I totally had this dream last night where I asked you guys on DA what conventions you would suggest going to, and then I woke up and was all 'GOSH SO WEIRD' and once I had breakfast and coffee I started realizing this wasn't a bad idea.

Gee golly, thanks subconscious!!

Anyhow, I have a few cons already lined up in my mind, but I also wanted to expand my horizons and not just repeat the ones I did last year (plus I like seeing new places!). I am going to try to pick my cons very carefully and make a smart schedule this year (meaning err, 2011!) as last year I ended up doing everything last minute and being weirded out and sick the entire time (which sucked). So planning ahead for me this year!

What cons would you suggest? I am kind of looking for conventions in these regions (but am also open to anything):

Seattle, Chicago, New York <<(really need a con in New York cos of a friend, so help me out here! <33)

I know people have mentioned it several times that they'd like me to go to a con in Canada and England (you guys are so sweet!) and boy WOULD I LOVE TO but I am not sure next year I'll have the finances to do that, but we'll see! I imagine Canada is much easier to manage than England (though overseas, nnghhh sounds so lovely!) Life is surprising sometimes! Never know where you are in a year from now.

I still don't know how many cons I am going to. Five was pretty rough on me this year, but probably with some better planning I can avoid the mega-stress I put upon myself. Plus, I was practically a con virgin last year so I was constantly bewildered. Now I have some experience under my belt! But I realized that when I try to look up cons I don't even know what they're like and there's like a CON EVERYDAY SOMEWHERE, so I figured you guys know the convention scene better than me.

I mean, you have to. I don't know it at all! Thanks so much in advance for your help!!

Dear San Jose,

You are pretty awesome, did you know that? Your weather is pretty freaking fantastic because I can leave the windows open all day. I can also walk into (almost) any random mom & pop owned restaurant and it will be pretty tasty. I can walk around your streets and not feel like I am a huge inconvenience to everybody on the road (and universe), and I can actually GET places instead of walk around in a big circle in a suburbia neighborhood.

But also your stores are crazy. I am used to every store I shopped at feeling like a zombie apocalypse. If you bumped into ONE other person that was crraaazyyy unsual and usually they were plastered up against the other side of the aisle like you had some sort of disease. Personal space was not a problem in Texas.

Now I bump into everybody else all the time and if I am trying to pick a fruit someone runs me over and picks one out over my unconscious body. I am sort of exaggerating, but you get what I mean, don't you San Jose? I guess this means that I am going to have to learn to get really good at elbowing so I can pick my fruit in peace. I am only halfway kidding.

I would go on more about you San Jose, but I'm sorry I have to excuse myself because a new Alan Wake episode was released and yes, I do have a fictional crush on this guy. Why? Don't ask. I am not even sure.

With love,
Tess

I am aware the 4DE books are taking a painstakingly long time to get to people. I really really apologize for this. I wish circumstances were different and there's nothing I want more than you guys to get what you paid for (and more, if I could help it). The best I can suggest is to ask questions with 4DE and if they are not able to get back to you, I understand your concern and your desire to cancel the order. I am not encouraging this, but I understand 100% and if I were in your position I would do the same.

I am not in this to make a million dollars. If you guys can't feel confident that you're going to get the books, I am more concerned that you feel safer with the money and possibly have another chance to get the book some other time if you even still would like it. There are going to be other chances to get sketches from me, I promise. I wish I could help each of you more individually, but I have no access to the orders or anything of the like.

I do know that 4DE is backlogged (which means they will be shipped, it is just taking time) and they are trying to get them out as soon as they can. They (and I with sketches) were overwhelmed, but regardless of circumstances, this is not about me or about 4DE. This is about you.

Please don't worry about me, or feel bad cancelling the order. This is your money, your purchase, and in the end whatever happens I want what's best for you. And I mean this in the most serious, genuine way.

Again I'm sorry it's gone so badly, and I wish to make it up to you, so I will do my best to keep Hanna running full of updates and get some freebies on the way because Hanna was really all about sharing in the beginning. You know I love you much!

So San Jose is still pretty awesome. I'm still truckin' along through life, and finding my artistic feet again, if you will, so things are feelin' pretty up. Still overwhelmed with notes and messages, so I'm slow to get to them but I'm doing my best!

