someone-always-cares

[someone-always-cares]

Kickstarter end and what's next: Thank you all!!

Most important part first: thank you so much to everybody who pledged, and there's no way to phrase this without sounding cheesy but couldn't have done this without you and i can't express how excited I am!!

The campaign has ended not only fully funded with £517, but at a 323% funding AND reached all the stretch goals I had planned! Never expected to get this far and I am thrilled.

I have left a timeline of what will happen next vis a vis ordering and shipping rewards in the update on the kickstarter page so will skip that here

If you or anyone you know missed the campaign, I will be selling the books online and at conventions (avalible online only after all rewards are sent). Any leftover non-book rewards will likely get packaged into a few merch bundles with the book and not sold seperatly until I run out (unless I get an odd amount? will have to see)(and there will likely be leftovers, as I will get a few more than what I need, as I don't want to get the exact amount only for a few items to end up as b grades)

Now as for the comic: I will try and aim to start regular comic updates after all of the kickstarter pledges are all sent out, which if i'm lucky gives me some time to take a break, as I have spent. A long time juggling a lot of things to do, from the kickstarter to multiple conventions to various irl things and my day job.

[someone-always-cares]

Hello!! It's almost time, there is one more day left in my kickstarter! 19 hours as of the time of me posting this!

If you haven't seen my posts this month: my webcomic is getting printed! We've long since his the goal so you WILL get what you pledge for! You can get the comic, stickersheets, stickers, an art book and not pictured in the post but also a recently unlocked bookmark stretch goal, two stickers of the protagonists in their costumes, and a hopefully-soon-to-be-unlocked logo pin badge! For the story itself: Someone Always Cares is a webcomic about a superhero and a vigilante who team up to try and track down a pair of serial killers who target people with superpowers. It's also about trying to be yourself in a world that doesn't want you to exist, fucking around and finding out, and most importantly, the bonds that people have with other people and where those bonds will drive them. Get your comic here!

[someone-always-cares]

tried for ages to have a proper high effort video! and failed so i have this instead. in case you missed it: i have a comic that's getting printed! Someone Always Cares is a webcomic about a superhero and a vigilante who team up to try and track down a pair of serial killers who target people with superpowers. It's also about trying to be yourself in a world that doesn't want you to exist, fucking around and finding out, and most importantly, the bonds that people have with other people and where those bonds will drive them. also tried to have a page effect where the images transitioned like flipping through a book but the video editor was having a moment so fuck it

[someone-always-cares]

The comic cover!

I've shown it off a few times but apparently haven't put it in a solo post yet. Also, those are panels from the actual comic pages, but i redrew the ones on the cover for fun, so here's the comparisons! Had trouble with the design at first but really latched onto the murder conspiricy board theme given the plot, and the backgrounds of [spoilers] (current readers will know!). Also because the flyers I have for the comic, that I bring to my conventions, have the same theme on the back. Also because I have an actual cork board irl with my plot stuff pinned to it! At one point with actual red yarn. Although these days, it mostly accumulates various pins, stickers, misc crap until i rearrange my boards again. (And currently have 6 other boards surrounding it, all covered in collectables, and 1 more i havent put up yet) So that absolutely shows in the cover and insides. Anyway, if you want a copy, check my kickstarter out? You can also see my other cover concepts in there and the art book!

[someone-always-cares]

My boys! Feat Lewis and Rami, a vigilante and superhero.

This drawing is one I made to use as a sticker in my comic's kickstarter! And if we reach the next goal, the sticker will get to be fancy and mildly shiny!

[someone-always-cares]

More stickers! This time one of the two stickersheets, feat chapter 1! There was a lot more characters in chapter 1 compared to chapter 2 so trying to fit them all in was. An experience. F to the two that wouldn't fit. Also had fun attempted a slightly chibi-ish style? This is one of the two stickersheets avalible as a reward in my kickstarter campain! Speaking of which, the campaign has been selected as one of kickstarter's "Projects we love"! Fuck yeah! Also we are only £3 away from the first stretch goal! Colours and spacing between characters may differ depending on which manu I go with.

