One of my projects this summer will be to clean up the Slightly Damned website and my homepage, RaiZap.com. You may have noticed that some of the options on the menu bar have disappeared. That's because I decided to clear off links to outdated art and dead or dying projects. I still have more work to do (like updating the art on the Race and World History pages to match the art on the Cast page), but I'm going to leave that until after Phoenix Comic Con.

It's that time of year again! I'm going to be tabling at Phoenix Comic Con with my pals from Monster Hive! Come on down and say hi to me, Arby of , and Cei & Rx3 of Within a Mile of Home in the Artist Alley at table #1825! We'll have tons of art, zines, buttons, plushies, and other goodies to share with you. See you there!

I'm trying to unload some leftover merchandise from MoCCA before I return home for the summer. Check out the store page! You can even get signed books!

Hey, all. I've got a lot of important stuff to say, and most of it is not happy. Remember last time when I posted and asked for two weeks off of Slightly Damned? I need more time off. I feel like such a jerk, but I just don't think I can update SD properly this month. I've got way too much on my plate.

Here's the story: the family emergency was that my grandmother was terminally ill. With my dad's help I was able to take a flight on very short notice to fly from Vermont to California to see her in the hospital. There was a chance I wasn't going to make it in time to see her, but she held in there for me. I spent as much time with her as possible, and I even spent a couple nights in her hospital rooms. But eventually I had to leave her and say my final good-byes. It was extremely difficult for my whole family because she was so close to us. We all lived in the same household and she raised me and my older brothers like a third parent. But I was obligated to go to MoCCA and our family didn't know how long she would still be around...

So I came back to Vermont, and then the next day my friends and I drove to New York City to attend MoCCA Fest. And it was a great convention! I didn't sell much, but the best things about it were getting to meet old and current readers of the comic, meeting old and new friends, trading minicomics, and seeing the city itself. Unfortunately I heard that I missed a dedicated superfan who was nice enough to buy books, but... perhaps next time, friend! Sorry we missed each other! And thanks to all the awesome people I got to talk to at the convention. I feel like the experience rekindled my creative spirit a bit, since I've been in a bad place for a while now.

But... the night the convention ended (yesterday), I heard from my mom that my grandmother passed away. It breaks my heart to know that she's gone forever, but I'm glad I got to say good-bye.

Because of all that, and due to the heavy emotional toll this is taking, I'm really behind on work. My final project in school is to make a 16~24 page comic by May 2, and I've barely started. Plus I'm under contract for an internship, which is taking a long time. Unfortunately, that means Slightly Damned is the lowest priority project this month, so I have to put it on temporary hiatus. I guess the good news is that you'll be getting a 16~24 page minicomic about Lucky and Guff soon?

You have my sincerest apologies. I wish I was responsible enough to have a buffer... but I wasn't. It pains me to have to flake on Slightly Damned again, but I feel I have no other choice right now. I'd rather not update than force myself to make crappy updates due to exhaustion and stress.

But! I have a long summer vacation to look forward to that stretches from May through August. During that time I plan to finish The Legend of Buwaro: Soprano of Time, put together Book Three, create a Patreon account with monthly rewards, and maybe do some double updates! I might even take commissions at some point. I also have some leftover books, plushies, and buttons from the convention that I would like to sell online. I'll be updating the site with information about how to buy those soon.

Lastly-- and I know this is a lot to ask, since I'm already begging for your understanding-- but Slightly Damned was nominated for two awards in the 2013 Ursa Major Awards. If you sincerely enjoy the comic and honestly think it deserves to win, please take the time to vote for it and your favorites in each category. I would really appreciate it, and it might help new readers discover Slightly Damned.

Thank you for being so understanding.

Special thanks to Erin for giving me this lovely piece of art at MoCCA! It really cheered me up and I wanted to share it with everyone.

And thank you, Mamang, for always taking care of me.

Sorry to be a total flake who still can't get a grip on buffers after all these years, but I don't think I'll be able to handle updating Slightly Damned for the next two weeks.

