Bob Appavu

Pogo's October 2018 Letters Have Been Sent!

Pogo's October 2018 letters have been sent to all processed $5+ patrons, so you should be getting them soon.  Email letters went out a couple hours ago, so if you haven't received them, let me know.

In this letter, Pogo talks about how he used to talk his way into strangers' houses on the surface. :)

Heads up, the October Secret Gallery illustration will probably be a few days late!  But as usual, everyone who pledged to a secret gallery tier in October will get the reward rega...

Chapter 4, Page 38

Here's the new page!  Oh, and Samsid's still got more to say. XD

If anyone wanted to reread that flashback scene with Troy and Merritt, it starts here: http://www.demonoftheunderground.com/comic/p261/

Also, I'll be at PatreCon again in a couple weeks!  It's from November 1-3 in LA.  I'm not much of a traveler, so going to two workshops in ~2 months is pretty extreme for me, haha.  ...

Card Portrait - North Sphere General Merritt

As promised, here's the full finished art of North Sphere General Merritt's card portrait, which appeared on last week's DOTU page!

In story, the portrait would have been made when he first became general (December 2151), so this is nearly 4 years before the start of DOTU and he was quite young, especially for that role.

Also, he was a 5 of Spades compared to his current 10 of Clubs.  His East Sphere capture sent him down in military rank but way up in overall societal rank, since s...

Devoted - Merritt's Story 2 - Chapter 9

And here's chapter 9!  Chapter 8 posted exactly one minute ago, so if you haven't already read it, skip back a chapter!

I'll keep y'all updated on my schedule for chapter 10.

[Table of Contents]

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Book 2, Chapter 9

He was soaking wet. Shivering. Trembling. An oversized towel was wrapped around his bare shoulders, its terrycloth loo...

Devoted - Merritt's Story 2 - Chapter 8

Here's chapter 8, and chapter 9 is posting in exactly one minute!  It's been a crazy couple of months, but at least we get a double update! :D  I'll keep y'all updated on my schedule for chapter 10.

[Table of Contents]

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Book 2, Chapter 8

“Who could you possibly be texting that’s more important than me?”

Startled, Mer...

Chapter 4, Page 37

New page!  And there's our first glimpse at Samsid's (pain-in-the-butt-to-recreate) trophy wall!  I'll post the North Sphere Merritt card art in a few days too; I just don't want to overload y'all with posts today.

Merritt's Story chapters 8 and 9 will go up this Thursday!  They might be a little rougher than usual due to not having the usual number of beta readers offering comments, but it should only be minor word-finessing stuff.

(psst, I might put out a call for new be...

Lil Recap before the next page!

The page I'm about to post refers to a few past events, and with webcomic pacing the way it is - and DOTU on a reduced schedule - I thought a recap would be a good idea, seeing as these pages are now several years old. :O

When we first met Merritt in chapter 2, Samsid charged him with taking care of Pogo and keeping him out of trouble.

At the start of chapter 3, we saw a West Sphere invasion.  The Elite Squad used Jordana's Operation Flying Squirrel to defeat the invaders, and at th...

Pogo's September 2018 GUEST Letters Have Been Sent!

I was delayed a couple days, but here it is!  Pogo's September 2018 guest letters have been sent out to all processed $5+ patrons, so you should be getting them soon.  Email letters went out a little while ago, so if you haven't received them, let me know.

I promise the rest of the letter is not about water. XD

Speaking of Merritt, I know y'all have been waiting a while for the next chapter of Merritt's Story, but I have good news!  Chapters 8 and 9 are currently with the ...

Chapter 4, Page 36

I promise Pogo's question isn't coming out of nowhere. ;)

If you are reading this as soon as it goes up, I'm probably on an airplane!  My Dreamspinner Press workshop is over and I'm headed back to the Chicago area, but the page is queued to post at around the usual time.

The workshop was great!  I might also have some special news coming up in the next few weeks/months.

To anyone who requested the Merritt's Story finale chapters while I was at the workshop, I should be ab...

In Orlando! (+page preview)

I made it to Orlando yesterday for my workshop with Dreamspinner Press.  I'll be here until Monday!  I was hoping to get next Monday's DOTU page finished before I left, but multiple last-minute disasters set me behind just a bit.  It's all good, though!  I have my "travel tablet" (aka my 15+ year old Intuos 2) and my laptop, and more than enough hours of free time to get it done during my trip! :D  Here's a little preview.