So if anyone feels like treating themselves to a graphic novel for world book day, here's a link to my kickstarter!

[someone-always-cares]

Hi! If any of that video sounds intresting to you, please check out my kickstarter!!

Currently the first goal has been reached!! I set the funding goal to just the books+fees, and I would pay for the rest (rewards, shipping, ect) out of pocket, as I was worried if i set it too high i'd risk paying for the entire thing out of pocket!

What this means for you, is that since the first goal has been reached, you are garenteed to recieve whatever you pledge for (and more, if we reach those stretch goals!!)

[someone-always-cares]

[id in alt text]

WE ARE LIVE!!!

The time had finally come!! The kickstarter is finally live!

If you've ever wanted a physical copy of the comic, now is your chance! If you don't want a copy, uh. I also offer stickers?

(this is an announcement post, longer post to follow)

[someone-always-cares]

[id in alt text]

Want to find out what puts a young superhero and vigilante in hospital? That part's going to take a while but in the meantime, you can find out how said superhero and vigilante get together!

Together as boyfriends and as serial killer hunting partners! Y'know that might explain why they're in hospital. Or will it?

But anyway, feel free to read my webcomic!

You can read it on tumblr @someone-always-cares, or on tapas, or if you really want a good experience, you can find it-

On kickstarter!!

I am printing the first two chapters of my comic, and it would mean so much if people checked it out!! Even redrew the prologue for it, as seen on this post!! Campaign is in pre-launch stage and will go live in 3-4 days (aka 3rd or 4th of march)

Someone Always Cares is a webcomic about a superhero and a vigilante who team up to try and track down a pair of serial killers who target people with superpowers. It's also about trying to be yourself in a world that doesn't want you to exist, fucking around and finding out, choosing to be a better person, and most importantly, the bonds that people have with other people and where those bonds will drive them.

[someone-always-cares]

Hello everyone!!

Good news! Kickstarter is now in the prelaunch phase!

Here you can sign up to be notified once the project is launched next week!

Thank you for all your patience, it has been. very busy

Additionally, I have made some progress updates previously, but will summarise them here for those who missed them!

Things were almost ready (optimistic estimate) but then my computer broke. And by broke I mean, FUBAR, hard drive failure that nothing was able to be recovered from, aside from anything I had backed up on google drive. And I did not back up often.

Fortunatly, by that point I had already sent my first sticker samples to a manufacturer, and some other stickers/book pages to friends on discord (which saved the qulity suprisingly well!) so I got the flat pngs of most of that back.

Did have to reformat the entirety of chapter 2. Again. And redrew the prologue. That took a while.

Finished the book, ordered samples in december, found fixes needed, did those, and ordered new samples in january because I was at 2 large conventions that needed comics as I was in the comic village. If anyone wants to get into the con scene in the uk, and has comics, then please note that the comic village has the lowest foot traffic out of any section at megacon.

Anyway. TLDR: computer broke, delayed everything, worked double time to catch up and still handle con stuff and other irl stuff. ready now!

[someone-always-cares]

upd8 on kickstarter progress!

here's how the kickstarter prep is going: well it's done really!, was hoping to get it live in a week or two-

(waiting a couple days to look over it with fresh eyes, and asking if i can get a few people to proofread it. Then, it takes a few days for approval, and then i'd like a brief bit of time for it to be up and people can save it pre-launch. also if i have it start after the 1st of april, i can catch megacon birmingham in the very end in the hopes of last minute pledges)

Not much else to add, as any info I can give right now will also be in the kickstarter page! If anyone has any questions then absolutely ask away!

[someone-always-cares]

Been reading for a couple years, super excited for the physical copy! Do you know if it'll be available to order overseas, or just in the UK?

hi!! so glad you like the comic! terribly sorry for the late answer, apparently tumblr decided to only send me the notification *today*, a full 41 days after this ask was sent. webbed site.

