This fight will probably make 20 pages in length, bringing it to make up a third of the story so far.

I promise there’s plot coming!

After some hiccups, I am moved into my new house.
Yes, that’s right, HOUSE, no more apartment living, no more cluttered floors.

No more sitting on the couch 3 feet away from the TV!

And more announcements to come…

I’m lying in this picture.

I don’t own a soccer ball.

UPDATE:

I’m working on a way to get a new page out as soon as I can, but my stylus got lost in the move somehow
I’ll catch up on it in the coming week.

Sorry it’s late guys, I’ve got some medical issues that involve frequent migraines and I won’t be seeing a specialist till next month.

Being sick is butts!

First comic coloured in Saipaint!

I swear I’ll get water figured out by the end of this fight..

Here we are, with a big double page spread!

Edit: Oh noes! I broke it! See the full page by clicking here: http://devilberry.net/wp-content/webcomic/academicon/academicon50web.jpg
That’s what I get for trying to be special! Shame on me!

If I learned anything here, it’s that I can’t draw water.

———-

Wow…50 pages?

That seems like a milestone of some kind.

Storytime? Storytime!

I’ve certainly learned a lot since the first version(s) of this work, the original isn’t even hosted on here…

It’s a book I did in 2005 called ‘Ne’z Shouls’.

I tried several times before I found a telling that I was satisfied with, and even now, it’s a constant work-in-progress, going from one process to another. The main difference was that in the early versions, the character of Fenrir was essentially me, angry, and disconnected from the world, putting on a brave face and making do with what he had.

And then I started to grow up.

And as I grew, I became less connected with the character as an author-avatar (a mortal sin, I know) and he started to appear more and more as a tool I could use to tell a story.

Back when I started I was homeless. I had finished highschool, broken up with my highschool girlfriend of two years, moved to a new city with no job, no friends, and had no idea what to do next.

I stayed on a couch at a relatives place and hopelessly handed out resumes, but at home, I used a dinky little laptop, and a dialup connection and a tablet far too small for my gargantuan hands to start making comics. And they sucked. If you think they stink now, check out my early deviantart, it’s just shameful.

I then took the art, and the things I was teaching myself, and it got me into University, where I met some of the most important people in my life. I grew it and shared it, and even collaborated with some other talented artists, James who did Pollutant Rabbit and with John made the Rad Russ comic, Adrienne Guilano who’s first pages of ‘The Nameless One’ were on here in the early days.

We formed a group, called ourselves ‘Devilberry’ and bought stalls at conventions to sell our books.

We didn’t make much, we barely broke even, but the experience is still one of the defining moments in my life, and in the life of one or two of the other members of our little circle.

Even Spike Spencer asked me to sign a copy of it, after only a year prior, I’d asked him to sign a book he’d made.

Something I started working on late one night was suddenly real.

People could (and against all odds, did) buy it!

Any remaining bitterness I had about difficulties I’d been having just sort of, disappeared. I loved watching someone read my book, and see them gasp, or smile, and put down and say ‘That was awesome!’

We even made Movies starring the Devilberry group!

Every time I go onto my page stats and see a spike, I smile, and try to think of how I can raise the bar for the next one.

Life still gets tough, and I’ve missed an update or two, and here’s why:

My grandfather has just been diagnosed with Lymphoma, and while they say it’s treatable, the family has been on red-alert for about two weeks.

At the moment I’m over-qualified enough that most basic retail and service industry jobs won’t hire me, but the market I’m trained for is so crowded that I can’t seem to get anything consistently, be it Illustration, Animation, 3d modelling, Unity code, After Effects or any of the skills I keep under my hat, so I’m still looking for work full time.

So to all of you who read my stuff, thank you for helping keep me sane.

You’ve touched something that redefined my life, and made me feel like I was part of the world again.

TL;DR

Wow. 50.
Thnx for viewz.

Sorry about the hold up guys, the new page is very nearly done, but I’ve been busy with some real life things, and I’ve had a couple of migraines this week.

It’s still coming, but here’s something to tide you over.

I really need to vary up my font use, but I live in fear that somehow, somewhere, a font snob is watching.

What?
It’s not a rip-off, it’s a homage!
——
Some new style changes here, which I attribute to working at a larger size sketchpad for actual layouts.

Soon be finished my Unity course.

It’s too hot down here in Melbourne right now…-_-;;

I think I managed to avoid making it look like anyone is farting underwater.
These are things that concern me.
——————
Hey wow! A lot of new traffic this week!
If this is your first time here, welcome, enjoy your stay, try not to break anything, please enjoy this comic, the youtube channel, check out our facebook group and have a good time.

I’m glad to have you here, whether you’ve been here for years, or you’ve just found your way in.

If I can keep this level of traffic up, I can justify more pages per week, so there’s incentive to share me around
/subtlety
——————

Warning: Rant based on current events you’ve probably already read about incoming.

If you’re at all invested in VFX or any kind of design work, you’ve no doubt seen some of the green facebook avatars around, or perhaps you’ve read about the VFX team behind Life of Pi going bankrupt after production finished, while the movie goes on to gross into the billions.

The issue is clear; VFX staff are expected to work for peanuts, and then utterly neglected on the back end. In many cases jobs are offered as ‘internships’ where you’ll be expected to work without pay, simply for something to show on your resume. I’ve even come across that ask for an initial investment, they literally ask you to pay in order to do their work! This ‘you should feel privileged to work here’ attitude culminated at the Oscars the other night, when Bill Westenhofer was cut off as he tried to draw attention to the unfortunate Rhythm & Hues Studios who did the CGI for Life of Pi. He later gave an interview in which he was able to speak his piece, but the message sent, was if you’re in Visual Effects, don’t expect any job security.

I could write pages and pages of this, but I’m not a Journalist, I’m a digital artist. I can only relate how this effects people in my position.

My career has taken a beating over the years.
Short, underpaid contracts, gaps in between work that guarantee by the time you get the next project, you’ve had to spend any savings you had on living expenses, and that’s just when the work is there. Often, I’ve taken work in other areas, I don’t have a life savings account to fall back on in tough times, and I’ve never been too proud to do jobs outside my preferred field. That said, most of the jobs available in my area have a very short life. Everyone is on a contract, meaning no-one is protected by fair work laws, and other corporations are usually bidding to undercut your company, and make you redundant due to a corporate change-over. So the civilian job market isn’t so stable either.
Don’t get me wrong, I love doing this work, and I’ve worked on some cool projects, but it often comes at great personal cost.

If my life must be unstable, then let it be unstable due to work I love, rather than work I hate, but I don’t work for free.

I also don’t normally plug facebook groups, but in this case, it is really important to spread the idea that Digital Artists need to be paid.
I’ll be keeping an eye on groups like this, and hopefully, these kinds of stories will become less frequent.

Hope I didn’t get too ‘current news’ for you.

Here’s to new viewers, and more strips!