Status update (Patreon)

Long, long post.

(This'll be up on webtoon some time this or next week, I think. Please don't talk about this publicly until then, thank you!)

So yeah, that's it. I am very, very sorry about all of this, though I do think this is the right choice for me and for my stories.

Some of this may be familiar to some of you? I've definitely talked about some of these stresses before, though in the same way I've been trying to keep my enthusiasm up by talking positive to myself, I also try to be positive around other people. So I'm not sure how much of this I have or haven't let slip over the past year or two.

I've been actively thinking about ending Aerial Magic for about a month now. And once I felt settled in my decision I talked to my editor (about a week ago.) And since then I've had time to draw up the following, and I sent the above off to my editor yesterday. I'm not sure when it'll go online, but I wanted you all to know as soon as possible.

Thank you very much, and I'm sorry.

(This is a big part of the reason I was feeling so stressed and overwhelmed in my last post. Being buried in Always Human work was also a factor - and it's still not quite done, but the deadline has been extended for reasons that have nothing to do with me, so I finally have time to breathe. Still busy, but a very manageable busy!) 

There are a couple of other things I'd like to talk about now:

1) About AM season 3:
I've been working on season 3 and do have some completed episodes. These are not going to go up on webtoon. There's a certain amount of closure at the end of season 2 and posting the first few episodes of season 3 would just introduce Killian's insecurities (and hint at a new character's insecurities) without resolving anything.

Webtoon has already paid me for these episodes. I will be paying them back (once webtoons figures out how I should do this - apparently this hasn't happened before!)
Once I've paid them back I can post the season 3 episodes that have already been completed. I'm not going to post them publicly, but if you want to read them they will (eventually) be here.

2) About a potential future reboot:
I do hope to reboot elements of Aerial Magic in some form one day.

A lot of what defeated me about this story was trying to write an ensemble cast and feeling like there was no way to do so without undermining someone's arc. I realised that ensemble casts simply aren't what I want to write. I feel, perhaps that large casts aren't compatible with the specific way of writing character arcs that I personally find most powerful.

So a potential future reboot would involve me separating out some characters, and then writing these characters and their relationships into their own story.
I've got a very clear idea of how I could do this with the Cecily Lachlan Josette relationships - I'm almost completely certain that I'll tell this story one day with Josette as the main character.

I'm less clear about how or if I can do this with any of the other characters, but I guess that's something I'll figure out eventually :)

3) What will happen here, on Patreon?

I might put this page on pause for another month, so no one is charged at the beginning of March. Whether or not I do this will depend on how things with the Always Human print edition progress. If things wrap up, and I can share stuff with you here (and I'd really like to return to doing wallpapers/sketch requests once time permits!) then I won't put this page on pause. If I'm still very busy I think it might be best to pause for another month. We'll see :)

(Also thank you very much for being so kind to me on my previous post about this!!!)

4) What about cameos?

Not continuing with Aerial Magic means I can't keep my Aerial Magic cameo commitments and I'm so, so sorry :(
I know some of you are waiting for a cameo and that now won't happen as planned.
Other people had their cameo, but the plan was to weave the cameo in and out scenes and that won't happen either

I'm very very sorry about this.
Everyone who pledged to the cameo tier during Aerial Magic's run will get a cameo in my next webcomic. I will contact you individually about this, once my future webcomic plans are more certain.

I can also offer (instead, or additionally) art, to make up for not keeping to my Aerial Magic cameo commitments. If you pledged to the $50 tier, and would like me to draw something for you, please let me know :)

5) What's next for me?

Webtoons has said they're very happy for me to pitch them a new comic, which is a nice! (I was a bit worried I'd been so flaky that I might have burned those bridges.) 

While working on Aerial Magic, every time I regretted something, and that regret made me want to do something else, I furiously wrote down my ideas and scribbled down some sketches, in the hope of getting these ideas out of my system and returning to focusing on Aerial Magic. So I now have a folder full of future webcomic ideas that I'm super passionate about :)

As I got more frustrated by Aerial Magic I found myself wondering if I could squeeze in time to draw a few panels a week of very simple art, and turn one of my future webcomic ideas into a 4-panel romcom that I'd draw at the same time as AM.

I hoped that by channeling my need to write/draw romance into this second webcomic, I might regret AM less and find it easier to remember all the things I love about AM.

This didn't happen as planned, but I do have quite a bit of this possible 4-koma-esque romcom scripted out. Because I've worked on it so much on it it's the story that's calling to me most right now.

I've pitched it to webtoon in the standard webtoon episode format (which is how I was originally imagining it.)

Here's some of the art from the pitch to webtoons.

Character designs:

Style test:

So yep! Hoping webtoons wants this, but if they don't I'll pitch something else to them and also do Flowers & Fangs in some sort of 4-koma-esque format, because I love this story a lot and I need it to exist :)

And, I think that's everything I want to talk about now. That got very long!

Again, I am very, very sorry to be dumping this all on you, and to be leaving Aerial Magic unfinished. But while I'm very torn up about this, I do think it's for the best.

I am really looking forward to my next projects  (including, eventually, the Josette POV sort-of-Aerial Magic-reboot.)

If any of this changes your pledging plans, please do whatever is right for you, I understand completely. I am sorry to have disappointed you.

Thank you so very much for the support <333
Ari