January 2024

-------------

hey

-------------

As crow cillers comes to an end, i want to move on from the monthly episode release system ive been doing for the past decade.

I think putting out art when its ready will lead to better art.

i will probably put out the final crow cillers episode here first whenever its done (sometime this year), but after that i plan to focus on angel chain and upload chapters to my site as soon as they are ready. not only will this let more people read it, but the classic webcomic model feels appropriate for angel chain. i also want to further expand the work into the site itself, along the lines of the in-character blogs that are already on there.

so, ive been trying to figure out what to put on patreon in place of monthly crow cillers.

maybe updates on what im working on, with drawings i havent posted elsewhere, some production art from projects im working on, sharing stuff im researching at the moment, etc? would that work for you guys.

like so:

-------------

current projects

-------------

my current focus is wrapping up the latest chapter of angel chain. its been in the works for like a year now, put on pause while i focused on crow cillers season 10. 

the chapter should be out next month.

im also still working on redesigning my website- ive gone through several designs but havent found one im satisfied with yet.

preliminary work on crow cillers 100 has also started- im going through my list of research material, some designs drawn, lots of notes.

im also working on another project- i guess its been announced publicly, so i should be clear to say im doing art for the next car seat headrest album.

i wont say much about that, but its more work than ive done for any album before this.

Art 2 is sorta on hold at the moment. its still taking shape, and has been through a lot of forms so far.

initially it was just an exploration of 30s-60s comics that i was researching at the time.

that research expanded into 90s alt comics stuff, which often riffed on old comics, and from there it kept turning into new things.

at one point it was a game, where you explore a surreal world and solve simple puzzles to find

more comics to read. currently, the idea is for it to just be where i collect any short comic ideas i have that wouldnt work for angel chain. an outlet for brief standalone things. who knows if it will shapeshift again though.

-------------

research

-------------

ive got a reading/watching list for angel chain and crow cillers on top of the usual endless reasearch im always doing.

i think i talked about this in the crow cillers season 9 special features, but i really do consider this an important part of my artistic process these days.

ive got a constantly expanding plex server of old television recordings i dig into pretty much every day.

even as i write this, my attention is divided between this and the 2 and a half hour recording of vintage commercials playing on my tv.

watching hours of period appropriate television/advertisments really goes a long way.

for example, ive been watching tons of anime that i feel Rue from angel chain would be familiar with. 

ive spent countless hours digging through old livejournals, deviantart galleries, forums and the like too.

i have dug into some webcomics/flash cartoons of the time, but thats something i really have to delve into deeper.

sometimes its hard to single out the direct results from all this, but it really has profound effects on my work over time.

at least for me, drawing while hours of dragon ball z seether AMVs play bleeds into the work somehow.

i fell off on going through my massive manga reading list a bit last year, but i also found a japanese import site that has regular free shipping sales, and ive been consistently snagging piles of vintage doujinshi (zines). these things are usually not documented anywhere i can find online, and its really fascinating to see what independent artists were selling at conventions at the time. super charming when you get ahold of something clearly printed and stapled together at home by someone 20+ years ago. its also excellent when the artist printed their website url, so you can look it up on the internet archive. feels like discovering this stuff back in the day, as the characters in angel chain are likely doing regularly.

the research doesnt end there. i spent a lot of the previous year learning how to play fighting games. i still barely know what i'm doing, but i have learned to enjoy them, which is a far cry from my previous belief that i could never even begin to play these things.

i did this initially as research for the episode of angel chain im currently working on, as well as the series in general.

i also finally got myself to finish final fantasy vii, which seems like an absolutely vital piece of the 00s deviantart webcomic anime energy that is one of the primary pillars of angel chain. this in particular had some definite direct effects on the comic, but they havent happened in the story yet, so ill keep the spoilers to myself.

i could go on listing research, talking about the ideas behind my current projects, hinting at whats to come in the final episode of crow cillers, etc, but i should probably save some of that for next month. do you find this sort of thing interesting?

would you like to hear me go on and on? because i could go on and on.

anyway, if my rambling isnt worth the month's patreon payment to you, would some art help?