And that’s the end of chapter 2! 130 pages down, about 4 million left to go. 😉 This week’s voting incentive is a series of process shots for a single panel from a previous page. It’s kind of easier to see the progression this way than in a gif. You can vote and see it by clicking the button below or in the sidebar.
Now bear with me, because apparently I have a lot to say about finishing this chapter, and some of it is more personal than I usually go. (and sorry for the center alignment – for some reason, I haven’t been able to figure out how to change it within ComicCMS.)
I’m not sure how to describe my mindset after finishing this chapter. Happy, relieved, hopeful, nervous – and maybe a bit of disbelief. By all odds, this was a chapter that never should have been finished. When I say I’m relieved to see this chapter end, it’s because this chapter of the story happened to coincide with the most difficult chapter of my own life, one which I hope is also over.
Those of you who have been reading DOTU for years will already know some of what I’m about to say, but I’ll review it anyway. During the course of this chapter, I dealt with an illness that left me entirely useless for one and a half years. I spent a year and a half with no income, burning through my savings. I went days at a time without eating, or ate food that was two years expired, because I was that afraid to spend money when I didn’t know if I’d ever make another penny. I sat back and watched my world crumble, and the only thing I thought I could do was put my fist to it to make it crumble faster. I spent a year and a half believing that there was nothing left to my life, that I would never create anything meaningful again, and that I would never get better.
I did get better, and I came back hopeful even though it wasn’t the first time I’d seen illness change the entire course of my life. I came back knowing that in a lot of ways, I’d have to start over. I reconnected with old friends, only to find that they hadn’t kept a place for me in their lives. I willingly withdrew from some relationships because the context and the conversations were just too painful. The hardest part of it all, however, was realizing that the person I once was had also been left behind. During this chapter of DOTU, I saw the loss of all three of my elderly adopted ferrets, my last remaining grandparent, and a huge part of myself.
I don’t know if I could have come back to work or art or writing or a life of sharing my creative work if I didn’t have DOTU – something that I knew was waiting for me to come back. What caught me off guard was how many of you readers also waited. It was a level of loyalty that I’d never experienced before. Less than a third of my old DOTU readers were still around, but you guys were enough – MORE than enough – to keep me going and make me realize that my creative life could continue. The way you welcomed me back was more moving than I can describe.
Because of you guys, because of how things were when I came back, DOTU has gone from that thing that I could just barely squeeze in between freelance to being one of the most important things in my life.
It’s not an easy project, and it has not been an easy road. I postponed a more popular and marketable project (Ludwig the Rock) in favor of DOTU because it’s important to me, and because its audience is important to me. I believe that LGBTQ characters deserve to be leads in a story that isn’t a romance but also doesn’t deny them romance. (That’s a promise – it’s a long road, but it’ll happen!) I believe that my art and writing style and all my weirdness has a place. And if the world won’t give me the ferret character of my dreams or the competent asexual female character of my dreams or a telekinetic dick, I’ll make them myself! 😀
I’ve discovered that rebuilding an audience is harder than building one from scratch. I’m still only at two thirds of where I was before my illness. It’ll always be a challenge, but my characters and my readers keep me going. Your comments keep me going. Your support on Patreon has been mind-blowing, and it’s already gotten me through some tough moments, both financially and emotionally. I ask myself regularly how I was lucky enough to end up with the kindest and most supportive group of readers in existence. I still don’t know how it happened, but that’s exactly what you are, and I’m so grateful for it.
I’m ready to start a new chapter of DOTU and a new chapter of my life. Thank you all so much for coming with me.