redcoatcat
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🕑 Added 2025-07-27 15:00:20 +0000 UTCSo I'm going to start thumb nailing Issue 5 of Synthetic Instinct. It's a huge tonal shift so I look forward to that.
In autumn of last year I had kind of a massive burn out which has never happened to me before on that scale... I've put 5 years into Synthetic Instinct, roughly a year for an issue, as the first year of working on it doesn't count too much as I was in and out of the hospital and my cats dying.
It was an awful year. ... yet I still worked just slowly.
When I finished Issue 4 I kind of pushed myself hard to get it done for Eurofurence which I then couldn't attend due to health reasons.... I'm still sitting on those books.
I pride myself on my finished art being BOOK quality not web comic, I hear constantly the 'advice' of cut the quality of the art down for speed. Yah if it looks like crap, then when you print it, it's printed crap! For pencils, inks, colours it's an acceptable time frame for each step I do but the problem is it's all ONE person, one person that can't work faster and only for so long.
I realize now I cannot pour myself into a singular project otherwise I put that project on a pedestal of expectations. I also cannot write super short projects, which often do better online compared to print as I need a few issues to say what I want to say. It's why I think of my work as comics that are available online... not a webcomic.
No high mighty attitude towards creators of webcomics, comic regardless of where it's from or how it's presents is still a comic to me, which is a boatload of passionate work... I just feel WEB+COMIC has a different expectation from READERS.
From now on I'll be working on two projects, do a few (let's say ten) pages of Synthetic and then ten of another project. I did this with Wild Autumn but honestly amount of negativity that it wasn't Synthetic Instinct kinda cracked me... As well as negativity I get online for Synthetic.
It's why I need to stay away from comment sections, they are not for me and info overload me.
My next project is not fully anthropomorphic, I also need to make OTHER comics as bleeding myself into one thing just doesn't work for me and leads to frustration.
Once I get to a point of being able to post comics I'll give ample warning as my comics will be Bronze tier so $5 a month not Onyx that is $2.
Public release will be even slower this time around, I'm debating on only releasing pages till I have 15 or 30 finished/reformatted and then scheduling every 2 week release of said pages and then freezing it in a hiatus till I get another 15-30 finished. As once a month two pages people just non stop complained at me. So it feels a fit of posting and hiatus seems better.
I am also re-doing my website, I think it's better if I put comics on their own subdomains and operate separately from my portfolio and eventually a store. I think toochecke is great (I'll still use it) but it's multi-comic feature doesn't work well for comics that are long form and not strips... It's a bit disorganized....
Comments
Phantasmas35
Your comics are awesome. I love how you create characters. It shows that you care about them (and makes us care about them). Your art style is beautiful and same with your colors. I'll never understand people leaving negative comments on someone's creation. You don't like it, don't look at it. *sending all the hugs*
Meezer
I fully agree with you...I have enjoyed some vertical scroll comics that have used it to their storytelling strengths. I do agree that the attitude it's the ONLY format as well as the not subtle pages are called episodes and seasons instead of issues. Using TV words really reallllly bothers me. It messed everything up, till the end of time I could correct reviews of my comic saying I have 50 pages when it's 50 episodes because a single episode is more like 2-5 pages mushed together. I won't do this anymore I'm tired of being called slow and lazy so they get a single page converted to vertical scroll. It will be one to one now. The speed people demand is very unhealthy, I was making webcomics back in 2000s and twice monthly was considered an acceptable update schedule maybe a bit on the slow side but acceptable..... Now they want 2+ a week that's not do-able unless you have an art team. I guess this is why you see 20 year old artists saying their burned out, yah when your expected to make 2 episodes a week with 40+ panels per episode and not make it stick figures or some how afford hiring people (or probably pay them pennies). I refuse to pay under a liveable wage to another creative so therefore I can't afford to hire someone for being a colourist. I do have printed copies, both volume 1 and 2 just need to get a storefront working. Which I admit I've been bad at because I'm avoidant when it comes to website stuff.
Tempest051
I'm gonna be honest, I don't like what Webtoon has done to the digital comics space. It has become comics fast food. People expect stuff fast, don't care about quality, and refuse to read anything that isn't vertical format when paneling is 50% of the art of making comics. They also no longer get invested in any one particular thing, because you can just hop over to whatever else is popular at the time. I for one am happy to wait, and look forward to the day a physical print is available so I can add it to my collection of hardcopies and limited editions.
Meezer
Should have stressed it wasn't comment section on Patreon, that's always been pleasant experience. It's public platforms that seem to forget creators can see them, I have around 40,000 subscribers to Synthetic on webtoon alone some people will be rude. I appreciate the support, I just want to be transparent on what is going on with me.
Lacu Notch
It baffles me to think people would complain about your work. Take the time you need to produce something you're proud of. Looking forward to seeing your next comics (whatever they might be). And Wild Autumn was great, super promising start
