Rainy Day Dreams

What if I was Biblically Accurate™ and you were a literal skull and we were both a little bit jaded about our jobs helping mortal souls to pass on 🥺👉👈

Hello everyone! It’s been a while. Longer than I meant to go without an update, but it is what it is. I’m going to get into it a bit, but first… I’m part of a new comic anthology! Or at least I will be, assuming the Kickstarter funds 😂 Please check out Don’t Push the Red Button, it’s live now! There are some extra cool foil and a glow in the dark variant covers so check it out! 👻
http://kck.st/3s4UuTU

You can also check out the press release for the anthology here.

My comic is going to be about is going to be about a jaded grim reaper (Biblically Accurate™) having to deal with the souls of the people who die when others push the red button. Is LS(Literal Skull)’s design inspired by Gideon Nav because I’ve been binging the Locked Tomb series? I’ll never tell, but the odds are likely 😂

Where you been, lady??

Short answer is Baby Land. If you’ve been trying to keep up with me on any of my other blog type platforms or newsletters (I recommend my new Substack or Patreon if you aren’t and would like to) then you already know that I’ve been taken out of the workforce by a series of unfortunate events at my former day job. “Mariah!” I hear you say, “That must mean you have loads of time for art!” Unfortunately, no! 😂 The baby keeps me so busy. He’s already almost 9 months old! Soon he’ll have been out in the world longer than he was inside of me! And you’d think he’d basically be ready to take care of himself, learn to drive, go off to college, get a job, but no! It turns out he likes me and wants me to spend time with him in a capacity beyond just addressing his bodily functions 😂 And, as it happens, I like him a lot so I spend a lot of my time giving into his tiny, adorable demands.

I’ve said it many other places already, but it is both a joyous and very sad at times new existence I find myself in. But I have been getting some art in. Just not much RDD art. I’ve been applying for a bunch of different things and Don’t Push the Red Button happened to be the one I got into that pays! I’m also part of an unpaid, sci-fi space opera zine that will be coming out in January. Aside from that, I’ve mainly been trying to query agents for Usual Haunts. It’s slow going and has all the fun of job hunting and online dating (I assume, having never online dated) rolled into one. It’s a lot of research into agents, reading over their wishlists, sending out my lovingly crafted pitch documents, and then waiting 4-8 weeks to get back a “It’s great, but I’m not the right fit. Publishing is subjective, I’m rooting for you!” rejection letters. It’s a lot of soul draining admin work that I keep hoping will pay off in the long run. My plan is to keep at it at least until I’m done with my DPtRB commitments (sometime in Spring of 2024). After that, I’ll be able to start thinking about returning to RDD hopefully.

I hate that I have to think about money, but I do. Next year is going to be 10 years since I launched RDD (also happy late 9th birthday, website <3). I can’t believe a decade has passed. It makes me cryingly frustrated to have to admit the internet ecosystem and capitalism have bested me, but I just can’t regularly produce a free webcomic and take care of my baby and maybe eventually have to get some kind of day job. So I’m not really sure when, or if, there will regular updates again. It’d be nice if I could pick things up again by next October, but I can’t say for certain if I’ll actually be able to pull it off. I’m thinking about trying to do some funding for RDD through Kickstarter similar to what I did what chapter 1 of Usual Haunts, but I don’t have a solid date for that yet. It’s also much harder to fund for a “Chapter 19” than it is a “Book 1 + Chapter 6” of something on KS so what comes next might be some remasters instead of new content. Though Chapter 6 has shaped up to be like 80% new content compared to the original. I know that doesn’t get Michael and Mara any closer to smooching on-screen though lol XD

I think that’s all I’ve got for now. I’ll try to post here again with updates soon, but please do follow on Patreon on Substack if you want any news promptly. Thank you for reading and being here. Take care of yourself, reader <3

-Mariah