Also, if you like reading comics on apps, Follower is available on both Webtoons and Tapas! And if you subscribe there, it really helps me out, because I’m a little bit closer to being eligible for an ad revenue share.
I’ve had to make a few changes regarding Follower’s update schedule. It will be returning on February 21 to accommodate my health issues. More details are in the post below if you’re interested. Thanks for your understanding!
I’ve been working on new Follower pages and there are currently 3 previews up for Chio Club members! That means you can get 3 updates ahead of the current story, and be way ahead by the time regular updates resume in February!
Hey folks! Just wanted to make a quick update post about some new stuff that’s been posted for Chio Club supporters!
First: the final version of Follower page 8.14 is up. It took forever, working on and off through shoulder pain, but it’s finally done, and thankfully I’m starting to get some pain relief. (As a direct result of Chio Club & other support!)
I also uploaded rough versions of pages 15-17, since those are next on my agenda and it might be interesting to see through this part of the process.
Next: I have a timelapse video of work on page 8.14 which will be up on Monday for Chio Club folks.
Still easing my way back into working on pages, but it is so much easier now that I have some means to manage some of the pain I’ve been in. I just have to be slightly more aware of when I’m overdoing it, because it’s easy to get caught up in it and then pay for it later. (That’s what happened to me on Friday, oops.)
Anyway! Onward to more new stuff! Join the Chio Club for early sneak peeks at what I’m working on, and to help me stay alive and out of pain!
Hey friends! It’s been a while since I’ve updated, so here I am, because I have one!
So, Follower has been on an extended hiatus while I’ve been dealing with health issues and pain problems, and I think I’ve finally made some progress dealing with all this. You can read more about it in the latest Chio Chronicles newsletter or in more detail on my personal Tumblr, but in either case, I’ve been feeling significantly better over the past couple days, to the point where my really problematic shoulder is practically normally usable again. I’m in disbelief and very, very happy about this development.
Anyway! I’ve been working on drawing, specifically on Follower updates, and assuming things continue in this way for the foreseeable future (I have no reason to think they won’t) I’m aiming for a return to regular updates February 1, 2024. I’m overshooting a little, I would have liked to start at the beginning of January, but I want to be realistic about my limitations. And this date could still change if I keep having trouble over the long term, but I feel like I’m finally on track to things starting to get better.
Thanks for continuing to stick with me despite how complicated and slow this has all been! I’ve been dying to draw for months and now I can and it’s absolutely wild. I can’t wait to get more pages done and posted! As usual, subbing to the Chio Club via Patreon or Ko-Fi will get you access to whatever I’m working on at the moment.
Thanks again for reading, and I’ll see you on February 1!!!!
We’ve done it, everyone! After what’s been a real rollercoaster of a year, we made it to the end of 2023! This edition of the Chio Chronicles is going to be a big wrap up of everything we’ve done this year, so if you’re just joining us, or if you’ve been here all along, we can all look back on 2023 together!
The Big 2023 Roundup
In the beginning of this year, I started working on some video projects as a way to keep making stuff and being active as a creator online (so people wouldn’t forget I existed, I hoped…) and one of my early experiments was a video essay on joint hypermobility, one of the major health issues I’ve been dealing with over this year. I made it both as an explainer and a kind of journal piece about what I’ve gone through.
Throughout the year, I’ve worked on a few simple animations, in hopes of one day maybe being able to do some for Follower. The one pictured above is called Snack the Mouse, although I’ve done a couple of others based on Follower, as well as some kind of autobio animatic-style pieces. TikTok has been a real help in getting some of my art out there, especially in this way! But most of these are on my Youtube channel, too!
My ability to draw has been hit or miss this year thanks to untreated chronic pain, but I’ve found that I can (usually) at least write when I can’t physically draw, so one of the ways I’ve been trying to do that is create some useful resources for other artists and comic-makers. The first big one of these posts I did was a run down of some of my favorite books for comic artists!
