September Updates

Hey everyone! I hope your September’s been off to a great start so far, whether it’s beginning to cool down for you or not. I’m a few days late but I wanted to touch base with everyone on a few things, in regards to last month, this month and months to come.

First, I’ll admit that August was not the greatest month for me personally, and between the comic, commissions and anxieties, found myself overwhelmed and feeling burned out early on. Fortunately things weren’t as bad as they could have been, but it pays to be mindful of how much work one is taking on at once and taking breaks accordingly, as well as realizing they shouldn’t feel terrible over falling behind or taking days off for their own sake. To that end I’m glad to have such a patient and understanding audience and group of supporters, and I thank you all for that.

One of the biggest reasons for my feeling so down was having quite a few misgivings about the months ahead, about money and my ability to move in the near future, and about being pulled this way and that by my family while I’m still living where I do. So I finally decided to commit to something my friends have encouraged for months: I’ll be going to Midwest Fur Fest in December, my first ever furry con (and con in general, really). Having that and the prospect of meeting and hanging out with friends in the future has lifted my spirits tenfold, and fortunately further good tidings have meant it won’t be as much of a blow to my savings as I initially feared. I’d still like to do some sort of sketch drive closer to the con to cover various expenses, but for now I’m resting much more easily now that I know I’ll be going.

That said, let’s shift to my current projects. Once again I feel as though I dropped the ball on the Monthly Mailbag, especially in light of my feeling overwhelmed by so much work last month. And though it may not seem like it, the Mailbag is quite a bit of work - coming up with various canons and responses for my characters, two of them calling for extensive dialect research. Coupled with the promise of illustrated responses for some answers, it’s practically a project unto itself - so I’ve begun to consider doing the Mailbag seasonally instead of monthly, to give myself enough breathing room to answer patrons’ questions. I still enjoy getting your questions and want to continue answering them, and I hope that changing things up will make it more fun for me in the long run.

Beyond that, the comic shall proceed as normal with the continuation of Java’s “Cupface” arc, which I’m very happy to see everyone enjoying so far. I originally hadn’t planned for it to run as long as it has, but it’s hard to resist putting in so many jokes and horrible Kayla faces. I can confirm that the arc will have only six parts, meaning we’re halfway through already!

As happy as I am that people enjoy the comic, I still feel a bit bad that I can only usually put out one page a month, along with the monthly pin-up and commissions of course.  And the trouble with doing arcs like this is the fact they tend to take months to complete, so the comic gets stuck in one story or scenario for a while. My goal is still to reach $300 in monthly support, which will put me in a far more comfortable position to make two pages each month instead of just one. Hopefully it’s something I can achieve in the near future, but in the meantime I’m immensely grateful for the support I’ve received up until now, along with everyone’s feedback and understanding in my lengthy periods of production.

That’s all for now, so as always I appreciate your taking time to read and look forward to bringing you more Kayla soon!

- Kyle