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No worries, it makes sense! And thank you! I love seeing that stuff too. And its fun to do, showing more of the character without making it required viewing. Well unless animations are how people consume your stories, then that's different haha - Cat

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Blog is Now Unshadowbanned

As anon here has very helpfully pointed out, the blog is now fully functional again and we've re-opened asks here while closing asks on the back-up blog to avoid confusion.

Obviously, the back-up blog shall remain open in case we need to turn to it again.

Thank you all for bearing with us these last few months and for sending us advice on how to try and solve the issue too. You all rock. - Cat and RJ

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So uh, thanks for not killing off your one* disabled character to prove how morally gray the rest of your cast is, or how dark and edgy your plot is.

*Point of fact, thanks for having multiple disabled characters and giving them names and traits other than "is disabled and isn't it sad when they die."

It has been a rough couple of weeks in the talking animal comics sphere. I Hope So has certainly been an oasis, and I am so glad it is back to updating.

"It's been a rough couple of weeks in the talking animals comic sphere." When is it NOT a rough time in the talking animals comics sphere? lol

Not saying there's not good animal comics out there but some really do a good job of being needlessly edgy and dark in exchange for any semblance of good writing.

There's nothing wrong with actually playing into it like you would if you were writing up a horror movie but I'm sure tired of this theme of people trying to clout chase and promote their story as progressive and then it's basically throwing in serious themes with no consideration on how to handle them.

It's just "hey, I covered this serious theme but I'm not going to cover it with any amount of seriousness whatsoever actually: gimmie kudos now!".

Don't even get me started on how there's a misconception that including "adult" themes automatically makes your story mature and sophisticated either. You have early Disney movies that did a great job of appealing to adults without having to include gore or sexual themes to appeal to adults, for example. lol And killing off a disabled character doesn't need to be automatically a bad choice narratively either. It all depends on the kind of narrative you want to deliver.

A woefully dark storyline isn't necessarily a bad thing. There are quite a few movies I enjoy (Fluke being a major example) that are relentlessly heartbreaking and sad. The problem comes from people - like I've just mentioned - thinking that just including minorities experiencing relentless tragedy automatically makes their story compelling escapism on its own when that's not how these things work. If you want to appeal to these minorities, don't use said minorities to simply make people outside of said minority groups feel sad for them before ultimately casting them aside once they've served their purpose.

I appreciate that I rambled a tad here but yeah, just wanted to go over why what you mentioned bothers me too. lol - RJ

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I just reread the Toyhouse and I’m in love with how much personality Careful’s cubs have! (Unlike Quickmane’s cub’s in My Pride) I can’t wait to see more of them and Careful in this chapter! I’m very excited!

I absolutely adored writing the interactions between Aggie, Troublesome and Joyous. lol

I hope you all will feel the love that has gone into developing their little personalities and how they express themselves. Perhaps some of you might even find them a tad... familiar. - RJ

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is it okay to headcanon storm as bigender? I never see she/he butches in media lol so I tend to do it myself via headcanons

I don't see why not! - Cat

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obsessed with how gender diverse careful's cubs are. cishet woman gave birth to three of the queerest cubs alive /pos/pos

She's just that good of a mom. - Cat

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must say the body language of hope there is fantastic work. there's no shaky lines around her or indication that she's panting in a sound effect, but we can see that she's clearly not feeling well right now. her hanging head and drooping tail in contrast to storm and adamant, her stance with both paws heavy on the ground also in contrast to storm and adamant. and her wound bleeding adds the final touch, even with just a drip actively falling and other drops we can see on the ground (and ofcourse the blood running down her side)

really great work there. having storm and adamant contrast to push it further really really works

Thank you, anon. The kind of thing you're talking about would be reserved for her being in an extremely bad way. She's not exactly fighting fit right now but she's pushing through because - hey - lions are extremely hardy critters. Especially in the case of Hope, because she's our resident trooper. <33 - RJ

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I request permission to start spreading Bright x Storm x Hope propaganda

How scandalocious! I love it. - Cat

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Ohh adrenaline seems to be wearing off and Hope is starting to feel that crunch on her ribs :/

The price of adrenaline rushes, the crash is a bitch. But she has the advantage of being a lion. - Cat

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Hopeful and Storm's wounds look bad, I don't want them to get an infection.

