Monthly Roundup: July 5, 2025

A new side project appears!

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.

June 5 to July 5, 2025

July Goals

This might be the first time I’m not starting off my newsletter with a big announcement, because June was actually pretty chill! It was the way a “normal” month should be, though normal feels pretty abnormal these days. So instead of an announcement, here’s what’s been on my mind for July.

With my latest Into the Smoke update, I talked about how I don’t offer early access pages because I want all my readers to experience the story at the same time, whether they’re free or paid. My patrons get lots of bonus content, but the comic itself is meant to be free, and I like having a community that all gets to read the comic at the same time.

But by doing that, I’m sacrificing one of the easiest ways to bring in more money, and that’s pretty rough. So I asked if my readers would be willing to pledge on Patreon not for early access to ITS episodes, but to help me keep access equal for everyone. And a whole bunch of you did!! So I want to give you all a big thank you! This will be an ongoing need as I continue the story, and I appreciate everyone who’s willing to help!

And now, here’s what happened in June!

Into the Smoke

Into the Smoke is my new free vertical-scroll webcomic. 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…”

New Episodes This Month:

Read Chapter 2, Episode 11 at intothesmokecomic.com
Read Chapter 2, Episode 12 at intothesmokecomic.com
MIRROR SITES: Subscribe and Read on Webtoon and Tapas (censored to PG-13)

Extras:

1. Into the Smoke was featured as part of Tapas’s pride celebration! You can still read my interview with them here!

2. The new Bonus Tier post is a style test for a Clybourn House illustration featuring Blaze doing what he does. Okay, not that thing he does, but the other thing. (eating grass) (Patreon)

3. June was a quarterly sketch month on Patreon! That means I did a batch of 15 original sketches for all patrons to see, and for patrons in the Sketch tiers to request by mail. Lots of ITS, lots of DOTU, and a good Canada goose sketch that I can guarantee will appear as an illustration someday in the not-too-distant future…

Sketches 1-6 (Patreon)
Sketches 7-12 (Patreon)
Sketches 13-15 (Patreon)

4. June’s Secret Gallery post was VERY exciting! It’s a preview of Notorious Ghost, an Into the Smoke visual novel I’ve been working on behind the scenes since 2023, around the same time as Into the Smoke itself.

Play as a notorious ghost and uncover the truth behind your urban legend—with the help of a romanceable spirit medium.

It’s still in the very early stages, and I’ll be making slow progress since Into the Smoke is my main focus. But if you want to see what the game is about, along with pencils of Blaze’s sprite and all the main ghost characters, check out the post! (Patreon)

And if you don’t know visual novels, there’s a whole bunch of good indie VNs on itch.io – including my first (free) DOTU-themed VN, Cooking with Belmont!

5. Speaking of which, you can also get a Notorious Ghost preview by voting on Top Webcomics! Vote for ITS on Top Webcomics and see a sprite sketch of one of Blaze’s alternate outfits!

Vote for Into the Smoke on TopWebcomics!

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 plans for new free pages in the future.

In case you missed it, Demon of the Underground is updating again with free public pages on Tapas!

Patreon Extras:

As I mentioned, June was a quarterly sketch month on Patreon! You can see the DOTU sketches here: