Few things, firstly yeah, I haven't been able to find a job with my degree which honestly, has been a bitter pill to swallow but tomorrow is coming regardless and so I am going back to work at Amazon at least to get the money I need to pursue a CELTA certification to work abroad. But really its just a job because noone is hiring it seems.

That job will start on the 17th of august, in about two weeks so you can expect one more week of the uploads I've been doing, and starting the following week Uploads are going to slow down and the schedule will have to change to work around my coming work schedule. I don't know exactly how much I can realistically do while juggling work so It's going to be a very cautious 1 page a week, with an upload on Friday Mornings

I am sure I can make that work!

Also incoming Long Tail

Yep another Long Tail comic on  thepatchedragon that will be starting up soon, probably in about 2-3 normal pages with about 3-4 pages for The Long Tail, folks gotta celebrate. But expect me to be a bit quiet on this front while I work on that front. It will take a bit longer on account of the Amazon work at that point so my apologies.
Got the story, movin through the story as I had planned, is as it goes!

Be well that's all!

What the title says, I am debating either after this current chapter (and the end of the 3 chapter "act" as it were) or after the *next* 3 chapter act, which should be a pretty chill chapter.

Simply asked, how would you folks feel about that? It would be a change of pace, all I will say is that it will be a Thalmvaric story

Hey! So a lot of you signed up for the "Gettin drek'd" Commissions!

A lot more than I anticipated!

So here is what im gonna do

I have formed up a list of folks who have already signed up, so everyone who has asked don't worry you're on that list and I will get to you! Once I work through the list I will restart the Gettin Drek'd Commissions for those who may have missed them! But in the meantime the commissions will be closed down until I cycle through everyone, may take a little bit but believe me I will come for you.

you cannot hide.

But yeah! I wasn't expecting such a showing so thank you! Once I get all these commissions through the money will legitimately help me quite a bit! I am planning on putting the money towards survival and, if possible, towards a CELTA certification to get a career off the ground. This has genuinely been very helpful and heartening, but of course I don't wanna let folks down so I am gonna pace these commissions out.

So I am gonna juggle the comic and comms!

Comic starts next week, day after tomorrow I will start sketching The Long Hike from Grassy Butte! So I think while I work through these commissions I am gonna move a bit slow, a bit careful till the commissions are done.

1 comic a week, two gettin drek'd commissions a week! I may try to get more Drek'd commissions done a week as well depending on how things feel! I'll knock the comic out on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and work on the Drek'd commissions the rest of the week.

Once I have knocked out this batch I will prolly spend a week or two focusing down the comic, and then getting another batch of Drek'd commissions out to you folks so that new or returning folks can commission should they so wish.


2 folks have been drekified... about 9 folks are on the list to be checked up on for their own drekifications.

Be Well!

Just stuff that has developed as far as other opportunities go, and me responding to some suggestions from the prior journal and perhaps some short term plans and a potential long term career

CELTA certifictation and working abroad

As I speak spanish well, while there are no opportunities in my state, there are many opportunities to move to Spanish Speaking Countries and teach English. Not what I truly want to do but I would find that way better than many other jobs. There are a lot of TEFL and TESOL certifications on the internet but... most of them don't really lead to an actual career nor even guarantee getting an entry level english foreign teacher position abroad as a lot of them are frankly scams. Been warned about it, most I've reached out too are very scammy. I had one eat 300 dollars of mine a few months ago (not great).

The most practical of these certs though, and the most legitimate I know of is the CELTA cert from Cambridge University! And that would score me a job just aboooout anywhere!

But it costs 3000 dollars to purchase and 6 months to complete. I am willing to do that! But I obviously do not have that kinda money. So I think there is a way out of this whole career job life nightmare! But I need 3000 dollars and that doesn't come from nowhere.

So going back to retail?.. for a short term

I am actually quite depressed about it, I went back to University so I wouldn't have to be stuck in Retail and so... winding up back at... Retail. That stings, that doesn't just sting the prospect leaves me in quite a depressed state to say the least of it But they hire quick, its granted only part time but I have pretty low expenses right now. It could also help me keep workin on the comic of course which is a very important factor to me. It probably also wouldn't be forever, since the goal is to just get 3000 to throw at the CELTA and then perhaps a little bit more to live off of while I work at the CELTA. Perhaps 4-6 months of hell.

Or More heavily monetizing my drawings?

As recommended by  greenreaper

They recommended that I start opening up commissions and, maybe, that could work! I am skeptical I just don't think many folks would actually go through and commission me, especially for the sort of prices I feel I should charge, especially in this economy. I could also open up shinies here or advertise the Patreon more aggressively.

On some degree that feels bad to be honest, on some degree that feels like I would be turning the comic, the dragonscape, everything I do into a money scheme and I don't want it to be seen like that. It's why I've tried studying hard to get a good job that would support me while also making the comic. I feel like it would pollute why I draw to some extent. Maybe that is some melodramatic nonsense though.

So I guess as a question to you folks, do you think there would be a commissioning base here? Or should I start pushing the Patreon more heavily? Or add higher tiers?

I don't believe I will ever make a living off of drawing alone nor do I plan on that, but it is an option to help fund towards an actual long term career

Been working towards getting an actual long term sorta job for the past decade of my life, started off aspirationally and now I am here in my late 20s!.. Still unable to get a job that can cover my bills and I just figured I would ramble about it here, gotta get it off my chest, Been thinking about jobs I can gun for or that are available for me with the goal of finding some sort of job that can cover my expenses and help me keep churning forward with the comic!

I am used to working on the comic on a 40 hour week... But the reality is obviously if I try and stick to a 40 hour week at most jobs they're gonna find a way to leave me on the side of the road!

Spanish isn't workin

It is true that folks want spanish speakers! But they don't want a spanish degree. I see lots of bilingual positions where they are lookin for someone who speaks two languages!.. And has a year of experience in something, and a degree in that thing, and are payin only 14$ an hour for that position. Its a bit crushing I won't lie to hear that my degree is useless at least in that respect. Seems like everyone wants a spanish speaker but they won't pay for that spanish speaker and expect them to be folks who didn't study spanish.

So still applying to jobs where I can! But also looking for other careers and jobs and whatnots

Headed to Detroit?

A friend of mine who works for the Young Dems has been pullin strings for weeks to get me a job in Detroit which, good job, pays 18$/hour, is sorely needed from what I've heard! Full time but temporary with an opportunity to jump into a long term job there. I am very apprehensive about jumping across the country to Detroit though considering the financial cost of doing so. I don't have much money at all and driving or flying is gonna cost me big time. If the job goes bad out there I would also be pretty isolated.

Also can be a very dense job, well over 50 hours a week this time of year as it would be a political door knocker, not really what I am passionate about and I worry about comic time. But the job is essentially waiting for me provided I am willing to take the financial risks of moving across the country.

Trucking?

The job I've thought about for a while as the last ditch job would prolly be trucking. Its deeply overworked, but entry pay is 50K for an OTR trucker here in Idaho, most come with their own programs for getting a CDL A, trained and on the road in as little as two months. I've had a friend and a stepfather who are/were both truckers and they've both said that as long as you're willing to live in the truck you can save up a pretty large chunk of change. At least in the short run it could help me pay down my student debts (60k.. its a lot) throw some money to my parents so they can hopefully retire, and maybe stack up some savings for myself!

But obviously trucking, especially OTR which seems to be where it pays best, is isolating, difficult, dangerous, and while it pays well everyone seems to say it doesnt pay as well as it should.
It would also be constant 14 hour shifts, with some breaks every 70 hours on! But to be frank I have no idea how i would ever get the comic even remotely moving with a schedule like that. It could be the end of my ability to seriously draw and that does actually really horrify me!

But if I need a job I need a job!

