Dan Martin

Comic #440

Oi oi. New comic about BIRTHING TECHNIQUES.

Comic #440 (early draft EARLY)

For a wild change of pace I thought I'd post an early draft of a comic BEFORE I'VE EVEN POSTED THE FINISHED ONE!! So this time around patrons are getting an early draft EARLY.

I had been thinking about doing a comic with Ian's mum in for a while but nothing particularly funny came to me. I feel like my brain was just stuck in "funny things happening in the gym" for a while due to her passion for strength, but once I started leaning more into CLASSIC MUM THINGS there was much more to wor...

Behind-the-Bulge #439

Initial sketches of comic 439, didn't seem to change much from first sketch to final iteration. As soon as I pictured the intense slam dunk action being immediately followed by the solemn introspection, I knew this was something to BLAST FULL SPEED AHEAD with. That kind of tonal whiplash always tickles me.

New comic #439!

Probably the most on brand comic in a while, fish, slam dunks and relevant-to-the-subject-matter haircuts.

Very much inspired by my semi-recent start in the world of fishkeeping. That's right, I finally took the plunge. Thankfully, I am not this shit at fishkeeping, but my track record is far from perfect. I AM LEARNING. I am also not looking forward to the next time I have to move, cause ...

Project FISH, Dev Log #003

Since the last couple updates, I made a large change to the gameplay based on my own preferences and what I enjoy most in video games, and am genuinely surprised I was able to actually get it working, which is RATHER EXCITING, but I'll go into more detail about that in the next log, for now though, we are talking about THE ART.

I think it's important to get a presentable mock-up of this game idea together relatively soonish, so I can show it off in style, to see what kind of interest th...

Early Rough Versions of Comic #438

The first 2 sketchy run throughs of the comic from the other day.

As you can see, the face at the end of the comic was very much a case of yep, happy with that, now to not deviate from it in the slightest.

I felt it was important to have Trista in the same pose in the 2nd and 4th panels cause I think it helped the contrast of enthusiasm to unenthusiasm more than if I just had completely different shots every panel (like in the first draft). Also a fun perk of using a character fro...

Deathbulge Comic #438

Another new comic, only a month after the last one?? Wild times.

Having trouble uploading to my site but at least I can post it EVERYWHERE ELSE for now.

Threw Trista in for this one, albeit with less make-up than in the game. Hey now, she's not gonna go to that amount of effort EVERY day. Especially if she doesn't have any experiment-riddled abominations to impress.

Happy 2nd Anniversary to the Deathbulge RPG

Deathbulge: Battle of the Bands released 2 years ago today!! Decided to step up the anniversary celebrations a little bit more this year by preparing TWO things to celebrate this occasion.

The first is THIS VIDEO counting down the most work-intensive animations made for the game. I really hope you enjoy it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4jeooOwujU

The second is...

Who wants a Patron-Exclusive Discount?

Hey hey, so it's the game's 2 year anniversary today and in about half an hour I'll be releasing a youtube video and also announcing a sexy new shirt.

I thought I'd buzz you guys a little in advance because I want to be sure you read this before purchasing. For you see, I have prepared a SPECIAL PATREON DISCOUNT CODE for you.

Use the discount code PREMIUMPATRON at checkout and it'll take £3 off the shirt order!

Here's a 2025-08-08 15:36:40 +0000 UTC View Post

Process Sketches of Comic #437

This comic was quite visually demanding in places (damn you, scrumptious) so there's a multitude of sketch layers for this one.

I really liked the guy leaning forward to look at Scrumptious in the last panel. So for the final linework (that you can see in the previous post), you'll notice that I pretty much just copy pasted him directly from the sketch layer ahah. I do that a lot when I find myself drawing a face or something in a particular way that makes me laugh and am worried about ...

New Comic (!!!)

And it's not even a game promo comic. I can hardly believe it myself. Couldn't help but throw in Platinum Scrumptious for this one as it felt very fitting for them.

Impromptu Fish-drawing Stream in Half an Hour

A little heads up that I'll be streaming at 7.30 GMT aka in half an hour over at https://www.twitch.tv/deathbulge

The plan is to draw a bunch of weird fish ideas. Feel free to pitch some in the chat! I've also set up a singing Babby Bass sensation to open its mouth when i talk, so you KNOW it'll be a blast.

Maybe see you there??

Draft Comic Idea 2025

Clearly having a mad one tonight as I just drafted up a fresh comic idea and shared it with a treasured portion of my audience. WHAT YEAR IS IT?

I've been learning a lot of German via Duolingo over the last year or so, so I guess it's fresh on the mind.

More Animation WIPS

Here's a variety of out-of-context screenshots from THE BIG GAME PROMO ANIMATION.

Gettin to that point now where I have to figure out shading and additional effects, a scary part of the process, as that's where you usually lose a lot of unnecessary time getting caught up in tiny details, splitting hairs over every little decision, that's bad enough when you're working on a still image. But a near minute long frame-by-frame animation? WHUH OH. Hopefully the fact that I will not be lookin...

Project FISH, Dev Log #002

You can now be TAKEN OUT by the fish, and I don't mean to dinner, no, to THE HOSPITAL.

The fish don't have time to indulge you in a full-on combat screen with turns n whatnot. If you invade their personal space, they will slap you out of consciousness in a single motion. Justice.

Been feeling better about this little game idea, I think it might have legs, but still too early to say. I'm sure the big question on everyone's minds is WILL IT BE A FISHING GAME?? Sort of, kinda? Either...

