Since Merritt's Story is picking up after a period of sparse updates, I put together some summaries and synopses. This way folks can jump into the new chapters with their memories refreshed, even if you don't have time to reread any past chapters in full.
There are two posts. They will be updated periodically.
1. This post you're currently reading is a public post with very brief summaries of each chapter.
I didn't think he still had any left in him, but in fact he has FOUR for this year! See above for Belmont, and here are the rest:
And if that's not enough, here are his past valentines:
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2020-02-14 12:19:31 +0000 UTC View Post
We're getting 2 chapters this month! This one's a little shorter, but we'll get a big honker on February 27.
The Water Date bonus chapter has been taken down, but it'll soon be available from my shop as a standalone, with its own cover art and everything. :)
And here's the new chapter! You can read it inline or download the attached PDF.
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2020-02-13 06:05:01 +0000 UTC View Post
New page! And book 2, chapter 17 of Merritt's Story will go up this Thursday!
Remember, the "Water Date" bonus chapter will only be available until the new chapter goes up, so be sure to read it or save it before Thursday. After that, it'll eventually move into the shop.
2020-02-10 17:45:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Here's the latest scene compilation! The scene is technically ongoing, but the compilation is already 7 pages, so now seems like a good time to throw in a break.
I feel like I finally started to shake my rustiness toward the end of this scene, after being so bogged down with DSP/writing stuff during the previous scene. It's also super hard for me to get as artistically inspired by static conversation scenes, and this chapter has a lot of them. So I was excited to final...
2020-02-07 05:45:59 +0000 UTC View Post
I guess this isn't a huge spoiler in and of itself; it really depends on the level of dissection you subject it to. But I'm calling it a spoiler just to be on the safe side, because I'm not always the best judge of how good at dissection people are. XD
As I mentioned, we'll see this card on the next page. We'll also be hearing about this character more in the future.
2020-02-06 03:37:29 +0000 UTC View Post
I was aiming to get a page done today, but something about the script hasn't been feeling right. I made a change and shuffled in an exchange I'd originally planned for later, and I'm much happier with it now. But as a result, I had to finish up an asset I didn't previously have - which is this card portrait. The card appears on the next page, so I had to get it done. Left is the full portrait, right is the "in comic" version of the card. It'll be fairly tiny on t...
2020-02-06 03:27:45 +0000 UTC View PostThanks y'all for another month of support! Here's what's up right now!
-This week's DOTU page will go up by Wednesday. My weekend got eaten by lawyer stuff (the issue with my publisher). But I want to keep weekly pages a little bit longer, so it'll just be delayed a couple days instead of a full week.
-January Secret Gallery illustration went up today! It's a Merritt's Story minicomic.
2020-02-03 03:21:01 +0000 UTC
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Usually I don't do flats or color on the Secret Gallery minicomics, but this time I decided to. :) I've been wanting to do some comic-format scenes like this for Merritt's Story. Let me know what you think. If people like them, I might do more.
This one was from Book 2, Chapter 16. It'll also go up in the Secret Gallery, but as usual, minicomics read better in the feed.
<...
As promised, I'm posting a snippet of the upcoming Merritt's Story chapter. I did end up splitting the next scene into two chapters. Together it's more than twice as long as the last chapter, so it's massive. I'm trying to get them to the beta readers by the end of tomorrow, and the turnaround is 10-14 days. After I finish up edits, I'll either post the two chapters at the same time or one week apart. (One week apart means I'd get you the first chapter sooner.) 2020-02-01 09:16:31 +0000 UTC View Post
Sorry, vertical video. Watch it on Youtube to see it bigger:
I was going to share two timelapse videos, but the truth is the other one (page 69) was mostly a little tedious to watch. XD It was a lot of buildings in perspective, which is pretty similar to the last timelapse video I shared. This one has more organic stuff in it, so it's a little more fun to watch. &nbs...
