Retrospect: 2019 In Review
Wow! What a year! A lot has happened in 2019, and 2020 is looking to be an even bigger year for the Candy Universe! Let’s take a look back at the year, our accomplishments, our failures, and see what’s in store for next year!
This blog post will be pretty long… so I’ve added sections with a link-tastic table of contents! Each section will also have a TL;DR: at the top of it.
2019 Retrospect Contents:
Accomplishments
Setbacks
Goals for next year
Goals for someday
Other stuff
Accomplishments
Elizabeth the Compunctious Rebooted
TL;DR: Under direction of Sugar and Seasan Elizabeth's story has now launched for all to view, with regular weekly updates! This wasn't how we first planned things, but it seems to be working out now. :)
Elizabeth the Compunctious officially rebooted this year, with 8 pages posted as of the writing of this post. The old pages for this series became unusable (explained further in the "Artist Quits!" section) earlier this year and a difficult decision had to be made: start again from scratch with a new artist? Or abandon the project?
You can probably guess which decision was made. It was always planned to reboot the comic, but not like this. Since I, Sugar, had never written for a comic before there would inevitably be mistakes. Lots of them! The plan when the project first began in 2018 was to produce the comic but keep it locked behind a password, so only certain people who volunteered to review and critique the pages could see them. Then, after book 1 was finished Sugar and the artist would go back and revise pages as needed, possibly removing some pages entirely, or adding new ones, to fix the mistakes. But the majority of the work already done would still be used.
However, because the artist for this series abandoned the project suddenly... this would not work anymore. To continue with the series a new artist would have to be found, and they would have to start from scratch. The artist I chose was Seasan. We had already worked together on some things, I liked his art style, and he had the skills to take over. To make things worse I already had Seasan working on his own comic series, the Rico Comic. He would not be able to do both series at the same time and still release pages at an acceptable pace, so I had to discard that work as well.
Even though Seasan had little experience with webcomics and I had only finished about 1/8th of the total planned work for book 1 we deiced to launch the new series publicly. We knew enough to tell a story that would work, even if it still felt like amateur work. Revisions could still be made surreptitiously as needed, which we've already done twice for pages 1 through 6, though one of those changes was important enough that I did announce it on Twitter. I've finished the outline for book 1 now, and Seasan has read it. It's pretty long for an outline... but hopefully that means we have the core we need to tell a good story!
By the way, did you notice what we changed? Here is a little side by side comparison for you!
This little goof on the hair may not seem important, but it actually matters for the storytelling. This battle takes place at a specific time in Elizabeth’s story. I won’t spoil how exactly we find ourselves at this point in the first few pages but I do plan to use these “jumps” in the timeline at several points. Once you understand how we got here it will make more sense. That will be explained in page 9!
The advantage here is the battle makes for a great starting point for a new reader. It’s exciting, it shows many things at once, like Elizabeth having magical abilities, her Ricochet not being flesh and blood, etc.
For an extra bit of goodness, here is a behind the scenes look at some of Elizabeth’s proposed hair styles as time moves forward! This sketch should cover her appearances through book 1.
TL;DR: A fresh look from a developing comic artist; We learn that Elizabeth's Ricochet is more complex then she might first appear in this EtC sister series.
Ricochet’s Journey, a re-branding and reboot of the old “Rico Comic” by Seasan, has now launched! This time drawn by Menace Cide, the series will follow events set in the same universe as Elizabeth the Compunctious, but from Elizabeth’s Ricochet’s perspective.
For some parts we will literally see the same interaction between the two girls in both comics, with some differences in storytelling or perspective. But in other parts this series will show us what the Ricochet does when she’s not watching over Elizabeth. We’ll get to learn more about the ricochet race, how magic balancing works, and perhaps most importantly: we see the Ricochet from a sympathetic view.
Elizabeth and her Ricochet have very different views on how magic should be used. In Elizabeth the Compunctious we see Elizabeth and her view treated as the good, correct side while her Ricochet is presented as being bad, maybe even evil. But really, neither girl is evil. Or even wrong. They just have different, valid views, and in Ricochet’s Journey we see her side of things more clearly. Elizabeth will appear as the party in the wrong, while we also get to see other things about the Ricochet’s life that make her more complicated and deep, and not the cartoony villain she may appear to be at points in EtC.
The artist Menace has never done webcomics before, but he is excited to learn with this series! I can say from working with him on many previous projects that he has real potential here. His drawing talent is there, and I am confident that this series will tell an interesting story with a developing art style and visuals as he and I learn this webcomic process together. He has released one page as of posting and is currently working on page 2. Since this is fairly new for him we may silently revise existing published pages over time, as his comic making skills mature. Keep an eye out!
This companion series will have a lot of depth and significance to EtC, though both series will be formatted so readers who only follow one series will still get a good experience, even if some references or events are really meant for viewers who read both.
I’ve set up this comparison for you. Both Seasan’s trashed “Rico Comic” and Menace’s newly launched Ricochet’s Journey have basically the same story and script on page 1:
Personally, I think Seasan’s page is more refined, but that’s ok! Menace does good work, and you will see as he makes more pages they will become more polished. In a way, it’s not just the Ricochet’s Journey… it’s a journey for my artists too! I am excited to see what Menace’s end of year work looks like in 2020!
You can see how many pages Menace Cide has promised to release per week for Ricochet’s Journey here, and you can view the webcomic here.