Graduates Program?
One thing I am looking towards is a Graduates Program Residency for Spanish literature or education or something of that sort, from the University of Arizona perhaps! Something in which I could work, get paid, and study towards a masters degree! Though the time to apply for that sorta thing is at least 4 months away and so I am not thinking too heavily about it right now, I already have all my applications ready (prepared them in March)


Any other job

Truth be told, my finances are rather awful right now, things are not goin ok and if I can't scrape something together by the end of August then it will probably just be a "settle for any job"
reality is the job search isn't working, noone wants my degree, So hopefully I can get a plan!.. But at the end of the day I just need a Job, so we will find out the painful way it seems

Be Well!

Aaalrighty its the end of a chapter! Its been a shorter chapter, but the pages have been on average far longer! So I would bet panel for panel chapter 7 was about 290 panels whereas this chapter was around 330 panels!

So fewer pages that are overall longer! Got it done faster mostly thanks to unexpected freetime! We will see how that keeps up.

So first with the comic

Gonna take a week off to get something of a head start on my TEFL certification for career purposes, as well as work on drawings for the website! Namely the ormer breeds. After that its gonna be The Long HIke from Grassy Butte and a brief Long Tail, and that'll be that for the first half of Act 2!

Slight upload schedule change

Till I get a job the pace is gonna be the same! But I wanted to spread the pages out more evenly so I am planning on shifting from a Friday/Sunday upload to a Thursday/Sunday Upload Schedule. As I actually finish the friday upload on Wednesday! So I could easily just bump it back to thursday and help spread the pages out for readers so that they don't feel too battered by rapid fire pages.

Lemmeknow what you folks think!

Life, Job Search, whatnot

Life and the Job search have... not been fruitful, I set out to take the time to personally apply to 3 jobs a day and, while I haven't been 100% stuck to that number, I have applied to over 400 jobs and I have gotten just about nothing for that. That's included spanish paraprofessional jobs, that's included translator and interpreter jobs, its also included retail and janitor jobs.

Not a thing aside from 3 rejections. Demoralizing but c'est la vie. Turning to my backup of getting TEFL certification to hopefully open up a new avenue as an online or international english teacher as thats an industry that is apparantly heavily searching for people. I just hope I can get something, May patreon pays enough to keep the website afloat which is good! but Can't really live off of that nor is that really a realistic goal for me at this time. So hopefully I can get some sort of employment in soon.

A fun oooooold video

I was looking through my older drawings to move them to a newer storage to help save space on my external drive and stumbled across a link and the old drawings related to a project I was doing in 2020 that never got completed that I found to be a fun concept. Essentially a video comic posted on Youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=251KpCrYkC8

Its an old story that was essentially a prequel to the character Rick who would become reworked for The Long Hike to Wherever Tomorrow Comes. I wouldn't mind experimenting with something like this!... But I remember how tedious this whole thing was! (very very tedious)

And lastly the wordpress site

https://thelonghikecomic.com/ this one!

I've been keeping track of the numbers on it, about once a week, and it seems like there is a pretty healthy number of folks viewing it! About 400-600 daily unique visitors which I feel is pretty good so I am happy about that! Thanks for visiting it, I plan on continuing to add more lore over time as things come along! I may have to increase it's size soon though as I am actually running out of Data on the hosting server! which is kinda nuts, the site is pretty massive.

In any case

Thanks a billion one and all for reading! I will still likely upload some of my website doodles this week! and Next week its back to the comic for the Battle of Grassy Butte!

Be well!

Hey! So as I am sure many of you know, and perhaps some of you don't, I have two Furaffinity pages! This one and  thepatchedragon, which is dedicated to the NSFWorldbuilding and comics and doodles for the DragonScape. In the beginning I've kept them separated mostly to help accentuate the focus on the SFWorldbuilding stuff! and that is still a focus and something I care about to be clear, and it's something that I am unsure of whether or not having two separate accounts for the task makes a ton of sense.