After the page is done, though, it'll be All M...

Chapter 4, Page 35

Here it is, guys.  The world's worst transition page. ^_^;  Page 36 should come next Monday!

This Wednesday, I'm heading out to Orlando for a conference with Dreamspinner Press, the publisher who put out four of my stories and is also a freelance client for art stuffs.  I'll be away until next Monday, but I'm trying to wrap up page 36 before I leave so I can queue it for the 24th.

The only work I'm taking with me for the trip is Merritt's Story.  Hang in there with me...

Chapter 4, Page 34

I ended up finishing this on Saturday night, and it no longer seemed optimal to post it immediately instead of waiting for a Monday.  So here it is on the usual day!  The good news is that there will be at least 2 more pages this month.  The next one is a 1-panel quickie, though.

Things are still hectic with the new condo and freelance, and I'm trying my best to fit in the next Merritt's Story chapter as soon as I can.  My goal is to finish my first round cleanup and get it...

Labor Day Page WIP!

I hope y'all are having a happy Labor Day, whether or not you have to work today! (I most definitely do. XD)

I was hoping to finish this page today, but long weekends are always my busiest freelance weekends, and my condo closing is TOMORROW!  So things have been pretty crazy.

Anyway, the pencils are the hardest part of doing a DOTU page, and that's finished, but I have to jump over to freelance now.  But I'm still going to post the finished page as early as it's done - so it s...

Pogo's August 2018 Letters Have Been Sent!

Pogo's August 2018 letters have been sent out to all of August's processed patrons, so you should be getting them soon.  Email letters went out just a little while ago too, so if you haven't received yours, let me know.

Also, today is payment processing day for September, and it looks like Patreon's payment processors are doing a repeat of last month - lots of declines for lots of creators.  I'm making this post public so the people whose cards failed can still see it.  If your ...

August 2018 Sketch Tier Sketches 13-18

Here's 13-18 of the sketches!  If you're a Sketch Tier, Sketch+Secret Gallery Tier ($20), or Custom Card Tier patron, let me know your choice sometime today or tomorrow.  Otherwise I'll pick at random.

The sketches are as follows:

13. Scary Jordana

14. South Sphere happy hammer-wielding military robot tank

15. South Sphere "flamingo on a motorized unicycle" combat bike

16. Genuinely happy Samsid

17. Gray

18. Creation of Littlehands

August 2018 Sketch Tier Sketches 7-12

Here's 7-12 of the sketches!  If you're a Sketch Tier, Sketch+Secret Gallery Tier ($20), or Custom Card Tier patron, let me know your choice sometime today or tomorrow.  Otherwise, I'll pick one at random.

The sketches are as follows:

7. Samsid's Trophy Wall (coming soon in the comic ^_^)

8. Stock-Photo-Inspired Merritt

9. Cannon concept sketch

10. A spider with eight tiny armbands :)

11. Protective Snakes

12. The cross mark

August 2018 Sketch Tier Sketches 1-6

First off, hi to this month's recent new patrons! :)  Thank you for pledging!  I just want to give you a heads up that payment processing for September is happening on September 1.  If you aren't ready to be charged again so soon, you can cancel before 9/1 and re-pledge any time in September to delay your processing date.  (Please do come back, though! ^_^)  Otherwise, feel free to just chill and enjoy the DOTU stuff! :D

Second, I've now done a total of 532 Sketch Tier...

Chapter 4, Page 33

Yesterday's page got bumped a day due to illness and freelance, but here it is now!

This is page #2 of this month.  I'll fit in a third page if I can, but it's a Sketch Tier month and I'm also closing on my condo, so I know the end of the month will be pretty hectic.  I'll still try, though!

Also, as a special bonus, here is an excerpt from the actual DOTU script for this page:

<...

Devoted - Merritt's Story 2 - Chapter 7

Whew, I made it! :D  Chapter 7 is here at last!  You can read it inline or download the attached PDF.

I'm gonna aim to get the next chapter in by the end of the month, but that's also the day of my condo closing, so it might need to wiggle a bit.  I'll keep y'all updated.

[Table of Contents]

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Book 2, Chapter 7

Merritt’...

Chapter 4, Page 32

Yeah, I enjoyed making this page more than I thought I would...