2020-01-28 06:18:38 +0000 UTC View PostTo those of you who just read email notifications and don't click over to the main Patreon post, I wanted to give you a heads up that Patreon seems to have switched to cropping images instead of just showing the whole thing. (Don't ask me why; I think it's terrible and I'm telling them as much.) So, if you saw only the partial page in your email, please click over to the post and then click again to view the whole thing. Sorry for the inconvenience.
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2020-01-27 18:23:11 +0000 UTC View Post
The scene was supposed to end on this page, but I decided to shift things around because I want to stick with the action instead of going back to a talking scene. XD But I'll still post a scene compilation of pages 63-70 in early February. Btw one of my favorite chapter 4 pages is in the remainder of this scene. :D
The other thing I'm really looking forward to is this month's $5 guest letter, though I can't promise it'll be a particularly informative letter. I'm *also*...
2020-01-27 18:13:17 +0000 UTC View Post
I promise we're going places here. :P I'm still planning the next page for next Monday.
I haven't been talking as much about Patreon milestone goals lately, so I want to mention that we've still only met the Patreon goal for 2x/monthly pages, and the extra pages I'm doing right now are temporary, for as long as my schedule allows it - which is, unfortunately, not going to be too much longer. So I'm still aiming for the next milestone goals.
You guys are all awesome to ...
2020-01-20 20:06:05 +0000 UTC View Post
Bit of a transition page here. We got 3 pages till the end of the scene, and I'm going to *try* to keep them weekly for the sake of pacing.
In other news, with the issues resulting from leaving my publisher, I've hit the point where I'm really too overloaded to handle everything I need to do on my own. I'll be looking for a combination of volunteers and freelancers who might be able to help in some of the following areas:
And here's the next scene, a.k.a. the scene where I forgot Mercury's 5 o'clock shadow on 5 of the 6 pages and just added them in now. ^_^;
This scene is mostly pages that aren't public yet. The scene after this one (the red-toned Pogo/Samsid scene) has 2-3 pages left before I finish it, so I expect to post that scene compilation toward the end of the month.
For now, here's this one!
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[EDIT: This post is now public!]
Here's the first of two scene compilations I'm posting today! I really should have posted this one earlier, but I held off because the pages were public. From here on, I'm making it the goal to post scene compilations soon after each scene finishes.
The scene compilations are also posting to ALL patrons instead of just Early Access patrons. Since the comic isn't updating publicly right now, I want to make sure everyone who's suppo...
2020-01-06 21:15:33 +0000 UTC View PostHey guys! I still have more weekly DOTU pages planned, but they're gonna be pushed out one more week. I have to buckle down and get the new edition of Art of Death out this week. I spent the past several days setting up my self-publishing imprint, freshening up the cover typography, chipping away at the print book formatting, and taking the first step toward getting a lawyer. I know a lot of people are still in holiday traveling mode this week anyway.
December le...
2020-01-06 05:19:47 +0000 UTC View Post
Detail shot up above!
I mentioned in my private message that I reworked an old sketch. Here's the before and after. Merritt's facial expression in the new version gets a little skewed from the compression/shrinking, but you can see it better in the inks that follow.
And here's the ink, which is mostly faithful to the pencil except I corrected the direction of Belmont's hair, h...
2020-01-03 02:54:46 +0000 UTC View Post
As promised, I got my shop up and running! Patrons are the first to know - I won't announce this publicly until January 7 or so. Here's the shop!
https://www.bobappavu.com/shop
First two items inside:
1. The Snake Wings enamel pins I made for my May special offer are finally up for sale! There are only a few collector grade pins left. I'm shipping to everywhere, bu...
2019-12-28 19:14:40 +0000 UTC View PostHere's a little Christmas gift. ^_^
The next chapter of Merritt's Story is long, and it gets back into the actual plot, so it's been taking me a while to get back into it in the middle of all the other stuff that's been going on. But I wanted to share this bit of pure fluff that's been at the tip of my fingers for a while.
In the last chapter, Belmont offered to take Merritt up to sub-Forest Glen so they could get some of that fancy tap water Merritt liked so much. The...
2019-12-24 18:19:58 +0000 UTC View Post
Page is here!