The First Comic Launched
TL;DR: A prequel like mini-series sets up the stories for Elizabeth the Compunctious and Candy's comic, with art by Deciprax. In color!
Every story starts somewhere. How did Elizabeth find her wand? What started Candy’s search for her creator? In The First Comic we find out, as comic artist Deciprax shows us in this prequel style mini-series! With about 30 pages planned this is the shortest of the 4 currently announced comic series. And, it’s in color!
Like Menace, Deciprax is not very experienced with webcomics. But that is ok! He has an interest in comics and has experimented in several ways with his comic series. For example, he actually made an animated version of page 2! It doesn’t work, it’s too big as a video and too big as a GIF… but that animated emote on the Discord server with the moving hair is actually an asset pulled from the animated page!
Multiple panels were animated, maybe in the future we can show you the rest! Deciprax’s interest in animation is great, with his series being so short maybe we can work on animations after. I took animation classes, he wants to play around with it, and we do have 98 animated emoji slots open on the Discord server… just saying! Call it an unofficial goal for next year!
Keep tuned for discussion on what Deciprax will do next after his mini-series concludes. It has not been decided internally, yet. But he has agreed to stay on the team and work on “other stuff” so, something cool will come even if it’s not more animated emoji.
You can see how many pages Deciprax has promised to release per week for The First Comic here, and you can view the webcomic here.
Setbacks
Artist Quits!
TL;DR: It's all Torbeth's fault. But it's strenthed my relationship with Seasan! Frankly, a better artist. So the right thing was done, perhaps for the wrong reason.
Oh what fun! This is quite a long story, so I will try to keep it brief. Some time ago I found an artist online who was able to match my art style very well. So well in fact that friends of mine could not tell the difference between things I drew and things she drew. It was awesome, whenever I was too busy or lazy or whatever, I could commission her to work for me! I actually first came to her because I had hurt my hand and couldn’t draw for a bit, but still wanted to see an idea come to life.
I quickly fell in love with this model where I wrote the story and someone else drew it. It allowed me to release more content than I could on my own, and allowed me to focus more on the story. The artist and I signed a NDA which would allow me to release her work uncredited on my website. In some cases, like EtC, I drew some pages, she drew some, and some I’d start and she’d finish, or I’d revise panels after she made the page, etc.
Crediting only myself would be dishonest, and she did not want public association with the work as the blood and gore and adult themes did not fit well with her other work, which was mostly children’s books. This is why to this day anything drawn in our shared style remains uncredited on my website. Even things I 100% drew myself. It’s just not worth the headache splitting hairs on who did what.
Elizabeth the Compunctious had reached 50 pages when this artist decided to leave. It was very sudden. We were working together on poster #2, I sent her a sketch of how I wanted things placed, along with references for how each alt. universe Elizabeth should look. About two weeks after we started she suddenly asked to cancel the order, siting technical limitations. This was fair, the poster is huge, with 30 fully rendered characters.
But then she stopped responding to my messages. Weeks went by and I heard nothing. I could see her commissions were still open, and I asked Menace to go under cover and request work from her. Sure enough, she replied to him. She hadn’t blocked me, but she was ignoring me. I placed an order for something from her public facing page. She responded within a day with this heartwarming message:
oof
She stopped communicating with me but, after further research I believe she was referring to Torbeth. She is underage, and doesn’t usually wear clothing. But, she’s also not a canon character, she’s a fan created and community driven character. Nothing about that is “at my direction”. 🙃 Also, while she is usually nude, she has every reason to be. Her body has giant sharp crystals poking out!
I could see her point if the drawings were sexual in some way. Torbeth making out with another character for example. Or sitting in a suggestive way. That could be problematic. But no art like that exists, at least not on my website or Discord server. Nudity, in and of itself, is not wrong or illegal. And even here, Torbeth only shows her chest. Her lower parts are covered by a crystal cup. I really don’t see why she would freak out like this.
By the way, little bonus: Torbeth wasn’t canon at this point, but now that Seasan is making poster #2 we’ve decided to include her, officially! As an alt. universe Elizabeth. Here is the full render of Torbeth as seen in the upcoming poster #2! Here she is about 13 years old, and has found some fabric that is not so prone to tearing. Though, even now, most of her body shows. Because come on, those beautiful crystals are what defines her!
Drama isn’t healthy though. She’s gone now. That’s not changing. So where does that leave us? Well, as elaborated below in “Sugar’s Move” I am not able to digitally draw right now. With both her and I not drawing for our separate reasons I decided to eliminate her EtC pages from my website and start from scratch with Seasan.
He has been promoted to lead artist now, meaning he is my main guy, he gets the best rates on work (we agreed on a raise shortly after his promotion), he gets top billing on my soon to release Staff page (but below me, of course 😝), and he is now drawing my flagship comic series Elizabeth the Compunctious. Even though Candy is the namesake of the website and community it’s actually Elizabeth’s story that is the longest and most developed. Candy will join EtC’s cast in book 3 after her two book series concludes.
There are some good things here. The comics needed to be rebooted anyways, and this forced my hand. Seasan is a far more talented artist (and no, I’m not just saying that out of spite), and he charges me a lot less than she did. His rates are very fair and we both agree on them, but hers were ridiculous, with an average page fully rendered by her costing $75. That is just not sustainable, even when I am making some pages too. Seasan is far more humble, and appreciative, than she was. He and I both appreciate each other in a way she did not.