To answer your question, yes it will be avalible overseas!

big caveat for EU specifically: avalible most places that is, because unfortunatly shipping to the eu is a little tricky now due to new regulations on shipping, which is both incredibly vague and also expensive to work with and i literally cannot afford to legally send items to eu customers, and currently i'm unsure of the consequences of doing it illegally and evading customs is and i probably should not admit to doing so even if i was.

TLDR: sorry to EU readers but unfortunatly cannot send physical items to you. digital pdf of the comic and artbook are still avalible though

[someone-always-cares]

[image description: an announcement image for megacon london with the logo and social media info of said even with the words "i'm going!" and "table cb8". the promo is a black border around an image, with the table number at the bottom and all the other info on top. the image in the middle has a teenager (specifically my oc rami from the comic someone always cares) sitting in shallow water, with various hands sticking out. end id]

forgot to update here that i will be at megacon london this weekend on the 25-26th! I will be at table CB8! That's up there in the comic village near the artists live. it'll be the one with the star shaped fairy lights!

[id: a map of megacon london]

I will also be taking part in a bug themed stamp rally, so if you like bugs and/or treasure hunts, then good news! Each participating stall will have a bug hidden on their stall and if you find it, you will get a stamp! collect all stamps, and you get a prize! (the prize is bugs. specifically a sticker pack of every bug you found!) More details to follow once an offical post is made about the bug stamp rally.

[id: a cobalt blue spider. specifically the species named "cobalt blue spider" but it's also pretty fucking blue.]

Also, you may know if you follow my comic that i've been making plans to print it and get it ready for a kickstarter, which was delayed after my computer broke so i wasn't able to do that before this year. and this year has been booked solid so far with con prep.

But what i did manage to do is finish it just enough that the comic is ready to print!! and i've said before that even if i dont have KS stuff prepared pre megacons, i will at least print a few copies to bring since i am in the *comic* village for all the megacons (oh yeah, i will also be at mega manchester and birmingham!)

So for a limited time, if you want to get a copy of someone always cares early and are in travelling distance of london this weekend, then you can grab a copy then! (if not then sorry, will have to wait)

was also at dublin this prev weekend but forgot to announce here, my bad. was panicking about various prep. turns out that doing a con outside the uk comes with different challenges such as customs, having to sign up for vat, airplane bullshit, goverment bullshit, picking and choosing what i can bring based off suitcase weight limit, having to get a ppsn just to register for vat as a sole trader, ect.

[someone-always-cares]

update! first sample arrived!

patch notes:

so the biggest thing is the darker scenes, some of them are still too dark so i need to make them lighter

found some small edits i need to make that are easier to notice when in book form

inside back cover has some very onvious streaks in it, which im not please with, idk if i just got unlucky or if inside covers are prone to do that, also similar with the glue, you can see the inside front cover has some white marks there where it was glued together. hopefully thats something i can fix, or at least disguise to be less obvious because there's only so many places i can print comic books affordably

anyway time to sort out the lighting so i can get another sample!

[someone-always-cares]

[id: a screenshot of an order confirmation for a single a5 132 comic book]

alright lets fucking go

only a brief update because trying to organize all that into a working test print took all my free time this weekend. you'd think assembling it would be the easy part when you have every page labelled and "ready to go" but nope had to reorganise and deal with several frustrating errors.

anyway ordering a test print! and when that returns i make adjustments or can mark it as good to go! then i have to do everything else. and then i can finally get that nice cake i promised i would get myself once all this is done

timeline-wise there is a chance i may go for preordering and not kickstarter because i have 2 conventions in jan that i want to already have book copies for but am exhausted right now to decide. idk. whatever i do, i will have at least some books printed for megacons dublin and london

[someone-always-cares]

curb your enthusism theme plays

in advance: comic is still going full steam ahead, very small delay, have a new temporary laptop

so. pretty much day after that last post, this happens! long story short, its a hard drive issue (likely hardware issue not software), which is bad because that's where the computers everything lives!

so: waited to go back to work to ask it guys there for help, they cant (time + liability issue, completely understandable), went to local it repair, they told me there was a very good chance of restoring my files. they couldn't. checked out some data recovery specialists, but those cost £500-700ish vaguely, saw one place for £299 (price listed ex vat because theyre dicks) and got excited and contacted them but luckily i checked some not google reviews and saw multiple "don't go here" (1 star on yelp!)

so shits fucked

anyway thats not fucking stopping me

things i still have:

the actual edited comic pages. (backed those up early this year)

the flat pngs of the front/back cover, inside covers (although were work in progress but got all the wip sketches too). apparently dumping them in a discord chat still leaves them in good quality. unlike tumblr. annoying that its just the flat pngs, but since they're finished, its all good

the files for stickers and stickersheets. since i ordered samples before, i just emailed the manu and explained and asked if they could send me the files i submitted, so i have those back (again mostly just pngs but very helpful. shout out to zap creatives)

pages 1 and 4 of the redrawn prologue. (for some reason i didnt send those to anyone and im mad)

a working laptop. mercifully, my bro had his old brick of a dell lying in a drawer (now at least 3rd hand but works like a champ. lots of storage in here!). did have to factory reset because he couldnt remember the password, but here we go! (he even installed steam and discord for me which was nice of him!! he also made the profile for the computer "torries are wankers" typo included and i don't know how to change it but its funny so.)

things that are gone:

most of my sanity

pages 2, 3, and 5 of the redrawn prologue. (fuck)

misc not comic related shit (fuck x2)

chapter five pages after 68. has the pngs for 69, 70,73-75 thought but just the extra small versions (tapas has a limit on width) i don't know why those and not the the og files, i think something went wrong with the backup

the folder that i have manually searched for all sac related art to put in the bonus art pages. like thats not going to take more than a day to find again but ffs

my old laptop. rest in pieces. literally, the repair place somehow fucked up my hinges more than they already were, before it was broken and now its just completely snapped. even before that they said it really wasnt worth fixing. it's like, a decade old probably and already had its case replaced once (used to be red) and it's fan but that was easy to fix. i'm going to have to save up for a new one (although bro's old laptop is growing on me. ive named it The Brick)

my fucking font (apparently the site i used to make a handwriting font saves it to the browser not the account?) but whatever i once emailed an older version of the font to someonw or i can just grab something off blambot, its nbd

have to redraw anything half finished, bleh

anyway tldr:

computer: fucked

files: fucked again

IT help: failed

comic delayed?: barely. honestly not that much. i have the important bits. just need to redraw a few pages and do a bunch of double checking literally everything. at most an extra months work? pain in the ass though

other art files: had more backed up than i thought. didn't do much not comic art this year, kinda glad tbh. fucking rip to anything not in my doodles file.

current timeline: shrugs. not sure but before the end of the year for sure. the only outside deadline is needing comics before megacons in jan, so it'll get done before that.

sticker samples: oh those are done and here. need to adjust the colours slightly but knew that going in (printed in their normal colours to see which ones needed adjusting. mostly the darker colours. looking at you, tree in ch2 sheet) and can also get away with making the borders smaller

also treated myself to some very big holo samples (printed as one giant 30cm holo sticker for price reasons) just to see what they'd look like (fun strech goal? little treat for me? both?)

added little hearts for funsies and so i can cut them all out with scissors. kinda have to anyway, my eyes hurt staring at all that holo

like it was not that fucked when i brought it in??? bro

anyway rip broken piece of shit toshiba, my faithful compainion. you had so many problems. and so little storage. but it was mine. going to see if i can like, safely remove the stickers though. still like them. also there's the brick. liking the wide screen.

anyway that's what's stressing me out the past nearly 3 weeks, and i got the "hardrive is fubar" memo a couple days ago, was waiting to update after everything was fixed or confirmed unfixable and its was unfortunatly the latter, but at least i still have most my art shit and a temp laptop.

this concludes the comic progress update and psa to update your backups

Progress update

Edit: laptop broke (hard drive issue), so thing will either be delayed a week or A Lot depending if my shit is recoverable. Back up your files regularly yall

Realised I should probably update yall on how things are going! Things are almost ready, just need to stich the book together together and finish a couple things, then I can order a sample of the book. I don't want to start the kickstarter until I have a book sample in hand that I'm happy with.

Admittedly looking like my original timeline isn't quite going to fit but such is life. its a close enough timeline so im not too annoyed just not in time to advertise it this weekend

to thank yall for your patience with this, here a sneak peek of the stickersheets made because I'm very happy with them and also because I just approved the proofs the manu sent me for those samples:

disclaimer: colours may vary depending on how the samples turn out (converting rgb to cmyk, my beloathed).

[id: two stickersheets, one of characters from chapter 1, and the other chapter two: chapter 1 sheets has: rami (civilian clothes), his whole team, tsunami, inkmaster, swarm, sound flood, and mori. as well as some smaller stickers: a sparkling wave, rami's logo, two diamond shaped sparkles, a small fireball, swarm's butterly, and three hearts with the ace, trans, and rainbow pride flags. chapter 2 sheet has: lewis and sound flood (both in civilian clothes), iris, faete, mindforce, and omen (super costumes). also several smaller stickers: mindforce's eye, a yellow and pink rose, a snowdrop, faete's sword, iris's notebook (with the words "stay safe"), a starry sky with city view, rami's hand holding a rose, and 5 blue pink and white hearts. end id]

also here's the cover (minus the blurb)

[id: image of the cover design, layed flat. aka the front cover is on the right side, back on the left, and the spin inbetween. designed to look like a corkboard with photos pinned to it, and red sring connecting things. on the back there are photos that are from various panels in chapter 1 and 2 (redrawn, specifically faete after transforming, cam readying her forcefield, lewis on the roof, and tsunami riding his wave. the back also contains enamel pins: a trans flag, an ace flag, and mindforce's eye. as well as the corner of a missing persons poster, a business card for "cullen's bowls 'n' bowls", and a blank sheet of notebook paper where the blurb should be. the spine has some starry washi tape with the title written on. the front has a piece of blue paper torn off at the end with the title on it, and stickers of a silver star and rami's logo. below is a large image of rami sitting in the water staring intestly at the viewer, light emerging behind him. around him, hands all strech out towards him, hands belonging to the significant character significant in chapters 1 and 2 of sac. end id]

so specifically what is left (no particular order):

spellchecking

adding page numbers to the bottom

finishing the rest of the not comic pages (aka the thank you note, about the author, deciation and the bit where im going to add names of people who pledged to the kickstarter) 75% done

character bios (admittedly optional i just want to do them)

bonus pages for art and sketches (i have collected all the art and sketches, its just deciding which ones to ue and which ones to save for next time because it makes more sense to put them with the more spoilery chapters 3-5 specific arts)

assembling these and sending a sample off to print

actually starting the kickstarter (once i have decived book sample back and am happy. i am not starting it without knowing 100% that i can fufill it right then and there)

(in the intrest of transperency: while these are all easy and mostly quick (aside from character bios. havent started that one yet), i also have some upcomign events that will have to take priority. that being a convention this weekend, next weekend, and my sisters wedding the weekend after (and the wedding gift, which is custom artwork of my sister and future brother in law. like a wedding painted but not on the day and also digital. so that will take up a bit of time after [another reason i wanted to get this done before then but ah well])

for real though one day i hope to be able to do art stuff full time because i am. so tired of doing a day job

also also there are versions of lewis and rami stickers in super outfits, they'll be seperate stickers

[id: drawings of lewis and rami, same as the stickers in the sheets, just seperate and in different outfits, the drawings have been placed close together, so it looks like thye're holding hands. end id]

you can make them hold hands :)

[someone-always-cares]

Progress update

Edit: laptop broke (hard drive issue), so thing will either be delayed a week or A Lot depending if my shit is recoverable. Back up your files regularly yall

Realised I should probably update yall on how things are going! Things are almost ready, just need to stich the book together together and finish a couple things, then I can order a sample of the book. I don't want to start the kickstarter until I have a book sample in hand that I'm happy with.