Our furniture finally got to our apartment and it feels like a PLACE now. I'm pretty happy with it. It's nice and small and cozy. Also this is the first time since I was a kid that I'm sleeping on a top bunk and I have to say I truly dig it. And the space it saves!

Hanna is sort of fiddling with his facebook and I'm kind of working on a site re-haul and a strip, and a surprise for everyone for Halloween. I know it seems like I'm doing nothing these days but I promise the wheels have been turning on Hanna behind the scenes (maybe slowly) but surely.

I realized at some point the other day that Hanna will probably make zombie watch Hocus Pocus with him on Halloween, because that's good wholesome fun. And Hanna is twelve. Buuuuut we knew the later bit already, right? I'm sure he is just waiting excitedly for a chance to meet a witch that looks like Bette Midler. It will never happen, but in Hannaland it juuuuuust might.

Have a great Halloween guys...it's my favorite time of year! Who cares if it's commercial? It's the only time of the year you can get bat-shaped sprinkles and thus is a great time of year for me.

So there's a ton of things going on with me, so let's get this going, yeah?

I MOVED!

I'm now living in San Jose. I had to do a very rush move right after Dragon*Con which has made everything bumpier and slower. But it's great! I have never lived out of Texas, I won't lie, but California so far is treating me fabulously. I really love how you can walk around and it's always 70 degrees every day, all the time. That's fabulous! Tired of the Texas heat so it seemed appropriate for me.

I don't know many people out here, but I am still loving it. Today was the first day we got internet (which is AWESOME), so things are going more smoothly in that regard.

LUDO IS FUCKING AWESOME, BUT YOU KNOW THAT RIGHT?

Some of you already have kept me posted on how Ludo linked me! It's cos they're bad ass. And in turn, I ask you : Have you bought Prepare the Preparations? If you haven't, you should. And if you don't know who Ludo is, then I suggest that you should by checking out one of their videos. Not your cup of tea? That's okay, because you can rest assured that even if you don't totally jam out to their music that they're also incredible people.

I did get to hang out with them in Sacramento and I was a lucky fool for it. The concert was great, and I even got to meet some awesome people who dig the comic there, so thank you! I apologize if I seemed tired at the time. I feel tired a lot of the time. But I love you, I swear!

I feel the whole Ludo things deserves more of a comprehensive post but maybe when I feel like my head's on straight, haha.

ME, MYSELF, AND I

I always feel random ass and like a douche for posting shit like this (again) on the internet but I feel like it's relevant. I'm really trying to keep up with Hanna updates and everything with Hanna on my side in general, but the honest to god truth is that I'm not doing very horribly well right now. You don't need to worry about me or anything because I will be 100% fine! I just realize that in the past I did my best to respond to people and be very active and well, I posted a hell of a lot more than I did right now. I've got a lot of sorting in my brain going on, and I know that my last post was a touch on the creative side of that, but I want to reassure anyone who thinks I'm quitting or that Hanna is no more that it's totally not true. There's a lot of real life situations presenting itself to me and I'm having to take care of them first in order to ensure that Hanna can be taken care of as soon as it's possible.

LAST THINGS

I really miss you guys and I appreciate you all for being patient with me. I know I say it about every time I post or update, but I really cannot stress it enough. I am aware the 4DE books are taking a long while to get to everyone so how awesome you guys are all being is just phenomenal. I cannot apologize enough, and I sincerely wish I could change the circumstances. Again, I can't help you with the merch info at all but the guys at 4DE can. Just hit them up at their site or at *Team4D. If you have e-mailed me, or noted me or anything I haven't been able to check, and sadly I would not be able to help you at all, so please feel free to contact the people at 4DE. I owe you all like a hug, a coffee. A casual date, yeahhh. Hahaha.

I'm so sorry.

Warning: This journal is probably unnecessarily long, rambling and sappy so feel free to skip this one over. /endwarning

Okay, I generally don't use internet journals to talk about the stress I'm dealing with my life, because I have this thing where I feel like no one really needs to be burdened with my random 'oh nooo so stressed' garbage going on. But this actually has a bit to do with HiNaBN so here it is. This is my confession to you. I was worried writing it before, because I was afraid that it would always come off grossly unappreciative or self depreciating so hopefully this manages to be more conversational than that.