Life's been rough lately, and now there's been a family emergency. Without going into too much detail, my grandma's already poor health suddenly took a sharp turn for the worse and I have to fly back to California to be with my family. Then I am going to New York City for the MoCCA Arts Fest to table with my classmates. Then there's the projects I have to do for school...

Again, deepest apologies for being so unreliable lately. Thank you for your patience and understanding!

P.S. Thanks to your support, Slightly Damned won two nominations in the 2013 Ursa Major Awards. I'd really appreciate it if you took the time to honestly vote for all your favorites in each category.

I just wanted to express my heartfelt gratitude to everyone who has ever supported Slightly Damned in all my years of making it. I've made a lot of mistakes along the way and I still have a lot to learn. I know the comic is far from perfect and my lack of ability is frustrating, but I've always tried to do my best. Thanks for encouraging me and giving me the chance to keep doing what I love.

Hey guys, just wanted to let you know that I hit a snag in my work. Long story short, my computer's power jack broke last weekend and now it no longer gets power from being plugged in. I effectively lost the ability to use my most important tool. It's a huge bummer but I'll work through it. I'll do my best to get two pages up by the end of the weekend!

Hi dudes! I'm sorry that I've been kinda flaky lately. These last few months have been madness.

- The Ursa Major Award nominations END TODAY! Please, if you like Slightly Damned, nominate it for "Best Graphic Story" and "Best Other Literary Work"! It would be a great honor and would help new readers find the comic. http://www.sdamned.com/2014/02/ursa-major-awards-2014/

- I will be attending the MoCCA Arts Festival with a table in Manhattan, New York, on April 5th & 6th! I plan to bring books, zines, plushies, postcards and new button designs. It'll be my first east coast convention as an exhibitor. See you east coast folks there!

- Don't forget that I've been uploading my non-Slightly Damned comics to my main site at raizap.com! That page really needs an upgrade, I know, but I hope you like the comics anyway.

- Upcoming commissions?: I don't know when I'll be able to take more, but I'll keep you guys posted. I might change the rules a bit with the next batch because while I really appreciated the support from everyone, I'm struggling to balance my responsibilities in a timely manner.

- I am now updating my account on Weasyl: https://www.weasyl.com/~chu! I actually like it a lot. If you prefer to watch me there, I will be updating all the same material there!

Sorry for the constant delays, guys. This week I've been spending all my time and energy attending classes and working on a 10-page comic due on this coming Wednesday. I'll make up the missed Slightly Damned page ASAP, but since this project is time-sensitive and it's taking me a lot longer to finish than I expected, it's my #1 priority.

Here's a preview: http://raizap.com/comics/lemoranges/ It's a short story set in a sci-fi world starring Lucky (a redesigned and renamed Lycheka, if you've seen the other comics with her on raizap.com) and Guff, mutant hyenas who run a diner.

Sorry again for being flaky these past few weeks! I'll add the missing page to my "pages owed" tally on the right side of the site.

I know it's a bit audacious of me to ask this when I'm still catching up on work, but...


It's that time again!

I would really, really appreciate it if you guys would nominate Slightly Damned for Best Graphic Story and Slightly Damned - Book 2 for Best Other Literary Work. We won last year, so maybe we can win it again! But even if we didn't, being nominated would be a great honor in and of itself. Not to mention it might help attract new readers!

Thank you for all your support through the years and your infinite patience. I'll do my best not to let you guys down!

Sorry I've dropped the ball on updating recently. My entire life (except for dentist appointments) has been on hold due to a very intensive group project in school. I haven't forgotten that I owe you guys 2 pages! Our project's deadline is Wednesday, and things should be calm enough after that that I can start catching up on missed SD pages... And commissions. And Soprano of Time strips. And maybe even that Pokemon painting challenge...

Man, I'm tired.

By the way, the Ursa Major Award nomination period has just opened. I'd really appreciate it if you guys took the time to nominate Slightly Damned and your other favorites in the other categories!

Lastly: Slightly Damned's 10th anniversary is coming up on March 14! I don't think I have the time to organize anything special for it, but if I got some nice art I could feature it on the site perhaps?