I'll probably hold off on page 68 till the week after next due to the holiday and most people already not being around. Secret Gallery patrons will likely see some pencils, though. And December rewards will still go out at the end of the month.
I'm determined to get my shop up before the end of the year so people who weren't part of the Special Offer can finally get an enamel pin. In the store, I also plan to offer digital downloads of the past mont...
2019-12-23 17:01:34 +0000 UTC View Post
New page!
I know I owe some of you replies on a couple of posts, and I want to say thank you to everyone for your support regarding my issue with my publisher.
Yesterday, my publisher's paperback preorder listing for Bonds of Death went live on retailer sites despite my rights having already reverted to me, so I've spent several hours dealing with that mess. As of now, the listings still haven't come down, so I just want to emphasize that if you see them, these aren't the co...
2019-12-16 20:40:12 +0000 UTC View Post
Here's 13 to 18! If you're a Sketch Tier, Sketch+Secret Gallery Tier ($20), or Custom Card Tier ($50) patron, let me know your choice of sketch by Monday. I plan to send these out with Pogo's November (guest) letters on Tuesday.
The sketches are as follows:
13. Ugly East Sphere Christmas Sweater (Samsid)
14. Ugly North Sphere Christmas Sweater (Merritt)
15. Ugly West Sphere Christmas Sweater (Gray)
16. Ugly South Sphere Christmas Sweater (Freya)...
2019-12-15 00:25:35 +0000 UTC View Post
Here's 7-12! If you're a Sketch Tier, Sketch+Secret Gallery Tier ($20), or Custom Card Tier ($50) patron, let me know your choice of sketch by Monday. I plan to send these out with Pogo's November (guest) letters on Tuesday.
The sketches are as follows:
7. Samsid Claus and Pogo
8. Pogo and a Christmas pigeon
9. The hidden pond
10. Belmont and Merritt at the hidden pond
11. Annie in a stocking
12. Reindeer Annie
2019-12-15 00:23:24 +0000 UTC View Post
Due to the circumstances mentioned in my last post, this is the latest I've ever been with rewards. So I want to give an especially big thanks to everyone for sticking around!
Here are sketches 1-6 of 18. If you're a Sketch Tier, Sketch+Secret Gallery Tier ($20), or Custom Card Tier ($50) patron, let me know your choice of sketch by Monday. I plan to send these out with Pogo's November (guest) letters on Tuesday. (We have a new page on Monday.)
As usual, several ...
2019-12-15 00:21:00 +0000 UTC View PostThose of you who've managed to power through my long-winded news updates over the past several months might have noticed that (1) I've made a few mentions of someone owing me money, and (2) I haven't been talking too much about my Lychgate Series since the release of book 1.
I've requested the rights back to my novel series. The release has been signed, and on 12/13, all rights revert to me. Art of Death will be taken down, and DSP Publications will not be publishing the remainder...
2019-12-12 18:05:50 +0000 UTC View Post
Here's the new page!
Still working on the Sketch Tier sketches. December is usually a slow freelance month, but apparently not this December. I mean, it's a good thing and I really needed it since a lot of December's pledges still haven't cleared, but it does mean that the sketches, and therefore the November letter too, will still take 1-3 days longer.
2019-12-09 15:01:57 +0000 UTC View Post
Vertical scroll minicomics always post better to the Patreon feed than to the Secret Gallery, so I put them in both places. The Secret Gallery password is going to change before the comic posts there, so I'll send out the new password in a few minutes. In the meantime, here's the minicomic!
I wanted to do a little thing about each character's way of waking up in the morning. :) I alternate between Pogo and Samsid myself. XD Which one are you?
2019-12-04 00:06:49 +0000 UTC
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New page is here! Also, pencils up to page 66 are up for $10.01 Secret Gallery patrons and higher, and I plan to continue posting early pencils to that tier for as long as I can. I sometimes also include process notes, like what programs I use for what stuff and so on.
It's a new month, so if you have the time to throw DOTU a vote on Top Webcomics, it's much appreciated!
2019-12-02 19:36:50 +0000 UTC View Post