deebrisbyfish

[deebrisbyfish]

We went to the Erie Comic Con last month and had a great time, but DID have a tricky time setting up the table. Over the years, I've published a LOT of different projects, and it's always tough trying to decide what to push, what to leave home, and what to try and balance.

[deebrisbyfish]

Join me at the OIL CITY LIBRARY this Saturday, November 16th from 11am to 3pm for a live signing event for my novel, "WOLVES OF THE HAVENLANDS", the long-awaited 2nd book in the HAVENWOLF CHRONICLES!

I'll will be in the library with copies of the new book, along with copies of book 1, "LYCANTHROPY AND THE SINGLE GIRL" and collections of my semi-autobiographical webcomic series, "FINDING DEE" as well.

Hope to see you there!

[deebrisbyfish]

There's not much I need to say to add to the message in this VERY wordy strip, so I'll instead confirm that YES... the format is a parody of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.

[deebrisbyfish]

After spending most of yesterday numb, angry, and terrified, I took the time to think about how I both want and NEED to move forward.

For months, I've been pondering if it’s time to move on from my semi-autobiographical webcomic, “Finding Dee”, for a few months now. I wrote a whole blog post about it, and I’ve even been working on some potential new ideas for new comic strips. All kinds of fun stuff. I’ve been considering that when I had enough material for one more trade… about 40 weeks of strips… I might put this comic to bed and move on. Then, I woke up yesterday morning to the election results and have spent most of that day feeling like I’ve been repeatedly kicked in the stomach. That feeling hasn’t really gone away and likely won’t for a while, but like a lot of chronic pain, I’m learning how to function with it being ever-present. Whee.

As such, it was important to me yesterday afternoon, after I finished with work, to immediately draw THIS. To put these thoughts out there in my chosen medium of expression, doing the thing I love to do the most: make comics Now, another factor in my concerns over whether it was time to end “Finding Dee” came down to the election, and the promises contained within Project 2025. 

The incoming regime has promised that in their new world order, being publicly transgender can become a punishable crime. Telling transgender stories will be flagged as porn, and porn will be made illegal as well. I will be branded a sex criminal for telling what can quantifiably be called the LEAST sexy webcomic ever. Because Republicans needed a boogeyman to terrify their ignorant base, and we were RIGHT THERE.

But, after a lot of thought and consideration, I decided that I am not ready to retire this strip just yet. Maybe if something cool happens and I decide to move on, but like I said in the strip here… I want that to be MY choice. Not the government.

So, I’m moving forward. The strip will continue as it’s been until I DECIDE that I’m done with it. End of rant… for now.

[deebrisbyfish]

Sometimes, when an idea occurs to me and I want to get it drawn and posted that day, I'll make strips like these where I rough them out and do loose digital pencils. There's something very fun and immediate to these that I find to be creatively satisfying to do on occasion. And, in this case, the reasoning is well explained in the strip itself. I... may NEVER get the hang of Daylight Savings Time.

[deebrisbyfish]

This is an idea I scripted and actually bluelined months ago as part of a storyline about being creatively burnt out. I decided that, while I LIKED the joke, the storyline was already running long and figured it would work better as a stand-alone gag later on. Then, recently, we put up one of those fans with a light you can screw into an existing socket for our kitchen. We turned it on and were immediately blinded by how dang BRIGHT it was. Once my vision returned, I figured it would be a good time to finish this strip idea. ;)

[deebrisbyfish]

What's THIS!? An EXTRA strip!? An obviously timely parody of Frank Miller's Sin City? An new artist homage!? A SATURDAY strip!? A COLOR PANEL!? What magical holiday warrants all of this extra goodness and laughs? Why, the end of Daylight Savings Time tomorrow, of course. I REALLY hate waking up in what feels like the middle of the night in order to get ready for work, and the hi-contrast, black-and-white style of Miller's grimdark oeuvre seemed like the perfect match! As for the final panel being in color, no, it's not the start of anything regular. It's just that the visual contrast wasn't as strong with it in my usual black-and-white style!

That all said, I hope you enjoy this special bit of fun!