Some bad things too, though. About $2000 and 2000 hours of wasted time and comic pages. Not just her pages, but also all the drawings I made in that same style… I plan to phase it out over time with Seasan and my other staff drawing their own versions of those drawings. Right now I am the losing party, because she still keeps the money for the now useless pages she made for me. But this is all the more reason for me to push my content to succeed! To make her the losing party, when my content reaches a level of popularity and exposure that exceeds her own, personal web series… damn that sounds mean. But can you blame me?
I’ll continue to use and remix my own work, as well as hers, to some extent. It would be a shame to throw away all of it. Discord emotes, promotional work, etc. Even though some people will know I’m reusing those assets, as the fan base grows these remixed works will be new to most people, and will allow me to still get something out of all that work and money spent. Oh well!
Sugar’s Move
TL;DR: We're in better shape now then before, despite some unfortunate events. All the right things happened, for all the wrong reasons.
I moved from Colorado to Arizona this year. It was pretty hectic, and in the move my drawing computer (a Microsoft Surface Studio my amazing college paid for through a grant) did not make the move. This was a huge blow, I lost a lot of source files for drawings, I lost a lot of my Photoshop templates, and of course, I don't have a few thousand dollars laying around to replace it.
I am still fighting with UPS over the issue. They admit it is their fault; the package was lost at a UPS sorting facility. But they claim the computer is only worth $400. They refuse to replace the computer or it's true value despite the package being fully insured. Whatever. I will win that battle! But in the meantime, I am left unable to draw digitally.
This along with the “Artist Quits!” above means I've had to completely rely on my staff and their own unique styles to keep content coming. But I think this is for the best! This current model where I work jobs I really enjoy, earning money to pay my staff who, quite frankly, draw better than I can anyways… this model where I write for the comics but all the time consuming art is done by a mixed group of talented people, even though it is not where I planned to be this time last year, and it’s mostly ended up this way because of a chain of unfortunate events, it is best this way. I don’t think I’d have it any other way, now.
It really did all work out for the best! And there is still a potential for even more content, as my fan base grows and merch sales/donations increase! I don’t need to personally draw the content, I’m happier now focusing on the story. Something that I can’t really outsource. Only I can write my story!
I suppose, all’s well that ends well!
Thony’s Sick! Oh no!
TL;DR: Candy's comic series was delayed, along with other things... but it'll be worth the wait!
Starting in September I added two new Staff members. Deciprax had already worked with me on some FASP-like work prior to FASPs officially being a thing. I explain this in more detail in the “New FASP?” section. Thony was an artist from the second FASP. Both artists were assigned to a comic series, The FIrst Comic and Pastillage Passage, respectively. While The First Comic launched in mid-november as planned, Pastillage Passage did not. Thony has not even made a sketch of the first page yet.
Now, that’s not really his fault. He’s been bedridden for several weeks from an illness. Now that he is finally feeling better we have other backlogged work, like the Nintendo Switch Skin, with more urgent deadlines. I am now hoping to launch Pastillage Passage some time in January of next year. There are other delays caused by Thony’s illness, though. The Staff page was supposed to launch last week but will now launch on December 31st. The promotional poster for Pastillage Passage was supposed to be ready in time for this blog post, and it is not. And most importantly, the Nintendo Switch Skin was supposed to be finished by the end of December, and that has now been delayed as well, with no particular date set for completion.
Fortunately with multiple other artists on the team and each comic having a single artist these delays mostly only impact Pastillage Passage. The other series are still releasing pages as normal, and there is still new content pumping out for the fans! Thony is feeling better now, and will resume work on Candy Universe content soon! I’m glad to have him on the team; he is by far my most experienced comic artist and his unique style and storytelling skills will elevate Candy’s story far beyond what I could have accomplished on my own.
More details on Pastillage Passage’s launch are included in the “Pastillage Passage Launch” section.
Goals for next year
Pastillage Passage Launch
TL;DR: Candy's new comic series will follow her on a journey to find her creator, and learn why he abandoned her. Hopefully launching in Janurary of 2020.
Candy is the namesake of this website, so why doesn’t she have her own comic series? She does! It’s just not launched yet. As discussed in “Thony’s Sick! Oh no!” the artist for Candy’s series has been sick until just recently, and has been unable to work on the series. But now that he’s better we are hoping to launch the first page of the new series in January of 2020.
This comic will feature Candy, as set up in “The First Comic”. In TFC, well, minor spoilers for TFC first but, Candy finds documents and other info with Elizabeth’s help. Information which allows her to go searching for her creator. She will venture off, without Elizabeth in her own arc. I’m not sure if you’d consider the identity of Candy’s creator much of a secret or spoiler; it’s been openly discussed many times in the Discord server and public art in the Art Galleries depicts him, but some newer fans might not know. I would say it’s not really a spoiler, the story isn’t about “Is this man my dad?” or “Who created me?” so much as it is about “Why did my dad abandon me?” and “How was I created?”.
That said, I am going to include already public images of her father in this post. If that bothers you, don’t scroll any further.
Well. My website does not offer a spoiler option. So, uh… here he is!
The Candy man. He has a real name of course, but here we’ll just refer to him as the Candy man. He created Candy. Call it, an open secret. The real mystery would be, why, and how? And then, why is he not a part of her life? Those are the things Candy will explore in Pastillage Passage.
Here is another image. This was drawn quite a while ago, all the way back in 2017! This might drop some clues for you, but nothing that spoils the comic.
