1571 Ameliorate.

by

Okay, before I forget, I need to take care of some admin with you guys. At the end of every month I usually lose a few Patreon supporters, then get a few throughout the month. That’s just how things go. People need the money for more important things, or are unhappy with me, whatever. In any case, a couple of big ones left last month, who had supported me well above the minimum, so it’ll take a lot more little pledges to make up for them. I need about 20 new patrons to get back to where I was. Or any combination of amounts that gets to about $20. Ideally more than 20 will be tempted, but I’d be please just to maintain what I have. I’m changing up how my patreon works so I can actually get back to being ahead of the game instead of constantly struggling just to get the regular pages done. First of all, when you sign up you can get a sketch of yourself, or whatever, to use as an avatar on social media, or what have you. If you don’t have any use for that you can have a sketch of something random. You just have to provide reference materials. It’s explained in the sign up thing. Before this point I allowed people to have a new sketch every month, but there’s just too many people now. I can’t constantly do sketches AND make the comic, which defeats the point of the Patreon in the first place. So I’m going to do at least one bonus comic a month on Patreon. If this frees up enough time, and I don’t backslide health wise, I’ll do 3 a month. I just have to see what I’m physically capable of. I know I can do at least one, so I’m setting the bar low, just in case. They’ll be black and white, and in a more traditional 3 panel format. If time permits though I may add color, or make them larger. Additionally, they won’t be important to the ongoing story. They’ll just be stupid jokes that I couldn’t fit in to the actual comic. Also, if you really want an extra sketch, or whatever, just ask. If I can fit it into the day I’ll do it. I can’t put it first on my schedule, but I appreciate the support and will eventually get it to you. Think of that as just a bonus thing you have as an option when you support me. As long as nobody abuses it I’ll keep doing it. I’ve always let people have sketches if they asked, even before Patreon was a thing and still want to be there if you guys want one.
Anyway, that brings the stuff you get as a patron to: A sketch when you sign up, one monthly bonus strip (possibly 3), an update to the fantasy world of Julius Drywood, and the actual comic Between Failures which is why you’re here in the first place. A dollar gets you all the things. If you want to pledge more you can, but I like to keep everyone equal as far as who gets to enjoy the content. If you pledge a really large amount I will, however, give your requests and such special priority because guilt will force me to do so. I hate to make bringing up Patreon a regular thing, but if I don’t people never take notice, and I honestly need to keep the level of support at what it is right now, or better. The loss of big chunks of support demand action.

For those of you who can’t support me monetarily don’t feel bad. The adds still make up part of my income. Just reading the comic is helping. If you want to do more than that then reblog it, tweet, write a post someplace, or whatever. People underestimate how useful that sort of thing can be. Even if you only ever get one person to read the comic there’s 1500+ pages for them to get through. Since my comic isn’t just a series of jokes strung together it’s way harder to get people to start. It’s also really hard to advertise since it’s hard to sum up in a handful of words. A bazillion people read homestuck, which is an insane collection of chat logs, combined with an art style that has no business being popular, and a story that frankly makes no fucking sense, and I loved it. I know there are others out there who would enjoy Between Failures. It’s just a matter of finding a way to reach them.
As long as I’m talking about this stuff I know a portion of you want me to do an erotic comic with various cast members. Everybody seems to think that Slipshine will publish any old porn that comes along, but I assure you it doesn’t work that way. They have a set of standards and you have to meet certain requirements that I don’t think I do. I honestly don’t know for sure what the requirements are, or how their compensation works. There needs to be a level of demand for the product that I don’t think exists. If you think there is then you need to be vocal about it. Tell me what you want, and why you want it, so I can make a case for myself if I ever do get to a point where I could actually create such a thing. I can’t read your minds. You have to give me some indication of what it is you actually want. Plus, I don’t know what is on Slipshine apart from a few random things that people have posted on image boards. I don’t know what they publish for sure. I’ve always just assumed that whatever I made wouldn’t be it. Anyway, I just thought I’d mention that too since I get comments about that sort of thing from time to time.

37 Comments

Wow, 100 dollar spelling bee word. Ed must have been a champ.

He has the benefit of my vocabulary. Which is above average as my grandmother was a world traveling English teacher who did not dumb herself down for anyone. XD

What are you talking about? I use ameliorate in average conversation almost on a monthly basis. More often during election years…

To be fair, our elections of late do need a lot of amelioration.

