Official blog post here

Whew.

That said, we will continue to explore alternative ways of supporting the comic, but with somewhat less urgency.

Edit: To clarify, we've got no plans to leave Patreon, but will look at diversifying the ways to support the comic.

As you may have seen elsewhere, Patreon is changing their payment schedule in a way that will make credit card fees rise for smaller pledges, and passing the fees on to patrons. We posted about about some of the implications for this.

The short version is we are exploring alternate ways of supporting the comic. We've gotten a fair number of requests for this from people who would rather not use Patreon anymore. For the time being, people wishing to use Paypal to make monthly payments, or one big for-all-of-2018 payment, can send it to machallboyd@gmail.com. Just include a note if it's a for-all-of-2018 payment so I know how to tally it for the double comics goal.

We're taking a look at Kickstarter's Drip, though this is still in closed beta. Some people have requested a PO box they can mail a check to. As more stuff gets up and running, we'll post about it here.

We just hit $1,000 on the Patreon and that puts us at double comics! 

We were going to wait until all the pledges got charged at the beginning of next month before starting the double schedule, but we were pretty close last month so we're going to start in a couple of weeks, which will give Ian a chance to figure out how he's going to pull this off and build up a buffer.

In the meantime, the next two comics will be released to patrons a day early. This week's should be visible now.

Since we put out the goal to do double comics at $1000/month on the Patreon, we've gotten a flood of pledges and we're now in striking distance. We just need to $200 $164 $90 $62 more in pledges to put us over and do two comics a week, which is why I'm hitting you with the PBS business right now. (The alternative was a Sarah McLachlan soundtrack over a montage of us looking real sad.)

I'm pretty hyped to do this and am planning to visit Jo and Handsome Bob a lot more with the extra strips. If you can put in a dollar, a dollar is great! Patreon people love a lot of small pledges because they're more reliable than a few whales. (And of course don't put in money if it will impact your well-being! Times are tough and you gotta take care of yourself!)

As you may know, we have a Patreon where readers can pledge to support the comic monthly. Though we both work regular jobs, it's been a big help for some expenses. For instance, it recently let Ian buy some digital art tools that helped with some hand pain he'd been having. Many of you donate, which is sweet as hell and we thank you for that.

When we set up the Patreon, we set a $2,000-per-month goal at which we would do two comics instead of one per week as kind of a pie-in-the-sky wouldn't-it-be-nice goal. Well, the Patreon is doing pretty nicely for us at around $500 a month, so we're going to drop the goal to $1,000 a month, which actually seems doable at this point.

Of course, there's some stuff in it for you, too. At $1 a month, you get access to a monthly stream/hangout where Ian and I chill while he draws the comic while fielding the occasional question from chat, as well as a monthly recipe from Jes. At $5, you also get hi-res wordless art of the latest comics.

-Matt

Hey folks, got a couple of new items up at the Topatoco store.

We got one that people in tech areas might like.

And we got one for people who are really enthusiastic about cruciferous vegetables all being the same species.

Jes talked to the Daily Dot about the Alzheimer's comic.

We did it to let people know there's help out there so it's good to see that getting some traction.

Hey guys. We've officially joined up with Hiveworks as an affilliate, and they built us a snazzy new site! One that isn't just me banging two rocks together on someone's sample WordPress template.

At the same time, we're launching a Patreon! Patreon, for those that don't know, allow you to support a creator by pledging to donate a few bucks a month. If it gets high enough, we're committed to double updates.

Early on the morning of March 8th, our dear friend Danny Suthivarikom passed away. He is survived by his wife Miho and his daughter Momo.

Drawing this comic for Dom is probably one of the only ways I can be of help to the friends I left behind when my family moved across the country. It's already been linked to in the tweet box above, but it's worth linking it again if it further helps those that Danny left behind.

http://www.gofundme.com/HelpMihoAndMomo

I'm sorry I didn't know you better, Danny, but your friends and family are going to make sure your daughter knows how awesome her daddy was.

Rest well.

Year six! Over the course of the year, my wife and I didn't really get a chance to play a lot of games together. What with our son pushing 1.5 years at this point. We had tried various titles but nothing stuck. Toward the end of summer, I decided, "you know, Jes still plays wow. I could play wow again if it was with her." so I reactivated my account and made use of the free pandaria expansion. We certainly had a hoot together.

Originally my priest was named 'Kuma' but Blizzard freed up a bunch of names thus allowing me to reclaim my proper monicker.

I think the thing I enjoyed the most, playing with her, was right before the latest expansion came out we made it our mission to rofflestomp as many old instances as we could collecting cool looking gear for our characters. It took me a month to get a talbard that matched the hat I liked.

As for this piece, I wish it was more playful. Over the last year, I haven't gotten a lot of practice on my art and I feel it shows. Very rigid feeling. Colors are fun though!