The Future of Alpha Luna - A last Howl.

As usual when I don't post any content due hiatuses I won't charge the current month and this has not changed. I intent to resume works this January but it depends on if things around me work out. Lately I've been mentally exhausted and I've had a lot in mind.

But what I now know is that I'm sad to say that Alpha Luna is in its final stretch. It has been eating me inside for a long time but I knew the time would come soon. A few weeks ago I shared this news to a few people but I think it's time to laid out what is happening with my work, specially Alpha Luna.

AL started as a passion project back in November - December 2004 and made its debut as an online-comic in January 2005, then I restarted it with a new version in 2009 reworking many pages. And in 2010 I started publishing it in my country. 

It's been almost 14 years since, and the person who I was back then is not the same me who is sitting behind the desk right now with pack pains, with more white hair and without the same passion I once had.

The sad announcement that I'm here to say is that Alpha Luna is ending in Chapter 5, that means in about 10 pages from where is now. Which means about 3 or 4 months of production (End of April most likely).

That said, 2 new AL chronicle comics will debut next month with 20+ pages each (with 4 pages to be released each month for each one) , so those will probably last longer than what the AL main story line will. How will this affect Patreon? Well immensely, but right now I can't tell if it will be worth to keeping patreon up with the AL Chronicles content alone. I think by April I'll have these answers.

I know this comes a shock to many of you, specially for newest followers and readers. But believe me, 14 years is a long time. This is something that's been on my mind since last year, time which make me think several times that I should probably just start over. But the truth is that the energy to such task is not with me anymore.

Through the years It was always an uphill road as I never took AL to another level of production, it was and it always been a solo endeavor  and many times through the years I took time out as I grew up as an artist and as a creator. But I couldn't focus or learning other things as each AL page took me about 12 hours of continuos work to make. I did many sacrifices of my life time for it, but my art and narrative was never as good and neither consistent to reach an audience big enough to go to another level. It drained me over time and the hiatuses repeated itself over and over digging a bigger hole scaring old readers away and making my goals just wishful thinking. 

The good side of these hiatuses is that I managed to recover energies and gain inspiration for what was to come, write down the script, get new ideas and get excited for was was to come, but at the same time my slow pace drained the patience of most readers away. 

And that passion is not with me anymore, I feel like Bilbo after the ring has passed to Frodo, and I can't keep forcing to draw what is not there anymore.

I loved the characters, I loved that they connected with so many readers like you who loved Luna, Collie and Fang. I loved the response and I loved the community that we created over time.

But this is an anticipated farewell. I took this month out to think all these things, to rewrite a bit of the last pages of AL which won't and can't bring a close end to the story. A few things will inevitably just end up hanging, like a series that was cancelled for another season. 

But at least some sense of closing will be there, a faint sense of achievement I hope to convey through the last pages where Luna will be happy for who she is now and what may lie  in the horizon on a full moon.

But remember I'm NOT leaving right now, we have at least 3 months of Alpha Luna work still to do. I'll be publishing in my country the 3rd book (next May) that will "end" the series and that means a new cover work to make.

So I hope you still stay around for the months to come. The new AL Chronicles comics are amazing and I can't be more happy of what the artists have made.

My work with AL will end, but I'll probably will keep drawing for my own from time to time and taking commissions here and there. But this a chapter in my life that was due to happen sooner or later and I think I can be glad that at least I'm doing it in my own terms.

Thanks to all of you who loved my work and followed me through the years. 

All of this has has been an incredible journey for me and while I feel a sense of sorrow due this announcement I also feel grateful for the experience I gained working for it.

Thanks to all of you, the true pack. 

Leo