I can’t say too much more without getting into spoilers, but to make up for the delay in this comic’s release I will pick apart this drawing a bit for you! I will probably fully analyze this image in a future blog post, maybe after book 1 of Pastillage Passage is finished. But for now, let’s take a closer look at one of the images on that board:
Ok. We can learn a lot just from this one. We see Candy, with her older shorter hair style, playing with Elizabeth and Jessica. This photo is from a different perspective when compared to the original, standalone drawing this references. It looks like it was taken from far away. Kinda creepy, in a way. Maybe the Candy man has been keeping tabs on his creation?
Based on the other images on his board it doesn’t seem like he’s got an interest in Elizabeth or Jessica. Although stalking your forsaken daughter might seem wrong, his reasons might be more legitimate. We’ll see. As for that original drawing I referenced, here’s what that scene was pulled from:
Fun fact: this drawing was the debut for Elizabeth and Jessica. Candy didn’t necessarily meet them at this park on this day, but it is the first drawing of them.
Ok, wow. This tangent has led to another tangent, and we’re now far away from Pastillage Passage. Really, I just can’t say much more about the comic itself because Thony’s been sick and I have almost nothing to show you. No sketches, no concept art. And revealing any more story would get into spoiler territory. But I do have one more thing to show you relating to Pastillage Passage before I wrap up this section: a new character!
This new character is named Barbara Uimitoarea, and she will play a part in Candy’s story. But that’s all I can say for now!
Stay tuned! Thony and I are hoping to release the first page in January 2020.
Poster #2 Update
TL;DR: This massive project with over 30 Elizabeth's should be finished in the first few months of 2020.
Poster #2 is on it’s way! Eventually. Originally targeting a November 2019 launch, this poster has proved to be a significant undertaking. Seasan has finished about 20 of the 30 fully rendered characters, and still needs to draw the background, as well as some other details. Here is his current progress:
Those are all Elizabeth! In this poster Elizabeth, now about 13 years old, has used advanced magic to pull alt. universe Elizabeth’s into her world. The one in the center is the Elizabeth we follow in the comics, and all the others are the ones she’s pulled in.
This poster will release in 3 ways. The first, free version will be a bit larger than 5 megapixels (it’s 2954 x 2088 for the nerds out there) and available as a high quality .PNG image for anyone to view and download. The second version will be a $2 wallpaper pack. This will have several pre-rendered wallpapers of the poster, including some close ups of individual Elizabeth’s. It will be similar to the now free Wallpaper Pack #1, but with more renders.
The last option will be $6, for the full digital poster. This will include the full resolution ~70 megapixel image as a .PNG, as well as the layered .PSD file. This second file is super cool if you have Photoshop, because there are a total of 30 fully rendered characters. Not all of them are, there will be a back row of random heads and wands and such to imply even more Elizabeth’s are there, but that still leaves a lot of hidden details that you can only see if you buy the full poster.
Here is an example of what I mean:
Her whole body is there, and it’s drawn. But you can’t see it all in the free version. With the .PSD you can turn off all the other layers, and boom! There she is!
Here is a comparison of the 5 MP and 70 MP detail:
Ultimately I don’t know how many people will buy the poster at $6, but we will see. You get a good amount of content, and you can comfortably print the poster up to 30” by 20” (or 80 cm by 58 cm) at 300 dpi. Many hours and dollars went into making this poster, but poster #1 did not sell well. A future poster #3 will be based on demand for poster #2. If you like it, buy it! You increase the priority and quality of a potential future poster #3!
I plan for all future posters to use this format, where a 5 MP version will be made available for free, with a wallpaper pack and full size poster available as well. I based the current $6 price on the total cost I paid Seasan for this poster and how many fans I expect will buy it, future posters may cost less or more.
Updates to the website
TL;DR: There's a staff page now, and an updated merch store called the "Candy Shop" will be ready in early 2020.
Starting today I have a new Staff page! Here each staff member can reach out to the fans with whatever they want to say and link to, along with portraits! Not all staff felt comfortable sharing their faces, but that's ok. It's their space to network and express themselves. Thony has been sick, and hasn't finished his portion yet. But keep an eye out, he expects his will be finished soon.
I'm in the process of updating the merch store. The old merch page will be removed and replaced with the Candy Shop. You can browse the Candy Shop now, but it's not finished and there's no new merch yet. The Candy Shop will be a fully functional web store, with carts, shareable items, and payments through PayPal accepted directly on the page. No need to message me on Discord anymore! Your entire order can be made on the website.
I am still working out some details, like shipping. The store seems to only support fixed rates by item or by weight. If that's so, I'll likely offer weight based shipping for domestic orders and USPS flat rate packages for international orders. We'll see.
I've added a new donation page as well, discussed in more detail in “New Donation Options”. This system will also work right here on the website, with no need to message me on Discord.
I've transitioned the blog so posts I make will now appear as written by Sugar, not Brigitte. Sugar is my online persona for Candy related stuff, to keep some distance from my public and private lives. Speaking of, you can still influence my life IRL with the new “Sushi for Sugar” option on the donation page! Details are in the donation section of this post, linked above.
New Donation Options
TL;DR: There are multiple new ways to donate, from as little as $1 to +$500. Now some types of donations also include perks.
The new Donations page has several options. Let's look at each one, with goals for 2020.