Project FISH, Dev Log #001

Helloooo.

I don't really know how much detail I should go into but while I RELISH the game dev process, my capacity to commit to anything over the last year or so has been shaky to say the least, this dev log is basically me seeing what I can pull out of my arse against the odds, because I know that future me will be glad I tried.

So recently I've been toying around with all the systems that were made for Deathbulge: Battle of the Bands, as I felt there is so much there that could...

Another glimpse into sickest animation I've ever made.

I've made the IDIOT DECISION to go over the entire thing with more expressive linework as shown above. I feel like it's really brought the whole thing to another level of SICK. But it's definitely taking a while, but I mean, compared to how long the game took, what's an extra month or two??

After all, the main goal of this animation is to make people go WOW!!! So if there's any moments of feeling like something could be done a bit better for more impact, you KNOW I'll be straight in the...

No charge to Patrons this month.

Hey all! Just to say I've paused the next charge (1st May) as I haven't posted any new animations this month.

While I very much appreciate the sentiments that some have shared about being happy to support me regardless of my monthly output, I would still prefer to only charge on months where I've actually posted stuff. It wouldn't feel right otherwise.

Thank you for your continued support.

Dan

Extremely Early Glimpse into next animation

If anyone was worried I'd changed dramatically as a person since pursuing game dev, this upcoming animation will probably re-assure you plenty, WHY? because the next animation will feature a door kick, a fish AND a stupid haircut relevant to the theme of the animation. ALL the cornerstones of what Deathbulge is known for. Doesn't get much more textbook than that.

The only thing missing is a slam dunk, but whilst writing this out, I just realised there is a perfect way to ...

Small Clip of Promo Animation

At first I was conflicted on whether or not to share this on here, as it is a clip of something being made to help promote the game, A PAID PRODUCT rather than the usual no-strings-attached animations I've been posting as of late. But I figured why not, after all, it's still behind-the-scenes animation, I thought you guys'd be interested in seeing it.

While the whole thing is only 40-45 seconds long in total, the level of detail and visual dynamics makes for a particularly ambitious ani...

Early EXTENDED version of "Plans for the Future"

This is a particularly interesting one as not only is this an earlier version but it contains a middle segment featuring a THIRD kid that didn't make it to the final.

It's a hard call sometimes cause you wanna leave stuff like that in for extra fun flavour, but then it does make the whole thing less snappy and longer than it needs to be. The kicking is clearly the highlight of the animation and you DO want to get to that in good time.

Either way, at least YOU guys get to enjoy it....

"Plans for the Future"

ANOTHER ANIMATION ALREADY! This marks two animations this month!! Certainly feels good to be more active again. Two animations a month does seem plenty feasible if I'm able to stick to half minute things.

Incredibly Rough First Draft of "Why Fishing is Dangerous"

I decided to export a video of the animation at the EARLIEST POSSIBLE STAGE so you guys can enjoy maximum deathbulge jank.

It is INTENSELY recommended that you watch this AFTER watching the recently posted final version of this animation, as it is probably the only way you'll be able to decipher any of this.

Final "Why Fishing is Dangerous" Animation

Yeah! ENJOY.

Screenshot from next animation

I'm trying to maintain the aura of this face as much as possible moving into the final drawing cause I think it's my favourite expression I've ever drawn.

I'm doing a thing where I have square borders but I'm also working to the wider dimensions, to see if I can just do an animation that works well in a variety of aspect ratios, might be tough given I like my camera angles DYNAMIC so we'll see. It would definitely be a lot easier if I did what a lot of social media animations do where y...

Rough Draft of "Bog Trap"

Oi oi, hope everyone's had a nice festive week or so and ready to take on the mighty 2025.

Anyway here's an early export of the recent bog trap animation (I guess this is what you'd call an ANIMATIC). I like to do quick placeholder voices to help structure the animation before getting into the finer details, so it's always a surprise when some of those placeholders actually make it to the final. Some were CLEARLY not going to though, like the pins and needles reaction noises for one thi...

Bog Trap

Here it is, the final version of the latest in my silly little animations.

I've also posted this on bloody everything, youtube, facebook, bluesky, instagram, twitter, if you feel the itch to share it.

As always, thanks for your support!

Screenshots from upcoming animation

Some dramatic visuals going on here. Devoid of context for maximum mystique. It'll add to the fun when you watch the final thing, you'll be all "ohhh so THAT'S what was happening in that image", it'll be SATISFYING BEYOND BELIEF!!

In a more recent effort to appease ALL potential social media, I'm trying my best to keep within the confines of a perfect square and also under a minute in length, the latter proving very challenging. While it's a great way to force me to tighten things up as...

Rough Draft of "Downfall" Animation

To kick off the resurrection of this Patreon, here is a video with (mostly) final audio but with the animation in it's earliest roughest state. There's also a couple of old lines in there.

This particular video was a bit lacking in funny early voice takes, BUT I've attached the 2 voice lines that play simultaneously at the end as separate files so you can enjoy hearing each one in a vacuum!

You can watch the final version here: 2024-12-01 14:45:44 +0000 UTC View Post

A Return to Patreon, Starting Next Month

Hello dearest Patreoners! As of December 1st I will no longer be PAUSING monthly payments, I figured I'd post this a week ahead of that date to give you guys a bit of a HEADS UP in case you wish to cancel beforehand.

For well over a year now I've been manually pausing the monthly charges as I felt my output was too unreliable and all over the place. I didn't really know what I could promise on...