Hey folks! It’s definitely been a minute since I’ve made a proper newsletter, let alone a news post. It’s been a rough summer so far for me — I thought I was dealing pretty well with the health issues I’ve been having, but a series of coincidental problems coupled with the summer heat have really knocked me flat. I summoned the energy to make a goofy little doodle comic about it, which you can check out here if you like. It might turn into an ongoing series, because sometimes all I can do is laugh at the situation.
I am (as usual) doing my best to get back on track with things like Follower updates, but it’s been difficult. A major part of my problem is joint issues, which can vary wildly from day to day, so sometimes drawing is rough. I’ve been trying to at least put my creative energy into other projects when I can’t draw, like some Tiny Art Vlogs from time to time. You can view those on my Youtube channel here!
Mostly, I am trying to figure out how to work with a body that’s kind of unreliable, when I’m trying to do something that requires a certain amount of regularity, like posting a comic update every week. I haven’t figured it out just yet, but I’m doing my best. I may need to eventually move to a monthly update of a few pages at a time rather than work under the pressure of weekly updates, but I haven’t decided that for sure just yet.
Here’s what I’ve got on the table for upcoming projects, roughly in order of priority:
Follower updates! I can’t believe it’s been as long as it has since my last update. I’ve been slowly working at the next pages while doing my best not to overdo it with my hands. It’s a difficult balance.
Follower Volume 1: I’ve made it into edits for chapter 2, and I’m finishing off the last few drawn revisions for chapter one. Those’ll get posted for Chio Club folks first. Once I get through chapter 2, things will move a lot faster on this project.
Community News
There hasn’t been much new lately in the community, but the Discord is always open and new folks are always welcome! It’s a slow-paced, quiet chat, but we keep it friendly. Click here to join!
Thanks For Reading!
Thanks so much for checking out the latest news from us this month! Here’s hoping the next one will be more comic-heavy. 🤞
Get the Chio Chronicles Delivered To Your Email!
Sign up for the Chio Chronicles email newsletter and get emails like this every month with all our latest news sent directly to you! We don’t share or sell our email lists with anyone else.
Hey hey! It’s April! The weather here is trying so hard to start being nicer, and I personally can’t wait for it. I hope that it’s as nice wherever you are! With that, let’s get into the news!
What’s Up?
March was surprisingly productive! I’ve been doing well with physical therapy for my hands, and I’m taking advantage of all the new strength I have at the moment. Will it last? I have no idea, but I’m going to work extra hard while the proverbial sun is shining.
There are 5 brand new Follower pages that you can check out right now if you’re a member of the Chio Club. That’s an entire month’s worth of updates! For $1 (or more) you can see these new pages as they’re completed, long before they’ll be released to the rest of the world! I am currently working on early phases of the next batch of pages. I’m planning (tentatively, but fairly confidently) to start regular Follower updates again in May. More on that below!
The Chio Club Sticker Tier has officially launched! You can join the tier via Patreon or Ko-Fi for $12/month. (This price includes shipping.) Right now the design is a secret to everyone except folks who’ve joined the tier, but I’m doing a reveal on Twitter if I can get enough likes on the post!
By joining the Sticker Tier, you’ll get all the benefits of tiers below $10 – book downloads, page previews, and behind the scenes info – as well as a physical vinyl sticker mailed directly to you! And you’ll get the warm fuzzy feeling of helping our comics keep going a little bit more: just this past month, I’ve had to renew domain names, update software, and make my first ever sticker order for the Sticker Tier.
All of that (and a little bit of general survival) is directly possible thanks to Chio Club supporters, so if that’s you, thank you so much! It means the world to us.
If you’ve ever wanted to be part of Follower, like, so much that you’re in the comic – now’s your chance! Our Create a Chio project is open once again for takers on both Patreon and via Ko-Fi commissions. For $50, I’ll work with you to design your very own Chio character. You’ll get a custom character sheet with color references and information. This character will appear on at least one page of the comic as a side character. I’ve also added an extra upgrade option that will put your custom character on 3 pages of the comic, with the potential for a line of dialogue, too. Since I’m working on pages right now that feature a bunch of background Chios, the sooner you commission me, the sooner your character will appear in the comic!