The first option is the same one we had before in the old merch store: a one time donation. Now you can make your donation, of any amount (starting at $1) directly on the page. The $500 limit of the old system is gone, you can now donate as much as you like! (Because, you know, a lot of people wanted to donate that much)
You can also check a box to make your donation reoccurring every month. Sweet Team is my Patreon like service, but Sweet Team has a fixed monthly price starting at $5. If you want to donate each month for less than $5, or you don't want to sign up for Sweet Team, this is how you can do it. :)
Speaking of Sweet Team, this option will let you donate to me every month (or year) in a 3 tier system, with each tier offering certain benefits. You can learn more in the “Introducing Sweet Team” section.
The next option is the Extraordinary Patron. This is an option for fans who want to support me in a major way and take the credit for it! For this option you pay $500 up front to get your name on my Staff page, with your own head shot portrait which you can either draw yourself or have drawn for you by one of my staff members for free. You'll get 500 characters where you can say anything you want! The initial $500 covers your first year, with each additional year costing $200.
This option will only be available to the first 3 people who buy it. I reserve the right to increase the renewal, after the 2nd year, if more than 3 fans have the deep pockets to buy this space. But honestly, I doubt that will be a problem. And if you don't want that kind of exposure you can always make a one time donation, those are never shared with fans or the community. (The amount might be, but not the identity of the donor)
For the last option, Sushi for Sugar, that is exactly what it sounds like. Your donation covers a single cut sushi roll at my work. I love them! But they get expensive when I buy them often. With this donation you are not donating to the Candy Universe, but to me, Sugar. So I can get delicious sushi at work for lunch! And I will follow up, every donation received will get a photo tweeted of the sushi I bought. You can see that on my Twitter account linked here.
Speaking of, I would like to talk a bit more about what your donations cover. Sushi option aside, I do not spend donated money on myself. It goes to content for the website! Here is a list of what things are covered by donations when one is made:
Annual website costs. ($216/yr for hosting + $18.99/yr for my .com domain)
Comic costs. (Varries, but on average ~$700 a month)
Bonus material and promotional drawings. (I usually budget $100/month for this, but it will get more or less based on what I can afford)
FASP work. (I like to run a new FASP any time I've saved up for one. They typically cost about $400)
Blog post thumbnails, Discord emotes, website/page thumbnails, and other miscellaneous drawings for the website, my Twitter, or Discord. (Really hard to say. For this blog post I spent nothing. Some assets were screenshots, some I drew before, some I bought before.)
Donations do not cover:
Giveaways. (Like the Nintendo Switch Giveaway)
Merchandise Inventory. (I have to buy merch and store it at my house before customers buy it, for most items.)
Christmas Bonus Checks. (Every year I pay my staff an extra sum as a thank you for the year of hard work. This year I had 4 people to pay, and they deserved a good bonus! But it came out of my pocket.)
New artwork for merchandise. (But FASP art reused for merch is fair game!)
EUS. (Equipment Upgrade Savings, a new benifit for my staff which I plan to launch next year. This will have me helping them save and pay for a new computer, software, etc. It's an investment in my strongest assets that pays back dividends in the form of better, higher quality work!)
My personal expenses. (Like my cell phone bill, or gas for my car. The sushi thing is an exception, though. And only for money from that particular page.)
This is a bit tricky to enforce right now. Because I am working 3 jobs and making all the money I need to cover all these things, any donations received push out existing funds. For example, say a fan donated $50 to me. I'd spend that $50 on comic pages as promised, but now $50 of my own money would be free for me to spend on something else. So, in a way, you could say the donation did end up paying for whatever I spent my own $50 on.
At this point all I can do is ask you to trust me, that I will spend the money you donate as I explained above, before my personal funds cover the difference. Hopefully one day I will get enough in donations where I can cut back on my hours at work, then this will be less of an issue. But for now I won't be getting enough, and that's ok! Every dollar helps!
As for my goals in 2020, I am hoping to have at least 5 Sweet Team subscribers, with an average of $100 monthly income between Sweet Team and other donation methods by the time I write the 2020 Retrospect in late December. We might get less, or maybe more! But I think that is a reasonable goal given our current fanbase size and my projected growth for next year.
I may eventually add even more donation options, almost like a Kickstarter, where fans can help me pay for things like a particularly urgent EUS (maybe if an artist broke their laptop), or the upfront payment on a large merch order (like 900 minimum pieces to get affordable plush toys), etc. But for now I am happy with what I am offering. I have options as low as $1 for a one time donation and as high as $500 for the Extraordinary Patron space. Something for everyone!
Also, while we're talking money: any profits from merch are mine. I'll probably still spend them on stuff for you guys, but I don't hold myself to the same strict standards as donation income.
Introducing Sweet Team
TL;DR: Pay 3 times more than Netflix for 1/850,000th the content! Why haven't more people signed up?
Sweet Team, my Patreon like subscription service, officially launches on January 31st, 2020. It will offer several benifits to the subscriber, but the real reason to sign up is to support the content you love!
I mention that it officially launches in January but, you can actually sign up now. As of posting 2 people already have! But the full list of benifits won't become available to subscribers until Jan. 31st.
Here is the chart for the 3 packages:
As you can see all 3 plans offer monthly and annual plans. The annual plans are 20% off what you'd pay per month x 12. The biggest draw will probably be the early comic page access. This will be similar to many YouTube channels that offer early access. The pages are still free to view but Sweet Team Subscribers get early access. This will be implemented on Discord for now, where pages from all 4 series will be posted on a special early release page that can only be seen by Sweet Team Subscribers (though Discord server Nitro boosters will also get access).