[deebrisbyfish]

So, for my fellow Scream fans, you'll notice I specifically said "at LEAST 4". You’ve got Mrs. Loomis in 2. Jill in 4. Amber in 5, and Quinn in 6. And if you want to get specific, Angelina was SUPPOSED to be one of the killers in the shooting script for 3 before they changed it. Also, I'm not counting the TV series, as it's not canon to the films. So there. :)

[deebrisbyfish]

Hey there! If you liked the Poe Halloween costume options, there are even MORE hilarious concepts up on my PATREON this week! Here's a "Horrible" sneak peek of just ONE of the alternate ideas!

[deebrisbyfish]

While Poe LOVES dressing up in t-shirts and sweaters, he's not crazy about Halloween costumes once they get up to his head or down to his feet. So, he'd likely not really care for the non-actionable "Chiroptera-based superhero" costume or "Magical stab-horse" as seen here. Still, these were a LOT of fun to draw. ;)

[deebrisbyfish]

Every Friday, I am now running special EXTRA content over on my Patreon for $5 backers! Exclusive extra strips, sketches, concept art and FUN STUFF just like THIS!!! Okay, THIS one I just had to share with everyone, so that you KNOW about it, but it's awesome and maybe one day, I'll actually be able to get a REAL animated special made! A girl can dream, after all! Sign up TODAY to help support the comic strip and get all the humor and heart of FINDING DEE sent to your inbox! WOOT!

[deebrisbyfish]

So, this happened when we went to go see Alien: Romulus a little while back and I had to rather immediately pull out my phone to write it down. No, the movie hadn't started yet, and thankfully my hands were butter-goop FREE! Thus, proving my technique is unassailable.

[deebrisbyfish]

When I had the idea for this strip, it was JUST a commentary on my sudden craving of the chips that both airlines provided flying to and from San Diego. Once I started scripting it, however, I also decided to add in my Gut Goblin. I just like drawing her.

[deebrisbyfish]

For Inktober Day 2, I WAS gonna draw something with Charlie Brown in celebration of the 74th anniversary of PEANUTS, which premiered on October 2nd, 1950! But when I woke up, I was thinking of the 1st ever PEANUTS strip, and where I was in my OWN comic... with my Impostor Syndrome blasted... and had this idea that I just HAD to draw 1st thing this morning!

A little homage to that 1st PEANUTS comic strip. (Which, I know, didn't include zip-a-tone back then, but I liked the look and wanted some grays. lol) 

[deebrisbyfish]

As a general rule, seeking external validation is generally not a healthy way to go. It's the kind of stuff that ends up FUELING one's impostor syndrome, to be sure, and it eventually fades. That SAID, actually GETTING seriously affirming external validation from ones peers over the course of 3 days REALLY felt frickin' GOOD! I was riding this high for a couple of weeks before I could even hear a PEEP from that bitch in the opera mask. Drawing this series of strips actually wasn't easy. Doing so required me to reaffirm the lessons learned during all of this. It forced me to remind myself of the positive reinforcement I had received, but it was a good exercise in self-care to do so, I think. It helps to turn that external validation into something more self-sustaining if I make myself BELIEVE it by writing it all down and sharing it with the world, I guess. That said, this is it for this series, so next week, things will be back to normal. I dunno... maybe a strip about the dog or my boobs or something. WHO KNOWS! ;)

[deebrisbyfish]

This strip was actually somewhat difficult to draw. Ironically, putting this moment down as honestly as possible did trigger a smidge of my imposter syndrome. It felt like bragging, but I literally checked with MULTIPLE people who had been in the room, and while I didn't win, my name got an audible and excited pop when said. A few folks described it as if I had won the wet T-Shirt contest of the night. lol In that moment, all of the anxiety of the months leading up to all of this just... evaporated. Like the world's biggest sign, it just vanished from my stomach, and I felt amazing. Not winning did absolutely nothing to alter my elation in that moment and, as of writing this post 2 and a half weeks later, it honestly HASN'T really left yet.

[deebrisbyfish]

What is your favorite anime, miss Dee?

My tastes in anime are a bit more old school, I guess. Gatchaman and Akira and Lensman and Record of Lodoss War. The one I always come back to is Ghost in the Shell, though.