I think really the amount of SFW vs. NSFW speaks for itself in the focus on overall worldbuilding, and I think, if folks want to not see it then there is an SFW filter. Moreover consolidating both pages into one page (this page to be specific) would just be more convinient for folks instead of hopping around to two different pages, and more convenient for me for uploading purposes.

but these are just my thoughts, what do you folks think? Disagreement is 100% fine! If there is an overall "nah don't do that" I will continue with the current arrangement not a problem in the world, I don't have a problem with as it is, but I am thinking of just consolidating everything together.

Let me know your thoughts if you want!

And also if you just learned today there is an NSFW account uh... yeah! That's there, none of it is necessary for understanding The Long Hike as a story but it's there!

Hey! just wanted to talk about some potential lore additions, changes, etc. that tends to lean on mild but hey lets chat!

Its about thermoregulation!

Perhaps as a part of Atavism, or perhaps a retcon, but more likely a part of Éldimor Atavism (really a narrative tool to change the éldimor as I go). But the idea is to have drekir be mesotherms instead of ectotherms! All endothermic breeds (warm blooded) will keep on boilin blood..

Now There is a handful of mesotherms in the world and they tend to function differently species to species. So to establish something for drekir. Drekir mesothermy would be a manner of thermoregulation where drekir will not maintain a consistent body temperature, but will generate body heat as a response to colder climates and environments.
For ambient temperatures above 23 degrees celsius (75 fahrenheit), they will not produce body heat, they will be, for all manners of consideration, cold blooded. But when the temperature begins to drop below that, as a part of a cold response drekir will start metabolizing more calories to heat up their blood in order to help them stay alive. Once they warm back up then the metabolism will slowly wind back down.

So when they get too cold, they start burning extra calories to warm back up!.. But even then its not to a specific temperature, the temp a drek will warm up to is simply around 23 degrees Celsius. But this calorie burning is not efficient and will be quite expensive for them as long as they are boiling blood. It can drastically increase the amount of calories a drek may need that day (which is mostly wrought from meat, which can be a problem). But it will keep them from getting too sluggish in the cold should they need to hunt on a chilly morning.


Alternatively, drekir could perhaps be gigantotherms

Which wouldn't implicate that much of a lore change, more a clarification. As drekir may generally fall into the range of ectotherms that are classified as gigantotherms. Which are cold blooded animals that, thanks to their size and mass, can hold onto the temperatures they absorb in for a significant amount of time just thanks to their bulk.

Many reptiles are gigantotherms such as Komodo dragons and Alligators. Komodo dragons particularly are in the size range and weight range of many a drek anywho. So getting that heat in their body in the morning could allow them to have plenty of body heat throughout the day for moving around!

So why change or clarify?
Cold blood means slow movement and I think depicting drekir as sluggish isn't exactly the direction I want, in the cold sure! But humans too can get sluggish in the cold, drekir would get sluggish faster but for the mundane day to day I want to make sure they are generally mobile and fast in positive conditions and temperatures.

It also helps give a better use for their fur. Drekir having fur as mesotherms I think would be of a great benefit and, sure it could help if they remain as cold blooded gigantotherms but I think depicting them as mesotherms would help balance them out a bit! Keep them still reliant on basking to some extent while also keeping them from instantly dying in the cold to help keep things believable for them moving about in moderately cold (60-40 degrees fahrenheit) conditions without having to take extreme preparations.

Ormer will always be gigantotherms though

They are kinda just big enough to where to me, at this point it seems the most obvious. They bask for an hour on a plenty hot rock and hold onto that heat for potentially days and can keep themselves quite warm just on mass and natural heat sources alone, even so much so as to take an hour long walk through the snow and be chilly, but otherwise fine.
Also they already need thousands of calories as it is on virtue of being big... so cold blood to make it possible for them to live in genetically viable population sizes.

Anywho yeah let me know what you think!

Well I seem to have graduated Magna Cum Laude! Which only matters to me as long as I can get a job but in any case, I have one more final in an hour and then I am done

And its back to the Job market! Round 2.. hopefully not as bad as round 1 was.

