When We Were Strangers is done. It's absolutely, totally finished and I could not be happier. It was a niche type of fan comic for a relatively niche fandom, and it may have been the most pointless thing to do on the face of the Earth, but at least I made it to the end. I liked the story I came up with, and I think I did a pretty good job telling it. I may not be the greatest artist, but at least my work was effective enough to carry the story. I am proud of what I accomplished here.

All right, now to figure out how to buy a month of premium so I can post the rest of it. Expect it all up at NG in a day or two max. If you truly cannot wait, it's available at my Xitter or DA.

Well, true to my word, I have powered through. I'm on the art grind, I've got analog drawing and digital cleanup going at the same time and the final chapter of WWWS is underway at Xitter, Comic Fury and (may Allah forgive me) Deviantart. So, the question - why isn't it up at Newgrounds? Well, ultimately that boils down to "I am a cheap bastard." At 18 pages (with an 8-page epilogue to boot!) it's just too big to post at once on a free account, and as I've mentioned before, I don't want to crap up the Portal with constant updates every two or three days. So, when the whole thing is done, I'm going to buy a month of premium and post the final chapters. Then the whole thing will be available to read, in perpetuity, no matter what happens!

And yes, there will be another project afterwards and I am (against my better judgement) considering making Newgrounds my base of operations for it, so hopefully I'll be more active on here on the regular. :) Until then, sing me my way home!

I have no idea why I'm turning my NG news post section into my personal bitch zone, but here we go. Final chapter of When We Were Strangers launches in 3 weeks or less at this point. I know it's practically my trademark now to launch projects even when I'm not ready, and just make up the difference along the way, but this time I am FEELIN' it, Mister Krabs. I've got 22 out of 26 pages loaded for digital coloring, but my last four pages aren't even pencilled, and for whatever reason, I just can't focus on 'em, can't just settle down and do 'em. You could probably give me the choice right now of finishing my pages or getting a colonoscopy, and I'd be like "fine, hand me the gallon of colon cleanser and the bathroom key, let's do this."

The likes drive was a bust. Could barely crack 200. I guess it's better than nothing. I still owe people the consolation fic, and I have no problem with that, but I am having trouble sitting down and hammering that out, too. Honestly I'm quite annoyed with myself.

You're supposed to schedule vacation from work so that you take your time off to recharge before (or just at) the point where burnout sets in, but I'm the kind of dumbass who can't tell when I'm nearly burnt out until I'm actually there, and then I have to put in for time off and wait another 3-5 weeks. It sucks.

But somehow, I get the impression that even if I was off work right now, I'd still be having trouble. I've stubbornly bashed through insane comic schedules before while still working my job. This should be no different. So why now?

Well, I may be prone to complaining, but I'm not prone to giving up. Pretty sure I can find the motivation to power through this. I just wish I knew what it looked like, so I could find it easier.

I knew it was going to be difficult when I pitched it, but not only is the When We Were Strangers follow-up project definitely not going to happen at this point, but I'm pretty sure none of my smaller goals will, either. It's a shame, but there's a lot of possible explanations. Maybe a "post gets ____ many likes" post wasn't the way to go about it, it could be because the active community on Xitter is shrinking. It could be because the FNF community is finite, and the PicoxBF community is really quite small compared to the whole.

Or it could be that people don't particularly want this project. Or even if they did, maybe they don't want it from me. I might just not be good enough to get the backing for this.

Ah, well, self pity's a bad look and doesn't get you anywhere. Maybe there will be some kind of miracle before the end of October. Either way, I still got to see WWWS through to the end, and if nothing else, at least I can hammer out a quick fan fic to show what might have been.

Today I am starting an initiative on Xitter to see who would like to see me make a followup to my Friday Night Funkin' fan comic "When We Were Strangers." Currently, WWWS is basically creating a chain of events up to Week 3 of FNF, providing a possible backstory on Pico and BF's relationship, how they got together and why they broke up. It tries to follow canon as well as possible - keeping in mind that I did start this thing in 2022, so there's been some unintended deviation, but hopefully not much.

