Here we are, with a big double page spread!

Edit: Oh noes! I broke it! See the full page by clicking here: https://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.