But I now have a lot more free time, so gonna ramp up comic production while I search for a job

the plan is to apply to at least 3 jobs per day every day and, frankly, I don't know how long that will take me, could be a week! Could be 6 months, who knows. But in the extra time that I do have I am gonna try to make ground on the comic and return to a 2 upload per week schedule

These uploads will be Friday and Sunday at 8:15AMish, depending on when I can suck down coffee and hit the upload button on postybirb! So expect an upload every friday as well essentially until I get a job... Again I don't know when that will be but hopefully not too long!

I only got so many years in me so may as well take advantage of that free time to comic more!

Be well!

Page 30 and the end of this chapter of The Long Hike is comin up Sunday and so I wanna make some proper announcements to folks!

So first lets touch on some coming changes to the Comic Format, Upload Schedule, and whatnot!
I am trying to prepare myself for entering the work force and, as life is already constricting free time where it can I see no difference in the coming career and whatnot that I am going to try starting and I am going to assume its a 40/week job, as about everyone has! I have uploaded comics on 40/week jobs before but the comics have gotten more complex over the years and sure, I have a streamlined style but I need to make sure I can get comics out reliably, got a story to tell and its already been a long time to tell just a small bit of it.

So there is going to be a bit of a format change
The comics are going to have 2 things happen:

1) I am gonna start increasing the length of the comics to 12-18 panels, so each page is going to be longer than ever before.

however

2) I am going to try and focus on 1 comic per week for a Sunday upload.

So there will be only one upload of one comic, but the comic will be longer to cover more ground! Overall it should be about or only a bit less comic in regards to total panel count but hopefully that will help make my ability to draw the comics more efficient and allow me to keep on top of the ever increasing stress of life.
but important to note

This will also result in slightly shorter chapters as longer pages means that 30 pages is more like 20 pages, 40 pages is more like 30 etc. Same amount of story ideally! Just packed into fewer longer and denser pages.

3) This will be adaptable to how life changes, if I have more free time, I will draw more comics! simple as! So if I am wrong this can always adapt to the needs! And if the story calls for it I may also make shorter pages... the goal is to make longer pagers over all!
Next is the upload time I've experimented with uploading on different sites at different times and to be honest, it doesn't seem to change much or have any impact on the views, so I am just gonna make things easy for me and upload the comics at around 8:15-8:30 ish as I need time to get on the computer and upload.

also that is 8:15amish mountain time US so adjust to your local time from there

so hopefully that will help in the long term on the health of the comic

Next I want to talk about Burnout, apologies for poor storytelling, and looking forward

I think I've really dropped the ball on the recent comics, like really dropped the ball on Under the Logáu Noon, and kinda fumbled a lot of things on this chapter of The Long Hike. So I wanted to apologize, I think there has been a decline on the comic, and I am sure that can mostly be pointed to things like people heading off from the comic at the end of the first 6 chapters and whatnot as Imuas character arc (or the first part of it) was mostly done there.

and I think people were bored with 9 months of side stories and a slow start to the current comic.

Which I get it, It stings but that's really my fault if nothing else.

Moreover admittingly, I've been suffering from a lot of burnout recently! Been doing this whole Long Hike thing for over 3 years and comics for about 4 years. sometimes on top of all the stressors of life more recently it has been just the discipline of doing the comic that has helped me keep uploading. For a while now I've just kinda been tired but I think that has more to do with real life than the comic as
frankly
I have no idea what to do in my freetime if not the comic. I do absolutely love the story and I already have thought it through to its end (some 30 chapters total, we're on chapter 8 which is coming up). Admittingly it's been a strong case of burnout but I want to do what I can to not let that drag the comic down. Would be a shame to stop at this point anywho.

