If you're curious, Bip didn't pick up instantly because they are simultaneously controlling many RC vehicles and had to pause a couple tasks to free processors for conversation.
The tension in her body cracks like gunshot, her teeth slamming together with a loud SNAP. She convulses forward, curling into her pillow, gripping the back of her neck. A groan below human hearing range leaves her excurrent nostrils, sending with it a shudder travels up her spine and sets her teeth chattering.
Suddenly, the tablet speaks.
Bip: Do you want to talk about it?
Talita's shivering stops in surprise. Her face prickles in embarrassment, and she pulls off her askew glasses.
I woke up this morning and the campaign was already 200% funded?? Thank you so much to everyone who’s supported already! I’m so excited to hold this book in my hands. Stay tuned for stretch goals!
I was on a podcast! Thanks so much to Quinn, Chris, and Chris for inviting me on Failure to Launch to ramble about alien design, evolution, and an odd mockumentary adaption of one of my favorite books; Alien Planet.
If you like the speculative technology in Runaway to the Stars and you’re interested in the sordid history of aerospace and its many, many terrible ideas and fraught innovations, I recommend listening to more of Failure to Launch. (Also available on Youtube!)
If you hadn’t heard already, the printed RttS book is going to be crowdfunding in April! Click the button over on the preview page to be notified when the campaign goes live.
I’m very excited to someday hold this book in my hands and I hope you are too! I’m also very thankful to be working with a publisher and not entirely on my own with promotion and campaign organization. Whew.
In case you were wondering, this is the first book of a planned series of 4 following the same characters.
A box of RttS comics didn’t make it to England in time for me to sell them at Dinocon last year, so instead of sending them back to the USA, me and my friend at Thylacine’s Toybox worked something out! Cheaper shipping to the Eastern hemisphere for Growth Chart, Airsled, and the character AMA zines; while supplies last:
Tl;dr: the public webcomic is taking a 2 month holiday break, with Reader Question updates every Tuesday, returning with Chapter 9 on Tuesday, February 17th.
So, most of you probably know I draw pages much slower than they upload here. The reason I’ve kept a steady 3 day a week schedule is because I started uploading with about half the book already completed. I did some calculations before launching the public webcomic and determined that with my rate up to that point, I could upload here continuously without catching up to my backlog until the very last pages.
Unfortunately, last year, I did not maintain that page completion rate. Instead I traveled out of the country 3 times, tabled at 4 conventions, had delays on collaborative parts of the project, helped a partner move in, got dumped by that partner, moved out of that apartment into a house, and more. So, the site has been catching up to my page backlog much faster than I planned for. This is the first time I’ve ever made a 300 page graphic novel, so I’m learning how long it actually takes to complete one the hard way.
I considered my options and decided I would prefer to have a hiatus than slow down the update schedule for narrative pages, because I feel that 3 updates a week with breaks at the end of chapters makes for a more enjoyable reading experience. This will also allow me do editing how I prefer to, which is reviewing an entire chapter once it is complete. There are two more chapters remaining in this RttS book (the first of a planned four) and they are some of the longest and juiciest chapters in the book, so I need more time to finish them. There will be another hiatus after Chapter 9 finishes posting here. I’m slowing down the rate at which Reader Questions post, because honestly, they eat up time that really ought to be going into finishing the actual book. So, I’ll be back with Chapter 9 on February 17th, 2026, updating three times a week, but Reader Questions will be posting every Tuesday until then.
In the meantime: if you are impatient for more RttS, consider throwing 5USD at the Patreon to receive pages the second they are completed on their real chaotic non-schedule. You can even contribute 5 bucks and then immediately cancel the subscription for one month of access, I won’t be mad. (I actually wish Patreon made unsubscribing easier. But that’s a different old man rant).
If you have better things to do with your money, consider dropping in on one of my Twitch streams! Or watching the vods, since unfortunately I have a vampire sleep schedule and live on the west coast of North America. I’m streaming Mon/Weds/Fri (with two exceptions) this December because I want to blast through Chapter 9 as fast as possible and having the panopticon (Twitch chat) staring at me while I draw helps keep me focused.
That’s all for now! Have a happy new year, everyone, and if you’re in the southern hemisphere, please GIVE BACK THE SUN!! I MISS GARDENING!!
Against all odds, this has become an extremely convention-heavy year for me. I got off the waitlist for Anthrocon?? This has never happened to me before, waitlists are functionally rejections in my experience.