I love Hanna. It has turned into something bigger than I could ever imagine and it's amazing. I get blown away every time I open up the browser and I realize how many comments are left on the pages, how many people are drawing fanart, doing fanfiction, roleplaying the characters, and just investing their wonderful, valuable time thinking about Hanna Is Not A Boy's Name. I'm touched every time I go to a convention and it is the most surreal feeling in the world when I see lines of people coming up to talk to me, to dress up as the characters, people telling me they look forward to it every day and just the wonderful people I've met THROUGH the comic itself.

Personally? I don't understand really what it is about this comic that everybody loves. Sure, I love doing it, and I put myself into it entirely but I see it and I think it is goofy, horribly lame and I feel like I've got SO much to learn because whoa was that last page hideous or jeez was that dialog clunky or what the heck was I thinking when I did such and such. Before I go further, I also want to establish that this is not me fishing for compliments, but rather an explanation into my mind for the past few months. I'm not saying that Hanna is trash ewww why do you guys like it, I'm just saying I am not framing it and putting it on my wall like the next damn Van Gogh. The sense of pride I get out of doing the comic are from the lessons I've learned, and not necessarily the visible product itself (if that makes sense?). Anywhoo, moving on!

Hanna Is Not A Boy's Name was originally an experiment in the comic medium itself only, but the experiment has gone beyond that. It is my first time continuing something with the mind of finishing it, it is my first time doing something with a publisher, it is my first time investing my every day into an idea, as well as my first time really growing with each character so fully that the comic itself is just really truly about the characters and each other. Hanna is so many of my FIRSTS that it's amazing that it hasn't sunk to the bottom of the hypothetical creative ocean. I'm so grateful, because I feel so damn lucky that it hasn't.

On top of it all, I am an emotionally unstable person. I don't mean this to be an excuse or self depreciating, but rather state it in a self aware way. I dip in and out of people's lives not because I do not like people but rather, because I am terrified of wronging them and my own view of myself is so shaky and so .... unsure that every social outing is a stressball waiting to explode. I'm self conscious and nervous, and I have been fighting through so much ongoing self improvement and random ass issues created by my own mind that a simple dinner I have with people I only sort-of know knocks me off my feet because HOLY SHIT that was hard. For me.

But I love people. That's the thing -- Hanna, all my comics really, are all studies in people. But I'm bad at interacting with them. It's almost why my isolation makes the writing easier. I'm so like engrossed in my own mental goings on that it feels so real and then I put it in a comic and that's what you see. Forgive me for rambling, haha, this is actually really embarrassing to write (but amazingly making me feel a bit better).

Continuing onto that, con season has been incredibly hard for me. I don't want this (at any point) to feel like I do not like meeting you, or talking to new people, or just not enjoying cons at all, but rather explain my lame ass thought process. It is like....when you love running and you love it like crazy but you're pretty shitty at it and you ran a marathon but you had to do it at your own pace and it took twenty years and after you were done you felt like hibernating for another twenty because whhoaaaaa.

That's kind of like that. Essentially, sort of, only minus the running cos then I'd be in better shape. Anyways.

I am so grateful to you guys every day all the time that I always fear I come off too sappy in my posts, that I say it too often, and then alternatively I worry I don't say it enough or show it enough. I always feel like I'm somehow ripping you all off -- that whenever I miss something or don't get something done earlier it is like a personal failure. Essentially, I am battling the weirdest battle of all. I am having to fight my own passion and tell it to calm the hell down a smidge.

I love the comic SO MUCH right now it is almost self destructive. When it was just this fun thing I did it was a completely different mental battle. Oh that page sucked? Its okay, tomorrow's another day! I could take a jaunty step forward and everything would move on and my own negativity forgotten. Now I screw up on a page or something and my mind stumbles, thumbing through all the ways I wish I had done something better and how oh god, I am messing everything up. I am clinging to every mistake I make (every, not just in the comic) and obsessing over it like thinking about it for a million hours is going to make the mistake undo itself. Which, we all know doesn't happen.