I’m planning a return to Follower updates starting in May! It’s taken me a long time for my hands to recover enough to get some substantial pages done, but I’m feeling good about the progress I’ve made. I can’t promise that I won’t have to take breaks again in the future due to these same health issues, but I’m going to do my best!
Messenger, my long-neglected first project, turns 19 years old this August, and I have turned to dust typing out that sentence. I am not currently working on new pages due to the issues with my hands. It’s difficult to work on this type of project when you have unsteady hands and no undo button, so I’m contemplating working on a few real-media pieces to practice technique with since I’ve had to change a few things about the way I draw and work, and I don’t want to find out how difficult or different something looks on what should be a final piece.
Community News
I’ve been trying to build a more reliable streaming schedule, but due to a lot of the things going on with me health-wise, it’s been pretty difficult to schedule time for it. Looking into the next month, I should be able to find at least a few hours a week to hop on and draw with anyone who wants to drop in. I’d love to have you along! Be sure to follow me on Twitch to get notifications for when I’m live.
I’m also planning on dual streaming to Twitch and Youtube whenever possible, since my YT audience has been growing a bit!
In other community news, I’ve been working on improving the Discord server. (I’m always trying to improve it!) I’ve added a few new bots and features like a Question of the Day channel for fun, and I’m working on plans for a trivia game night of some sort for server members. I’ve toyed around with the idea of adding an in-character RP channel for folks – is that something people would be interested in? There are interesting bots and plugins that could make that fun and interesting. In any case, if any of this sounds like fun to you, please come and join us! Everyone is welcome!
Thanks so much for checking out the latest news from us! Things are looking to get more exciting as this year winds on, and we’re so glad to have you along!
I’ve been in physical therapy for around two months now, and I’ve been slowly working myself back into drawing. Bluntly, physical therapy kicks my butt and I tend to feel sore and awful for around a day afterwards, and doing this multiple times a week is a bit of a rollercoaster. We’ve moved on to working on my shoulders lately, which are a literal sore point, and that’s been rough going. But things are improving overall.
I am still working on comic pages, and have been posting progress for the Chio Club as usual. It’s been a bit more of a mountain climb to get anything to completion than I expected, but I’m doing my best. I most recently posted a batch of rough sketches of ideas for the Chio Club sticker tier (discussed further down this post) including a bunch that weren’t shown during the stream where I started working on them!
Among some of the other less drawing-heavy projects I’ve been working on, I’ve also been dabbling with some fiction outside of the Messenger/Follower-verse. I’m not sure if anyone would be interested in checking out drafts of that story in process, but it might be a future Chio Club feature if there’s interest.
I posted my first ever storytime video on our Youtube channel this month, to pretty good reception! Not so coincidentally, it talks a bit about some of the problems I’ve been having with my hands, so if you want to watch me draw a little bit and listen to me talk, check out my video!
It would also be really helpful to us if you subscribe to our Youtube channel! Like every other webcomic artist out there, we’re always looking for another trickle of revenue to make this whole thing possible, and we can’t even get paid for ads until we reach 1,000 subscribers. We’re pretty close to approaching 100, and while that’s only a tenth of the way, once the snowball starts rolling it gets easier and easier to reach new viewers. It also helps us to have more watch hours, so if you’re interested in our comics, I highly recommend checking out one of the art stream playlists we have and letting it run!
After sleuthing for some opinions and data, I’m tentatively going ahead with the idea of a physical sticker tier for the Chio Club. Whether you join via Patreon or Ko-Fi, I’m planning to introduce a tier where you can get a monthly sticker. You can get all the details in this blog post: https://www.radiochio.com/sticker-club-update/
Our Teepublic store will be up to 35% off March 8-11 and March 23-26.*
*Sale dates are not final and therefore subject to change.
I’ve been attempting to get back into regular streaming, but I’ve been thwarted twice so far: once by weather, and once by health, so I’m shaking my fist at the universe and insisting I’m going to continue anyway. My next stream date will most likely be during the week of March 6th. Keep an eye on my Twitch schedule page for changes!
