July 27, 2016 - 7:03am by Adam Dravian
Click the image to check out the rad new page. And below is a news update that's a little long, but important.
Since launching this site over two years ago, our goal has been to release a new page of the comic every week, on Saturdays. At first, we had a bit of a buffer (pages already done in advance), but that buffer gradually disappeared over the course of the first year or so. Since then, we've been putting out the pages as Jessica finishes them. Sometimes we hit the Saturday deadline, but other times it comes out on Sunday, or even into the following week.
Our fans have been great about it. No one has ever complained. At least not to us. But in spite of that, it's severely stressful for us every single time a deadline is missed. In fact, I doubt anyone is as disappointed by a late page as we are. We hate the thought of letting people down. Of letting ourselves down. Of taking even longer to share our radical '80s-themed story with the world.
And then once a deadline is missed, we're faced with another problem. Say Jessica gets the page done on the following Tuesday. Do we post it then, or do we hold off until the following Saturday? If we post the page on Tuesday, that'll pretty much guarantee that the next page won't be finished on time for a Saturday release and we'll find ourselves stressing over yet another Saturday passing by without a new page. And there's also the simple matter that some pages take longer than others. Some might take four days for Jessica to complete, while in rare cases it might take two weeks.
We've found that when stress is added to the mix, it seems to slow her down. It also seems that the longer a page takes her to create, the slower she progresses on it (it's a rather strange and sucky phenomenon, but one that's familiar to many artists and creators). Jessica frequently pulls all-nighters in an attempt to get the pages done ASAP. She's canceled plans with friends and family. She sometimes works day and night, only taking breaks to eat and sleep. And the stress has started to take a toll on her health.
She's been resistant to talking about this stuff publically. She doesn't want to come off as a whiner, or a downer, or like she's seeking pity. But I think we owe it to our fans to explain why we've been struggling to release new pages on a steady schedule. I'd hate for anyone to think we just don't care, because that couldn't be further from the truth. This comic is a total labor of love, and I think that shows in our creation. However, I worry that continuing on as we have, stressing to meet that Saturday deadline, will build resentment and the comic will suffer for it.
So for the time being, we've decided to revise our update schedule to "New page posted weekly. Usually."
Jessica will continue to strive to get a page done every week, and we'll post them once they're ready, regardless of what day it is. And as soon as a new page goes live, we'll send out email notifications to those who've signed up for our mailing list.
We hope that having a less stressful update schedule (allowing Jessica to get more steady sleep and spend less time in Bummerville) will eventually result in her being more productive than she was before. And of course you dudes can help out by supporting Jessica's Patreon. The more she makes through that site, the fewer commissions she'll have to take, so more of her drawing time can be spent on SN8X. We've revised the Patreon rewards, so if you haven't checked it out it in a while, you should totally give it another look.