Hanna (the character and comic itself) was supposed to teach me to be able to move on, a lesson in the purest form of 'tomorrow is a new day' and oddly enough I'm so attached to it now that I am not even listening to myself and all I'm doing is thinking about yesterday. I'm dwelling, I'm sinking in my own self doubt, I'm screwing my own self over. These past few weeks (I guess while also being sick helped? Hooray?) I had some sort of epiphany, realizing what it was that was making doing what I was doing so hard. It's like if Hanna (the comic, not the dude...although that would be pretty funny) was my casual friend before and now I was making love to it and marrying it and stalking it to work and taking pictures of it when it though I was at home baking an apple pie.

Creepy of me, yes.

So essentially, this huge long rambling ass mess of a journal is just sort of an explanation to you. Why does Hanna take so long to update these days? This is probably why. Am I going to stop doing it? Hell no. Am I finally going to figure my shit out?

Of course. That's what the whole experience is all about, even if it takes forever. I don't see this as just this thing I do every once in a while, I have grown so much in a YEAR from this damn thing I'll be damned if I stop now.

All in all, abridged version means thank you for everything even if I never reply or never get a chance to fave your awesome creativity, or say hi or get to be personally grateful to you. I am working hard to figure out how to use this experimental comic I started to grow in art, story, and character, and for the journey and experience through the comic to be worthwhile not only to myself, but hopefully (just maybe) to any of you who happen to read it at any time and enjoy it. Because in the end, we all float on okay.

So on the last day of Comic Con I had a sore throat, and was like UGH, this sucks! I got back, rested for like, two days and left for Baltimore.

I fought through it through the next several days (and don't get me wrong, Otakon was a BLAST) but it was also very very exhausting and I'm now even sicker than ever. As much as I really want to finish the next pages of the strip and keep plowing forward, I'm going to (with the better judgment of my friends and family) actually NOT work for the next few days.

So unfortunately, a strip cannot be expected soon, but this is probably pretty good for me and recharge me 100%. I have a pretty bad habit of starting work up again before I'm all better and therefore wear myself out faster. Anyways, take care and I wanted to thank everyone for a great con season! I have one more to go, and YEAH you guys all rock.

I'll do a proper report on SDCC and Otakon and cons in general when I get back, so STAY COOL. And if you're in Texas I mean QUITE LITERALLY.

104, excuse me what??

Hey! So I actually have a map for you guys! No way!! Really??

YES REALLY.

I'm at F12 or F13.

I'm going to be sharing my table space with *scrotumnose and ~akemichan! My neighbors will be the awesome `dapper-owl and `sambees so please come by and visit us!!

Lookin' forward to it OHH YEAH.

Also my throat is kinda dying so hopefully I won't sound like a horse. :[

its over!!

the delete button is hiding from me on this thing

Hey! So SDCC is right around the corner! Here's the information for it!

We will be in the IP Pavilion at space #2203.

The signing schedule is as follows:

11 AM - 1 PM - Tracy Butler
1 PM - 3 PM - Der-shing Helmer
3 PM - 5 PM - Tessa Stone

So come see us all! You guys are awesome, and I totally want to see you and if I met you once already at AX I wanna see you again too!

Otherwise, I'll probably be wandering around being a loser (or most likely) working. There's some people I have to work up the courage to see, but hopefully I won't be yellowbellied by the time I get there.

In other news, right after that I'll be at Otakon! So. HOORAY.

OKAY.

So I finally have the time (sort of) to recall AX (I say as if it were a wild dream).

It was the ... third time I was in California, I believe. I love California. I really wish I could move there, the weather is FANTASTIC. You don't feel like you're going to die going outside and walking down to the end of the street. Nothing against Texas but I am very weak against heat, and Texas does have the nasty c-c-c-combo hit of heat and humidity at times. Gross.

Anyways, I went and visited my friend ~Akemi-chan and her wonderful family who I love seeing every time. Her father even introduced me to grass jelly and maple syrup which, despite the way that it sounds is actually pretty good. I recommend trying it. He said you can get the cans 4 for $1 if you're in the asian market, which makes for very cheap eating.