Consider this as compensation for the very low levels of text on the past 8 pages. XD  If you don't feel like reading all that text, I promise you he's not saying anything important. ^_^

I'm aiming to get the next chapter of Merritt's Story up this Thursday.  It *might* slip to next week depending on how fast I can get through edits, but we'll see.

When I released last week's page on the DOTU website, I poste...

Just a Reminder

I had one patron cancel their pledge in protest because they're upset that the comic is going private (something I announced to patrons a month ago...), and I just want to remind everyone that the comic WILL update publicly again.  During the months that the comic is patrons only, I'm building a buffer that will eventually turn back into FASTER public pages - as long as readers continue to support the comic's production.

Running a public webcomic with less than weekly pag...

Chapter 4, Page 30 (public release/public schedule)

If you're a patron, you saw this page like a month ago.  Sorry for the 2x notification.  Due to scheduling logistics, I couldn't make it an early access post.

Anyway, this will be the last public page of DOTU for a while.  Until I'm able to post pages at a weekly rate again (which depends on Patreon support), I'll be posting patron-only pages at the schedule determined by the latest milestone goal.   2018-08-06 16:37:03 +0000 UTC View Post

Pogo vandalizes a Chicago museum display

First off, I want to give a huge thanks to everyone who's fixed their pledge or increased their pledge to help out with this month's losses after the payment processing error.  We've just barely managed to get back into the milestone bracket we were in previously.  We're still much lower than last month and will need more fixed pledges or new patron growth in future months, but we've recovered enough that I don't need to take emergency time off DOTU.

As a thank you, here's some Horri...

Payment Error Update/Fix

Hey guys, I have some new info on the payment error situation.  Apparently Patreon is doing a bit of company reorganization in order to make their systems globally stable.  Their payment processor has moved from the US to the UK, and as a result, some banks ended up flagging their transactions as fraud. (ugh...)

If retrying your card fails, Patreon says the best way to resolve any continuing payment errors is to do ONE of the following:

• Contact your bank to confirm that t...
  2018-08-02 18:05:34 +0000 UTC View Post

Payment Errors

Just a heads up - there seems to be a technical issue with payment processing this month, and we have over 30 patrons and $250 in pledges that have fallen through.  We've dropped down two full milestone goals and 268 patrons.

If you're seeing this post, your payment is probably fine, or you've already fixed it, so thank you!  I've contacted both Patreon and the affected patrons and I'm hoping this gets cleared up as soon as possible.

But in the meantime, it's a huge loss to eat...

Pogo's July 2018 GUEST Letters Have Been Sent!

Pogo's July 2018 guest letters have been sent out to all processed patrons, so you should be getting them soon.  Email letters went out a couple hours ago, so if you haven't received them, let me know.

Archer has horrible doctor handwriting, as seen on the latest DOTU page.  If anyone has trouble reading their letter and needs a typed transcript, just send me a message or an email and let me know. :)

Also, please try to get to this letter before your parents/house mates because...

Chapter 4, Page 31

A couple hours later than usual, but here it is!  This past weekend was the condo inspection and now I'm in the middle of legal stuff, so time has been super tight.

I'm going to try to wrap up the monthly (guest) letters and the secret gallery art over the next two days, though I haven't decided which one will come first.  If anyone in the secret gallery tier has any requests for a character or simple scenario you want to see for July's art, let me know!  Either SFW or moderate ...

Custom Card Portrait for Elorah!

I got the okay to share it, so here's the newest patron card portrait!  This one was done for Becca as a gift for her daughter, Elorah, who is a DOTU fan. <3  Elorah is a high school student, and an amazing person who's overcome and continues to overcome some significant life and health challenges.  She's also a real life high-IQ genius and poisons expert - meaning a perfect fit for the North Sphere - and her goal is to become a surgeon.  So this is a slightly aged-up vers...

Chapter 4, Page 30

New page, if anyone is still reading!

As I mentioned previously, this is the last public page of DOTU.  It will go public (along with this post) when the next page is finished on 7/23 or 7/30.  After that, future DOTU pages will post to patrons only.

Pogo's June 2018 Letters Have Been Sent!

Pogo's June 2018 letters have been sent out to all processed patrons for June, so you should be getting them soon.  Email letters went out on Saturday evening, so if you haven't received them, let me know.

Pogo talks about all sorts of things in this letter...

As usual, let me know if:

-you are currently receiving snail mail letters and would prefer email

-15 days have passed since I sent the snail mail letters and you still haven't received yours

-you want to be c...