytics that would come with a newsletter service ("here's how your readership has gone down," "here's how you can milk every last red cent out of your fans..." eurg...). Also there's no tracking, so that's one less corporation sticking its nose in your business.
I just want to let people know what I'm up to. If you see it you see it and if you don't you don't.
If you've signed up through RSS, thanks for being here, and even if you haven't (since I will be sharing newsletter updates on social media so long as I have my Tumblr, Instagram, and Mastodon accounts), thank you for being here as well.
With that out of the way, let's get down to the updates.
Projects
I'm still trying to get all of Chapter 10 of Act 2 of Star Trip finished and posted to my Patreon. I'm doing this in big ole chunks, and I just finished the 2nd big chunk, with the 3rd and final chunk in progress. I thought my slowness was because of my demanding drawing style (lol), but turns out I'm just exhausted from my day job as well as the other freelance I gotta do to keep myself afloat. At the end of the day I just don't have any more beans left in me to work on my own projects. Capitalism sucks ass, but we all knew that. I'm still keeping at it, and my fire for this comic hasn't gone out. I'm trying to make the mornings and weekends my protected personal project time.
I've finished posting the very first chapter of Earthshine. I'm happy I got this far with it. I'm also so happy to have a new long-form story to play around with as Star Trip leaves the stage. For anyone who's new to it, Earthshine is my new illustrated webnovel about demon hunting lesbians. There's more to it than just that though, but we'll have to get further into the story to find that out. Earthshine it rated for a much older audience than Star Trip, with heavier subject matter and more explicit material. Where Star Trip rests at around 13+, Earthshine is in the 16+ to 18+ range. The fact that it's prose lets me get away with higher ratings than I would with a comic.
I've been going through some of my artwork to format and print into sketchbook zines. I'm getting ready to return to the art festival circuit. More on that in my next newsletter :).
In website news I'm still working on my personal static site. Coding has become a new love of mine and I'm just so excited to get better and better at it. Trading out social media for learning web dev was one of the best decisions I made for my mental health. These newsletters are also a part of that better living!
I've missed these guys.
Personal
It's still kinda yucky winter weather despite it technically being spring, but that's just how it is with Canada. I was able to get out for a couple long walks since the start of spring and with the persistent snow there was still a fair amount of sunshine.
2022 saw me keeping my hands busy with a bunch of knitted sock projects for friends. I've been designing one of a kind colour work patterns for each of my buds that matches their aesthetics and interests, and it's been such a fun creative pass time. I also just love yarn shopping, my bank account less so though lol.
I finished reading Gaming The Stage by Gina Bloom. It's a really good look at the connections between gaming and theatre culture during Europe's early modern period. This book is DENSE and Bloom has put a lot of research into it. Her analysis of the connections between card and board games and the participatory nature of early modern theater has got me wanting to start playing chess again as well as reread all of Shakespeare's plays. I really enjoyed it. Bloom is also an absolute pogchamp and made the EPUB officially free, so anyone can go read it. I first heard about it on an episode of Game Studies Study Buddies where they did an overview and discussion of the book. I recommend it.
I've started listening to Alexis Ffrench's 2022 album Truth and I just love it. I get lost in the dreamy energy of his compositions. They make me feel like I'm floating across a still pool of water. I've also been listening to the whole discography of The Oh Hellos. Really beautiful high energy stuff. Bops of the winter.
A friend of mine recently got me into the browser game Lioden and I have been playing it in the background while I work. It's a lot of fun and my favourite thing to do is capture, raise, and battle beetles. I also love how retro the site looks and the community is surprisingly active, even over 10 years later.
Speaking of games to play in the background, have y'all checked out The Barnacle Goose Experiment by Everest Pipkin? I think it's one of the best games I've played in 2022. I love how low tech it is, as well as Pipkin's subtle writing.
A section from one of the sock patterns I made for a friend. It's a ram c:
In My Orbit
My buds over at Windy and Wallflower have updated the look of their online shop and it is so snazzy. They even have a sale going on until the end of the month of March! If you're looking for cool enamel pins, awesome queer comics, and cozy and stylish woven blankets go check them out! Their newest webcomic Augustine is just about finished its first chapter, so now is the best time to start reading if you haven't already.
My friend En has a new webcomic out called Boon of the Beacon Maker. It is currently updating on webtoon, but you can get the whole first chapter as a print comic through their shop. It's a gay pirate webcomic about what if your girlfriend turned into a wet beast, what's not to love?
Just like En, my other friend Fawnduu has some new comics available in her shop. Do you like lesbian westerns? Do you like butch4butch werewolf hookups? Then you will like these!
Have you joined my good buddy Ren's mail club? You should! Her evergreens sticker and print designs are sooo good, but she has something even sicker coming up ;). Ren has also updated her shop since coming back from ECCC with a whole bunch of beautiful Riso comics.
Welcome to the end of the newsletter! Have a little comic.
If it sucks, hit da bricks