I just learned this word, but I like it and I love expanding my vocabulary, and this seemed to be a perfect excuse to use a new word. I’m not sorry lol.

I’m somewhat nonplussed by Mike’s demeanor. Has he not noticed that in the game with Rulette, Ed seems to be favored … or maybe Mike is playing a long game since he can clearly stand Pat … or is he just being the bigger man?

He really, really, wants to play some D&D. I’m sure he finds Rulette cute, but the main thing is he wants some friends to hang out with.

Re: support

+1 Patron
+7.50 fiscal point rate increase per month

Also, I wouldn’t fret about making smut. It looks fun (and lucrative), but I know folks who regretted it because of how it stained their reputation and stifled their creativity. Plus it’s kind of a cop-out on an artist’s part in a lot of cases where a person just does porn and forgets to do anything actually creative or contributory to the world. There’s moral biases there, yeah, but also just some practical observation as a result of interacting with that medium in years past.

In any case, I hope things pull through for you soon. Been a fan for a few years, and I’ve generally very much enjoyed the work. I hope what I put in makes things at least a little easier!

I appreciate your support.

As far as porn goes I don’t have any problems with it as long as it’s not hurting anybody. I just feel like making it is very personal, and it’s much harder to do when you’re not hiding behind a mask.

Hey, I just patronized you! I’ve never done that before, but I reckon I get more than that in value from your work, and it’s less much less than I spend on the Big 2 (Marvel and DC).
I appreciate the thought of an avatar drawing of me, looking forward to that. I will email the info you need. I was wondering if you would be willing to do sketches of other people for me for a one time fee? I was hoping at the very least for a couple shot.
Thanks!
Also, to tyersome, I get the feeling Mike isn’t interested in that way, he’s just happy to be there.

If you want a series of people that’s fine. It’ll take me longer, obviously, so I might do other people’s ones before I fully complete yours. I try to do these in the order they are received though. In any case, many thanks for your support. I appreciate it.

I am quite sure that your work would be acceptable at Slipshine. There’s nothing wrong with your art ability. Different people have different styles, and your style isn’t exactly like others, and nobody will like all styles… but don’t ever think that your work is poor. It’s actually good.

I watched the special features from the Clerks animated cartoon, and one thing they mentioned is that they deliberately designed their characters such that you could see them all in outline only and you could still tell who is who just from the shapes. I don’t know if you had that as a goal, but you nailed it anyway. I’ve seen comics where the only way to tell some of the characters apart is that they have different colors of clothes; all the girls are exactly the same height and body build, and all the guys are exactly the same height and body build, except maybe one villain or something. I can think of comics where people tend to be in the same poses almost all the time, and your characters are lively and do stuff. I can think of comics where characters always wear the same outfits… that can be a deliberate choice, and maybe that’s okay; but there’s no question that it’s more work to keep changing things up, and you do that extra work. So, whatever you may think of your own work, please believe me when I say you are at the higher end of the quality spectrum for web comics. And as for personal taste, your style is one of my absolute favorites. I am *not* saying this as a polite lie to boost your confidence; it’s true.

I have an avatar you drew for me, from a photo. People comment favorably about it and say that it’s a good likeness. What I like best about it is that it is your style; that’s more fun and interesting than a photo. I had a set of greeting cards made up; just like my business cards, but instead of the company I work for and my work email, the cards just have my name, my personal phone number, and my personal email. And they have that avatar image you drew of me, in full color (it cost me all of $10 to get a few hundred of these printed at my local Staples… this is the 21st Century). When I give this card out, people often comment favorably on the avatar. Heck, I should have had your comic’s URL printed on the back of the card or something… ^_^

So draw porn or not as you like, but I’m pretty sure that is up to you. I don’t think you would be summarily rejected by Slipshine. If there is a revenue stream to be gotten by drawing for Slipshine, and you want to go for it, I’d say give it a try. It seems to be working for David Willis; he is up to, what, 4 special features on Slipshine now? I see him announce them on his main comic site (there’s an ad there now for one).

I’m not gonna lie, i’d love to see what you come up with for porn of carol. And jo. I wish i could afford to patron you but i struggle to pay my oen bills.

Cheers for inadvertently reminding me to whitelist your site, it always takes me a while to remember to set it up whenever my adblock gets reset.