I also got to see a lot of my other friends that I haven't seen in ages, and on top of that meet new people. I'm fairly certain all my socializing gets compressed down to conventions sometimes -- lately I spend so much time working on the comic and trying to catch up that I barely get out (ugh, that's horrible, isn't it?) and honestly I'm not an incredibly social or party person. I feel awkward or self conscious in large groups, and meeting new people is generally very scary for me.

Buuuut everybody's so damn friendly, so I thank you for being so GENTLE WITH ME. I know I'm a totally awkward person in real life, so I appreciate everybody who came to the table and said hello, the people at the dinners, and well. Everybody. There were so many people cosplayed as the characters, and again it absolutely blows me away. A lot of people asked me how it felt like to see my characters running around, and all I really had to say was that it was wonderful and surreal. It sort of feels like it has to be happening to somebody else, because my god. It is hard to believe (for example) that Conrad is so awesome to have wonderful people dressing up as him, and going out of their way to buy pointy white shoes to match the damn angry bastard.

It's AWESOME.

I'm now hitting that stump where I am having a hard time talking about myself and feel like I've gone on WAY TOO LONG ALREADY so I'll just go back to drawing today's strip. SDCC is coming up soon, so if you're going to that please come say 'hi', even though I just said I was super awkward, I promise I won't be too bad.

PS: I can't get enough of the new Pendulum album, who's with me??

PPS: I am totally going to the Ludo concert in Dallas in September. I can't believe they're touring already -- they're madmen! Absolutely MAD!

EDIT! I actually wanted to talk about the format a teeny bit cos I understand the concern of it being taller instead of longer, like it used to be. I wish it could stay long and horizontal, but unfortunately it wasn't very practical. Should the books be put into stores eventually, it's hard to get places to take odd sized books. They were also small and fat, really expensive to make (which is why each base cost of the previous books were 20$ a pop) and over all just hard to have in print and make it work.

The way I tackled this is to ultimately stack two strips on top of each other to create a full page, which makes the books thinner. The beginning of Ch1 had to be formatted fairly heavily in order to work because I [at that point] was throwing caution to the wind as they say, and leaving myself tons of 'artsy' white space. I did my very best to make it work though, and I did put time into making sure the pages looked nice and didn't just slap things together and call it a day. Somewhere in the middle of Ch1 and on, it becomes easy to stack and therefore will be how it works from there on out.

Ultimately -- Hanna Is Not a Boy's Name is a webcomic. I am always super surprised and flattered people want to pay for a physical copy for something that is free online, and it just brings me so much joy. However, it is all in all made FOR the web, not for print. The colors I use are generally out of the gamut of printing, and therefore end up duller and less saturated as they do on the web. The format may also have to change, and the weirder pages (like the ones where you had to scroll down) have to be cut up and rearranged. I try to make sure they are still nice to look at but the original experience will always be on the website, if that makes sense.

Hanna is made to be free and always available -- the point of it is to share a story with anyone who is interested in partaking. The amount of support from you guys is phenomenal and you treat me so well by purchasing the physical copies. Because of that I did my best to retain its integrity in the new format and hopefully you'll still enjoy it, even in its new standard comic size!

As for people who have the old books - I hope one day the indy prints done by me (the long horizontal ones) will be a collectors item, and those that have them do not regret having bought them originally. That was during a time when your support was extra helpful and lovely and I can never thank you enough for that. So...THANK YOU.  

I hope that answers questions! Thanks again for everything guys, and naturally, you know you rock!

Well guys, I'm back from AX! SDCC is coming up in a few weeks and that's SUPER exciting, and Otakon is right after!! I'll have special exclusive buttons for both cons as well, so hi-fives all around.

And here's even better news. FINALLY book one is here!! I am happy to say it is now available where you do not have to race to get it, it is not in a horrendously limited supply, nor is it twenty dollars, AND it has a brand new cover! Jee golly Batman! Preordered books are a special deal and therefore will ALL come signed, and for a little bit extra [BUT ONLY THROUGH THE PREORDER PERIOD] they will be doodled in as well! Exciting!! So check it out!

Now remember - this IS a preorder. Books will be also available to purchase at the rest of the cons starting from San Diego Comic Con, but the books will ship at the end of this month, July 2010. Just to keep in mind!



