WTF is Back Issues

Hello,

Thank you for your support !

Front-loading the TL:DR 

Back Issues is a fake mag devised to compile and diversify my works, no hard commitments but you'll see excerpts pop up now and then (not monthly) featuring what I consider to be the « final » versions of my pics. As a patron whenever an issue is complete you will have access to it with the rewards on MEGA !

Main chunk:

I've been posting stuff in a weird mock-Magazine format recently, and I intend to continue for a bit, which might bring about some questions on your part !

Back Issues is my response to several questions I've been asking myself about my creative process.

Maybe it's because I'm a bit older than most of my colleagues but i still struggle to make sense of the strictly digital environment I am invested in. Since things don't get printed, distributed and set to rest on somebody's shelf, the endpoint where you deem something to be finished and done with becomes a very relative concept. There is more of an onus on the artist to determine that for themselves, but it's something I've never been at peace with as you know if you have been following my work for a while.

Indeed I will often pull out older pics and spend an unreasonable amount of time tweaking or redrawing them, not because I hate the older versions, but because I...just enjoy it.

I've decided to accept that this tendency that I have long considered unhealthy is just part of how I keep my momentum going, and I should work with it.

But doesn't the Back Issues mock-magazine format contradict this whole idea ?

Yes it does ! Back Issues is an attempt to create a reasonable endpoint for the process, rather than have it be completely abstract, I'll be « publishing » the pic as part of a whole that people can enjoy, including not just art but some annotations, comments about the process, and whatever I feel like adding =). Since the compilation will always be delayed, I will have ample time to tinker with pics before I decide that they are appropriately finalised.

Hopefully in my Brain the pic will become « that pic from issue  XX » and be neatly slotted into my imaginary Bookshelf.

How often will I be compiling those BIs ?

Deadlines ? That's too much structure in one sitting ! I don't know, so far I've been grouping pics from the same monthly batches out of convenience but chronology is not a particularly important point. The format is still experimental, I'd like to bring it closer to a Mock-Doujin feel, smaller format, as if you were reading a double-page scan.

Whatever the organisation, the BI compilations will always trail behind and I will not commit to having them ready for the same month the works are initially published.

How will it interact with Patreon ?

Loosely ! Each individual issue is likely to follow month-by-month segments but it's incidental, there might not be any rules ! In terms of access, if you are a patron you'll be getting the package on MEGA, it's just not a guaranteed monthly reward.

I should mention that although I've been implying that pics on Patreon aren't always "final", they will always be appropriate in terms of the quality you have seen so far around here, none of this is about posting sub-par, under-polished work.

I don't know what I'll do in terms of public releases and access yet !

So here you go, none of this is part of a singular, hard hitting commitment that will revolutionise my content, I certainly don't have the best footing for that these days. I just wanted to explain, in my usual verbose-wall-of-text way, what Back Issues are and why they are there.

Ask away if you have any questions !

Cheers !