Good god, I never imagined I'd find myself in the position I'm in now.

On December 10th, I'll be moving into a new place, starting up a new work/life schedule, and making comics my fulltime job.

A brief recap: earlier this year,  watsup convinced me to try opening a Patreon. I figured "Oh why not, I might get an extra 50 bux a month or something!" But it quickly turned into much more, and has been a bigger source of income than even my freelance/part-time "real" work for a few months now.

Even so, my comic work has remained something of a "hobby-level" thing, i.e. something I do whenever I'm finished with other, "real" work. Which means that I don't often produce the 4+ comics a month (plus Patreon rewards) that I'd like to aim for, and the work I do is sometimes a bit rushed.

With this move, I'm making comic work my fulltime profession. I want to put out more comics a month. I want to spend some time practicing and tightening up things like character designs, more background detail and other little things, and post pages that are just a bit less rushed in production. This is my thing now, and I want it to represent the best of my abilities, instead of the current "I'll give it some work whenever I find the time, boy I wish I had more time."

I actually planned to get this move done in the beginning of November, but at the last minute I found an apartment that is not only basically my dream location and has everything I'm looking for in a modest place to live, but is also over $100 less in rent each month than my other options! The only downside is that it wasn't available until Dec. 10th, so the price I've had to pay for this ideal apartment is patience.

And believe me, I've been super anxious to make this transition all month. I cannot tell you just how eager I am to pour all my energy into my comic work, without it being a secondary priority behind other work. There is so, so much story that I desperately want to draw and share with all of you. And that is now indeed possible, because enough people feel what I'm doing is worth throwing a few bux at via Patreon.

God, I love you people. Your support, whether it's been via Patreon, or comments, +watches and faves, is something I actively think about and appreciate daily. You've turned this from a little project I started to keep myself drawing regularly, to something I can actually support myself on, full-time. I never imagined my comics would result in me getting any sort of money, so naturally it never entered into my head that it's something I could do as a living.

Yet, here we are. Because of you, entirely because of you, this is now the reality of my life. You, readers and supporters out there, have unexpectedly changed my life in a way so tremendous that I'm still having trouble wrapping my head around it. I appreciate you so, so much. Seriously, I get this warm little glow when I think about all of you out there who feel it's worth their time and effort to read, comment, and even lend me their hard-earned money in support.

And I think I know just the way to show my appreciation; more/better comics, of course! And it's because of you all that I'll soon be able to offer more, so it's a nice circular thing we got goin' on.

From the bottom of my strange little heart, thank you.



Also MONEY MONEY MONEY FEED THE CAPITALIST MACHINE at https://www.patreon.com/valsalia