Yea that would be bad! - Cat

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Ough latest page,,, a) Love Storm n Adamant's dynamic. Affectionate teasing. b) Bright was holding back, huh? Inch resting.. c) Hope love i think you should lay down... you're looking a little lightheaded there hun

A) THANKS! Storm and Adamant have to have a good friendship too. Otherwise Adamant would be third-wheeling it and that's never fun.

B) Yea very interesting >:3

C) I agree she needs a nap.

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do you have any tips for staying consistent and motivated when creating a comic? as someone who’s trying to make a comic i don’t know how people can keep making the same comic for years haha

My advice is not to do a comic for years haha start small and see what feels like a good amount of time to be working on a comic for, for you. If I felt like IHS could be told in a few chapters I would. But it's gotten bigger and I've managed to find a good schedule for myself, work smarter and not harder, where I can keep working on it without being burned out. If I could do it for a living, it'd be completed much faster because then my time wouldn't need to be divided between this and work.

But ultimately it's better to tell a good short story than a bad long story. So find what works for you personally. And most importantly, only do it if you enjoy doing it. - Cat

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Did Quiet ever hold silent resentment towards Adamant? Was just wondering since in early chapters (the hunting chapter) Quiet seemed noticeably upset when Adamant stole the attention by cutting Quiet off to answer their mothers question 🤔 I’m sure it was no ill will on Adamants end because they clearly care and love each other so much! Just curious honestly ^^

She did a little bit. Shame they would never be given a chance to resolve it. - Cat

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Did Quiet ever hold silent resentment towards Adamant? Was just wondering since in early chapters (the hunting chapter) Quiet seemed noticeably upset when Adamant stole the attention by cutting Quiet off to answer their mothers question 🤔 I’m sure it was no ill will on Adamants end because they clearly care and love each other so much! Just curious honestly ^^

She did a little bit. Shame they would never be given a chance to resolve it. - Cat

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this whole thing about whether volatile abuse victims deserve to be “redeemed” has come to really irk me. Viscous is abusive, but she’s also a victim of abuse which seems to kill any nuance in people’s brains. People act like you’re a bad person for reacting badly to abuse and you must be “redeemed” for… being a victim? Regardless if they’re guilty of crimes or not, they are still a victim. Vicious doesn’t need “redemption” in the form of forgiveness from others because that ship has sailed and it’s not needed in order to recover (characters forgiving her would only signal to the audience that she’s a Certified Good Victim now if anything), what she needs is freedom and the opportunity to start over. Like when it comes to abuse victims people really like to boil it down to either who’s redeemable (“Good” victims) and who’s punishable (“Bad victims) and I hate that catholic black/white framework here. It’s not fair at all to people who suffer abuse.

We've certainly had numerous conversations about what constitutes as a redemption arc so, yep, the mentality that redemption arcs have to be solely about gaining forgiveness as a means to get whatever the hell the character wants (i.e. whether that be validation or access to somebody) is certainly an odd but plague-like one.

It's the same mentality as one thinking that the word 'sorry' on its own automatically erases your actions. It doesn't but I've come across more than a few adults that think it does because genuine remorse is something that's foreign to them.

But yeah, as you've pointed out, there are more ways for Vicious to be "redeemed" outside of her having access to her daughters again. Her abusive behaviour towards them doesn't make them any less of a victim BUT we're not about to invalidate the victimhood of Adamant and Hopeful just so we can show both of them acting completely out of character and accepting their mother back into their lives. While Hopeful being a kind optimist is a major part of her character, she's not a doormat. Same with Adamant.

And I do know the more obvious answer is that it wouldn't be a good message either but Lord knows there's certainly people out there who resent that we feel Nothing should never forgive her shitty mother and sister because 'well, I forgave my abusive parent and we turned out fine!'. Which - y'know - good for you but you don't even have to possess the faintest notion of critical thinking to know that forgiving an abuser and everything turning out hunky dory is not the universal outcome for every abuse victim. - RJ