I’m shooting for February and March of 2025 to get on top of the pile! What could go wrong? :)
OK, so I’m still working on the bonus content for Sluggy Freelance Book 23, Mohkadun. This bonus story (called, suspiciously enough, Family Reunion) is going to be very nifty and touch on some cool plot points. But life events and rewrites caused a delay of a couple of weeks on this project.
I was very aggravated when I realized I would NOT have Book 23 available to offer to you all in December for the holidays. But I’ve come to realize it’s OK. I fall behind sometimes. But I always get there eventually. I’ve currently sequestered myself in my office-cave and I have removed all non-essential distractions to work on this thing (and maintain the flow of new strips). It should just be a few weeks more, I hope!
What about the store?!? I was going to keep the store closed until the new book was in my hands, but I’ve decided on a different plan. I do have small quantities of some of the older books. I also have plenty of Megatome 1’s (Contains books 1-3) and Book 9’s and the Beanie-style plush Bun-buns which are still the best and you all should own one! So on the off chance anyone wants these in time for the holidays for any reason, I feel like it’s my duty to give you a chance to!
The Sluggy Store will open around noon-ish Eastern Time on Wednesday November 27th. All international orders need to be in by Wednesday December 4th or they might not make it to you by Christmas. The store will close on Wednesday December 11th. I will push to get all international orders out first, but domestic orders might take a week longer to fulfill. I’ll have family invading my house at that time, so I’ll make them do some of the packing-and-shipping leg-work. That’ll teach ‘em!
Sluggy Store Reopening- MarchUnless something unforeseen happens, the Store will Reopen with a full book catalog including the new BOOK 23 MOHKADUN by March!
It will take about a month for the printer to turn the book around once I get them the files. So I’m just going to assume I’ll have it in hand February at the latest. The first batch will go off to the higher level Defenders, as always. But then my intention it to open the store AGAIN, early March, with stock of all the other books! It’s like Christmas in March! I know SOME of you will still have your decorations up! That's not my style, but I understand.
TL;DR: I’m behind on Pawnz and Bookmarks (as usual these last few years). I’m taking off a lot of February and March to get on top of that pile. I NEED to do this as the END LOOMS CLOSER...
So I’m over a year behind on sending these postcards and bookmarks out. Again. But now I’m almost a year behind on designing and announcing them! In January 2024 I was supposed to start laying out Mohkadun style Pawnz and Bookmarks and catch up. It’s perplexing to even me, who is living it, why I was not able to succeed on this.
I’m slowing down. It’s getting harder and harder simply keeping up with one-to-three strips a week, let alone moving the ball forward on something else, like books or Pawnz and Bookmarks.
I want you all to know this is important to me. I will get you what I owe you. I’m just trying to figure out how without sacrificing the comic itself.
What I’m going to try is to limit new comic strip releases in the months of February and March, and dedicating myself to getting on top of that pile. Sending out Book 23s and creating and distributing Pawnz and Bookmarks is going to be my focus at that point.
I tried this two years ago with subpar results. This time I’m going to task some friends to help me.
Once I’m past that I can focus on the most important thing. The comic itself. You’ve all put such faith in me to do right by it. And I must. Because it is coming to an end.
Sluggy Freelance will end in the not too distant future. I’ve mentioned this in more detail in the Defenders Blog. And I’ll discuss it here with you all once Book 23 is in hand. For now I’ll say it’s still at least a couple of years away. Two major stories beyond Monstrous.
This is why its so important for me to get on top of the pile and stay on top of the pile, early 2025. So I can focus on ending things right. By the way, those of you who became Defenders of the Nifty are the sole reason the strip didn’t vanish years ago. My appreciation knows no bounds. And all the non-Defender readers owe you thanks as well. THANKS for being the Niftiest.
Onwards and sideways, with, perhaps, a slightly upward turn!
Be Nifty to each other.
-Pete
Can I walk and chew gum at the same time? I sure couldn't during Immortal King, but I hope I'll be able to with the current chapter. Shorter stories and fewer characters will hopefully allow me to catch up and keep up with things beyond the comic. Here's where we stand.
Sluggy Freelance Book 22 R&D WARS: The free copies for higher level eligible Defenders have been sent out! Only the highest tier remain as I reach out to them for customization and bundly goodness (check your email level 6 Chazzers!). Everyone else will be able to purchase them from the Sluggy Store when it opens, and will be available from IndyPlanet shortly thereafter.