So I wanna hit on some optimism

I am feeling hopefully optimistic that folks will like the coming 6 chapters! And that I will enjoy the next 6 chapters

Expect some action, communities workin together, Heroism against really fucked up horrible people, some relatively bleak prospects and some hope sprinkled in there. I think the next 5 chapters will have a lot of familiar things and hopefully a lot of different aspects that haven't yet been explored! So I hope to not let you guys down! I try. A lot. Really a lot this is kinda my life if I am being frank with you folks.

So I am gonna push forward! Hope to not let you folks down! I try.

As a TLDR for those who don't wanna read all that

1) Comics are going to be longer (12-18 panels) but only 1 will be uploaded every sunday. If I have more free time I may make more and thus upload more! Or at least save them for emergencies or somethin.
2) Comics going forward are gonna be uploaded about the same time, between 8-8:30AM mountain time everywhere at the same time.
3) Thank you guys for reading, it does really make my world and I hope to not let you guys down, I know I've been floundering a lot recently, hope to not let you down

Hey! Look I know I've sent a lot of journals but this one is gonna be quite important! It's about a coming experimentation in schedule changes that I am gonna start with the up and coming comic uploads and I wanted to give you folks a heads up!

Now that I have my own website I do wanna have it sorta be the center of all the comicking that I do, and now that I have postybirb means i can set up uploads that will go on whilst I tend to life, work, school (eventually an overwhelming amount of job) better! So here is what I am gonna try to do for the forseeable future in regards to when I upload comics on the internet.

1) Patrons always get the earliest access to the comics, of course. They see the comic as soon as it's done! Would be unfair to undermine that so they will always see the comic before it goes online anywhere

2) I will upload the comic on the Comic site, https://thelonghikecomic.com/, at the time I always do, about 8:00am mountain time (11am server time). So if you wanna see the comic first thing then it'll be there!

3) I will upload the comic here at 3PM western time (6PM server time)

I don't know if this will change much! But a lot of the folks I talked to about making a webcomic site recommended I upload the comic there first and to me that makes a lot of sense! The reason for the afternoon is to make sure that postybirb is on and can do it's thing even if I am away doing life or job related matters!

the alternative of course is to just upload it all at the same time across the board

Which if I or you guys are not a fan of the above upload schedule would work fine for me too. 8AM mountain time across the board

But hey let me know what you think! I make these journals to try and communicate as much as possible with folks so if you don't like that upload schedule let me know so I can take it into account. If enough folks are strongly against it then I would be happy to change the schedule to make you folks comfy

https://thelonghikecomic.com/2024/0.....e-dragonscape/

Now that I have my own site, I wanted to add all of this lore there! Lots of people have wanted to know about the lore and now the (basic) lore and the comic are in one place!

Folks can read the comic and then read all the lore!
The only stuff that is missing is really just entries on the Mavõtur and Ormer. I don't think I will add hyper specific lore (specific lore of specific cultures for example) as frankly the website if already at 5 gigabites of size... But all the basic lore is there and the Ormer and Mavõtur pages will be add once I can get the time to do those drawings!

So if you wanna check out the general lore of the DragonScape its now on the site! Hope you folks enjoy! It's been maaaany hours of typing and pasting and image adding so hopefully you guys find it informative for the setting!

and also sorry for all the journals, just so exciting!

https://thelonghikecomic.com/

Yeah! Been working all week on this! Hence why we won't be seeing comics tomorrow aside from The Long Tail. Thanks to the help of many dragon and yinglet programmers who helped my tech deaf boot get through booting up the site we got the basics of the site in!

Of course there is more to come, this is just the very basics. The entirety of the comic (sfw and nsfw) as well as a basic chapters feature and archives on each 1st page of each chapter, as well as the beginnings of art from others who have written or drawn fanworks for the DragonScape!

I do plan tomorrow on getting to work on porting the lore from the old google site into this new website too! Exciting

There are also some little problems here or there but nothing that should impact the user experience, But if anyone sees any problems feel free to link me to the problem page and I will be happy to patch things up! I am so excited for the website to be up!

Hey folks! I am experimenting a bit with Postybirb to try it out! A friend recommended it (not to me but I was there) and figured I would try it, make sure I don't forget anything.