I am now confirmed for tabling at these conventions:
BwPcon, June 7th in Portland, Oregon (this upcoming weekend!!!!)
Anthrocon, July 3rd-6th in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Have you been done your civic duty as a Jovian this Spring Cleaning Week, and fulfilled your compulsory service hours in maintaining the biosystems of your space station megacity? Of course you have. Pick up the broom bundle to celebrate a hard-earned Feaster! It comes with a 3D award pin, festive chabbit sticker sheet, and a handcrafted floral broom ornament.
Limited quantities of these, because the brooms were hand assembled. Hopefully some of you are as delighted as me about the idea of holiday decorations from an alternate universe.
My application to BwPcon was accepted! It’s a one day outdoor convention in Portland, Oregon this upcoming June 7th. If you’re in the area come check out my table, I’ll have some new RttS merch! You can find more information on their website:
Big news for UK fans: I’ve also gotten into Dinocon by the skin of my teeth, and I’ll be sharing a half table with Thylacine’s Toyshop. I’ve never tabled internationally and I haven’t been to England since I was like 10, so this should be exciting. The convention is from August 16th-17th in Exeter University. Fans coming over to buy my junk will be extra appreciated because the plane flight alone is gonna cost like half what I make on a good day at a con. More information on the website:
I’ve also applied to Big Little Fur Fest, a furry convention that I forgot to add to my list in the last blog post. BLFC takes place in Reno, Nevada from October 13th-6th, 2025. Will I get in? Who knows. I haven’t had great luck with furry conventions this year, Anthrocon and Furcon both waitlisted me. Most of what I draw these days is more adjacent to the fandom than in it, and I don’t run a mid-range online retail store, so maybe I’m not a hot pick.
So sadly I missed the holidays but I’m pleased to announce that there’s two new merch items in my online store, baby Talita keychains and Bip pins! Two very different flavors of troublemaker, now both wearable.
Additionally, while I was busy grinding out chapter 6 for Patreon I sold out of, like, most of the books in my shop? So because I can’t really afford to eat all of those reprinting costs at the same time, I’m doing reprint preorders. Order any of these books right now and they will be shipped to you in February 2025:
Also coming up in the new year, conventions. Unfortunately I can’t guarantee I’ll be at any of these other than Further Confusion because they’ll have to accept my dealership applications first, but I’m currently hoping to be at:
I’m also currently streaming art work on my Twitch channel every Tuesday and Friday in the PST afternoon. My goal for streaming has always been to force myself to focus on the task at hand for several hours and not to gain as many subscribers as possible, so while I have tried and failed to keep a consistent schedule I remain chronically unpunctual. Usually, I start between 2pm to 6pm and stream for around 6 to 8 hours. I enjoy having company while I work. 🙂
I think that’s all for now. Wish me luck in staying on track this year and finishing Runaway to the Stars book 1 by February 2026. I think I can, I think I can…
Some miniprints and assorted stickers are now available in the shop. I am sold out of the Shyam and Talita character sticker, sadly, but lots of new ones are available as one-offs.
I have also gotten down to last handful of my Talita pins, some of which have some enamel fill errors and resin dents that prevent me from selling them at full price. If you’re looking for a discount and don’t mind some superficial defects, check out the B and C-grade pins. They’re charmingly flawed, just like the lady herself.
In other news, as birthday present for myself this year I commissioned a low-poly Talita 3d model from incredibly talented artist Lazer-T (Tumblr, Twitter, Bluesky), who really went above and beyond with rigging her silly over-complicated design. Look at these turnarounds he did, they’re great:
There is also a Barbie doll nude version of her, since I wanted one for generic posing reference (and also, she looks cool with the stripes out).
This model has among other things: 8 total eyelids, adjustable pupil sizes, an antler slider with velvet stages, nostrils that open and close, and mane and face feathers that can puff out. Here’s an example of expressive animation, also done by Lazer-T!
[Silent animation of Talita looking away, then jolting in shock, blushing in embarrassment, and waving bashfully at the viewer.]
I’m not very experienced with manipulating armature in Blender myself (I’ve barely got a handle on hardscape modelling) but I’ve been having fun moving the model around and learning how to pose different parts and use shape keys. Below: me messing around with the file.
Ok, that’s all. I hope the turnaround gifs don’t make my homepage run like ass, if they do I’ll replace them with the still renders.