Admittedly looking like my original timeline isn't quite going to fit but such is life. its a close enough timeline so im not too annoyed just not in time to advertise it this weekend

to thank yall for your patience with this, here a sneak peek of the stickersheets made because I'm very happy with them and also because I just approved the proofs the manu sent me for those samples:

disclaimer: colours may vary depending on how the samples turn out (converting rgb to cmyk, my beloathed).

[id: two stickersheets, one of characters from chapter 1, and the other chapter two: chapter 1 sheets has: rami (civilian clothes), his whole team, tsunami, inkmaster, swarm, sound flood, and mori. as well as some smaller stickers: a sparkling wave, rami's logo, two diamond shaped sparkles, a small fireball, swarm's butterly, and three hearts with the ace, trans, and rainbow pride flags. chapter 2 sheet has: lewis and sound flood (both in civilian clothes), iris, faete, mindforce, and omen (super costumes). also several smaller stickers: mindforce's eye, a yellow and pink rose, a snowdrop, faete's sword, iris's notebook (with the words "stay safe"), a starry sky with city view, rami's hand holding a rose, and 5 blue pink and white hearts. end id]

also here's the cover (minus the blurb)

[id: image of the cover design, layed flat. aka the front cover is on the right side, back on the left, and the spin inbetween. designed to look like a corkboard with photos pinned to it, and red sring connecting things. on the back there are photos that are from various panels in chapter 1 and 2 (redrawn, specifically faete after transforming, cam readying her forcefield, lewis on the roof, and tsunami riding his wave. the back also contains enamel pins: a trans flag, an ace flag, and mindforce's eye. as well as the corner of a missing persons poster, a business card for "cullen's bowls 'n' bowls", and a blank sheet of notebook paper where the blurb should be. the spine has some starry washi tape with the title written on. the front has a piece of blue paper torn off at the end with the title on it, and stickers of a silver star and rami's logo. below is a large image of rami sitting in the water staring intestly at the viewer, light emerging behind him. around him, hands all strech out towards him, hands belonging to the significant character significant in chapters 1 and 2 of sac. end id]

so specifically what is left (no particular order):

spellchecking

adding page numbers to the bottom

finishing the rest of the not comic pages (aka the thank you note, about the author, deciation and the bit where im going to add names of people who pledged to the kickstarter) 75% done

character bios (admittedly optional i just want to do them)

bonus pages for art and sketches (i have collected all the art and sketches, its just deciding which ones to ue and which ones to save for next time because it makes more sense to put them with the more spoilery chapters 3-5 specific arts)

assembling these and sending a sample off to print

actually starting the kickstarter (once i have decived book sample back and am happy. i am not starting it without knowing 100% that i can fufill it right then and there)

(in the intrest of transperency: while these are all easy and mostly quick (aside from character bios. havent started that one yet), i also have some upcomign events that will have to take priority. that being a convention this weekend, next weekend, and my sisters wedding the weekend after (and the wedding gift, which is custom artwork of my sister and future brother in law. like a wedding painted but not on the day and also digital. so that will take up a bit of time after [another reason i wanted to get this done before then but ah well])

for real though one day i hope to be able to do art stuff full time because i am. so tired of doing a day job

also also there are versions of lewis and rami stickers in super outfits, they'll be seperate stickers

[id: drawings of lewis and rami, same as the stickers in the sheets, just seperate and in different outfits, the drawings have been placed close together, so it looks like thye're holding hands. end id]

you can make them hold hands :)