UPCOMING: On the Horizon +

** I will be tabling at Orlando Zine Fest on December 13 from 7-9pm at Blackbird Comics & Coffeehouse!! This is HUGE for me personally as last years event was my first ever tabling experience that started so much for me.

** Currently, I’m in the process of revamping many of my zines that lack visuals I think they could benefit from or even more extensive revision for a new edition. Some zines no longer reflect who I am as a zinester/creative, which isn’t to say that they are wrong, but rather that they are primed to benefit from reworking/additions! Included in this list are Crush & Labels for reworking & up for new visuals are Pleasure Principle, Vivisection, Tell Me What to Do, & my poetry zines.

** Because I can do anything I want & I have declared myself the KING of Homestuck at Goblin Market yesterday (though I am most devoted to my Mythoslain), I am also embarking on making more extensive merch stuff for my comic & OCs that are primarily for me, but I would be delighted & greatly empowered if anyone took me up on them. I have ordered charms of Ithaqu/Ksakal & I’m finishing up a washi tape design for Mythoslain. Next I plan to design washi tape for Rat Lore! Other merch I’d be interested in manufacturing includes mostly other charms, washi tape, & possibly sticky notes. Bumper stickers sound fun, but weirdly tricky. I have someone fiercely campaigning for an Optera boob mouse pad which I think would be funny & would also use one so if I get at least one person to pre-order it, I will get it designed & made.

** AS FOR DIY MERCH PLANS: Currently working on (for Mythoslain, Rat Lore, Wolf Pit Machine, etc.) fabric patches, totes, felt accessories, limited plushies (mostly for me), stickers, buttons, & prints.

REFLECTION: A Year Of Zine-ing

I had an idea to write something very specific & comprehensive here, but that might be better suited for a blog article or a zine of its own talking about the magical year of zines I’ve had. I would not be able to assign a specific day as a zine anniversary as last year wasn’t the year I made my first ever zine, but the first zine of the current era was made in August of last year which spawned more the next month & so much more in my zinetober challenge that carried me all the way into having enough zines that I applied for my first ever zine fest (Orlando Zine Fest) & was accepted to table/sell my work proper for the first time ever! The success was beyond my wildest dreams for a creative who never thought they could justify anyone paying for their art suddenly making back the cost of their second printer that facilitated the whole zine adventure in one event. Since then, I’ve done four additional zine fests & tabled properly at five Goblin Markets with the lovely Orlando Zine Meetup!! I’ve met so wonderful many people, had my work recognized by others, been approached by fans of my work, “networked” with amazing fellow artists/zinesters, conducted an abundance of trades, & got people to care about things that matter to me I never thought possible. It’s mindboggling to think about my current self & position with my art compared to that of me a year ago or before that. There’s also much more I’ve done I couldn’t have foreseen that I will be eternally grateful for.

Deepest of thanks to anyone who has supported me/my work in any capacity!!! You keep me going & ascending to new heights.

MYTHOSLAIN: Coming Along!

Been working very hard on the comic, though taking more breaks than at the start due to other life obligations & self care demands. I took a nearly month long break in October & have been doing more generous small pauses in November to make sure that I don’t stress myself out & can plan ahead more sustainably, but I’m very proud of what I’ve made thus far & how it’s going! I’ve officially made Mythoslain the longest thing I’ve ever written (nearly 80k words posted at time of writing) & I’m still going strong! I’ve also nearly gone through all of the written material first drafted in my fevered frenzy over the summer & a surprising lot of it made its way into the final comic pages. I have no idea how long it will take to finish Act 1, there’s probably no finishing by the end of the year if I stick to my animation plans, but I’m hopeful that I can make some significant progress & plan ahead for some major days for the comic I want to prioritize.

Mythoslain is ultimately a project done out of love for myself & my past self who struggled greatly with growing pains & often only got by with the support of fantrolling interests & friends of the day. It can be too easy to be cruel to one’s past self & it’s my dearest wish to honor that struggling self that couldn’t always see an end to the horrors back then with an elaborate tribute to their fondest passions as well as those who sourced joy in those times. Even though it’s still for me & that ghostly self, I am truly amazed any time someone expresses interest in my comic whether asking me about it, commenting on updates to me, buying merch of my OCs, drawing them for trades at events, or anything like that. It means the absolute world to me to be able to create something that communicates the characters living in my head that have long had no place else to go. I can never make something that lasts forever, but knowing all the times I’ve been told that my creative works have resonated with others or motivated them personally, I hope that I can create something that can exist outside of myself & do Something a fraction of the way that it does things for me.

NEW STUFF: The Latest from Yours Truly

[note: only a small selection of recent stuff given it’s Been A While since I’ve done a newsletter]

** New minizine entitled “Unfunny 2: Comedy Arc” as my first zine sequel to my first ever comic zine (& technically first ever comic outside of hourly comics day comics) talking about recent developments in my relationship with comedy as I become the Joker, but if the Joker was like Hamlet (as a guy who has yet to read Hamlet).

** Updated my Commissions page with more info, examples, pricing estimates, etc. just in case anyone wants to commission me for art.

** Finished my “Which Mythoslain Character Are You” Quiz for fun that you can take & get told what character you most align with. This was mostly a fun exercise for some aggressive yes/no questions later on. If you take it & show me your result at an event, I’ll give you a free sticker of your result.

** Made some new buttons & stickers recently that I’m in the process of finishing printing/making to have at events. Finally got around to doing some larger stickers & smaller buttons (also revamped some older big buttons). Check the full button list out:

PURGINGS: Little Asides

** This year has been wild in myriad ways, but the past two months have especially been hard hitting as I’ve had all these out of control events happen to me like my car being totaled after what felt like only getting minorly rear-ended out of nowhere. It’s a strange contrast to the lucky streak I felt around this time last year, but I’m still managing to make it through okay even if my time management skills suck more than usual!

** Other projects I am INTERESTED IN doing soon even if I probably don’t have time I’ll dump here for accountability/memory/maybe inspiring someone to bully me into it: another video essay (Slay the Princess analysis), song cover, Rat Lore ““ARG””, streaming Pathologic again, zine collab events, “RAT LORE CON” [?].