Hey guys! I've got a lot of stuff to tell you about!

First, some bad news: I can't afford to make the plushies right now. Thanks for all the interest you showed, though! I'm not going to give up on them forever. Slightly Damned simply needs to become a lot more popular before I can afforrd to make them. It would really suck if I paid the thousands of dollars necessary to get them produced only to discover I couldn't make that money back. The good news is that if I DO make plushies, it's more cost-effective to make ALL THREE instead of just one. So if Slightly Damned has become more successful in about a year's time... we'll see!

Soon I will get the ball rolling on getting hats produced. I hope to have some available for sale by Christmas, although at this point I can't make any promises.

The stickers are finally getting produced and should probably arrive next week!

As for the charms...

:3 The straps will arrive next week, probably around the same time as the stickers.

You may have noticed that I'm making a bunch of shirt designs. I'm trying to get a bunch of product designs done soon so I can completely revamp the CafePress store with a lot of new stuff. I should be done no later than the end of the month!

The book is still is one of the lower-priority items. I still plan to get it done by the end of the year.

Figurines: I decided to go ahead and submit designs for Buwaro and Kieri figurines (separately) to Patch Together! You know the drill: if the figure gets enough positive votes, it will be opened to pre-orders. If it gets enough pre-orders, it will be produced! Go for it, guys!





Lastly, and this is IMPORTANT:

We are excited to announce that both the forum and the chat have undergone an overhaul! They now feature new and improved terms of services-- that means that the rules are now much more lax than they were in the past. Yes, that includes stuff about spelling and grammar. The forums also feature new boards such as Forum Games and even a section for Roleplaying. Everyone is welcome to come share their thoughts and comments.

ALSO, if you were banned in the past for something, then you may discover you can post again. We are quietly giving you a second chance. Please don't take advantage of this by spamming the boards/chat with negative comments or OMG I'M FREE!!!! Just... be cool, okay? ;3

See you there!

Hey guys. I know there's a lot of site maintenance I still have to take care of, but I'm also working behind the scenes to create new merchandise. It's a bit slow going for now, but in the next couple of months I hope to have a lot of great new stuff to offer you guys.

Stickers: I made sticker designs for Death, Sakido, Iratu, Lazuli, and Azurai. I am currently communicating with a printing company in order to get the stickers printed the way I want. Because of budget restraints and the fact that the printing company I commissioned to make the SD trio stickers no longer exists, these stickers will be a little different. They should look just as good, though!

Figurines: the next two figurines I will have made are going to be Buwaro and Kieri. However, I'm not going to be submitting any designs for about another 1-1 1/2 months. A different offer for figurines came up, but it's too soon to tell whether or not it's safe for me to go for it. I'm going to bide my time and see how things go. If it doesn't work out, then it's back to Patch Together.
By the way, did you know you can get a refund for your Rhea figurine if its tail arrived broken?

Shirts: let's face it, the Cafepress stores look bad and they're full of outdated crap. If you see anything that catches your eye, though, you should buy it soon. I am planning to revamp the store before the end of the year with a ton of new designs, but I want to do it all at once. This could be your last chance for some of those t-shirts or mugs!

Charms: believe it or not, these are currently in production! I should have photos of them to share in about 1-2 weeks.

Hats: next month I'm going to use my *ahem* connections to try to get more of these made. Because I am inept I am unable and unwilling to spend the time making them by hand by myself, so I need to outsource production. I don't know how well this is going to work out, but rest assured I have not forgotten about them. If things go well, maybe some can be made available by Christmas?

A book: yes, I still want to make a book before the end of the year. This is my most requested item, and I have some ideas to make the book worthwhile despite the poor quality of old pages.

PLUSHIES!!!: Yeah, you read that right. I want to make plush dolls of Slightly Damned characters! I'm going to need your help, though. Making plushies is an extremely pricey and risky venture, so first I'm going to need to know what Slightly Damned plush design you guys want the most. Hop on over to the forums to vote in the very important poll that will determine which plush gets made and to get more details about the situation. Forum registration is required.

Oh yeah, and I wanted to remind you guys that I'm open for commissions, too. Phew! I've got a lot to do. I've really gotta learn how to manage my time better.

