Hi Space Cadets! It's been a year of interesting highs and lows over here for yours truly. I figured I’d start with a list of what I’ve gotten done, then go into more detail about it~!

- Runaway Drakaina: 23 finished pages
- RD one shot: 23 pages sketched, 4 inked
- Arabella Dragon Quest: 10 pages sketched, 6 inked
- RD second one shot: 8 pages sketched, inks to start January
- 1 successful Kickstarter (funded in April, fulfilled by July)
- 4 cons/markets vended, broke even at 1
- Started a sticker club in February. 11 designs so far
- Recorded ~7 sessions on Dice Funk (some haven't aired yet! 😄)

I'll be real with you guys for a bit. When it comes to comics, I've been going at a slower pace than I'd like. I'm often tired, or in pain, due to a whole host of issues I can only describe as “chronic” without much in the way of diagnosis, though I'm hoping to fix that in 2026. Most notably I had a wicked headache attack in autumn that incapacitated me for a week, not even because the pain was too bad but bc I was nauseous as hell. Since then I've been trying to prevent that from happening again. Fingers crossed the migraine specialist I see in January has answers!

All that to say, knowing I finished about 2 Runaway Drakaina pages per month this year disheartened me. But, lining everything up also helped keep things in perspective. 23 pages of anything is a lot of labor, time, and love. A webcomic is a passion project most people never make money from. I’m just happy to be able to set time aside for it. RD means a lot to me!

Plus, my computer was busted in Dec24 and Jan25, so that 23 pages was basically after I could draw again in Feb! I shouldn't feel bad about the work that came before!

I have hopes to speed up and refine my workflow in the coming year, so let’s just set the goal for now to rounding out at exactly 2 pages per month, 24!

Fun fact, I’ll be crossing the 200 page benchmark really soon! I might do something to celebrate, maybe a Q&A? I haven’t done one of those in ages ^_^

I also know these pacing issues mentioned above have made the Arabella Dragon Quest comic take a lot longer to draft than I'd intended. I was really hoping to have a full draft ready by around this time, or at least have all the major fight scenes done like originally planned. Can you believe dragon quest was already 3 years ago? 2022!! T_T

I keep thinking about recruiting a second hand to help with the project. But I don't know who would want to work on an adaptation of a dnd game that they didn’t even play. Nor do I know who I would like working with, so it couldn’t just be anybody. It would be a bummer to see the project take long enough to finish that it’d lose relevancy to the current DF seasons, but that might just be what I have to accept to keep going. My goal right now is to finish the 10 pages I started inking, and then circle back to what I wanna do next.

On a positive note, I have a few shorter comics I'm working on, which I mentioned up above. I’m very excited about both of them! One is 23 pages, the other is only 8. They're both in the Runaway Drakaina universe, which has been a fun creative exercise! I’m getting to write some characters of mine that otherwise are not relevant at all in the story so far. It helps to get to know them better.

I’m especially excited about the longer comic, because I get to show off my big fat lesbian Steel and her big nerd lesbian wife Marta. Check out this artwork of her for fourleafisland’s brush week 2025 challenge~! Marta guest starring in the top left corner <3

I'm hoping to get both comics done in 2026 since I have deadlines I need to meet, like an anthology or a future comic fair being hosted by SpiderForest! Being my own boss is hard, following someone else's lead might be good for me!

Turning my eyes toward my business, the Eyeheart Cryptids Kickstarter was a great success! When I feel bad about my shop not making the numbers I'd hope for, I look back to April and remember there's people who are excited to support my work. That’s super encouraging :) there’s still plenty of cryptids too, if you'd want one yourself, wink.

My goal for this year is to start going to more smaller art markets and conventions. I have a confirmed one already, Battlecon! This is the one market I broke even at, so I’m looking forward to returning for their second year of operation. Battlecon is February 21st in Longview, WA! Check the carrd for more info, and if you’ll be in the area please come find me!

The sticker club has also been a really fun addition to my monthly schedule. They're a LOT more manageable than full illustrations every month, which is exactly what I'd hoped for.

Next year the designs will be themed to birthstones & birth flowers! Here's what January's sticker looks like!

As you can see, there's also an awesome little lizard here too - that's the virgin islands dwarf gecko. I originally meant for this to be a dragon, but I had so much fun looking at lizard references I just decided that'd be the theme instead. Each month will have a unique lizard friend :D which one do you hope your birth month will get?

In the realm outside of drawing: being a terror as a Cymbeline on Dice Funk has been very fun! Austin's always a good GM, and Skitch has been very fun to play with as our collective brain-cell ping pongs around. There's more to come w/that, both with the recordings that haven’t aired yet AND plans to hopefully record some more if 1) the scheduling fates allow and 2) we have the time in general before s12 properly ends. S12 has been long as fuck tho, it just broke the record for longest DF season! So I’m sure we’ll get there eventually XD

I also might have plans for appearing again come season 13. Who’s to say —

— wtf. did anyone else hear that?

…well anyways! That’s about everything I can think of when it comes to looking back on 2025.

As you can see, I hope to find ways to be more satisfied w/my work, but at the same time I’m proud of how far I’ve come.

I’m so so thankful for everyone who supports me, from those of you who read my newsletter, to the Patreon/Ko-fi supporters, to anyone who’s bought a commission or a shop item, to those who just enjoy any piece of work I’ve put out in the world. It never stops being special that my art has had an affect on others.

I hope that everyone’s year was a good one, and if it wasn’t, I hope that 2026 is better for you! I really like writing these newsletters to keep folks updated, and I look forward to continue writing them for as long as I can!

Happy Holidays, Happy New Year, and Thank You all so much!