May 2024 Monthly Roundup! ITS Cameos, Merritt’s Story, and More!
In this newsletter, you’ll find out about everything I released over the past 30-31 days, whether it be art, comic pages, standalone minicomics, Patreon bonuses, project launches, or anything else notable.
Anything not labeled “Patreon” or “paid” is free and publicly available.
April 5 to May 5, 2024
It’s hard to top the productivity of March! April was quite chill in comparison, partly because I was doing a lot of long-form work behind the scenes. But there’s still plenty to check out, and that behind-the-scenes stuff is pretty exciting too!
Major Announcements and Releases
Into the Smoke: Ghost Cameo Fundraiser (paid)
I launched a mini fundraiser for Into the Smoke, to cover costs for web hosting and design and to build up a promo budget. A sudden influx of freelance dashed my plans at a bigger Kickstarter, but that influx of freelance also meant I didn’t need to raise quite as much money anyway!
We’ve raised $405 in cameo sales, plus an additional $56 in other shop sales – more on that soon. I can’t wait to start drawing!
Do you want to appear as a background ghost in Into the Smoke chapter 1? Or do you want to commemorate a pet with a pet ghost cameo? I extended the deadline to May 8 just so Monthly Roundup readers would have a chance to grab a slot if they want one. Medium and large pet slots have all sold out, but we have two small pet slots and four human slots left! You can pick one up in my shop at bobappavu.com/shop!
Into the Smoke
Into the Smoke is my new free webcomic, set to launch on May 29! It’s about Blaze, a ghost-loving medium who binds himself to a dark spirit to help solve his murder.
Just a Little Illustration
In April, we had a little Tumblr illustration of Blaze consoling the most tormented spirit of all. This was posted to my main account, bob-artist.
In Case You Missed It: Into the Smoke is Coming THIS MONTH!
By the time the next Monthly Roundup goes out, Into the Smoke will have launched! If you haven’t already, you can sign up for the ITS newsletter to be notified when episodes go live. And there’s a nice shiny chapter 1 preview episode on the website too!
Demon of the Underground
Demon of the Underground is my longest-running webcomic. 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.
DOTU: Chapter 5 Pages (Patreon)
After doing a good chunk of work behind the scenes, Demon of the Underground chapter 5, part 2 has now begun! Chapter 5, page 32 went up last Monday for patrons, in which we catch up on the “secret project” Samsid assigned Merritt at the end of chapter 4. Hacking the surface can’t be that hard, can it?
Patreon Rewards (Patreon)
For the monthly character interviews ($5 patrons and up), Belmont tells us what annoyed him most about Merritt before they got together, and Annie returns from a glorious trip to the Yackley’s kitchen.
DOTU: Shop – Pen Pal Letters Price Reduction! (paid)
From 2014 to 2021, the monthly $5 Patreon reward was a letter from Pogo or another DOTU character. After I replaced that reward with the monthly interview videos, the old character letters went up for sale in my shop. This year, I finally slashed the prices! Individual years have gone from $8 to $5, and the full set of 77 letters has gone from $40 to $25. You can pick it up at bobappavu.com/shop!
Devoted: Merritt’s Story (Patreon)
Devoted: Merritt’s Story is a prose novel series that takes place a few years before Demon of the Underground. It tells the story of Merritt’s life as a soldier in the North Sphere before being captured and made an East Sphere citizen. Of all my projects, Merritt’s Story is the farthest along, with the most content available to readers. Book 1 is complete with 162K words, and Book 2 is complete with 179K words. All 341K words can be read with a single $2 Patreon pledge. Book 3 is in progress.
Book 3 is back in progress!
I mentioned some exciting things happening behind the scenes, right? This might possibly be my most highly anticipated project, so I’m especially excited to announce that I’m back to work on Merritt’s Story, book 3!
If you read the end of book 2, you might understand why it took me 3 years to collect myself. But I’m back to tearing through the book 3 draft, with over 11K words added in the last week or so – bringing our total up to around 33K. It’ll be a long road before book 3 is ready to launch, since I don’t launch until at least the first draft is complete, all major issues are resolved, and the first several chapters have clean final manuscripts. But…
Merritt’s Story: Patreon Rewards (Patreon)
For April’s Secret Gallery post ($10 and up), I shared some excerpts from the newly written book 3 draft! (spoiler alert!)
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!
For the past few months, we’ve been doing a group play-through on Patreon, where patrons get to vote on the choices in the game.
CWB Patron Play-through (Patreon)
We completed our Patreon play-through of the Cook Together route! The final video went up on April 11. I polled patrons to see if they’d like to do another group play-through of one of the two remaining routes, and we had a clear winner. I’ll likely launch it in June, after things have settled down with the ITS release.
Minicomics
Do you love pied billed grebes? Then I’ve got a comic for you. Do you have no idea what pied billed grebes are? I still have a comic for you. 🙂 This went live on Tumblr on April 16!
My tumblr is public (tumblr.com/bob-artist), and you shouldn’t need an account to read any posts I link.
Odds and Ends
How ‘bout another quickie sketch on tumblr?
