A brief upcoming schedule (and much more thoughts on what to expect later on)

Hey yall, checking in with what should have been a quick update letting yall know what to expect for the near future, but turns out I had more to say, haha. So uh, strap in I guess, because I’ve got a lot of stuff I’m interested to see what yall think of.

Stuff right now!

So my schedule and generally upcoming content: we’re almost past this hump of commissions, woot! I’m hoping to have one more comic out by the end of this month, and then I’ve got a few more that I’m pretty sure at my current rate will take the following month of September. I think yall will be very excited for them! (spoilers: one of them’s a direct sequel to a previous comic oi oi, I’ll let you guess which hehe)

Something I should address right now though, which has been a long time overdue imo, is that I need to update my descriptions regarding the current patron tiers. I haven’t been able to fulfill my usual obligations (weekly comics, monthly projects, the forms of participation thereof), and unfortunately I’m still waiting to be past The Hump (yeah I’m capitalizing this now lol) I’m currently stuck behind in order to resume things closer to normal again. As such, functionally, the patron tiers remain largely the same in terms of what they give; they'll just be rewritten to be reflective of my current state of work (the standard being: $3 to WIP/BTS content access, $5 for voting privileges to determine upcoming projects, $10 to directly propose the kind of content and projects to work on, $15 and higher for more personalized art) -- the main change is just to indicate that these prompts and output materials will come at available opportunities, not on a regularly-scheduled basis, at least for now.

I thank you all so very much for your patience and understanding through these last few months as I navigate this realm of getting my act together while providing the content that yall have been so very kind in providing for. I do foresee this to be simply a tentative adjustment and am looking to restore regularity of content at some point once we finally pass The Hump, but getting past these commissions is my utmost priority at the moment. I’m very disappointed in myself that I haven’t been able to fulfill these obligations in the timeframe I originally wanted -- the best I can do is get these out as soon as I can to the best of my ability and be as transparent as possible, again, to the best of my ability, as the last thing I want to do is deceive yall on what my state as an artist/creator is right now.

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What I Need to Fix

With that being said, I think now is probably a necessary time to discuss what my actual plans as an artist are going to be once The Hump is finally passed, because I think I’ve been more than a smidge inconsistent about my thoughts and have had trouble properly processing them for a while.

I’ve made it really clear that this last year has been really rough on me as a creator, namely when it comes in terms of managing my creative bandwidth as an artist, getting my work/life balance in proper shape, and especially getting things out consistently and on time. However, something I’ve realized I’ve never really consistently articulated that I probably should more, is what I actually want to work on once we get past The Hump. I’ve done a lot of overpromising and underdelivering amidst me realizing upfront just how insane this Hump would be, with expectations of different projects, system updates for commissions, retooling of my life, with those plans either on pause or set for adjustment later due to constant changes and personal setbacks...

I think I’ve demonstrated myself to be really ambitious with what I want to do in terms of the long-term endeavors, but thinking about it, I’ve been severely undercutting what I want to accomplish in a much shorter-term scale. As in, what do I intend on doing on a day-to-day basis. Questions include: how much art do I want to do per day? What kind of things do I expect to accomplish per day? What do I think would I want to do to feel artistically and emotionally fulfilled on a day-to-day basis, and what would be fulfilling for my audience, including my paying patrons? And perhaps most importantly: what do I want do do day-to-day NOW compared to what I think I’d do in the future, or what I felt more capable of doing in the past?

I’ve spent a few days stewing about this, primarily while autopiloting through my day job. I’ve been getting to the heart of this matter for a while now, but I think I’ve properly realized that at this point in time, it’s probably not a good idea for me to be focusing on long projects that need a freakin’ lot of investment and consideration, especially if it is going to be something modeled around a structured basis like months on Patreon. I love doing complex comics and want to do more, but do I love spending a day for bare layouts and correspondence, another few days for base linework, more days for colors and FX, all interspersed with long hours of doing video editing and laborious, annoying PA stuff? Right now, with everything going on, once The Hump is crossed, I think I need to take a mini-sabbatical from regular big comics. In other, less fancy words, a break lol.

To be clear, I DON’T want to STOP doing big TG/TF comics -- actually, I very much want to continue work on FRIENDS ON ANOTHER SIDE, which I can get done easier than most projects due to limited colors and a script I’m firmly settled in how I wanna present -- but I definitely think during this constant cycle of fatigue and schedule slips, right now is not a good time for me to force bigass projects. This is a dynamic that also makes me particularly scared of doing animation again, despite how much I really want to do them and I know folks really want to see them from me. There is so much to animation and boring technical problem-solving involved in a lot of it that I feel like the feelings of disappointment are going to snowball really hard -- even though I technically have plans on how to make the more economically and less crazy, this is just not something I feel comfortable risking right now.

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Thinking in Long and Short Term:

So the question is, what do I actually want to do? What is something I feel more comfortable and eager right now in this hectic phase, after I return from tiring, stressful days at work or on my free weekends?

Well, I’ve been hinting at it for a while now here and there, but to make it clear on no uncertain terms: I wanna do a lot more original character art and design work. I have at least FIVE separate worldbuilding projects going on all varying in genre that I am extraordinarily impatient towards getting to, because I have so many ideas I want to tackle. As a general summary for each:

• Fantasy RPG/JRPG character designs, may or may not necessarily be tied to DnD. I just think it would be really fun to draw more out-there fantasy stuff, and have dreamed of designing my own visual assets for a DnD campaign I’d like to host (though obviously, there are currently lots of complications for that, but I can dream!). I have a very specific project on my mind called We’re Dying to Save the Realm -- a black comedy isekai parody about a newly-summoned cleric and her band of idiots in a realm festering with a zombie apocalypse where nothing can properly die. Could be very funny lol

• UNTITLED CYBERPUNK MAGICAL GIRL PROJECT, a non-TG script for a project I’ve wanted to explore for years, far before starting this account. A fusion of cyberpunk, magical girl reconstruction, slice-of-life, and coming-of-age -- probably the most seriously invested I’ve been in any singular project I’ve come up with, with a story that I want to tap into for a quirky, thoughtful exploration of growing up in a vaporwave-inspired dysto-utopia, mixed with female empowerment and cute, stylish magical girl action.

• RunGunBun, a silly sci-fi project inspired by 80-90’s anime, what I’m calling “Ranma 1/2 meets Metroid”, featuring TG/TF and quasi-furry aliens, about a space-marine/college student who ends up accidentally bonded to a symbiotic superweapon... which makes her look like a hot chick in a bunny suit, with the entire galaxy now on her tail and forcing her on the run. A diverse array of various alien characters, planetary settings, and just featuring some wild scenarios I wanna let loose with, because I feel silly.

• Rapture Academy, (I don't have art for this one lol) a long-teased setting I’ve wanted to get started on inspired by superhero media and fighting games -- about a group of students with various superpowers from around the globe brought to a school to become superVILLAINS. I have a ton of character ideas and concepts I want to tackle, and I think has some of the most potential to be the craziest and most diverse if I actually manage to take it on, because I love superheroes and I love insane Japanese fighting games lol.

• Thanks for Listening, a more mundane slice-of-life/TG comic series. Yeah remember this comic? It’s still something I want to get to lol -- sort of a long-form coming-of-age/coming-out story about an antisocial guy suddenly turning into a girl after getting involved with an all-female band, dealing with a mix of comedy and heartfelt drama. Definitely the most down-to-earth project I wanna get to, and most character work would largely be like chill, casual slice-of-life stuff, which I frankly rarely get to do but really want to.

So like, I have a lot to say about these projects that don’t even actively require telling the stories in complex forms like comics. I really just want to have the time to be able to do character arts and conceptualize ideas of things -- think of folks like Rariatoo or Nelnal (or other popular artists known for their OCs you’ve actually heard of lol) -- and get things visualized before rushing into thinking about big comics and the stories they’d occupy. I’d love to be able to do those big stories with them sometime down the line, but right now, that is the start I want to get at.

Once again, I don’t plan on stopping TG work -- some of these projects absolutely do include it, and I do anticipate there being trans themes that I think many folks would find fulfilling (not just RunGunBun and Thanks for Listening, but I’ve long planned that the protagonist of UNTITLED CYBERPUNK MAGICAL GIRL PROJECT is a trans girl) -- I’d just imagine it’d be less like... yknow... graphic and luridly skewed, haha.

To be honest, I think the major thing keeping me from just moving onto this aside from The Hump is that like, I get a feeling that this would still be a sizeable enough change in the type of content I produce that it would really disappoint and alienate some folks in my audience who want me to do more lewds, or more animations, or didn’t particularly care for when I drew my DnD party or some of my other older OC designs. I may not fully understand the scope of how people think when they see me -- I’m able to guess to a degree I’m confident in that I have a “brand” as a TG/TF artist, and one that tends to make a lot of cute, “wholesome”, and transpositive-skewing content. I am aware I get recognized for having a fairly unique art style and sense of humor that folks may be interested in seeing in various contexts and themes, and I have seen feedback that people do in fact find it cool and interesting when I explore non-TG works... but then like, I also suspect that there are a lot of people who don’t particularly care, and politely keep to themselves, so I won’t get to know how much it’d truly affect me for better or for worse to commit to a new trajectory.