As usual, some caveats apply: I have to go by how my health and joints are doing that day, even if something is scheduled. I try to move things by a day or two, but sometimes I have to cancel outright. It is what it is, unfortunately. The best places to find out when I’m streaming are on my Twitch page and on the Discord.
I’m also planning on dual streaming to Twitch and Youtube whenever possible, since my YT audience has been growing a bit!
And, as usual, our Discord is always open and welcoming new folks! It’s a little slow and quiet, but that’s not always a bad thing. Pop on in for comic updates, general chat, and potentially some new community events in the coming year!
It’s the end of yet another year, so as usual, it’s a good time to look back on everything that happened in 2022! I want to sincerely thank all of our supporters – whether you’re a member of the Chio Club, or just a regular reader of our comics, it means a lot. Delade and I couldn’t do what we do without you all.
So… let’s get into it!
A challenger approaches (it’s 2022, that was the challenger)
2022 presented a lot of challenges and difficulties for us. I spent a lot of the year assisting a family member with an ongoing medical issue – running with them to appointments and so on – which sapped a lot of my time and energy. Still, I did my best to keep up with pages until I just couldn’t. In February I injured the thumb on my drawing hand, and it’s been a persistent issue ever since. This has taken quite some time to deal with properly, but recently I’ve been able to buy a splint that allows me to work carefully, without further injuring myself. I’ve got some specialist appointments lined up for the very end of the year, and I’m looking forward to hopefully getting some answers and squaring away this particular problem so I can get back to normal comic updates.
Life in general has been pretty challenging as well. We were illegally evicted from our apartment in 2021 (which is an entire terrifying story all on its own) and while we’re in a safe and relatively stable place now, it’s going to take time to get back to a true state of “normal.” That said, I want to express how much the Chio Club supporters really helped keep Follower and our other projects online this year, as well as helped keep us fed on a few occasions. I can’t truly convey how grateful we are for this. It’s been a rough year, and that’s something that has really helped.
On to more positive news!
Becoming a Brave Chio
This year, I wanted to try and do more to cultivate the reader community around Follower. I’ve been in an introverted shell for a while, and it seemed like a good time to try and break out of it a little bit. I put some work into improving the Radio Chio Discord, and have seen a little bit of success. This is obviously something that is going to be an ongoing process, but if you’re a reader of our comics and want a friendly place to hang out online, you should come join us! I’d like to try and come up with more community events for 2023, but I definitely appreciate any input from folks in the community. Anyone can join us on Discord, but there is an extra channel just for Chio Club members, too!
One of the other things I’ve been trying out this year is doing more streaming, both of comic and art work as well as games. It’s been an interesting experiment! I was able to make the requirements to be a Twitch Affiliate, which means I can actually get paid when folks drop in to watch streams, and is another means to help keep our comics going. I’ve had to slow down a little bit in the past couple of months due to my hand injury, but I’m trying to fit in what I can!
You can join me on Twitch to hang out while I draw or play a game, and if you follow me there, you can get notifications for when I go live. If you just hang out while I’m on, I do get paid via ads that are shown during the stream, so it’s also an easy way to help support my comics. You can also subscribe to my channel to get fancy badges and Chio emotes!
Along with streaming, I’ve been experimenting with creating more video content this year for various formats. I put some more effort into making short Follower-related videos for Tiktok, and was pleasantly surprised by the response! I somehow posted one of the most-viewed things I’ve ever made on the internet when Dia’s story went kind of micro-viral, so that was pretty exciting.
In addition, I’ve been adding more content to our YouTube page, including previous stream archives, comic art time lapses, and more. I have more ideas about making some more “how to” style videos and some story time type chatty videos, but those will likely be coming in the new year. These are things I can probably produce pretty quickly while I’m making other things, since that’s what they’re about, so I hope you’ll look forward to that! You can find us on YouTube here.
Social media has seemed pretty tumultuous in the past few months, so I’m doing a few things with our content to help smooth that out. First of all, most of our major content will originate here on Radiochio.com (or on its own comic site, like follower.messenger-comic.com) first, and will trickle down to other platforms afterward. So if you follow us on social sites for updates, you probably won’t notice a big difference, but it’ll be helpful if or when any particular social platform drops off the face of the planet. You know, apropos of nothing.
