June newsletter (Patreon)

• Wallpaper attached! (updated about 14 minutes after this was originally posted with a fix on the image)
• WET credits survey 

WET Thumbnails complete

It's uh. 36 pages. There's smooching.

My plan is to break WET, the Act 2 finale, into two 18-page parts. At the very least, the schedule will remain the same (every other month). At the best, depending on how quickly this goes, I may be able to release them in two consecutive months (currently looking at September/October). But don't quote me on this... yet.

WET is a big deal because it sets up Act 3, the final "act" before the finale, in which Rosemary and Freddi are part of the picture. Just because it's the penultimate act, however, has no bearing on its length... in theory, Act 3 could end up being the longest act of all, as the filler chapter opportunities are somewhat infinite. So... onward!!

Summer projects

There are a couple projects I'm trying to get prepped for, now that some of my biggest non-Familiar work has been settled as of last Friday.

First, I'm aiming to get the German translation website set up and ready, as well as begin typesetting the translations that our German localization team has been working on. More info on this when the site is up.

Second, I mentioned a while ago on the server that I was thinking about making my own "crowd" brush for Familiar and that it might be fun for Patrons to be the crowd. Basically, a crowd brush in illustration is a special brush that has "stamps" of people walking/sitting/wandering/etc, used to populate streets, parks, subways, etc. I currently use a couple brushes that were created by other artists, but I think drawing my own for Familiar, in my style, would be even better -- and what better way to include Patrons than in a way such that you could recognize yourself in the background of the comic.

My plan would be to trace over photographs that Patrons submit, omitting any distinctly identifying features (like faces, text on clothing, etc), so that obviously no one would look at a particular background character and be like "Wow, that's my coworker Francesco." But I think when you saw your own stamp you'd still know it was you. I am hoping to set up more information about this, including an informal model release and upload form, later this summer. More when it happens.

Third, I'll be promoting the merch shop a bit more this summer (or, I plan to). If anyone has photos they've already shared on social media of any of the merch, please let me know so I can RT/share. If you don't have it shared on Twitter, but if you're OK with me sharing, please DM me with more info so I can share!

Merch shop news

I've added a new domain for the shop so you can now access it at the more memorable

shop.soushiyo.com 

I've also added a couple new products:

• Let Them Kiss shirt in many colors, in time for pride (featured in this month's calendar) -- also comes in bag and mug form
• Familiar Chrysanthemum sticker
• Hang in There poster, featuring Jack's take on the classic "hang in there kitty" motivational poster -- people have been asking for "stealth" (SFW/family friendly) Familiar posters, and this one is 
• Rope Bunny shirt, and accompanying sticker and tote bag

As always, thanks so much for your ongoing support! I'll be sharing previews from WET and FORM this month, with FORM dropping near the end. It's a good one, so I'm looking forward to it!

HAPPY PRIDE!

Jude