The goal is 3 days early, but this may be inconsistent. If, for example, I catch an error that requires revision (or a Sweet Team Subscriber does) that page may have a delayed public release. Or, if an artist falls behind I may post the page 1 day after Sweet Team Subscribers get it, to lessen the blow of the artist's delay. We'll see how this works as we go along.
Bonus: the Discord posted pages won't be downsized like the pages on my website. Sweet Team users will not only get the pages sooner, but also in full 2500 x 3300 (or larger) size. This is not advertised on the Sweet Team page though, as I would eventually like my website to stop compressing pages.
I'm not sure how the 20% off merch will work yet. I am still learning this new system for the Candy Shop.
For the special FASP vote, Sweet Team users will get to cast a special Sweet Team vote. I don't plan to run any Sweet Team only FASPs, as that would be far too expensive. But for the normal FASPs that everyone votes in Sweet Team members' votes will count 5x a normal vote, and any Sweet Team member vote with special instructions (like a pose or expression) will get priority over the special instructions of non ST votes.
But if you want your own personal FASP I have something better! For Pure Sugar plans on the annual subscription, or monthly Pure Sugar after 4 consecutive months, you get a special benefit! Once a year you can request a drawing of any character (even a non-Candy Universe character) by whichever of my staff members you want!
I'll have portfolios on my website with examples of each artist's work, which I will send to you privately when it's time for your special drawing. Although the rates I pay each artist varies your annual character drawing will include one full bodied character in color. You may add additional characters, a scene/background, or other elements if you wish, subject to the rates of whichever staff member you choose.
For now that's about it. I may add or change benefits over time, as more people sign up and I see what works and what doesn't. You can sign up for Sweet Team here, but please remember full benefits do not launch until January 31st.
New Merch!
TL;DR: New stuff is coming! Some existing items will not be restocked once they sell out.
Merch is fun. People seem to like it. Here are my merch goals for 2020!
First, starting with the launch of the Candy Shop in early 2020, now all merch will be profitable. Up 'till now I've sold many items at break even or worse because I knew my fan base was small and it was a greater priority to me to get merch out there than it was to make money off it. Even now, my goal is not to get rich off Candy, but if I can eventually cover my comic and other costs that would be nice.
Second, before I discuss the new stuff, let's talk about what we already have real quick. I currently have no plans to re-stock the mouse-pads or magnets. They haven't sold well and the costs to order them have gone up since I first bought them. If you want one, buy one when the Candy Shop opens!
Now for the new stuff. I have a Torbeth 30” plush toy in the works, based on the design of Torbeth on the stickers. I was supposed to have a sneak peek for you by today, but the toy company I am working with has been swamped for Christmas and hasn't even started making it yet, despite my estimated December 20th ship date. The estimated price for the Torbeth plush is $285, more than the current Elizabeth plush, because Torbeth's design is more complicated and requires more attention by the seamstress.
Since my toy company fell through on delivering the “sneak peek” email on time, here is the reference drawing I sent them for the toy:
Toy without the included cloth.
Toy as it should look out of the box.
As discussed further in “Affordable Plush Toys” I don't really care for the toy company I am working with right now. They charge so much that a Torbeth plush costs more than an annual Pure Sugar plan! They do a good job, but frankly, not a job worth +$100 per toy. And my current order for two Torbeth plush toys which was estimated to ship on December 20th hasn't even entered production yet. I pay extra for the Torbeth toy to get no updates or correspondence for 5 weeks straight in a 10 week, multi step process?
I might use this company one more time to make a 30” Candy plush toy later in 2020. That should sell for the same $225 as Elizabeth. But I've only sold 1 plush toy at this price point. I'll list the Candy plush as merch if I buy one for myself, maybe someone will want me to order another for them. But I suspect this route isn't going to work, and long term I'll need to focus on massive orders from China where I can sell plush toys for a much more reasonable price.
Beyond plush toys, I am also looking to do another sticker this year. Like the Torbeth stickers, with similar size and pricing. It would probably be stickers with Candy on them. I'm also looking into lollipops with the Candy Universe logo printed on the wrapping, I probably wouldn't sell these but I could include them with merch orders as a bonus. I am also investigating temporary tattoos.
Poster #2 will launch in 2020, and I might do a Poster #3 in 2020 as well, depending on how well Poster #2 preforms. I may also do a different digital merch item, like a meme collection with Candy characters in meme-able pictures. Probably not direct parody of existing memes, as those would lose reliance too quickly. Just meme-able things. We'll see!
I am open to suggestions as well. Comment below if you have a merch idea!
New FASP?
TL;DR: Ever? Yes. Soon? Not likely.
First, for anyone who got here without knowing what a FASP is, it’s the Fan Art Stimulus Package, a special event where I ask the server members to vote for their favorite characters, then I commission artists online to draw new art of them. I’ve run two of them so far. You can see the art from the first FASP here, and from the second FASP here (I plan to eventually upload the same ones from Twitter to this website, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet.)
The FASP is really just a fun spin on something I’ve already been doing for years. I would save up money, order from many artists at once, then pick my top few to work with more. This is how I found Seasan, Menace, and Deciprax. I decided the second to last time to turn this into a community event, opening it for everyone to vote on who they wanted to see. I was going to spend the money on it anyways, it’s how I look for new talent. But the actual characters they draw aren’t all that important, so why not let the fan pick?