Additionally, I’m combining our monthly newsletter with the monthly update post I put out for Chio Club members on Patreon and Ko-Fi. It’ll be free to view here, there, or in your email. This is mostly because a lot of content got duplicated between these two, and it makes more sense to keep it together. Plus, this means that you can also follow us on Patreon or Ko-Fi for free to continue to get news and updates. Regular Chio Club content will remain a paid reward for subscribers, though.
Last thing on this topic: I made a handy links page that points to every place you can find us online. I’ve been experimenting more with alternative social platforms, and it’s been kind of refreshing. Check it out and see what you might have missed!
On to comic news!
Comic news (the good stuff)
The biggest comic news we have for 2022: Follower won DrunkDuck’s 2022 Best Anthropomorphic Comic! This was a total surprise, and we’re really honored to have been recognized! Thank you so much to folks who nominated or voted for us.
Follower became available on Globalcomix, a relatively new comics site that’s really great for both creators and readers. Currently, most of the comic is available to read for free there, just as it is on the main site, and 3 issues with bonus content are available for purchase. More content will be coming in 2023, and the existing issues will get updated art, since that’s an ongoing project.
Throughout the year, I’ve been working on retouching and resizing older Follower pages so I can do two things: publish Volume One of Follower, and release our newly redesigned website to the public. Chio Club members can currently check out an early version of the site, but it won’t be complete without the retouched pages. The edits for Volume One primarily depend on making art fixes to chapters one and two, and text updates to the rest of the comic for readability and consistency. This has been a slower progress than I hoped due to my hand injury, but I’m getting there!
Follower remains on a hiatus for now. I’m hoping to get a small buffer of about 5 pages (or more) ready to go before I start updating normally again. Chio Club members have been getting early looks at new pages as I’ve been working through them.
Messenger has been more neglected than I’ve hoped for this year. I have a stack of half-finished pages waiting to be finished. I am not sure where this will fit into the schedule, but I’m really, really hoping to get to them in 2023. I’m as frustrated as anyone by how long it’s taken to get these updates made, but life has been wild, as you’ve seen.
Thank you for reading
So that’s where things stand around here. Again, I want to express how thankful we are for all our readers and supporters. We really wouldn’t be able to keep up a lot of what we do without you all. You keep us going, sometimes literally, and it means the world to both of us.
It’s almost July, and that’s when Follower’s ninth anniversary is! In celebration of this, we’re holding a Follower Meme-Off Challenge in the Discord! Make your own memes based on anything in the comic and submit them in the thread on the server by July 24, which (not coincidentally) is Follower’s ninth anniversary!
You can make and submit as many memes as you’d like. You can vote for as many memes as you’d like. The meme that gets the most votes wins, and the winning creator gets to request a new emote for the server which I will create!
Must be SFW (swearing is ok, because there’s swearing in the comic)
You can use any art from the comic, or Bug’s art, or draw your own
Post it to the thread on the server in the events channel
By posting, you’re agreeing to give other people permission to use your meme, and Bug & Delade permission to use it on the Follower site and related social media.
Include whatever name you’d like to be credited as, or none if you don’t want to be credited for some reason.
Vote for memes by adding the star reaction. (You can add any other reactions you want too, but the star is what will count as a point towards winning.)
You can vote as many times as you want, and you can vote for your own submission.
Hey there! This is coming in a bit late, but here’s this week’s streaming schedule! It’s a bit sparse, but mostly due to the fact that this Friday is our Discord’s first Movie Night! Come join us on Friday, June 24 at 8:00 PM on Discord! Everyone is welcome.
Without further ado, here’s this week:
WEDNESDAY 6/22: 8:30 PM – Caves of Qud Adventures Continue!
FRIDAY 6/24: 8:00 PM – Not a stream! Movie Night on the Radio Chio Discord! Our Discord is free and open to everyone, with extras for Chio Club members.
We suggest dropping in a bit ahead of time to make sure your permissions are all set since it takes a moment to pop through our server join requirements. (It’s easy, just mostly there to keep spam and stuff out.)
That’s it for this week. Hope to see you at one of these events!