So what happens when you foolishly don't keep a buffer? When your body and soul are so thoroughly exhausted you can't muster up the energy and willpower to make a page on your update day, you... end up without a page on your update day. You'd think after 10 years I'd learn my lesson, but here I am! I planned the last few weeks poorly and overexerted myself.

I'll do my best to make the page up to you guys soon. Maybe next Saturday will be a double update. Thanks for your patience!

After an exhausting year, I am hella tired. Sorry to leave you guys on a bit of a cliffhanger; the next Slightly Damned update will be on January 3rd.

I feel bad that I don't have 2 more finished pages to bring us through the end of the year, but I've decided that I would rather spend my time recuperating. I'm tired from school and commissions, plus I have to do quite a bit of traveling through next week in order to visit family for Christmas. Though I'll try to get a few more commissions done before the end of the year, other than that, I don't want to be worrying about work. I'll get back into the grind after New Year's.

If you want stuff to check out in SD's absense, there's my art sites at deviantArt and FurAffinity (content identical on both accounts), and a ton of mini-comics I did throughout the year on my hub site.

Thank you all for your understanding and support. Happy Holidays!

P.S. Regarding the Kickstarter, Crunky has arrived and Kieri and Rhea are set to be delivered on Monday. Once I've confirmed their arrival, I'll send out the rest of the surveys.

'Tis the season for giving! Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa, Festivus, the Happy Holiday Hyena, or nothing at all, there's no time like the present to support charitable causes. Here's a handful of events I'm currently supporting and would like to share with you:

Comic Creators for Freedom!
Comic Creators for Freedom has once again teamed up with Love 146 for a week-long charity event to fund the fight against human trafficking. A donation of ANY amount will net you a neat wallpaper featuring the awkward school photos of characters from over 150 different webcomics-- including Rhea from Slightly Damned!

Help Stan and Sharon Sakai!
It's no exaggeration that Stan Sakai is my hero. I'm a huge fan of his master work, Usagi Yojimbo, and he's quite possibly the nicest person in comics. Possibly the world! Unfortunately, Mrs. Sakai is ill and her home care costs more than their insurance will cover. CAPS is organizing an original art auction with all proceeds going to the Sakais, and Garage Art Studios is working on collecting donations for them through PayPal.

Support the victims of Hurricane Haiyan!
Devastating catastrophes tend to leave the public conscious very quickly, especially if they happen in a distant country. People don't want to think of the dreadful and dreary when the holidays are upon us. But the victims of Hurricane Haiyan still need aid! Please consider donating to the Philippine Red Cross.
Also, a couple of folks are organizing a Pinoy Komiks Anthology. As someone of Filipino descent, I've definitely got my eye on this project and plan on participating.

...and even if, for whatever reason, you can't spare the money or time for any of these, please at least spread the word about them!

Bad news for me apparently means good news for some of you out there! It turns out one of my teeth has an infection and needs a root canal. And doubly unfortunately for me, my dental insurance won't help cover it because I've had my policy for less than 6 months! Even though the infection is pretty minor right now, an infection is an infection. I need to take care of it as soon as I can. FUUUUUU

So! I need to raise money. Lots of moneys. Which means it's almost time for me to take commissions! Here is my commissions page with pricing, available styles, and instructions on how to make an order: http://raizap.com/commissions/

Please e-mail me NO EARLIER than 12:00 AM EST and NO LATER 11:59 PM EST on Monday, November 11 to make your order!

(E-mail only, please. No notes since keeping track of orders in them is a bother. And if you don't have an e-mail address... how are you on this site, anyway??)

In the past, people have been left out of getting a commission because they didn't e-mail me fast enough. Instead of using a first-come, first-serve slot system, I'll acknowledge all commission orders within that 24-hour period and work through them in the order they're accepted.

I'll make another journal entry on Monday to remind people who are interested that commissions are open for the day. I just wanted to let you guys get a head's up in case anyone needed time to prepare.

Thank you!