Doing a lot of shipping this month

This is crossposted with my newsletter.

And it will probably be for the last time in a while. I said this last month but I’ve been prepping my store to be taken over by White Squirrel. I’ll be at Rose City Comic Con September 13th – 15th and immediately after I’m renting a Uhaul and driving all my stock up to White Squirrel headquarters.

August was kinda quiet because it has been prep for this big move and mostly writing. I finished writing a graphic novel I’m doing with my buddy Jose Pimienta. It’s called Stars Hide Your Fire. It’s about two friends who each find themselves bonding with immortals on opposite sides of a conflict. The picture above is from it. I’m writing it, Jose is doing the lineart, and I’m coloring it. I just finished writing it yesterday. Jose has already drawn a large chunk of it, so I can get to coloring. I’ll start posting pages on my Patreon either this month or next, but I want to sit down and figure out some color choices before I start posting anything publicly.

One of the downsides to focusing on writing for a month is that it’s harder to show that off in a newsletter or on patreon.

Other than writing I’ve been reading a lot of manga. I got myself the Shonen Jump app so I’ve got caught up on a few series I’ve heard good things about but hadn’t checked out. I particularly liked Promised Neverland which is about some kids find out the orphanage they live in secretly a farm. They are being raised as food for demons. The kids are trying to escape. So it’s got a lot of suspense and is very focused on minds games and strategy.

I wanted to take the time to read some manga because I think it’s important to keep up with comic when working on comics. I think finding out new stuff that is out there is inspiring. Reading manga in particular is helpful because with Stars Hide Your Fire done, all my writing attention is going to writing You Are the Chosen One, which is going to be very long. Since manga is usually longer and more decompressed, it’s helpful to see how different ones are paced. I’m about 150 pages into writing You Are the Chosen One and the beginning is a little slow because there is so much to establish.

I’ll keep working on it most of September. So yeah, September is shipping and more writing. I am feeling a little weird about not having art to share though. So I’m gonna try to make time so do some more concept art for You are the Chosen One. I basically keep a list that is “Stuff that needs to be designed before beginning” Maybe I’ll get to that. I have a few possible freelance jobs that will end up taking priority if I get them.

Last month, I also started saying what I’m planning to use my Patreon money on. Patreon money is still gonna go to a new printer since one month isn’t enough to cover it. Printers that can handle bristol are hard to come by. I’m looking at this one to replace my 9 yeah old Espon Photo 1400.

Here’s what you might have missed from me last month:

• It’s a light month, so just Dirty Old Ladies podcast has new stuff for you all. We did an episode about what tools we use and an episode on advertising. I was super depressed and burnt out during recording the advertising episode so sorry for being a downer in it. It was recorded when Twitter/Social media was taking the most out of me.