Sort of spontaneously, I decided to attempt Nanowrimo this year, and actually managed to complete the requisite 50,000 words! I posted early drafts week by week in November for Chio Club members. Although I made the minimum amount of words to “win,” I still haven’t finished the story itself, so I’ll be working on this on and off into 2024.
My novel is tentatively called “Cat Person,” and it’s a take on zombie horror. Right now I’m working on finding the holes in the first 50k words, and then once I’m sure that’s all in order, the ending should click together nicely. If you’re interested in seeing what I put together in November, join the Chio Club at $5+!
One of the ways I’ve been coping with the frustration of my health and dealing with the health care system as a whole this year is making some simple sketchy comics about how I feel about things. Some are more positive than others, but that’s how it goes sometimes.
I’ve also been doing a series of off-the-cuff blog entries about my experiences on Tumblr, also under the healthposting tag (so it’s easy for people to either view or block them, because I know this stuff is not everyone’s cup of tea) and it’s been nice to kind of have a small group of folks with similar conditions where we can all nod at each other like, “yep, that’s how it goes.” You can check out my blog posts there under the healthposting tag!
One of the most life-changing things that happened this year (and there were a lot of those, it’s been a year) was losing our cat Milo in October. He was more a part of our creative process and daily life than we ever realized. In all the writing I’ve done this year, one of the things I’m proudest of is the little eulogy I wrote for him. He was my best little buddy and work supervisor and I’ll miss him forever. It meant a lot to be able to write about him and share my strange, wonderful little cat with the world.
Overall, 2023 was a difficult year, and in some ways we barely made it through. But your support as readers has meant the world to me and made some of the really rough stuff feel worth it, so thank you for being here and continuing to be interested in the stuff Delade and I make!
Bug Bits is (was?) a small series of autobiographical strips I made over the years. They were originally posted on Tapas and Webtoon before I took them down with the intention of doing…something…with them, which I clearly never did. Anyway, now seems as good a time as any to revive Bug Bits. Here is a… Read more: COMIC: a shell of a human being (bug bits)
Hi friends, long time no post? Sort of? I’m here to resolve this posting drought by….posting about not posting. Hmm. As you might have already read if you’re up to date with the goings-on on Follower, or via the Chio Club, I’m going through some kind of burnout and need to take a bit of… Read more: In the Wilderness
It’s a Turkey-Type Sale! If you’re in America, it’s that one week of the year again. *eyeroll* So I suppose I gotta do one of these. Anyway, all my comics, wallpapers, sketchbooks, and brushes are 50% off on itch.io. Everything in my Teepublic shop is on sale, too! That includes shirts, stickers, mugs, hoodies, and… Read more: Turkey-Type Sale
This is just a tiny update to say that I’m leaving Twitter for good. There are a lot of reasons why, but I think it’s finally time. I’ve long since arrived at the point where it’s more effort for me to make a post than what I get in return, where on sites like Bluesky… Read more: Abandoning the bird
Hey folks! There’s a Chio Club update with a preview of the next page and some information about the upcoming schedule for the comic. $1+ members can take a peek right now!
What’s New?
2023 has been a real rollercoaster of a year for us, between my personal health diagnoses, losing our cat, and struggling in general to stay afloat in a never-ending tide of…life… But somehow we did it, and still managed to make some stuff despite it all.
Shop Sales!
A lot of our merch is on sale through December 9! If you’ve wanted to grab something like a t-shirt or mug, this is the ideal time to do it! Digital products are on sale, too!
Coming up in 2024: hopefully some forward progress on Follower. I’ve been having to actively fight with my providers to get any kind of pain relief, but I may be able to take some measures into my own hands by pursuing a medical marijuana diagnosis. Unfortunately, due to the unusual state of legality with this, my health insurance does not cover it in any way, so I’m on my own. I’m working on getting together the money to get through a certification appointment and actually be able to acquire some medical-grade product, but it’s a process. Still: this is some of the most hope I’ve felt in months, because there’s an actual chance for pain relief here. Chronic pain is like being in an unbearably loud room that you can’t leave, every moment of your life, and this is the opportunity to turn the volume down just a little bit, so I’m going to fight to make it happen.