Also as a note: These are now a standard comic size! It's unfortunate that the horizontal long books, while artsy and cute, were not practical, and the tall skinny books will be how they're printed from now on! The beginning of book one has quite a bit of formatting adjustments, but from now on out the books will be where two strips are stacked on top of each other to form one page, as well as at the end of book one! I'm sorry if this is supremely inconvenient for anybody, but I did my best to make sure the book still looked good! Hope you will still enjoy!

Just got back from the airport last night! AX was great, and thanks to everybody I met there, augh. Cons are always great because of the people and the people there were so awesome that the fact I had a good time is no surprise. It was wonderful and also surprising to see the amount of people who loved and appreciated Hanna, and as usual it made me feel extremely warm and fluffy inside. It seems like each con there is more, and that blows me away!

I've got quite a ton of work to do (so that the first book will be available by SDCC and have some extra surprises for the remaining cons, as well as updating the comic like whoa [obviously]) so I'll hopefully do a full journal about the con fairly soon in the future, but right now I'm pretty wiped.

So in short - thanks to everybody there and all the generous support and yay for being back and able to work on the strip! Let's make some comics RAHHH!!!

AX is tomorrow! I'm sort of excited and nervous! Ahhhhhh.

I'm pretty much contemplating not going to sleep tonight so I can sleep on my flight, because that's my only real tactic against how bored I am on them.

I also finished reading Monster. God, I love that manga so much. Kenzo Tenma is such a stud, am I right? I had pecked at the anime for a bit with my family but I got too impatient. I had to know what happened. So I picked up the manga and read through all of it in two days. I couldn't help myself. And now, at some point, I will have to add him to my list of fanarting I need to do. Right next to Dojima and Adachi from P4.

All this recent flood of love of characters with really dark hair has made me realize a lot of my characters (unless they are stark redheads of course) all have black hair.

Doc Worth is like one of my few blondes, and I have next to no guys (or gals) running around lately with brown hair. Cas and Finas are it, I guess. [And Cas barely counts because he's a two toned little freak!]

So basically, my mind's eye sees the world as having red hair or black hair. How odd. Excuse me as I suddenly feel compelled to fill that gap.

I'm pretty sure I'll fail and end up with another redhead or something. 8|

I bet you wanted me to say 'butts'. I know you and your potty humor, internet!

Hahah, I say as I still laugh at potty humor.

ANYWAYS.




These two are only available now up until the end of AX weekend, which is July 4th, 2010! They will also be available at the con themselves, but after that another exclusive will replace them! How exciting!



As usual for most things from 4DE, allow 10 business days for shipping! Also, if you have any questions about the merchandise please feel free to contact him at 4de.com website or here at *Team4D!



We thank you for all your support, and it is your patience and your dedication to the comic and me that allows us to actually put out this merchandise! It's very exciting, and aghh, you guys are so great. Thanks again so much! And EVEN MORE NEWS!



^^^ Basically what the banner says! EDITED: Sorry I misunderstood Eric! Cosplay is not a prerequisite which is awesome! Also, just an FYI, the dinner isn't all ON Eric, haha, we're not that rich. But the SENTIMENT IS THERE. If you think you can come though, just RSVP him at RSVP@4de.com! Hi-five everyone! AX is next week and even though I kind of have the trembles cos I am a bit shy in large groups, it's going to be crazy fun. AM I RIGHT? I'm looking forward to meeting everyone and if you are there, please drop by and say hi! I will be floating between my own Artist Alley booth with my friends Kristen and Raife as well as sometimes materializing at the 4DE vendor booth.

YOU GUYS ROCK!! My love runs deeeeeep.

Who's excited for the Ludo album? Ehh?

I am, if you haven't noticed. August 17th! The singles will be on iTunes and on their myspace page in a week. X)

If you haven't seen the Whipped Cream video you should totally check it out RIGHT NOW. It's at least worth it for their totally serious faces and Justin Beber hats.

Thanks to ~JackxTessa for bringing my attention to their other single too. I can't wait. I guess I was so busy I missed all the announcements! Bummer!!

Generic journal is generic!