Slightly Damned Community Pokemon Tournament -- Saturday October 15, 2011

Prizes available! [Click here] for more information! (forum registration required)

I'm updating with a new journal entry to let you guys know that I'm heading out with my friends on Friday to see the star of GameCenter CX! Because of that, I won't be around to upload anything to upload the latest Soprano of Time vote incentive until Sunday. The homepage of Slightly Damned will still automatically update with page 459 on Saturday!

See ya!

And I did! And I've arrived at my new home! There's still a lot to do and I'm not quite settled in yet, but I'm making progress. Thankfully I've already completed next week's page and Soprano of Time vote incentive. Good thing, too, because as of right now I don't even have a chair for my desk...

Yes, believe it or not, episode 3 of the radio play is DONE. You can download it from the radio play page: http://www.sdamned.com/extras/radio-play/

Enjoy!

P.S. I actually haven't listened to it because I'm reluctant to hear recordings I did over a year ago. But a friend I trust (Pyrocajun on the forums) said it was alright, so there you go!

Soon my work contract in Japan will end! These two years have been a blast, but I feel it's time for me to return to the United States. But before that, I will travel around the country sightseeing and doing fun stuff with my friend. Then I will move back to my home state to spend time with my family and get my possessions in order. After a week or two (or longer) of that, I will move to a completely different state to be with friends.

So basically my life will be incredibly chaotic starting the last week of July until possibly late August or September. Unfortunately that means I don't really have the time to work on Slightly Damned. Even though the story is planned far in advance, pages are time consuming to make! July 16 will be the last Slightly Damned update for at least a month. Updates will resume as usual no later than September 3rd! ...unless something goes horribly wrong. It'll probably be fine.

However! I'm not going to leave you guys high and dry with nothing to read during the hiatus. As sort of a make-up present and also as thanks for keeping Slightly Damned's ranks high on Top Web Comics, The Legend of Buwaro: Soprano of Time will take the main comic's place while I'm gone. You don't have to vote for SD on TWC if you don't want to (although it is appreciated!). A new strip will go up here on the main site every Saturday automatically. When 5 strips have been uploaded, I'll consolidate them into one image and upload them to [deviantArt]. While that means that strips 16-25 are effectively freebies, that also means I won't be uploading the strips up to dA individually.

Sorry for the relatively short notice. I'll actually be online about as often as usual until the last week of this month. It's just that my time has been taken up by planning, good-byes, packing, and other logistics. After I've moved to my new home in September, I'll have tons of time to dedicate to art projects like Slightly Damned.

Thanks for understanding! Have a great summer!

Er, pay no attention to that news post title.

Patch Together's Rhea figurine
My friend Alice nagged PT about when the Rhea figurine would be done. She said that they were aiming to have them finished (and/or possibly sent out) by August, and they uploaded this photo of their progress to the PT Facebook page. Oh, the humanity!

The Legend of Buwaro: Soprano of Time
You guys have been wonderful at keeping Slightly Damned's rank high on Top Web Comics. It's nearly the middle of June and we're still rank 3, wow! Anyway, as promised, you can freely see parts 1-5 [HERE] and parts 6-10 [HERE]. Let's keep SD at rank 4+ so I can upload more publicly in the future!



Art Gallery reminder
Because I'm super lazy about updating the art gallery, it hasn't been touched in months. However, you can view tons of extra Slightly Damned-related art by me and by fans by checking out the official SD club on deviantArt:



Twitter
In case you haven't noticed, I have a twitter account for Slightly Damned [HERE]. It doubles as my all-purpose public Twitter account, too, so I don't only tweet about stuff relating to the comic. Follow me! You may even enjoy it!

Patch Together's Rhea Figurine
Sorry guys, I don't have any info on when the Rhea figurines will be finished and shipped. I plan to wait until May 11th to nag them for more information since they stopped taking orders on April 11th. A month sounds fair. I'll be sure to keep you guys informed!

Slightly Damned Store
I decided to fix up the store page because I haven't touched it in months. It now how up-to-date information on all the Slightly Damned-related merchandise you can buy directly from me or from other sources. Stickers are back on sale!

Top Web Comics
I was very happy to see Slightly Damned reach rank 4 last month, so for the first time ever, I made a few old vote incentives publicly available. You can see The Legend of Buwaro: Soprano of Time parts 1-5 here on my deviantArt page. I don't plan to make a habit of this unless Slightly Damned maintains its higher-than-usual rank. After all, the reason I don't give out old vote incentives is because I believe that making them publicly available results in people not voting. Keep Slightly Damned high in the ranks, and I'll be sure to release parts 5-10, then 11-15, and so on!