I'm very proud of the end result of the book. I'm less proud of the months upon months where I only created one comic a week while trying to finish the additional creative parts of the book (and playing Pawnz and Bookamrs catch-up). Its never been this creatively hard before. Not by miles. Since this is the only time it's happened to this extreme degree, I'm chalking it up to a fluke, but we don't want a repeat of that. I'll be aware of this as I begin layout of Sluggy Freelance Book 23 Mohkadun.
Sluggy Freelance Store: When the store opens (hopefully in the next week or two) I'll have a bunch of BOOK 22's on hand for you to purchase as well as small quantities of all the other books. For the past few years, I only open the store for less than a month around Christmas. I feel like this is, perhaps, less than optimal. But its harder and harder to run a store while keeping the comics going at the trickle they are so please forgive me on this for now. I may be outsourcing the store in the future. Then again, where do I find the time to organize that? (I'm such a dummy). Anywho hopeful store opens in a week or two, and I should have limited supplies of all books!
Pawnz and Bookmarks Catch-up: I was doing a good job on catching up on the Pawnz and Bookmarks I need to send out physically and digitally to Defenders, but there came I time where I felt better to focus on the conclusion of Immortal King. Now that were in to "lighter story" territory, I'm back to catching up! I'm using the Set Numbers established in the previous news story entitled "MAY 2023 CHECK-IN".
SET 4: 2022-09,10,11,12 Off to the printers! Mailed (starting today)! (ALSO DIGITALLY RELEASED)
SET 5: 2023-01,02,03,04: Being printed up!
SET 6: 2023-05,06,07,08: Upcoming!
SET 7: 2023-09,10,11,12: Upcoming!
SET 8: 2023-01,02,03,04: Design stage, Work in Progress, nothing to show yet- There's going to be a lot of Mohkadun Pawnz in 2024, so were going to start with the core pantheon.
In conclusion: With Immortal King completed, and with smaller scope and character stories in the future I hope to make headway on the things beyond the comics (Defender Rewards, Book production, Store) while maintaining 2 to 3 comics a week. We'll see how I do. Know I'm always trying my best. And Defenders of the Nifty, thank you for your support through all these complicated years. I can't thank you guys enough. In the meantime, everyone, I'm back to the drawing board to make something monstrous.
-Pete
Another anniversary? It feels like the 25th anniversary was two minutes ago! Possibly in real time for the characters! Admittedly 'Immortal King' is probably the longest story* I have ever done, and the less-comic-output for the majority of this year has made it feel like a much shorter year.
*I say "probably the longest story" because I can't remember crap and I'm too busy to check! Yay old age!
Anywho, I finally have Book 22 in my hands from the printer and its perfect! It will still be a month or two before you can order one. I need to get some of these doodled in and sent off to the highest tier Defenders of the Nifty, and I want to get some more books in inventory before I reopen the store for the 2023 holiday season. So look for that to happen soonish. And on to book 23, Mohkadun. That should be a big one!
Oh, and big thanks to Reactions Mod Zillatain for creating youtube videos to replace the old flash animations that we had to drop when flash was no longer supported! They're in the archives right now! THANKS ZILLATAIN! 5th Anny | Torg Potter (1) (2) (3) (4)
That's about it for now! "Onward and sideways!" :) thanks for sticking with me all these years! And Defenders? Blog post!
So this is how time has been going for me lately. Speeding by while my creative output has slowed down.
But coming to the end of the year, I find myself over a year behind on mailing out physical Pawnz and Bookmarks to eligible Defenders, and we've been two years without a new book (I'm not counting re-releasing Megatome 02).
How long will this take? I honestly don’t know, and I don’t want to guess wrong. Did I say how much I hate to do it? For me, it extra painful because we are hitting an action-climax, and the momentum is going to drop from slow to a trickle. Grrr.
And it almost didn't happen. I've been so busy, tired and stressed, I didn't think I'd have time to do anything celebratory beyond some kind of animated strip. But with the help of my family, we came-up with a design that turned everything around. Big thanks to my daughter Leah for helping me design, render, and then animate the 25th anniversary "statue" art. We're using it as the main-page-parallax, in the comic itself, and hopefully you'll be able to purchase it as a poster in the store! One of the many reasons for the store's delayed opening was I wanted to proof the quality of the poster and also have the product in hand before taking orders. 
Thanks to Shirt Guy Tom, Joe Sunday, and my daughter Leah for throwing together last minute artist-trading-cards to help me celebrate the day. There are so many people I could have and should have reached out to, to join in, but as I said, this was very last minute. Maybe I can do something bigger for the 30th Sluggy Freelance Anniversary (assuming I haven't wrapped everything up by then and the amazing Defenders are still supporting the comic)!
