★ We've made it to the 10 year milestone! ★
Goodness - where do I begin?
It's hard to believe that the comic is officially 10 years old, as of today!
A little bit of history:
Everything started back in 2006 when Scott and I wanted to work on a creative project together. Who knew we'd grow it from a 4 panel b/w comic strip to this epic Henshin Rider x Yellow Jacket story currently running. At the time, we had no clue there was such a thing as "webcomics." We just kinda went with the flow and built things as we went.
Scott worked on numerous iterations of the website - you can see some of the evolution here:
- Version 1 - 2006
- Version 2 - 2006
- Version 3 - 2007
- Version 4 - 2007
- Version 5 - 2007
- Version 6 - 2008
We've had this particular flavor of website for a good ... 6 years now? Hard to believe how time flies~ How many of them do you remember? :D
The comic of today:
It's been a good couple years since I put the pups into story-hibernation. When the Enchilada cross-over ended, I had a good 6 months of major downtime with back problems. Things are a lot more managable, but I'm still dealing with some of the aftermath. Sitting for long periods in normal chairs can be a challenge - thank goodness kneeling chairs have been a great alternative. Yet - getting back on track to a 3x a week schedule has been tough.
However, I'm really happy that I can get back to work and returning to a story that's been bothering me from the back-burner for years. I feel that most of my best work has been imbedded in short stories that ran within the nemu*nemu archive - like the Pizza Chef fairy tale or Pup Fiction or even Toasty Stories to name a few favorites. This has been a great opportunity to work on a long-form, cinematic comic. Kinda like making a movie rather than making a comic strip.
Now that I'm near completing this story, it's about time I look forward to what I'll do next.
The comics of the future:
Growing and sustaining an audience for cute, kid-oriented comics online has been a hard, up-hill battle. Over the years, I've seen readers come and go, practically watching them grow into adults. The odd thing is, I still feel like the same 27 year old who started this whole thing 10 years ago.;;
I've been extraordinarily lucky to have had some success early on to get a decent foot-hold in this business to work on it full-time. I'm also extremely blessed with a very loyal and supportive readership who've stuck around through good times and bad. This little comic has taken me so many different places, to meet all sorts of people and have so many wonderful experiences. I'm really thankful that you've been on this journey with me. The journey will continue - but maybe down a slightly different path.
After this story ends, the main nemu*nemu narrative will also end.
No - the comic isn't over! The pups are still a very important part of our lives - they won't be going anywhere, really. Instead, they'll be on the back-burner while I dedicate more time on new comic stories to grow my repetoire.
Also, Blue Hawaii comics will still run in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser as long as they will have me and I'll keep posting them to the site blog.
Where can you find me online?
I'm still online at all the usual places: twitter, facebook, and instagram. I recently launched a Snapchat account and you can find me under : qbkits
I also can be found at Patreon. For those who support me at the $5+ level, you get access to my blog for early comic updates, free monthly wallpapers and we're currently working our way back to digital sketchbooks.
Top tier patrons ($25+) get monthly sketchcards in the mail and I've decided that April's theme will be the Studio Ghibli line up (Thanks Jason, for the suggestion!) while I work on a retro shooting game historica theme for the monthly wallpaper. (Thanks Neil!)
I find being given a theme to work with helps spur on my imagination, so I'll be fielding requests monthly. :3 Suggestions I don't get around to will be saved up for a rainy day. :D
So, thank you for 10 great years of nemu*nemu! If you missed it Thursday's comic update, here's a free mobile-sized wallpaper for you with the stars of my strips. :D If you'd like the "deluxe" version, it's up at my Patreon blog for my members and in the nemu*digital shop where you can donate what you like!
I look forward to where we'll be in the next 10 years!
-Audra
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