In the past I might post a few I really liked as “fan art” even though, it wasn’t drawn by a fan, because where else would I put it? And I’d toss the rest, to never be seen again. But for the FASP I posted everything, good and bad, under the FASP name so people would know it was not real fan art. Fan art is great, don’t get me wrong! Over 100 real fan art images have been submitted so far, most of them from people in my college art club… but the FASP is fun!
I think I will host a 3rd FASP later in 2020, maybe towards the summer. I hesitate to offer an exact time because:
It’s pretty expensive to run.
I don’t really need any more long term artists right now, though I am always open to it if someone amazing comes along.
The budget I’d usually spend on FASPs is now going to the EUS benefit for my staff. I’d rather invest in my team then keep trying to grow it.
But we’ll see! I’m not ruling out a 3rd FASP, but I do have it pretty low on my priorities right now. If I get a lot of one time donations I might run a FASP off of those. While I appreciate all donations in all forms, the one time donations are not predictable so I’m best off saving those in a fund for special stuff, and not relying on them for my consistent costs like comic pages. Notice how I didn’t say I found Thony through a pre-FASP run? That’s because I didn’t. I found him in my 2nd FASP. So there is value in them!
Goals for someday
Affordable Plush Toys
TL;DR: Once I have thousands of fans, maybe then I can sell a $30 version of this toy.
I love plush toys. I really do. This drawing? It’s Elizabeth, but it’s based on my real, IRL stuffed animal pile. I have one of those. It kinda looks like this, minus the Elizabeth:
Getting my own stuffed Elizabeth toy was like a dream come true. Really. It’s so cool! But it cost over $100 to get it, and it came with multiple glaring errors. To the credit of the toy company they remade her for free, with most of the mistakes corrected (there were a few minor things that were just not within their abilities) and they let me keep the wrong one, so that was nice. Still, in order to sell my fans a 30” Elizabeth plush, after fees, shipping charges from the toy company, I have to charge $225 and I don’t earn a whole lot on that. I can maybe put it on sale for $200 and, depending on the shipping costs, still make a couple dollars.
Don’t get me wrong though. This toy is still a landmark in Candy merch, and I am proud to be able to offer it at all, at any price. Just look at how cool it is!
But again, this cost a lot! Does this wand look like something you’d expect from a premium item?
If this cost $30 or $40 I would be less critical, but it cost more than 4 times that. And to make things worse, this was the free replacement. The first one, the one with multiple major errors, had a better star on it’s wand!
A $30 to $40 price point seems a lot better to me. I think a lot of fans would be interested at that price. I’ve looked into mass production, I talked with 3 companies so far and for the one I like best a 20” Elizabeth Plush would cost $15.66 per toy… if I order 900 of them.
If I sold them for $30 each, not including shipping, after PayPal fees I’d need to sell 522 of them just to break even. Sure, if I sold all 900 of them I could make a really good profit. Enough to cover a few years of operations! But I don’t even have 900 fans! Hell, I don’t have 522 fans. This is definitely a goal for someday, but that’s a far off someday…
For a little extra fun, here is one of the responses I got during my research:
…this could work for a mascot? Cool!
Mascot Suits
TL;DR: Would be so cool! But so expensive, probably not coming in 2020.
A mascot suit would be so cool! Like, the things you see at football games, but with Candy or Elizabeth! I’m not sure who would wear it, I am too short probably. And it’s really expensive, too expensive to mail to a random fan so they can dance around in it. But still, it would be really cool! I’ve researched this too, it would likely cost around $6000!
Here is a proposal that shows how crazy big Elizabeth’s head would be, if we used the same reference as the plush toy to make a mascot:
Not sure when this might happen, if ever. It might stay a pipe dream. But we’ll see!
Other Stuff
Nintendo Switch Update
TL;DR: It's coming. You can read the winning letter, too.
As announced on Twitter earlier this month, signature 13835 won the Nintendo Switch Giveaway! This person turned out to be a fairly new fan, someone from Twitter who has been following my content for a few weeks prior to the Switch Giveaway announcement. Their letter was by far the best one I recieved, and with their permission I have the letter here for you to see:
I really enjoy how much detail was put into Candy’s character. One of my favorite things is when authors and character put a lot of thought into the biology of their non-human characters and species (or in Candy’s case, what appears to be a candy-human). The fact that she’s completely made out of sweets also reminds me of the folkloric creature known as the Golem. It makes me wonder if she was naturally born, like a human would be, or if somebody created her for a specific purpose.
From Candy’s design of bright pastel colors and her cat ear-like hairstyle, she appears on the surface to be a sweet, unassuming kid. But I wonder if later on in the works, her backstory and perhaps some darker parts of her psyche will be revealed. Oftentimes in pieces of media, characters who appear to be human but are actually something completely different (such as an android or homunculus or puppet), tend to struggle greatly with this fact. Since it appears from her lore page that she spends a good portion of her time with human friends, I wonder if later on in the series she will question her own sense of belonging. Not to mention the fact that she is unable to age; has she become accustomed to having human friends and loved ones grow up and eventually pass away without her?
There are many ways Candy’s character and her psychology can be explored, which I find very fascinating. I apologize if any of my theories are way off base and if they’re too out there, I just really enjoy analyzing characters and their motivations. All in all, I look forward to seeing her character arc develop as the series progresses!
Furthermore, I’m very intrigued about exploring the Candy Universe. From what I’ve seen in the first few comic pages, it almost seems rather dystopian. From the abandoned building, dusty computer terminals and moody atmosphere, I wonder where exactly the protagonists are, and how it became this way. It slightly reminds me of horror games and post apocalyptic games, such as Resident Evil and Fallout. I also wonder how Candy will fare in this type of environment. She seems like such an innocent character, so I question why she’s here, of all places?
