The Adventures of The Merchant

by on January 18, 2017 at 12:08 am

Nothing’s wrong with your browser. We just published a smaller, way more active comic today because for the first time in 5 years I don’t have a script to draw from.

But considering this is the first time Jimmy’s ever missed a script “deadline” (really I just give him a heads up when I’m almost done with the current story and he types up whatever’s next in his outline) and I’ve missed entire months worth of updates, I decided I’d just write my own comic today.

This happened because I was thinking at work the other day, Jimmy and I created The Merchant to be this sort of go-between for spirits and humans, and so he kind of wanders around the spirit world and the mortal world just…collecting stuff. But it can’t all be stuff that nobody wants. There’s gotta be some stuff in his weird little compartment of mystery that isn’t on the up and up. Like Raijin’s favorite ramen bowl which he took….for reasons.

So I think we’re going to make a little series called The Adventures of The Merchant, where he wanders around stealing mystical trinkets whenever I don’t have time to get a full page or, in this case, I don’t have a script yet.

Will there be another next week? Who knows!?

As always, thank you

<3

Tyler

p.s. we’ve got a store now, ya know?

The Journey

by on January 3, 2017 at 10:23 am

It’s been 5 years. I’ve been drawing this comic for 5 years now.

Sure we’ve only been publishing it for 3, but the first inklings of concept art and character design are in my inbox dated as 11/19/11, and the Kazuo of 2011 looks vastly different than the Kazuo of 2017. Which I find fascinating. He looks more haggard and his hair is way more reigned in than it is today. I’ve always loved watching webcomics evolve as their artists get better at drawing. Rarely does a webcomic ever change artists during its run, at least rarely in my experience reading them. So you never get that stark, “a new artist is taking over Spider-Man/Batman/Superman etc” shocking feeling you do with print comics. Which I think is why watching one artist change the characters over time always interests me, and now having done it myself over and over again, I understand the complicated mix of laziness and a need to easily reproduce the same product over and over again that creates it.

and now…

Then…

I joke when I say laziness. If laziness was a factor these things would never get finished. The fact is, you never start out with the characters exactly the way you want them. They’re never the complete representation you imagine them to be and as you draw them over and over small, changes occur. Those changes become patterns, and eventually the characters become what you didn’t know you wanted them to be. Kazuo’s hair, especially his cowlick. His big eyebrows. His nose seems to be the only thing that’s stayed kind of the same. Recently I’ve made his eyes a very dark grey to better contrast them against his always-in-his-eyes hair. 2017 Kazuo is my Kazuo. He’s who I wanted the comic to be about since the beginning. He’s a man who is working through a lot, and we don’t necessarily know all of it yet. He’s a man who has changed. And he’ll change again. And again. And again. For as long as I’m privileged enough to get to draw this little story of ours. Because that’s the journey.

Thanks for sticking around for the ride.

Here’s to 2017,

Tyler

Store!

by on December 1, 2016 at 12:00 am

Holy crap we have merchandise!

It’s only taken basically 3 years, but we now have stuff to sell! Shirts, specifically, with more stuff to come, maybe. If I can think of things to put on like…lounge pants or mugs or whatever.

We’ve set up an Artist Shop through Threadless, purveyors of fine t-shirt styles since 2000, to offer a roster of shirts that can change depending on what you guys want. Currently we’ve got 4 designs up for sale on a variety of shirt styles and colors; our square logo, our longer logo, our “someone died” exclamation point, and an adorable bunny reminding you to bring your hat.

Like I said, what’s great about selling shirts through Threadless is that we can make shirts YOU guys want. If there’s something from the comic you want to see on a shirt, we can probably make it happen if there’s enough demand. They’re working on making it so we can even do all over printing, instead of the standard direct-to-garment area. So if you’ve got a suggestion don’t hesitate to hit us up on Twitter or Facebook to let us know!

The holidays are upon us, why not give someone a cute bunny shirt?

<3

Tyler

Hiatus is Over! But There’s a Catch…

by on October 19, 2016 at 12:00 pm

So if you’ve been watching this space for the past 3 weeks you’ll have noticed that we’re updating again! Kazuo and Little One are on their way to the next stop in their lives, and things don’t look so hot as of today.

But there is a small caveat. The hiatus is over, and we don’t plan on going on another one anytime soon. But because I am still in school, and still working full time on top of the comic, we may miss a week, or we may update when a page is finished instead of waiting for the next update day. I’m going to do my best to have a page every week, even if it’s late. So, if you don’t want to miss anything you’re going to want to Like us on Facebook, Follow us on Twitter, or subscribe to our RSS feed.

We’ve got some other cool things coming. So keep watching, and thank you.

<3

Tyler

Hiatus: Ending Soon!

by on September 15, 2016 at 12:00 pm

So if you follow us on Twitter or Facebook (and you should) you’ve probably seen some updates recently showing progress on the comic. That’s because we’re coming back soon!!

This hiatus was much much longer than I anticipated, and for that I apologize. A lot has happened this year and it’s just been draining. School, moving out, moving in, and now going back to school, have hampered comic production. For this I am sorry, because I do feel an obligation to those of you who take time out of your day to read our story. Or well…take the time out to check our site for the last few months, see that there’s no update and then move on with your lives.

But I wanted to announce that October 5th we will be coming back with whatever content I can get produced by then. I have a couple pages in the backlog, and I’m hoping that even with school, once pages are updating again I’ll be even more motivated to make sure we don’t see another months-long hiatus for awhile. Even if we have to move to an “Updates Whenever the Pages Are Done” model. I don’t want another multi month hiatus for awhile.

So thank you, from the bottom of my heart for keeping up and for taking time to read our little story.

See you in a few weeks!

<3

Tyler