That said, this new comic would be an AU that would completely, albeit plausibly, jump the rails. It would diverge from the events in my side story "Crashing" into an alternate reality where Pico and BF manage to reconcile and restart their old relationship, completely avoiding the events of Week 3. But that doesn't mean all their problems are over. Would GF try to win her boyfriend back? Would Daddy Dearest still be pissed at Pico for defaulting on their deal, and want revenge? Seeing as some events in the story would be determined by reader vote, even I'M not sure what would happen!

Anyway, if this sounds like something you'd be into, and you still have an active Twitter/X/whatever account, stop by "NobodyLivesHer7" and make your voice heard!

(You can also read "Crashing" on DeviantArt. Sorry I don't have it up here yet.)

After weeks of dedicated work, "Crashing" is now complete and visible over at Xitter, DA and Comic Fury! Yes, I am aware of the irony of making an NG-themed comic and posting it literally everywhere but NG. When I finish the final chapter of my comic, I will buy a month's support and get everything posted. What can I say - I'm cheap like that.

Aside from that, two pieces of news:

1) I am considering starting an AU spinoff of my existing fan comic, "When We Were Strangers." It snaps off from a critical point in the last side story, gives canon the finger, has BF and Pico run off together and features audience participation to determine where the story goes next. If that's something you'd want to see happen, keep an eye on my Xitter for upcoming posts on the matter and the chance to voice your opinion!

2) This Sunday is Piconjo Day! Unfortunately, dude's had a rough year and is back in the hospital again. I commissioned something for him, which I unfortunately can't put on NG because it's a commission. Still, if you're a fan of Piconjo and you can take the time to show a little love, I think this is the year to do it.

I've drawn all seventeen pages and loaded them into the computer, ready to be colored and cleaned. Yes, I draw them by hand. Yes, I scan them in on a shitty office scanner from 2012 which adds like an extra hour each to my cleanup time. I swear, if my system was any more low tech, I'd be some crazed Amish nerd posting from a computer inexplicably powered by coal steam and a compressed air canister.

So, yeah - waist-high in thick, steaming, pungent post-production, but I'm hoping to have the next chapter ready to go on Twitter by no later than April 22th. But I bet I can get it up faster than that! Watch my dust!

I regret that new artworks have been fewer and further between. But I am currently engaging in some good-natured dumbassery on Xitter which is leading up to some entertaining stuff for Valentine's Day. Also, layouts are coming along at a decent clip, and I'll hopefully have updates for the next side story soon. It's called "Crashing," and at 17 pages, it will be the biggest of the side stories so far. It will also be the last of the side stories.

After that will come Part 3 of When We Were Strangers. It is the finale. WWWS will end after that.

Oooooooo.

But it's still going to take until probably the end of the year before I can bring this whole thing to a satisfying conclusion. So, let's enjoy the time together until then. 🙂

All the pages so far for When We Were Strangers are now on Newgrounds! And not a moment too soon, the extra pages promotion expires in two or three days.

I know they're not quite everyone's cup of tea, but the star counts are higher than I thought. That said, people here are very generous, and I think you have to be actively drawing in crayon, with your non-dominant hand and uploading a photo of the results taken with an old flip phone to get under three stars.

So, for those who like them, I'm glad that you do, and thank you so much for your support! We still have one more side story and the grand finale that is Part 3! How am I going to get them up here? Well . . . I guess I'll have to become a paid supporter once they're ready! We can cross that bridge when we get to it.

I still feel a little awkward on Newgrounds. I still feel like my work doesn't quite fit in here, both on a technical level and due to the fact that if I shipped Pico and BF any harder, I'd have my own international freight lane. I still am apprehensive about how my comics will be received here.

But I am done worrying about it.

I'm going to start uploading the whole damn thing by chapter, as far as I've gotten it done.

Yes, the fact that the extended posting page limit runs out at the end of the month does have something to do with this. But hey, at least we found SOMEthing to shake me out of my cowardice!

. . . May have to chop Part 2 into two parts, anyway. ¯\_ (ツ)_/¯