comics, art, and thoughts by bug & delade
About sale
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 other stuff!
Happy Thanksgiving if you celebrate, and happy Thursday if you don’t!
Hey Chio Crew! Happy summer! (Unless you’re on the other side of the world, then I’m sorry, and I hope the weather is treating you well.) It’s been a minute since I’ve sent a newsletter, so it seems like as good a time as any to do that now. So here we are!
Things have been quiet around here, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been busy. I’ve been working my way through getting Follower updates caught up, which has been a lot easier because I’ve been having more success with pain control. Finally! I’m feeling optimistic about it for once, and hope I can keep it up. There may be some hiccups, but as usual, I’ll post about ’em on social media or the Follower site itself.
Follower is now available on NamiComi! NamiComi is a new comics platform that’s heavily focused on creators and is in an open beta. So far it’s been a nice experience posting there, though I haven’t found many readers yet! A new complete Follower chapter is going up every Friday until we’ve caught up with the main site, so give it a look!
I’ve added a new design to the Teepublic shop which is extra great on mugs: Caffeinated Dia! Probably the last creature on earth who should have coffee, but with a Dia mug, you, too, can be unstoppable.
Additionally, I’ve been uploading art to my Inprnt shop, which I regularly forget I have. If there’s a piece of art I’ve made that you’d like to see available as a print or sticker, let me know and I can add it! The options are a bit sparse at the moment, but I’ve been sorting through my files for anything that seems print-worthy. Best of all, Inprnt is currently running a summer sale, so everything is cheaper than usual.
Next up? More Follower updates! I’m also trying to plan something for Messenger this August since the comic is turning 20 years old and has been in hiatus forever. My bones just crumbled to dust. I can’t believe it. I started the comic when I was a teenager and I thought I’d be done by now. How life throws us curves, eh?
When I can’t draw, I’m trying to get the new Follower website I’ve been working on for ages…worked on. Sometimes it’s easier to type than draw depending on my pain level that day, and that’s at least something I can do.
Discord members currently have access to the new site-in-development, so come join in if you’d like to take a peek at it and see if you spot any bugs. Everyone is welcome!
As mentioned above, Discord members currently have access to check out the new Follower website. I’m also hoping to recruit some volunteers to help me add transcripts for each page if there’s interest. I’m thinking of some kind of system where a certain number of transcriptions equals a free sketch from me or some such thing. In any case, you can come and express your interest in the chat!
Thanks so much for taking time out of your day to see what we’ve been up to!
For the next week or so my entire itch.io shop is on sale! Get some comics, CSP brushes, and more AND help keep me alive and affording needed healthcare! There’s also a bundle of everything for just $20.24!
Check out my shop here: https://itch.io/s/119899/spring-sale-2024
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!
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.
You can view my comics as I make them at Radiochio.com under the “healthposting” tag.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
Get all of my comics and other downloadables for 50% off! Or, you can get the entire collection for $25.00 on itchio. Use the code “blackfriday” on Ko-Fi for 50% off everything in the download shop. Get some comics to read over the holidays, some wallpapers for all your devices, and some sketchbooks to flip through and see my creative process!
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!
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.
A ZIP file containing monthly wallpapers from 2014-2020.
7 sketchbook PDFS in one ZIP.
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:
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!
Use code EXTRA20 for 20% Off Everything 11/6 10AM – 11/16 11:59 PM CT
BLACK FRIDAY Everything on Sale + $12.50 Tees 11/22 10 AM – 11/26 11:59 PM CT
CYBER MONDAY Everything on Sale + $12.50 Tees 11/27 12 AM – 12/4 5 PM CT
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!!)
Here’s everything you need to know:
November 9-19 and November 29-30*
up to 40% off on Black Friday: November 20-28
*Sale dates are not final and therefore subject to change.
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!
Welcome back to Spooky Month, the month where everything is a trick or a treat and we live in candy chaos. It finally feels like fall is upon us here at Chio HQ. Let’s get on with the latest and greatest!
Follower remains on hiatus for the time being. I am getting better at working around some of the joint pain issues I have, and have done more comic work this past month than I have in quite some time. Still, it’s not enough for proper updates yet. A lot of the medical help I was counting on in September fell apart or was pushed out for various reasons, which has been frustrating since some of it would have definitely helped me in the drawing department. Regardless, I’m continuing to do my best, albeit at a slower pace. Chio Club folks have gotten the first look at what I’ve been working on, and I’ll have more to share soon.
Like I mentioned last month, I’ve been working on something more in the autobio comics realm, but it’s required a bit of supporting research. I don’t have a title yet, and I haven’t completely figured out the structure, but I do have a general idea of what I want to say so I guess that’s something. Unfortunately it’s all still in the notes phase so it’s not terribly exciting to look at, yet.
In smaller news, I’ve been spending some of my “practice” time re-acclimating my drawing hand to…drawing… by working on some simple shirt designs for my shop. If you like anything you see, my whole shop will be on sale from October 12-15 and October 26-29.
While there isn’t much new going on with the community lately, you should come join us on Discord for casual chat and hanging out. It’s open to everyone and we strive to keep it a friendly place! Join us today!
As usual, thanks again for keeping up with the latest from us! I’m doing my best to get better and stronger so I can get back to making comics and art. Thanks for your patience with my slow pace!
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Hey, my Teepublic shop is on sale for like 8 or 9 more hours from the time of posting this! I’ve got licensed Star Trek and Cartoon Network designs and original stuff like animals and characters from my webcomic!
You can get cool stickers and shirts and stuff and I can afford to pay my phone bill next month, maybe!
Here’s a new design I just released based on the project patch for Project Cottontail from Follower!
An update! As of 11:15 PM July 27. We made the goal, and I’m incredibly humbled, and I’m going to be able to get places. I’m leaving my stuff on sale for a while if anyone still wants to grab anything, I’m just gonna go. Fall down. 😲
So, as you probably know by now, I’ve been dealing with a newly-diagnosed connective tissue disorder as well as a heart condition which are basically ruining my life and making it hard to make comics or do anything pleasant in life, really. I have an amazing team of doctors who are making huge improvements to my life, but the big problem is that they are all about an hour (one way) from where I live, and to add insult to injury, my car needs an oil change I can’t afford and I realized the registration expired a while ago and I can’t afford to re-register, or pay the ticket for driving illegally. 😬
So, as a last ditch attempt to try and mitigate some of this, I put all my digital comics on sale on itch and ko-fi. All I need is 9 people to buy a bundle on itch and I can fix these issues.
If you’ve ever wanted to pick up some of the Follower bonus stories and single issues, this is the best opportunity for you and me!
It finally feels like summer! To celebrate, take 50% off everything in our itch.io shop, or get the whole bundle for $15! Grab some comics, find a shady spot, and chill.
