No Gallbladder, No Problem!
In this newsletter, you’ll find out about everything I released over the past 30-31 days.
Anything not labeled “Patreon” or “paid” is free and publicly available.
December 5 to January 5, 2025
And we’re back on track!
This month was lighter than usual, both with the holidays and my gallbladder surgery. I had it about 3 weeks ago, and I’m very happy to report that the surgery seems to have fixed literally 100% of my weird food-related problems! I recovered fast and was able to get back to my regular pre-gallbladder-attack diet in just a couple weeks. (The caveat is I’m a low fat eater in general, so I haven’t tried flying too close to the sun. But if all the Christmas cookies at our belated gathering on New Year’s didn’t give me any issues, I think I’m good.)
Anyway, it’s actually remarkable to just… be able to eat food again. Last year, I lost the ability to eat practically everything I typically ate: raw vegetables, cruciferous vegetables, legumes, whole grains, several fruits, yogurt and fermented foods, most herbal teas – it was a nightmare. And now I can eat all of them again with no issues. It wasn’t a guarantee, since my symptoms were atypical and my surgeon wasn’t sure how many could be attributed to gallbladder issues. Turns out, all of them!
So, I’m working hard to catch up on lost time. As I mentioned last month, some of the work in the pipeline had to be canceled or postponed. But the important thing is, now that I can digest food, I can get work done again!
I owe a HUGE thanks to all my patrons for helping to keep me afloat in December, which is a tough month for Patreon even when I don’t have to have surgery or take a hiatus. THANK YOU ALL!!
And now, on to last month’s releases!
Into the Smoke
Into the Smoke is my new free vertical-scroll webcomic, launched in May 2024. It updates every other Wednesday. “When gay medium Blaze binds himself to an evil spirit, he hopes solving the ghost’s murder will help bring him peace. But Alastor the Angel Killer has other plans…”
Hiatus Month:
Into the Smoke was on between-chapters hiatus last month, but we’re all set to return with the chapter 2 cover this Wednesday, January 8! We’ll have a chapter 1 recap soon after, and then chapter 2, episode 1 after that! If you were looking to refresh your memory, now’s a great time for a reread!
- Read chapter 1 at intothesmokecomic.com
- MIRROR SITES: Subscribe and Read on Webtoon and Tapas (censored to PG-13)
Extras:
1. We had four new Into the Smoke: The Clybourn House early-access chapters for Secret Gallery patrons! That’s 12,000 words posted this month. As far as spice levels go, we are in the THICK of it right now, and that’ll continue for the next two chapters.
The Clybourn House is an 18+ prose short story that takes place one year before Into the Smoke. Secret Gallery patrons get early access to the serialized draft. The story will release to all patrons later in 2025 after the first few episodes of ITS chapter 2 have posted. Pledge on Patreon here!
Spirit medium Blaze Laurent defies his priest partner Judd Abraham by using scandalous methods to negotiate a truce with the haunted Clybourn House’s eighteen angry ghosts.
- The Clybourn House: Chapter 4 Early Access (Patreon)
- The Clybourn House: Chapter 5 Early Access (Patreon)
- The Clybourn House: Chapter 6 Early Access (Patreon)
- The Clybourn House: Chapter 7 Early Access (NSFW Warning)(Patreon)
2. I posted a couple preview shots and WIPs of Into the Smoke chapter 2!
- Some chapter 2 inks of Blaze and Judd
- Some cover pencils and inks
- Some cover flats. These look pretty cryptic, but we’ll get a cover reveal soon!
3. A little webcomic meme on Bluesky – Cover vs Panels for ITS chapter 1!
4. December was a quarterly sketch month on Patreon! That means I did original sketches for the patrons in the limited Sketch Tiers, but all patrons get to see the sketches. This month was super fun; we had a 12 Days of Christmas theme featuring both DOTU and ITS characters. I also did a couple of Clybourn House sketches.
- Quarterly Sketches Page 1 (12 Days of Christmas part 1)(Patreon)
- Quarterly Sketches Page 3 (ITS Clybourn House)(Patreon)
5. December’s Patreon Secret Gallery post was a writing blog post about diagnostic outlining in Scapple – basically my way of using a very detailed outline to identify and fix problems in a story—in this case, Into the Smoke’s upcoming chapters. When it comes to comic scripts and epic-length prose novels, I’m a hardcore plotter, so here’s your chance to see me at my worst! This post was mirrored in the Secret Gallery and the Patreon feed itself.
- Writing Blog: Diagnostic Outlining in Scapple [Patreon.com][Secret Gallery](Patreon)
6. It’s a new month, so it’s a great time to vote for Into the Smoke on Top Webcomics! See pencils of the first two panels of ITS chapter 2! We’ll also have a new incentive when the chapter 2 cover goes up on Wednesday. But you can vote every day, the more votes the better!
Demon of the Underground
Demon of the Underground is my longest-running webcomic. It’s about Pogo, a half-demon with telekinetic powers who falls into a treacherous underground world beneath Chicago. The first 300+ pages can be read for free at demonoftheunderground.com. Current pages are being released on Patreon, with tentative plans for new free pages in the future.
Patreon Extras:
1. In December’s Character Interview video, we find out how everyone acts when they’re grumpy! (Patreon)
2. As mentioned in the ITS section, it was a quarterly sketch month on Patreon! I did a 12 Days of Christmas theme, with lots of DOTU characters!
- Quarterly Sketches Page 1 (12 Days of Christmas part 1)(Patreon)
- Quarterly Sketches Page 2 (12 Days of Christmas part 1)(Patreon)
Cooking with Belmont
Cooking with Belmont is a future AU DOTU spin-off visual novel. It’s completed, and you can download it for free from itch.io! Throw a dinner party with your disaster chef boyfriend!
Just a little update, but we have a shiny new CWB Merritt emoji in the Discord server! Behold Merritt in all his glory.
Anyway, come join us in the Discord! We’ve been chatting about CWB, The Clybourn House, Terror birds in Australia and New Zealand, raccoons and their tiny criminal hands, and more! Some folks were also talking about doing a group Devoted: Merritt’s Story read, so pop in if you’re interested!
(And yes, I have more animated emojis planned!)
Odds and Ends
Do you know the Christkindlmarket pigeon fire pit in Chicago? It’s one of my favorite things, and I went there in December, so naturally I had to do some art!
Fan Stuff
- Imagine my surprise last month when one of my awesome cartoonist buddies, Lorelli, posted some gorgeous sketches of webcomic characters including our lovely idiot Blaze! Check it out! It includes several characters I happen to love.
- And be sure to check out Lorelli’s awesome webcomic Bad Influence! It’s a super fun action fantasy comic with great characters and a romance I’m rooting hard for! (There’s several webcomics I plan to add to my links page in the near future, and this is one of them!)
And that’s everything from this past month! See ya next time!