Not to get too philosophical or get into like an existential panic about everything -- I think JoCat summed up this video on the difficulties of changing content better than I could -- but I think at the heart of it, here’s where I’m at: I’m happy with the “brand” I’m associated right now as being an artist who makes trans-affirming stories and has a distinct, recognizable personality, and I have no intent on changing that -- but I still very much wanna explore more variety of content that speak to me and are more within my ability. I know it’s not necessarily what yall wanted to come to me for in the first place, and I still do wanna aim for that center in the venn diagram of stuff I wanna do and you wanna see that I think yall would have fun giving a try.

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Now How Does This Matter?

Okay, with that all laid bare, let’s talk about what you get out of it and how this affects you! I am firmly aware of the fact that yall aren’t obligated to follow me for everything I do -- yall don’t have to be interested in projects that aren’t necessarily within my “brand,” and just because it’s stuff that I’m passionate about doesn’t mean it has to be rewarded with continuous financial support. 

I’m also keenly aware of those who have continued to donate and support me even through this Hump period where I’ve not been able to fulfill my rewards as planned, and I am exceptionally thankful for those who have stuck with me through it -- money hasn’t been like a crazy priority and concern in my life (I live extremely conservatively and rarely treat myself with luxuries bigger than coffee and donuts every few days lol), but things have been steady enough that it’s saved me from the stress of having to treat it AS a crazy priority and concern. That’s something I’m extraordinarily grateful for, and I wish to have that generosity properly rewarded in the capacity I’m able to provide for yall during this strange time.

As I stated above, while the monthly comics and the involved participation have been on pause for a while, I’m still meaning to provide the general level of privilege and power in determining what sorts of content in specific yall want to see. I think there’s definitely a lot of room for folks to vote what genre of overall project yall wanna see me tackle per month (we feeling fantasy? we feeling scifi? casual modern? superheroes?) and the specific things to get at per month (character design and development? pinups or posters with more personality? environmental studies? other kinds of silly fluff?).

I actually think, depending on the project, there may actually be some room to resume more commission-based goodies as per the $15-and-above tiers, perhaps of like your-character-here deals or some involved OC work. Actually, bringing the project list up again, here’s how compatible I think those things would be:

• Fantasy RPG/JRPG character designs: Very open to doing themed commissions, such as drawing up folks’ fantasy preexisting OCs or doing more vested design work based on requests to visualize ideas more or less from scratch.

• UNTITLED CYBERPUNK MAGICAL GIRL PROJECT: Tricky, but not strictly impossible. Perhaps I can do a lot of casual civilian designs and representing the various factions and styles present within the setting, though it may require a lot of time to properly establish the world first.

• RunGunBun: Also a project where there’s a lot of room for wackiness to draw folks’ OCs -- the aliens of the series are inspired by animals and are sorta quasi-furries lol, definitely room for some space opera-level camp and creativity.

• Rapture Academy: Could also be fun to do! I have a set of students and faculty in the cast of Rapture Academy already, as well as other superheroes/villains in the world, but I’m very much open to adding more students/supers to flesh out the worldbuilding and background of the setting more, would allow for some fun modern/super-inspired stuff!

• Thanks for Listening: This probably wouldn’t have any direct relevance to the setting (I’m picturing the series to follow a limited cast, and aside from the unexplained TGing of its protagonist, not much supernatural happens), but I’m absolutely open to doing just casual OCs or depictions of “ordinary” people in my style.

I don’t believe I would be able to get to this for September, just because I am still in front of the Hump and have stuff to finish, but this is a bunch of where I’m at right now and would make the most sense to me. However, I’m just me -- and again, I don’t have a comprehensive idea on how yall see me -- so I don’t know how any of this looks to you. You might be thinking “wow this sounds exciting and cool, I’m all aboard on this!” Or you could be thinking “ehh... this might not really be for me,” but either way, your feedback would be very much appreciated since there’s still plenty of time to decide what my trajectory should be.

And don’t worry about being in the latter camp, especially if you’re worrying about feeling awkward of saying to me like “Don’t do the thing you’re passionate in doing, Cosmo.” A lot of yall have stuck with me so far enough to continue donating in spite of my current difficulties from what I can assume is general respect haha, and I feel I can trust your feedback as to why you would or wouldn’t be interested in seeing me take on this path I’ve proposed, and what I can do to make things more accommodating for all of us. I think we’re all in agreement that my system’s been seriously messed up for a while and needs to be fixed, and as my audience who expects a lot from me and has supported me so long, I want to involve you in the decision-making process. I know my goals and limitations as a creator, I wanna know yours as a member and potential donor, let’s see how much we can make things overlap.

Thank you for indulging me in yet another one of these bigass posts, here’s to getting past the Hump as soon as possible and we can all collectively breathe as like “Finally I can relax and do my longtime personal projects” and “Finally Cosmo gets to relax and we get some cool new art again!”

(Also, happy birthday to me I guess lol)