March is over…!! It felt super long to me fsr. I got really really sick at the start of the month and was bedridden for the whole first week which really sucked… so I only got 9 pages of Sparks done this month :’( but somehow I managed to draw loads despite that?!  I’ve got a fair amount of SFW drawings to share here, and my March PDF for subscribers was like 40 pages long… waow…

I don’t have much to report on the month honestly since the first half I was sick and the second half I was busy playing catchup lol. I have so much on my to do list that I’m not sure when I’ll be able to get to… basically the same stuff from my to do list in Feb, lol. Saying that though I DID procrastinate on all that stuff by finally releasing my 2023 porn collection on my itch.io, and me and Nauma released Ballet Yuri year 1 on her itch.io! That’s a collection of our development art for our characters Evangeline and Ilze, who Nauma is working on a graphic novel about. Both of these collections went up for free for my subscribers on Substar & Patreon, fyi. 

As for the art you see below… besides the Sparks sketches, I drew a couple of new OCs, a vampire and werewolf pair. They were inspired by characters in the sims 4 lol… I played some while I was sick ok. I also designed myself a fursona for fun and I love him!! 

Well, I’m excited to see what I can get done in April now that I’m feeling better. Talk to u all then!

Xoxo Revel 

February is TOO SHORT!! What's up with that. Nowhere near enough time. Although despite it feeling so short, I'm still like wow hourly comic day was this month? That feels like a million years ago already...

Anyway, I didn't get around to a lot of the things I wanted to get done this month- I was just focusing on getting Sparks pages done really! I hit 12 again which always makes me happy haha. I did manage to doodle a fair bit too, although ALL of that was nsfw, so the only sfw image I have to share for the month is the Philo/Atlas Valentine's picture I did. This was kind of a remix of a 2021 Valentines picture I did of them where Philo was the bride and Atlas was the groom... time to switch it up :) 

My to-do list right now is to redo the Sparks cover/banner/etc on Tapas (the one on there is soooo old now!!) and at the same time format Sparks and start cross posting to Webtoon. Sigh. I was trying to cross post to WT forever ago but fell off quickly because I hate the strict format policies/content policies/lack of creator control on there. But I also feel like I'm kind of shooting myself in the foot by not putting Sparks in front of the wider audience that use WT. I got motivated to do it again because I saw Petra Nordlund posting her comic Tiger Tiger there, and I like how she's just stacked multiple pages vertically and is posting them as episodes... I'd been daunted by the idea of trying to cut up and rearrange old pages to vertical scroll, but the method she's using looks way more doable. So! I'll try again! 

Other than that, I really want to launch the Sparks online store! I have the merch, I have the shipping materials- I just need to take photos, make the listings, and make some graphics for the store. I plan on starting with a 'soft launch' where I open the store only to my subscribers on Subscribestar and Patreon because I'm so nervous haha, so it would be nice to kind of test the waters that way before doing a 'real' opening. So if you want to be first in line for Sparks prints and stickers, make sure you're subscribed! ;) 

Other than that, not much to report... I'm so sick of Winter, I really hope it starts warming up in March. I am READY for Spring... let's gooooo 

HI EVERYOOONNEE wow... January's over already... we're in it now...

Well, this was my first month back to work after my break in December. I'm really happy with how the month went! I completed 12 pages of Sparks, which is the number I'm always aiming to hit, and it felt really easy tbh.. although the last 3 squeezed in near the end since there were a lot of effects to draw in them which always slows me down lol. I miss the days when I was able to draw 15+ a month, but that was before I got my dog and when I had zero other responsibilities so I think that's a distant memory now... if I can keep hitting 12 I'll be satisfied. 

I wanted to order all my shipping supplies this month and aim for a February opening date for my online store, but I haven't done that!! Oops!! I need to get on that. I always end up prioritizing drawing over that kind of 'admin' work, but I'll get there... maybe I'll do that today actually. 

Sparks vol 2 went live for preorders this month, which is super exciting!! I can't wait to get my author copies. I've announced it everywhere now, so I can kind of sit back about it until we get closer to the release date at which point I'll go into a promo frenzy. Speaking of which, I have basically abandoned twitter now (still cross posting my Sparks update tweets there but I'd like to stop soon), and only having Bluesky and Insta to update in terms of social media feels soooo refreshing. Only two platforms!! The freedom! 

