Hiatus Update:
Demon of the Underground will return on Monday 10/23 at 2 pages per month. I’ve done a lot of number-crunching (which I’ll post to my patrons), and the comic’s current support is enough to fund all Patreon rewards and 2 monthly pages at a bare-bones minimum wage. My Patreon milestone goals have been revised to reflect where we need to reach in order to get back to weekly pages.
DOTU is my pet project, and it always will be. But after 7 years of pushing myself to the limit, my needs have changed, and it’s no longer possible for me to work on the comic below a sustainable wage. I don’t need DOTU to pay all my bills, but I do need it to pay for the time it takes to produce. I need to afford housing and healthcare like everyone else, so I have to allocate more of my time to projects that will better fund these things.
I’m EXTREMELY fortunate to have over 260 patrons supporting the comic, and that support has gone a long way! Without you guys and without the steadily increasing support, DOTU would not have lasted past 2015. I don’t want to abandon or even decrease production on DOTU. In fact, it’s the last thing I want to do. While diehard fans are willing to wait, 2x/month won’t hold the interest of the average casual reader, and I *will* end up losing a large portion of my audience over the long term. So this isn’t an ideal situation, and I hope more readers will choose to support the comic!
I am not decreasing Patreon rewards! Serialized chapters of Merritt’s story will also no longer be kept behind Patreon milestone goals. Instead, milestone goals will control DOTU’s update schedule. I should note that we’re just barely above the level to fund 2 public pages of DOTU per month, and if we drop below it, pages will be posted intermittently and to patrons only.
I’ve reopened the $2 tier now that I know I won’t be changing it, so anyone who was disappointed that the tier was sold out is welcome to join it! Several of my patrons pledged or increased their support this month just to help keep the comic running, and I can’t thank them enough. But I know what it feels like to be overextended, and this isn’t something I wish on my current patrons, many of whom have supported DOTU for YEARS. So if you enjoy DOTU and want it to continue and aren’t currently pledging, please consider it.
I’m still doing Inktober (daily ink illustrations throughout October), and the theme is still Merritt’s story. (clarification: I’m not doing every single day, but I’m doing a lot of them!) I’ve been posting them on Twitter and Tumblr as they’re created, and I may do a few batch posts on Facebook too. Some of the illustrations have spoilers and some are a little suggestive, so those will go to $10 and higher patrons.
The past few months have been rough on a huge portion of this country. The hurricanes and wildfires have been a nightmare, and I know that those of you in the middle of these things are facing harder times than I am. I understand that not everyone can afford to support a webcomic of all things, especially if you don’t have power or drinking water or have faced other massive losses. Your well-being is more important than my comic, and I hope you’re safe and being helped. To any of my readers affected by any of these things who need a signal boost for their own support efforts, please let me know and I’ll do whatever I can.