Update // The (absolute) State of the Nationy (Patreon)

Would you believe me that the first part of this update consisted of me staring out the window for about 15 minutes, writing it in my head because I couldn’t get my brain and hands to work simultaneously?

And that’s where October finds us, my lieges. Surrounded by piles of print stock, to-do lists and the tenuous but steadily growing idea of replacing myself with an iceberg lettuce dressed in a wig and see if anybody notices.

But with that, let me give you as brief a breakdown of what’s going on this side of the monitor as I can manage. Which is... not brief at all. Sorrynotsorry.

The Return of Comic Con

You know last year, when I lost 6lbs of hair and 10 years of my life whilst preparing for my first appearance of Comic Con? And how I said that it was a nice experience but that it might be a one-and-done sort of deal?

It was in fact not only not just a “one-and-done” deal, but this time I decided to pile on the emotional damage by choosing to make my own prints at home instead of outsourcing them. And I mean, in some ways it’s absolutely worth it - look at these beauties and their perfectly managed colors:

On the other hand, I have spent most of this morning removing phantom “jammed paper” and wondering if you can divorce a printer.

And all of this with just 5 days to go before I’m supposed to be sitting behind a table, smiling at the world like I haven’t just finished printing 500 pages by the power of tears, desperation and prayers to a dubious shadow entity.

However, as a by-product of this yet-to-be-rated decision, I will now be able to hugely expand on the prints I offer via StarStickers - down to allowing you to place custom orders out of any of the art I’ve made so far. So that’s pretty cool, init? I'll post more info on this in next month's update.

The big fat [ NDA ] project

This is one I can’t talk much about, though if you’ve been in the Discord you might have heard me slip out some details, but I have been contacted by a big publisher to work on a big project with a big deadline.

So far things have progressed slowly on their end due to what I assume are many meetings that could have been emails, but this has actually suited my schedule rather well as I’m not entirely sure I could have delivered that on top of Comic Con prep. That said, I was recently informed that I’ll be sent the brief quite soon and that I’ll have until Christmas to deliver the objective, so if you spot a flaming object rocketing up into the sky, please know that’s just me as I combust myself into orbit.

Interviews

As well as the above, I’ve also got two interviews to complete for indie publications - which is quite nice and also quite confusing. It’s a very kind of “...who, me?” sort of feeling when you get one of these messages, as if somehow you could manage to misdial an entire email address.

And other bits

And of course not nearly as interesting, but life has in fact been getting its dirty little hands into the pie while all of this goes on.

For one, every medical appointment that got postponed during the pandemic has appeared in my inbox like exes asking wyd after a two year absence. This has meant a plethora of forms to fill, scans, tests and appointments that have made me feel like an extra in the set of Grey’s Anatomy (minus the antics and the exceptionally good looking staff).

For another, we also suffered a big loss in the family which of course threw things into a fair bit of disarray - both emotionally and time-wise.

But such is life, and so now I’m looking at November with a side-eye that says “you better hold your horses you lil sh-”

So what’s the wrap up?

Ah yes, the dreaded wrap up, in which I scramble to find gentle ways to ask for your continued patience as my backlog continues to pile up.

It’s not a secret that it’s becoming harder to stay on top of things as life speeds up to pre-pandemic levels of activity. It’s something that I’ve been thinking a lot about lately, as well as how to make this sustainable for myself and everyone here going forward.

I recently celebrated my 5th anniversary of doing this for a living, and as I said before, that’s equal parts amazing and intimidating. It’s given me a ton to consider and I have been planning sweeping changes for a while that will likely mean sacrificing growth to prioritise existing patrons.

I can’t say much for those changes yet as I’m still planning the logistics, but please know that I mean it when I say that your support, loyalty and appreciation is at the forefront of absolutely everything I do and decide.

And that’s why we’re going to end this extra lengthy scroll of ennui and sap with a reminder that I’ll be dumping a whole-ass 50 points into the StarStickers account of every patron that’s pledged by November 1st, so that you can hopefully take some of these sweet, sweet prints off my hands… and my tables… and my floors… and my bed...

The t-shirt is absolutely not a cry for help.

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A reminder that you can find ALL the information about this Patreon, how rewards and the mentorship works, as well as real-time information on my current workloads and commission queue in my snazzy Patreon Masterpost.