Been fiddling with it and, understandably, my system has gotta be turned on for postybirb to do its task and so, while I was hoping to be able to have things go up while I am asleep, that cannot be the case.

Unless I just leave my computer on overnight... That seems like a quick way to burn a laptop out.

So for the next little bit I want to experiment a bit! Heavily!

I am gonna change the upload time for the Sunday comic to todays evening! Around 4pm Mountain Time. For those who like to read it in the morning it will still be there of course. But I want to fiddle with Postybirb and I think that will be a nice way to do so!

I just see an advantage in not necessarily being able to easily forget to upload! something that sometimes happens so expect to see a comic tonight!


OH ALSO

Aside from todays upload, gonna spend a week working on a Long Tail comic for  thepatchedragon Just a one week thing so don't expect comics this coming week here! There will be one longer page there though.

Experimenting with the side stuff that isn't necessary on structural changes to the comic, gotta figure out if I like the work flow

https://itaku.ee/profile/hobopatch

Just been wanting to expand the comic to other websites and lots of folks have recommended Itaku! It also has a mass upload which is pretty sweet! So I plan on uploading stuff there so if you prefer following me there as opposed to here, there ya go!

Hey folks so today is the last day of my break and the beginning of the end for my University studies (unless I get into a graduate program I will discuss that in a moment) so there are a lot of things to cover!

First, Job and School!

This is my last semester and I am working both more hours at my on campus job to get some extra cash and I am studying more hours at University to make sure this is my absolute final semester of studying spanish. I am 28, I wanna get a stable job before I am 30 so time is running short so I am doing my best to get busy for a steady job.
ain't lookin to be rich!.. Just stable.

So expect the occasional disruptions to the comic, I don't think I will have to consistently reduce to below 2 comics a week but it's not impossible either! It's something I will try to communicate as things get really rolling!

April...

April is when things are really gonna hit the fan to be honest. That's when my final semester ends, ideally when I'll receive a degree, and when I may go down one of two paths

Path 1 is just getting a job that doesn't make me wanna jump off a bridge that pays ok enough to keep me afloat. if I can get enough time to juggle a job and the 2 comics a week and deal with said job well enough, i will be happy!

Path 2 is pursuing graduate level education to apply towards a higher paying and probably better career. but will involve me studying full time as well as working full time (presumably as a low level spanish professor) which means I will lose a LOT of comic drawing time. But that may be worth it.

Really at the end of the day I am just praying for financial stability!

As for the comic
I appreciate your guys support with the comic, I know the past few months have seen their fair share of duds and rougher story decisions but I think things are gonna start coming together around a better plot! So thanks for hanging on, I hope to not let you down.


Be well!

Hey! I decided to make this journal as one of the things I've been noticing is a pretty steep decline in a lot of things in recent months and to be honest, I am worried the comic isn't as enjoyable for you folks as it used to be. It's something that has been hard to ignore in the past few months all around on a lot of sites. At the end of the day it would be a lie to say it doesn't bother me but I get that this is coming from something on my end.

I'm worried that I just am not providing a good comic for folks you know?

I just wanted to ask if there is anything thats up with the comic? Is it too slow or is it too visually rushed? Is there some other problem with it? I think its the time of a decline where its probably a good time to see how folks are feeling about the comic, the project, the whatnot!

Feel free to let me know (or not it's a free country)

Be well!

Its the big week at university so just had to spend time making sure things went smooth! Expect a comic Sunday!

Hey folks! so the end of this little side story should be coming next week! I don't see any good reason stretching the story past 25 pages, So I wanted to touch bases with you folks on a few things, some announcements and a general call for how everyone feels about the side stories and the comics in general!

First, we're getting back into The Long Hike

I am gonna be getting back in full time with the Long Hikers Pack as they hoof it across the North American continent of the American plane! I am excited to get into the next 3 chapters! There may be a bit of a tone change and format change, as well as some experimenting with my comicking stuff.