Judging by the disclaimer on the front page of there being some gory material in store for the comic, I predict that this will probably have some elements of horror. Which is honestly perfect. I think having some spooky elements to a story would be a great vehicle for exploring the psychology of characters.
Also what’s interesting is that the Candy universe seems to mirror our own universe, where apparently events such as WWII took place as well. I love when fiction explores alternate history timelines, and the fact that one of the lore posts discussed Hitler trying to use magic in order to win the war was interesting. It reminded me of one of my favorite comics, Hellboy by Mike Mignola, in which the Nazis tried to use occult magic in order to take over the world (though thankfully they failed in their attempts). I’m interested to see tidbits of our own world history reflected within this comic’s universe, and I hope these events will be handled in good taste! And I will say that the character Torbeth seems interesting as well. I’ve seen her in a few pieces of art on the InvincibleSugar twitter account and I’m assuming she’s Elizabeth, but after some kind of crazy event that mutated her.
Overall the world building and careful plotting of this universe seems to be well done! I’ve noticed other webcomic series sometimes tend to fly by the seat of their pants and just make new plot elements up as they go along, but so far the work I’ve seen put into fleshing out the world has been impressive. I can tell a lot of love has been put into realizing this comic!
On the the topic of the switch, I would probably just play Final Fantasy games and JRPGs on it. Though I think I’d pick up a few party games (like Mario Party and Kart) so I can enjoy them with my siblings and friends! It would also be a godsend for when I have to take 8 hour long Amtrak trips downstate. After a while of listening to podcasts or reading books, being on a train that long becomes really mind numbing! If I could play an enthralling RPG or even some some AAA game title on the train, I’d be so happy.
Thank you!
I’m not sure if I should be happy that a new fan was this passionate, or upset that none of my long time fans wrote anything close to this… to be fair none of the letters I received were bad. Several showed a real interest for Candy, and I might do something like this again in 2020! By the way, I mention Candy because, no one wrote a letter for Elizabeth.
I was hoping someone would, because I actually wanted to surprise everyone and giveaway two Switches, one Candy and one Elizabeth. But no one wrote a letter for Elizabeth so, that did not happen. Oh well. Now that the secret is out don’t expect me to pull something similar next time!
The winner has been in communication with my Staff in the #employees-only channel on my Discord server, where they described what they want the skin to look like. Based on their request I can say this skin will look, different than any existing Candy artwork. And that’s good! It will be a one of a kind drawing where all 4 of my comic artists work together to draw it! Photos of the Switch will be posted before I mail it off, and hopefully the winner will also post pictures when they get it, so everyone else will get to see the artwork that way! But the digital assets will not be remixed or reused.
Hopefully my Staff will finish the skin in January. Thony has been sick, and the winner has been in school with finals, causing delays.
Comic Release Promises
TL;DR: Everyone promised something.
SEASAN has promised to release a minimum of 1 page per week for his series, Elizabeth the Compunctious.
MENACE CIDE has promised to release a minimum of 1 page per 2 weeks for his series, Ricochet’s Journey. He hopes to release 1 per week but has school.
THONY has promised to release a minimum of 1 page per week for his series, Pastillage Passage. His goal is 4 pages per week.
DECIPRAX has promised to release a minimum of 4 pages per 30 days for his series, The First Comic.
Please remember these are minimums and each artist will work to push out as many pages as they can.
New Discord Emotes
TL;DR: New emoji are coming!
If you haven’t noticed we recently got these new emotes, courtesy of Deciprax!
He had fun with this, so I will try to get him to make up some more! Maybe some animated ones! I also want Menace and Thony to make some, because I don’t think they have any yet. No date on this, just a heads up!
By the way, while I am talking about Discord I’d like to drop these random stats that are probably already out of date when you read this:
As of December 26th, 2019 we have 501 members, of which at least 63 talk often (every week), and if I pruned all users without roles who haven’t been active for 7 days, I’d be kicking out exactly 100 people. But I prune on a 30 day cycle, which would only kick 7 members right now. You can view the Discord leaderboard, based on chat participation, here.
Transitioning to model sheets
TL;DR: We're gonna use them now!
Up ‘till now I haven’t actually used model sheets. I would just send artists multiple drawings of a character from different angles and let them sort it out. The reference sheets for the Elizabeth and Torbeth plush toys ended up being very useful outside their intended purpose though, so now going forward every significant character will be getting a model sheet! Below are a few examples. Blurry text is there to redact spoilers.
Once we’ve finished them, or at least have a lot of them made up, I will add them all in full size and quality as a free .ZIP in the digital merch store, so anyone who wants them for drawing their own fan art can have them. If I upload them as images like I did here, they get compressed and resized automatically.
Staff are now contributors!
TL;DR: I've handed over a few keys...
I’ve had multiple occasions over the last few weeks where an artist finished a comic page and I approved it, but because I was so busy with work and personal stuff, it took me a few days to actually get on my PC and upload it. Now I am granting limited website editing access to my staff, so they can start uploading their own pages! Neat, huh?
The Bonus Section
So you actually made it this far?
Well, congratulations! Your reward for your loyal reading is this!
A fun little bonus page from way back. Most fans still haven’t seen it. Well, now you have! Don’t tell anyone! Shhh….