So I've been writing ahead in Hanna! I've figured out in my mind where Ch3 is going to end, how to get through Ch4 to a degree, and I've even got a new case lined up for Ch5! I even have the characters for it (yes, more). It's stupid because I'm already excited for said case, and I'm just gonna have to wait and WORK EXTRA HARD TO GET THERE. Patience, what are you? I don't have you, but I guess I'm going to have to adopt you for the time being.

It's a bitch, though. I'm one of those jerks who always ends up blurting what your bday present is before I give it to you because I am the worst. I just get too excited. I'm like those really hyper yappy type dogs that bounce around your feet and blurt everything. Self control is a pain, who's with me?

So AX is creeping up on me, and I'm excited! It's been a while since I've been to California and I love the place, I'll admit [I kind of really would love to move there, but I am thinking more SFish area]. Which is good cos I'll be back in SD for SDCC only a few weeks after! I surely hope you guys come to see me. <3 4DE is planning on having a good amount of cool merch to choose from (not only me, but The Meek and Lackadaisy, I MEAN COME ON HOW FREAKING AWESOME)!

I also wanted to point out an artist I met at A-Kon who is INCREDIBLY sweet and awesome, and her art is great to boot.

>>>>

She's the best. She has a comic called Toilet Genie which is totally worth a look if you have the time. Her art is fabulous, incredibly stylish and I just adore the way she colors. Also...comic totally awesome. What can I say. In any case, you should totally watch her and give her some love -- she works her ass off for her comic and she earns any love for it!

YEAH. Finally!!



Click the preview to be taken to the site!!

Hahaha. It all means that I have sent out the young!Worth and young!Lamont incentive minicomic to those who have already paid for it and were waiting EVER so patiently. Which means that if you have NOT received it, please e-mail me at hanna@aftertorque.com and I will set you up with it as soon as I can over the next several days and on! Also, one extra thing to check is your junk folder for the e-mail because sometimes it gets classified as junk and doesn't go through. If that is still fruitless, please bug and nag away!

Do not e-mail me at the other address. It is so overloaded with alerts for this site and god knows what else and SPAM at this point that finding a real true e-mail with something REAL to say (IE, from you guys) is pretty much like finding a needle in a haystack. Unless I get keywords from it it can take literally forever and tons of pages to flip through and careful reading. For that point really, I have stopped checking it. So!!

Again! >>>>> hanna@aftertorque.com <<<<<<

That's the place to go!

Now, for those of you who are still interested in buying the Worth and Lamont minicomic it is now available at the 4DE site! IT IS GOING TO ONLY BE AVAILABLE FOR A LIMITED TIME. ONE MONTH. We also couldn't quite have it to where you could enter exactly the amount you would like to pay for it, but it is in increments and you can CHOOSE which of those increments you would like to pay for it.

The increments are : $1, $5, $10, $15, $20, $25, $50 and $100! The system was also asking for shipping provided so it's at a penny. We're very sorry, but hopefully you won't mind paying a total of $1.01 or $5.01, etc. WE LOVE YOU VERY MUCH AND YOUR PENNY TOO. And we, of course, very much appreciate any and all purchases, and all of the support goes into the company and myself (it all comes back around, I promise!) but please! Do not feel pressured. Still think of it as throwing money into a tip jar for us, and you're getting a handy little comic in return.

At the $50 and $100 level, Eric at 4DE has gone out of his way to make it an even sweeter deal. At those levels your name gets printed in the eventually upcoming Hanna Is Not a Boy's Name artbook that is aimed for 2011! At level $100 you will automatically get the first issue signed and sketched in by yours truly, as well.

I hope you guys enjoy the comic though! If you have any questions about the downloads on the 4DE site, feel free to e-mail them or contact them here at *Team4D!!



I wanted to take this time to thank you guys AGAIN. Because you are awesome. True story. Love you guys! Tessout!

Here's some important updates! If you ordered a poster, I have been informed by Eric from 4DE that they have already been shipped! We apologize for the delay, and if you have any problems or questions, feel free to ask him at the 4DE site or here at *Team4D as well!

On top of that, we are announcing shirts! These are a bit of a pre-order sale, as they are currently being printed, so there will be a wait of 10 days before they are shipped. BUT HEY, COOL, RIGHT? SHIRTS!!! Here's the one that got picked to be printed:








The way that it will work is that if this design does well enough, we will have the means to continue making different shirts, so we'll be able to get to all the designs that I posted in the poll not too long ago! Which is awesome, I mean. Yes. Totally awesome. Also, while you're in the store you might as well pick up a poster, am I right?