If you are interested in contributing to help me pay for healthcare that my insurance won’t (but please take care of yourself first, of course), I am not currently doing a gofundme because I don’t have solid numbers for a lot of things, but I am running sales on digital comics through Ko-Fi (with the code BLACKFRIDAY) and Itchio, so you’ll at least get something cool for helping me out.
Pursuing this treatment has very good odds of putting me back in a position to draw on a regular basis, so, fingers crossed, everybody.
Community News
One of the new parts of the new Follower website I’m working on and considering opening to readers is the option to help transcribe pages for vision-impaired readers. For now, I’ve been doing the transcriptions myself, but there are hundreds of pages to go. I might open this up to the community as a volunteer project. If you’re at all interested in this sort of thing, please drop in on the Discord chat and let me know!
If there is community interest, I will open up a private channel just for transcribers, and probably create a special role for it.
Thanks For Reading!
Thank you for reading this month’s news, and thanks for sticking with us through this wild year. I have hope that next year will be better, because you’ve got to hope for something. Here’s to more new stuff from us in 2024! May your new year be filled with good luck, delight, and excellent snacks. I hope ours is, too. ❤️
It’s that time of year again, isn’t it? Here’s everything I have that’s going to be on sale for that oh-so-salesy time of year. If you’ve ever wanted to grab some physical merch or download a comic, this is more than likely the best deal you’ll see all year.
Looking for shirts, mugs, stickers, and basically anything else fit to print on? Well well, have I got some links for you.
My Threadless Artist Shop is on sale! Tees are $15, plus everything else is also on sale! I’ve got Follower designs, original art, and more. Keep an eye out, because the amount of the discount might change through the week, wink wink.
Starting today, November 20, my Teepublic Store is also on sale! Everything is 40% off through November 28! I’ve got dinosaurs, original art, and even licensed Star Trek art!
Be sure to keep an eye out especially on the merch shops, because sometimes they like to drop surprise sales and discounts that even I don’t know about until they happen!
It’s Friday again, which means it’s time once again for Friday First Drafts! If you’re a $5+ member of either our Patreon or Ko-Fi, you can get early access to the first draft of my Nanowrimo novel. I’m having fun writing it, and might polish it up and do something with it once the month is over.
Join at the $5 or higher tiers on either Patreon or Ko-Fi to get access to the latest EPUB file of my horror/thriller/whatever novel, “Cat Person!”
It has been a rough weekend for me pain-wise so far, and all my brain wants to do is draw. Figures. I had a moment and seized it to sketch a messy little Dia for fun. Hopefully I can get this all better dealt with soon. Cross your fingers for me. 🤞
After about a billion years, I’ve made some updates to the shop! Two brand-new digital products have been added: a Wallpaper Mega Pack which includes wallpapers I made from 2014-2020, and a bundle of 7 themed sketchbook PDFs. So if you enjoy my art, particularly the art for Messenger and Follower, these are a great way to get more than you see in the comics themselves.
Wallpaper Mega Pack (2014-2020)
A ZIP file containing monthly wallpapers from 2014-2020.
In addition to new stuff in our shop here, we also have a bunch of sales going on throughout the month on other merch like shirts and stickers! Here’s where you can find what’s up:
Threadless
Did you know we have a Threadless shop? Because we do! A bunch of our designs are available on everything from shirts to skateboards, and sales are running throughout the month! Check out these codes and dates to get the best deals!
There are also some great sales happening this month in our Teepublic shop, which includes some officially licensed merch like my Star Trek Tribble Trouble shirt! (One of my personal favorite designs!!)
Whether you’re after shirts, stickers, or other merch, this is probably one of the best times of year to get them! Sales are happening throughout the month, so I’ll do my best to make sure you know about ’em!
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Webcomic maker, artist, and Bug of all trades.