I think that's all I have to report for January! It was basically just a month of easing back into my work routine, and it feels great to be drawing again. My office is really barebones right now (typing to you from my desk in a room full of power tools) but it feels so lovely to have a dedicated workspace again. Let's go February!

xoxo REVEL

Hi everyone! This is my first yearly review post here on Substar!! I do these every year to reflect back and talk about some goals for the next year :)

This year was hectic for me!! I moved house TWICE, and book 1 of Sparks came out. I'm actually still in the process of moving/unpacking now haha... I'm really glad I decided to pause Patreon & Substar for December and take the month off because I don't think I could have managed it otherwise.

The Sparks book release was a lot more work and more time consuming than I expected it to be... just with trying to create promotional material, market it, talk to local bookstores, etc. Hopefully now that I know I can be more prepared for the book 2 release! I actually don't feel like I did that great a job of promoting it or talking about it... one of my goals for 2025 will be to talk about it more. Marketing is my least favourite part of this work so it burned me out big time but I think I've learned some ways to make it easier and more enjoyable. I'm really looking forward to getting my office set up in my new place and having a dedicated work area again- just the fact that I'm feeling really energized and excited about getting back to work means my month off worked imo haha. 

Despite everything that was going on I still managed to make 96 pages of Sparks, and I'm really happy about that. My usual loose 'goal' for the year is ~150 pages (which is around the length of 1 book) so not too shabby, considering. I also started scripting ahead for the first time ever. It took me some trial and error to figure out what works for me but now I think I have a good method down, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it changes my work flow and if scenes will read better! I've attached a snippet of my script to have a look at if you're interested. At first I was trying to write all the dialogue out, but it felt too restricting when it came time to thumbnail. 

Oh, and how could I forget- I restructured Patreon and started my Substar at the beginning of the year because I was scared Patreon would delete my profile due to their new guidelines. That was really stressful and scary!! For a while I was trying to operate as though my Patreon could stop existing at any moment, but now that I moderate what I do and don't share here I think it should be safe. Another one of my goals for the coming year is to make it clearer what I share to which sites and what the differences are, and to make sure I'm putting equal effort into both platforms. 

Hmm... I don't think I have much else to say about 2024! It was difficult but nowhere near as bad as it could have been, and I'm grateful for that. Despite the future being scary I'm really optimistic about 2025 and I have so many plans I want to accomplish! It might sound weird to say this five years in to making a comic but I feel like I'm really starting to hit my 'stride', and I'm starting to feel more confident about my work (and less imposter syndrome lol). A huge thank you to everyone who's supported me- whether you're a current subscriber, a reader, have bought the book, etc. It means the world to me that I'm able to do this!! <33

I hope you've all had a good year, and here's hoping 2025 is good too! 

XOXO REVEL 

P.S There's a photo of yet another 2025 plan down below... :)

Here we are! Another month down... wowie. 

November... ummmm wtf did I do in November... I scripted ahead in Sparks and have the next 5 or so scenes ready to be thumbed so that feels great. 

I put a lot of effort into social media/marketing etc... it's so hard!! But Bluesky seems to be taking off as the new place to be and I really like posting there. I consistently get the most click throughs to my website (sparkscomic.net) from Instagram, so I want to put time and energy back into using it- I started making reels again and I'd like to keep up with making one a week. I downloaded that Capcut app everyone seems to use for video editing and it's so much easier than using the Instagram editor omg... so this is how everyone does it... hopefully I can use them to promo book 1!

On the note of the books, I heard from Dark Horse, and they want to wait and see the sales numbers from book 2 before they decide if they'll publish more Sparks volumes or not. So when book 2 comes out expect me to be pushing it to you hardcore hahaha, please buy it too! (July next year!!)

I ordered some more Sparks stickers, which I'll include a picture of here, and I also have a bunch of Sparks prints on the way. It feels great to be getting stuff ready for my online store... although shipping seems like such a nightmare to manage. But if other people can do it I can do it too! 

Other than that, I'll be taking December off of work since I'll be busy moving house, and also I'm just really tired and want to avoid burn out so I think a break will be nice... if you're a subscriber don't worry, billing has been paused until January so you won't be charged! Although I say I'll be taking it 'off' I'll still be doing my social media promo stuff, and I'd also like to finish working on my website/shop site, so I'll still be whittling away at things lol. 

And that's it from me! There won't be a December newsletter, so I'll talk to you all again in the new year :) happy holidays!! <3