But yeah! They are approaching the Screaming Caldera so we will see how that goes!

And overall how are you folks feeling about the comics

Is there something you don't like about em? Not just the stories but the quality of the drawings, an aspect of the page structure, the rate in which they are uploaded? Etc. How do you feel about them? I may not be able to completely rework the comics but I would be happy to experiment with tweaking. I am already planning on experimenting with a lot less blurring on the shading, may look a bit to muddy at this point.

Anywho, be well!

Just to explain how things have been going.

1) I just did my AVANT ACTFL test which will be very important in terms of getting gainful employment, its a test measuring my spanish speaking, writing, reading and listening abilities and i've spent all week preparing for and then doing the many hours of testing that I just did today
2) I have an interview to enter an education program so that I may be able to seek certification as a teacher! That's tomorrow

So no comic, have had no time and what time ive had I have just been spending trying to relax between the various things in this gauntlet. I will try to still get a comic for sunday though

I know all of you are very patient with me and I appreciate it, I simply would like to make sure I am communicating back

What it says above, gotta focus on life! But don't expect nothing to be uploaded, just gonna be a patreon lore doodle from the prior month. But no comic so that I can focus on work and school for this week.

It is a bit of a hell week after all

Hey folks! so today I head for what hopefully will be my 3rd and final year studying Spanish at University before I can persue certification and a more long lasting career! But I am juggling a lot more this year than in the past 2 years.

Honestly just over the time I've been drawing TLH and the new side comics life has just gottne more busy... funny how that works.


So expect potential changes in the quantity or rhythm of comic uploads! I am not sure exactly what it may do as of now but we will find out. I will try my best to keep everything at the same pace as always but as always, we will have to see! I will communicate with you folks as we go!

Hey folks! So next page of Audited will be the last page of Audited! so I wanted to jump in front of the screaming train to quickly shout out some things about whats coming down the train tracks!

So first I wanna take a quick checkup on the Hikers

Before doing another side story I want to take a short little blurb of comics to check up on Imua and the Long Hikers crew and see where they have been as of recent to help both show they are still around and set up where the next full chapter of The Long Hike is gonna be coming into. May be only 3-5 pages long, nothing too serious!

And there will be one more short story until I get back to The Long Hike!

Just as a fair warning, its gonna be very experimental with aspects of the lore that I have mostly kept in bulk on the backburner aside from a fair bit of concepting I've posted here. So hope you folks like it! Its gonna be pretty far away from home.

As for some real life info

I am also now working a part time job!.. I actually started a week ago so its been a bit but its something that is gonna be helpful in getting my foot into some career related doors so I am definitely pretty excited for it! But once that starts along with my final semester of Spanish studies this coming fall you can expect that to perhaps weigh on the comic. If not a consistent reduction in the comic pace then at least there may be occasional disruptions. But as always, I am gonna do what I can to keep the rhythm going on the comic!

I really gotta get out in front of this train now It ju-

So I have already asked this question weeks ago on the DragonScape discord though, of course, there are a lot of folks here who are not on that server! so I will just jump to the question here

Would you folks prefer that i return to The Long Hike after Audited? Or continue onto a second short story and THEN returning to The Long Hike

I am fine with either result really to be clear, if anything I am asking because I think both are fine options. So feel free to respond with your takes on it.

Be well

Hey and howdy folks! I decided to make a Deviantart Account fresh! Just figured why not?

Haven't been on Deviantart much since my oldest account from 2012 was around and bustling up until about 4 years ago when I abandoned it but, figured I may as well upload on somewhere else and Deviantart seemed like a candidate. Of course I will still be plenty active here and don't expect any changes here aside from life which I will probably make a journal on soonish. Been getting busier and busier in life!

So for those who prefer DA to FA or e621, feel free to follow that! The next few weeks and months though are mostly gonna be spent playing catchup with the years of DragonScape comics and drawings, so yeah!

Here is a link to the new Account: https://www.deviantart.com/hobopatch

For those who want!

Be well