People, don’t forget to vote for BF on TopWebComics. The higher it is, the more people come to the website.
Let’s make it back durably to TOP 50 or event TOP 10 ! ^^

Things are a bit hard on me atm Jackie, I believe I currently am pledging 3, it will take at least until september, more realistically october, but when I get there, let me re-work what I can allot to you, I might be able to give 10-15 if you can wait that long for me to get my crap together. I’m making this comment more or less as a reminder for myself, though I wish you good luck in the meantime Crave, please hang in there for me Q_Q

You could do a weekly or so side comic on Patreon starring some of the supporting cast, like the furries or Carol’s sisters or maybe the underused John. 4-koma or something.

Not really into the regular cast doing porn, but whatever. The best example is probably Menage a 3. I’ll give you the title of the worst for free: Young Carol’s 40 Porn Shoots.

Longtime backer here. I actually upped my donation this month, so I hope it helps.

Personally, I do subscribe to Slipshine, and while there are many good comic’s on there, I honestly think your art style is much better than the average. Your storytelling is as good as the best people on there, and many comic on there only update once every few months, so they don’t even seem to have a minimum post requirement. I honestly think you should look into it.

As to why I would like if you did it, well, I’m a pervert. But frankly, my favorite comics on Slipshine are because of the story. Moon over June, Neapolitan, Titty Time, and the Dumbing of Age Pornographiques all emphasize the story along with the smut, and I honestly think any story you create featuring the two couples who are having sex in Between Failures would fit right in with the top stories on Slipshine.

Found the comic when Ed asked out Nina. Binge read everything in two days and have been reading it since. Easily my most favorite webcomic, powering past both QC and zombieroomie. No matter what you wanna do, I’ll support you! I’m already a patron, but i’m going to increase my amount to help you out.

Thank you for Between Failures and your time to do them.

Hope the bump helps.

I’ve mentioned this before, Jackie, but my honest suggestion for getting safely into your basement is to use a gas mask. Contrary to the name, what they actually do is filter out particulate matter in the air, including spores and so forth.

Most of my friends are cops or military, so I bet I can get you a good mask and some filters for next to nothing. Email me if you’re interested. :)

Been unemployed for a little while, but I start work again on Wednesday, and I’ll try to remember to contribute once finances settle a bit. Always enjoy your work and would be glad to help out however I can.

Bummer about the loss of supporters, but it looks like some good people are here to help out. I can’t really justify going over what I currently give, but I’ll keep it there as long as I can.

You are one of the very few that I give to for many reasons. The main one is that you do your damnedest to deliver on your promises. You even put this comic above your own health (which by no means do I condone, but it shows your level of dedication). I read many, many comics, and have seen quite a few creators back off on updates, go on hiatus, or just plain stop due to wrist injuries. It’s understandable, but disappointing. Meanwhile you can’t breathe, can’t sleep, and can’t stop posting. You’ve got my respect.

On a side note, I definitely see your point about drawing porn being intensely personal when your real name is attached. You could consider more of the ecchi side of things (not sure what the English equivalent would be — “erotica” maybe). The main cast in everyday life that features a bit of nudity? I feel like that would be more natural than “Between Male-whores” or your porn parody name of choice.

If there was porn of Between Failures on Slipshine, I might actually subscribe to slipshine for once. I really want to Patronize (ha!) but for now…I will have to wait. Still, I love the comic, and you are on my list of artists I want to support.

I wish I could make up the difference in Patreon by upping my pledge, but honestly what I’m pledging now is really more than I should be spending responsibly. Economically speaking I would get a lot more “value” out of something like Netflix (and there are over a dozen other subscription services out there, both video and not, that I really want but can’t afford) however I am so scared that if I don’t pledge that this comic will stop existing, and I really really don’t want that, so I pledge. Just in case you needed an idea how much I like this comic. In fact I already decided that when I start earning more money regularly one of the first things I’ll do is up my pledge by at least 50%. It’s really sad to read that the comic is still struggling financially. One day I’ll have you sketch something for me too, I want that, but I don’t know what. Until then, I would also like to ask everyone who reads this comment to at least pledge $1/month. $12 a year is almost nothing, but you’d be getting a whole lot in return, just in terms of the comic itself. We probably get around 150 well written, full color strips a year, which would be totally worth $12 if you bought it in a store.

You know, I could have sworn I was a backer.

Well, I am now for sure. Sorry about that – I should have made sure back when that I still was.

I would pay for Brooksie and Jessica, with Brooksie in her patreon button outfit, preferably. Honestly, the real draw is just Brooksie being cute and romantic and such, culminating in sex of some kind.Jessica is the logical person for her to do that with, so…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.