JL8

Hey there, everyone! First off, thank you so much for all the kind words regarding the most recent JL8 update. It's work I'm really proud of, and it means so much to see you all respond the way you did. Also, in case anyone missed it, there was a new JL8 update last Wednesday.

So, let's talk about JL8. Is it back? Well, yes and no. It's kind of up to you.

Here's what I mean: Going forward, I'll essentially be “kickstarting” new updates. Now, I won't literally be running Kickstarter campaigns, but I will be having large sales for the explicit purpose of raising funds to essentially pay for the production of new pages.

Why am I doing this? In the past, I was able to make a living doing webcomics because I could go to conventions and make money there. Online sales certainly helped, but conventions were the big earner. With COVID, that line of income has been taken away from me. I understand that conventions are happening, but I personally don't feel comfortable attending events where extremely large amounts of people from all corners of the country are attending. That leaves me with online sales, and things like Patreon.

Will JL8 end if these sales do poorly? Not necessarily. I plan on working on JL8 regardless, but as you know (I hope), I am also currently working on my new creator-owned project, "Forward, The Horizon," and that takes precedence. I'm not going to be able to justify taking time away from that project to work on JL8 if JL8 isn't helping pay the bills, so JL8 updates may come out very slowly, as you've seen. However, if working on JL8 can help generate income, I'll dedicate as much time as I can to it, which currently I believe to be a page per week.

I've produced this first update as a sort of proof-of-concept. I wanted to show you all that I'm serious before I talked to you all about it, so here it is. The next few updates are all written, but not yet drawn, for the reasons mentioned above. So the TL; DR is JL8 will continue, but only if I can make it relatively financially viable. I'll be having a large sale this upcoming weekend to raise funds for new updates. I may also run a few auctions for original art that I've got laying around but don't entirely know how to price. Finally, I'll be promoting the Patreon heavily moving forward, as that's a fantastic way to support my cartooning at very minimal cost to you.

Again, I sincerely thank you for all the support you've shown me on this most recent update, as well as over these past ten years. It means everything. If I could work on JL8 without having to worry about money, I would, but I've got bills to pay and a partner and pup to support, so here we are.

I love you all, and I'll be posting more info later this week, assuming Facebook doesn't implode.

-Yale