Misc. Updates
I did a little cleaning to the sidebar, as you may have noticed. I removed the Flickr link because I've been bad about updating drawings to it, but I added a link to my new e-mail address and to my Formspring account.
Of course, I once again neglected to touch the art galleries.

So it's been about a week since orders for the Rhea figurine on Patch Together closed. I'm assuming that means that they're now hard at work manufacturing the figurines to fill everyone's orders. Unfortunately, I have no idea how long it will take for the figurines to start arriving at people's homes. Hopefully we don't have to wait for too much longer! Once people start receiving their Rhea figurines, and provided the feedback is positive, I'll submit a design for a Buwaro figurine.

If you missed your chance to buy a figurine or you're still burning to spend some cash, there are a couple of good causes you can help out! First, you can donate money to earthquake and tsunami relief in Japan. There's a list of suggested charities on this page.

Second, there's Webcomics: What's Cooking?

Yeah, remember when I was promoting that back in November? It's finally done, and I know a bunch of people have received their copies already! I contributed a COMPLETELY NEW Slightly Damned page not seen anywhere else to the book. You can see a preview here.

Oh, and by the way, don't forget to vote for Slightly Damned on Top Web Comics to see The Legend of Buwaro: Soprano of Time part 4!


Thanks for your support!
P.S. I keep saying I'm going to update the art galleries, and then I forget for the next couple of months. Sorry about that. At least there's always my deviantArt page and the Slightly Damned club.

This weekend is your last chance to order the Rhea Snaketail figurine on Patch Together! It will no longer be available after Monday, April 11th!



Also, have you been voting for Slightly Damned on Top Web Comics? If you haven't, you've been missing out on bonus comic strips not seen anywhere else. We're now on part three of The Legend of Buwaro: Soprano of Time!

I just wanted to let you guys know that the Rhea figurine design has been finalized and that photos of it are finally up on the Patch Together website:



Patch Together will be taking pre-orders of the figure until April 11th. They will only make enough figures to fill the number of pre-orders they received by that date!

Also, for the sake of making this appear in the RSS feed: I'm starting a new, long series of comic strips for the vote incentives. If you haven't been voting for Slightly Damned on Top Web Comics, you've been missing out on a lot of exclusive bonus material!

I'm fine, thanks for asking. Have you donated to the relief effort in Japan? You should. Check out the link at the top of the site.

By the way, here's a sneak peak at the painted prototype Rhea figurine:






As far as I'm concerned, the prototype is finished. I think they're done with the molds too, so we should be seeing photos on the figurine on the Patch Together website soon. If I understood what they said to me before when I asked, after the photos go up they'll take pre-orders for a little while longer. Then they'll stop on a designated date (I don't know when) and then make as many figures as they have pre-orders for.

I always welcome people to ask me questions via comment, note, e-mail, or whatever, but for those of you who wish to remain anonymous, I made a Formspring account: [http://www.formspring.me/hyenafu] Let's see how long it'll take me to regret this decision.

P.S. No word on the painted Rhea figurine prototype yet. I'll be sure to let you guys know when there's an update.

The Pokemon Tournament was awesome! First place: Keemonto, second place: Acriseus, third place: Bane. It was a blast! Thanks also to Keemonto and Khalrin for organizing the event. The next time Slightly Damned has a Pokemon tournament will be for Generation 5 (that means Pokemon Black & White), look forward to the games' release in the coming months. (I wish Nintendo would pay me for that endorsement.)

We are looking for someone to play Kieri in the radio play! Starting from episode 4, we will need someone to join Zorel and me in providing voices to the comic's main trio. There's no deadline for auditions yet and no, I don't know when episode 3 will be done. It's out of my hands. You can find more information about the auditions [here], but keep in mind that you must register for the forum and abide by its rules. If you don't know what the radio play is, [find out here].

The prototype for the Rhea figurine from Patch Together is in progress! They've been working on it for the past few weeks and just the other day I was finally given pictures of it. Here they are:







They have to do some revisions, finish off the sculpture, and then paint it before it's done. But doesn't it look awesome!? You can pre-order a figure of your own from Patch Together by [going here].

I still have more site maintenance to do but this is all I have time for now.