Collar(ed)6 II #02 - Rough Pencils

And we're back.

Kinda thought Monday was the first, not today, so uh, I'm still in the pencils phase of working here. I kept wobbling between working on the next Collar d6 and the Collar(ed)6 II page and because I can't stand the idea that I can't produce this damn strip, I settled on continuing work on Collar(ed)6 II, which I plan to have finished and up this week at some point.

Going forward with comics and art making I'm a bit at a loss as to what to do. I am increasingly frustrated drawing mainline C6 as it's become this sort of portrait of who I was at a certain point in my life and not entirely who I am today (don't get me wrong, I'm still a rubber bondage fetishist). There's a lot of stuff in the story I just don't like, especially the early stuff (and even a good deal of what's happening in the pony arc). As I've said before, it's just stopped being fun.

A lot of the times I wish I could reset things back to the original almost Saturday morning cartoon vibes I had going on where it wasn't really serious and didn't have these long periods of just people standing around explaining lore. It over-complicates things and takes away from what it should be: A fun escapist bondage romp. I guess I've done so many spin-offs because I've been trying to find that same groove again, but aside from Collar d6 (which surprisingly turned out to be one of the spin-offs y'all seem to like the most), none of them really went anywhere.

I've considered a soft reboot for a long time now and it's still something I'm considering. Though even if I went that route I'd still continue making OG C6 strips, just... no longer my focus. And when I say 'soft reboot' I mean I'd take the same cast and drop them into various situations. House Sixx, House Butterfly, House Blackstone all just bumping into each other and having bondage-focused antics and conflicts, without the fate of the world at stake. Just... fun.

What do y'all think of that notion?

Now for the real talk segment. I've started therapy and it's been decided I need to see said therapist three times a week, which was surprising to me. If it weren't for medicaid I couldn't afford this so thank god they put me on that after my last hospitalization. My disability case is still up in the air right now, but my primary care doctor is backing me in my pursuit. I'm told my mental illness (borderline personality disorder, coupled with major depressive disorder and complex ptsd) is very serious. Certainly it has made my life and more recently creating art very difficult. I apologize if it sounds like I'm making excuses for the content drought, I'm just trying to be transparent since y'all keep me housed and fed.

I'll be back this week first with the inks for this page (which still has some cleaning up to do pencils-wise) and the final, coloured and texted strip. Thank you sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much for sticking around everyone. After last month's absence I didn't expect to have any readers left. At all. There's not enough thank yous in the world to really convey my gratitude. So instead I'll do my best to produce better quality stuff for y'all moving forward. Thank you again everyone. Love y'all.