The posters and t-shirts will also be available at all the other cons that I'm going to, so that's something to look forward to as well! Also, possibly other things! HOW EXCITING. I never thought I'd have merchandise like this guys. I really hope you guys dig it though!

I also now have a FORUM again, how exciting is that? For the people that were around for the first one, I'm sorry I had to trash it and start over cos trying to save it was ten times the headache. :[ But I you LIKE WHOAAA.

First off! I wanted to tackle the situation about the donations and the young!Worth minicomic!

I know you guys have been waiting SOOOO long. I cannot thank you enough. When Paypal froze my account, it made my life EXTREMELY hard -- and to top it off they are still sitting on thousands of my dollars so the 'it being a huge pain in the butt' part still isn't over. But on top of it being a huge pain in the butt as in I could not touch the money that was already in my account, I couldn't receive anymore payments.

I had to freeze the incentive because I wanted to find a fair, more effective way to tackle this. But good news struck!, I got picked up by the amazing *Team4D! Because of signing with them, a lot of things are going to have to change [but in good ways], and I talked it out with Eric and we have been working on much more streamlined solution.

So one of the main things is that it's no longer really a 'donation' and an 'incentive', it will be considered a 'collectible', but all funds still do go to me and 4DE which is all appreciated because the more that they get funded, I do as well. ETC, ETC! Eric is working to set up a way where it will be a downloadable file that is available to you once you have sent in a payment, (and we are working to make it to where you can still choose how much you pay). But this will BE SO WORTH IT GUYS.

No more hoping that the e-mails don't get mixed up, that as a human I miss a few, or even more lovely, e-mail systems won't consider my messages as spam! The system that I originally had set up worked WONDERFULLY at first -- the following was small enough that sending out 30-40 incentives a month was quite easy. But FORTUNATELY the following grew out of that, but UNFORTUNATELY, my system didn't get a chance to catch up. Now it will.

Now back to the actual incentive that was SUPPOSED to be for April [the young!Worth and young!Lamont comic]. Those of you that were able to donate before the freeze, YOU WILL STILL GET YOURS. You don't have to go through the new system, I PROMISE. However, once again I am a measly human [hahah wouldn't it nice to be a robot?], so once I announce that I have sent out the incentive I will need your help to make sure I GET EVERYBODY that paid.

I will do my very very best to make sure that I hit up everybody, but if for some reason you are looked over then I want you to nag me at hanna@aftertorque.com!

The new system will be set up sometime next week, and when it is up I will send out the incentive to the pre-payers at once. I really thought hard about this to make sure this was as fair as I could possibly make it, and I'm sorry for those of you [all of you] that have had to wait so long.

If you hate me forever, I understand. If you want a refund, I also understand that too [just hit up the e-mail up there ^^^]. Just let me know how I can help YOU guys out cos you guys always help ME so let us work together and make rainbows.

Another thing worth noting - this will no longer be a monthly thing. I think I've made it very obvious to myself that I have a tendency to bite off more than I can chew, and so instead of it being monthly it will be a 'whenever the hell I get it done'. I would love to keep doing mini-comics on the side that are available in this way [as a collectible] but I have begun to realize it is stupid of me to believe that something won't pop up and make it hard or impossible to keep up with every month.

I will also not make pre-pay an option. This is mostly for myself because I feel so so awful for having sat on prepaid stuff [if it makes you feel any better, I have not touched a dollar of the April donations] and I really have no GOOD way of knowing when I'll be able to finish things. So we will all wait for idiot slow Tessa to finish her shit first before we do anything else, hahaha.

As for the previous incentives, I will try to work out a way where you can buy the bundle of old incentives at a flat fee [which I have thought hardest on for being the most fair] because this way if you're around to have gotten the collectible originally you can pay whatever you wish for it, whereas afterwards we choose the price for you guys.

Anyways! I hope this answers people's questions, and thanks again for everything guys!

The last announcement is that I will be at this year's San Diego Comic Con on July 22nd-25th with 4DE! Come see me!