Hello, friends!
Wow, 2023 sure has been, and will continue to be, a year! And 2024 will, most likely, also be a year! Here’s what I’ve done, and what I’ll be doing in the future!
The Past
The Guildmistress: End of an Era
After six years of weekly comics, The Guildmistress wrapped up in May! I’m immensely proud of it, and I learned a lot while making it. Do I wish more people had read it while it was active, and will read it in the future? Yes, absolutely! Do I know how to solve that problem? No, I do not! My attempts at improving my reach have been so unsuccessful over the years that I’ve largely accepted that I’ve carved out my little niche of weirdos, and I’m only going to add to that collection slowly, very slowly. That makes making money off of the art-making difficult, but I don’t know any other way, so I’m going to keep at it!
The Hartvane Chronicles Book I: The Outcast and the Chosen One
My second novel, and my first good novel! (Souls Incorporated is fine and it’s still very dear to my heart, but it also has a lot of flaws that I’ve learned from, hopefully.) Hartvane is such a wonderful world, and I love to write in it. From those kind souls who have read it and told me nice things about it, I understand that they enjoy it, also, which gives me motivation to work on Book II! (Also, Book I is available for 20% off this week on itch.io for its birthday, which is also my birthday!)
There was also a companion comic for The Hartvane Chronicles that I was posting on Twitter back when it was Twitter and I was still on Twitter, but I kinda lost steam when a) it didn’t seem to be driving in sales and b) I realized the little story I was telling didn’t have enough juice to keep it interesting for me to draw. That happens! No matter how well you plan out a story, sometimes you can get to it and go, “Oh, this wasn’t actually anything.” Nobody ever asked for the next page, so I’m okay with it staying unfinished and focusing on other things!
The Present
Twitch Streams
I’m still streaming on Twitch! Almost every week! Like I’ve been doing for over a year now!
There was a period where I was making a real effort to make Twitch at least a part-time-job-level gig, but while Twitch streams are significantly easier than the other projects I’m mentioning here, they’re emotionally draining, and I was burning myself out with so many streams. Now I’m doing about three streams a week, and that seems to be a good rhythm for me. Is my current repertoire of Tim Schafer adventure games and PS1/PS2-era Final Fantasy games gonna be everyone’s cup of tea? No! Do I care? …I mean, it’d be a lie to say a blanket “No,” but I’ve tried chasing the crowd and gotten nowhere with it, so I’m just gonna do my own thing and be happier with myself!
It’s hard for me to get people hyped for a chill stream (that occasionally gets a bit more intense when the chocobos refuse to show up), but that’s exactly what I’m building, and if that doesn’t draw in the clicks, then so be it! I’ll keep doing my thing anyway.
Patron-Picked Art
On the first day of every month (schedule permitting), I post a piece of art based on my Patreon Pals’ suggestions/poll choices! This most recent one was Sailor Awoo, which is “What if Sailor Moon was a werewolf?” It’s a question that we all have asked or should have asked, and I’m happy to have answered it.
The Patron-Picked Art has kept my skills sharp post-Guildmistress, and given me room to explore a lot of fun topics I wouldn’t have considered otherwise. If you want to suggest something, then a) support me on Patreon, and b) leave me a comment when I ask for prompt ideas! (Just voting in the poll is also good, but I would love to draw a bona fide request for someone. The dream…)
The Future
The Hartvane Chronicles Book II: Title Pending
I still have a lot of work to do here. I got about… 20% of the way into a first draft before I bailed on it, and that was about four months ago now. I have some big ideas of what’s going to happen in Book II, but making all of those pieces fit into place is tricky! I’m hoping to have Book II out in Spring of 2025, but there are some substantial error bars on that estimate. Stay tuned for more details!
Star-Crossed Mercenaries
SCM is a Lite RPG/visual novel video game set in the 24th century, focused on a wannabe pilot thrown into the middle of alien diplomacy, interplanetary conflict, and corporate subterfuge. What will Mavery decide is right or wrong when an entire galaxy of choices is before her? And, perhaps more importantly, is her new captain… y’know… interested interested in her, or…?
Star-Crossed Mercenaries still has a metric butt-ton of work left to go (still in pre-production), but I would love to have it done in the 2026-27 timeframe. Fingers crossed!
I’m also working on a prototype/proof-of-concept game that will use a lot of the same mechanics. That’ll be done sooner (which makes intuitive sense), but is probably too full of inside references for anyone but its pixel-precise audience to enjoy it. …Which means it’s probably gonna be a breakout hit, now that I’ve said that.
The Devil You Know (title pending)
When a dungeon crawl breaks bad and a novice cleric is forced to make an impossible call on behalf of their paladin escort, all sorts of shenanigans ensue. In this upcoming comic, new companions create hellish complications, but maybe a little bit of complication is exactly what’s needed!
The Devil You Know (or whatever it’s gonna be called) will come out in issues of reasonable length (15-40 pages? Still figuring that part out), and I hope to have the first one done and posted on the internet in June 2024!
Wrap-Up
Wow, that’s a lot of stuff! And the Twitch streams and Patron-Picked Art, too? You might be asking, “How can I help?” Well, I’m glad you (might have) asked!
-Share my stuff on the internet! Do you have a friend who likes gay mermaid pirate stories? Tell them about The Hartvane Chronicles! Does your co-worker keep saying that nobody’s streaming the exact combination of Tim Schafer games and the PS1/PS2-era Final Fantasy games these days? Point them to my Twitch stream! Does your uncle’s mechanic’s niece’s choreographer like webcomics? Show them The Guildmistress and Don’t Worry About Their Classes! These are all good ideas that anyone can execute, definitely. There is no doubt in my mind that these are all equally universal
–Join my Discord server! It’s a very chill place, and it’s the best place to hear about the latest news from me. You’ll also get to see some Jake pictures in there, and if you don’t want to see the world’s cutest cat, then I don’t think there’s anything I can give you that would grab your interest
–Catch my Twitch streams! Follow me! Chat in the chat! Subscribe, if your funds allow! Don’t worry about it, if they don’t! Even if you don’t have a particular interest in the game, I’m always happy to have someone to chat with in the stream
–Support me on Patreon! Money is helpful for securing goods and services, plus it’s a nice boost to know that someone believes in me enough that they want to show that with their wallet. (Like with Twitch, I recognize that this isn’t financially viable for everyone! But it’s greatly appreciated if it is)
There are probably other things, but those are the things that come to mind right now!
Hopefully I’ll have some more news to share soon. Until then, see you around the internet!
Josh Closs Comics and Stories 