Chapter 11, Page 16
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God, it’s been so long since I actually posted something, and people probably are wondering if I’ve been actually dead, or ditched the comic full stop…The answer is no; this is a project I started, and I do plan to finish it. However, years ago a friend said to me that you really shouldn’t force art, and I always knew that was true, but lately I’ve really needed to take a *big* if unnanounced step back just to save myself from resenting the project, wringing a few more pages out of myself out of obligation, and then throwing in the towel out of frustration. I figured it was a safer bet to just…see Five Comic as a project I could return to as and when I felt like it, rather than one I was starting to feel as some kind of UUUUUGH obligation.I’ve been pretty busy with (and slightly behind on) commissions over at Queencordite: Art by C. Bowen lately which I’m catching up on, in addition to coming off some medication I’d been on for a very long time (yay wooo SNRI withdrawal symptoms are brutal!) and in my downtime, wanting to work on other creative projects (which I do intend on also hosting on www.five-comic.co.uk when I’ve finished re-tooling it), so Five Comic has very much been on the back burner. When will it resume? I’m not sure, I’m actually feeling like I might wanna draw another page this weekend, but I can’t promise any kind of regular weekly update schedule, so for the forseeable, Five is gonna carry on being a “worked on as and when I have the inspiration and brain cells” project. It hasn’t been shelved, by a long shot, but regular updates aren’t likely to be forhcoming, at least not for a little while.Thank you all for your patience though, those of you who have been reading since I started in 2011, those who stumbled upon it recently, and those who aren’t quite sure how you got here. It means a lot, and I hope to at least have the continuation of plot for you in some form or another without the wait being too gargantuan.
‘m re-tooling the Five Comic website to be a more general site for my art. When I started the comic I was basically all my art, but now I’ve got so much other stuff I want to share with people.
Wish me luck and not breaking anything.
Okay, I didn’t wanna have to do this and I feel like such a colossal flake, but my health, both physical and mental but especially mental, has been in the absolute garbage recently. Killer migraines, alternating anxiety attacks and big depressive slumps, and insomnia that’s letting me sleep maybe an hour a night if I’m lucky. Most of what creative output I’ve had lately is either getting used up on commissions, or late-night attempts to keep myself sane and honestly working on the comic right now is not really happening. It doesn’t help, of course, that we’re swimming in pandemic-related uncertainty IRL which is…uh…not helping my stress around updating this accidentally-kinda-topical work. May/June/July have also had some distressing real life gut punches too.
I’m not shelving the comic; far from it. I’ve got ideas for the next couple of pages. But at the moment, sticking to a rigid update schedule on what’s essentially a personal project/labor of love is making me not enjoy working on it, and causing me rage at myself when I can’t keep to the schedule. Even when I take a break, if I set myself a date that the comic will definitely be back, it accidentally fuels my procrastinate/rush at the last minute habit and then I beat myself up some more over that.
So what I’m gonna do is: keep updating the comic, but on an adhoc kinda basis when I have time and inspiration to put together a decent, non-rushed page, until such a time as I can get myself back onto a proper schedule. I’m not sure when that’ll be I’ll be active both Facebook and on Twitter to let you all know when a new page has dropped.
I really appreciate everyone’s patience.
Facebook: @Five Comic; @Queencordite
Twitter: @Queencordite
I know it’s a bit of a long break but honestly I’ve just kind of hit that point again where I need to do a whole big pile of ‘getting my shit together’, mostly relating to my health, commissions/projects I’ve gotta do for other people, and my own rather flimsy pandemic-related sanity, but also including re-storyboarding some bits for this chapter anyway.
The comic itself will be back and hopefully a bit more coherent and less rushed on 7th June, and I’m gonna do a couple of comic-related colouring pages for patrons too.
Made this page before I take a break for a few weeks and get back on the comic train in January.
I’d normally wish everyone a happy winter solstice/Xmas/New Year/anything else being celebrated round about now, but happiness is pretty thin on the ground in this dumpster fire of a year.
Take care of each other, people. I hope better days eventually come in some form.