no, I'm not dead. I just kind of forgot to post here actually, because I was trying to transition my work off of the site when I stopped working anyway. I'm sorry.
No, Weird Sisters isn't going to continue. I apologize to everyone I've disappointed with that; I don't feel I could continue to do the story justice if I forced myself to continue to work on it. I still love it very much, but the passion is no longer there as I've moved onto a very different era in my life.
I would love to keep making comics. I would also love to keep making rent in NYC, however, and those two things aren't really conducive to each other without an extreme level of success. I also have an increased risk of wrist injury due to how little I took breaks during college and overworking myself attempting to put out a weekly comic at the same time. Making comics at any average webcomic-updating speed just isn't in the cards for me right now.
I appreciate and love all of you who've stuck with me. I might be back someday, but I don't think I'll be hosting my work on Tapas if I do. I'll let you know where to find me in the event that I publish my work online elsewhere.
Oh. I read this all in one crazy day, and went totally bananas. This is the best webcomic I've ever read, thank you for making it exist. The great thing about Tapas is that it's not restricted on most school accounts, so please also post on here, if you make anything new, otherwise all us minors won't be able to see it. If you ever decide to write some more weird sisters--or anything else--know that you will still have people here who will read your stuff, often without eating or drinking for several hours.
Hey! I have come to absolutely love Weird Sisters. The camaraderie, the sisterhood is so refreshing. And of course there is the hidden literary gems to decode. If I had magic, I would have tipped you more, but I will have to make do with my regular not-that-much coins. I am looking forward to more spookiness!
Hello all! Since it's been a week or so now, I'd like to say a few things real quickly about Weird Sisters as a story:
I started this comic last October after having a bad breakdown and tearing an unfinished, massive, and very emotionally hard-to-work-on piece off the wall of my studio. I was stressed out and in a near-constant state of panic and I kind of just said "fuck it, I don't want to do Fine Arts with big Deeper Hidden Meaning shit, I'm gonna make something meaningless and self-indulgent," and it's turned into something really wonderful and fun that means QUITE a lot to me now.
Having made it a whole year without giving up on it or getting bored, I'm fully confident in its continued existence now that I'm willing to put a LOT more energy into making it even better than it already is.
Weird Sisters has grown from a mostly-plotless shenanigans-of-the-week comic about a trio of witches goofing around on a college campus into a Really Big Story that's kind of only just beginning. It takes its inspiration from all over the place: modern witchcraft practices being a big one, but Shakespeare being another just as big. Somewhere in here, a plot began to form around the idea that if all the women in Shakespeare's tragedies had had just one other girl around to talk to, confide in, rely on, maybe they would've survived long enough to stand up to the problems in their respective plays. Combined with the miscommunication/secret keeping-as-plot-device elements present in Shakespeare's comedies (and I do to some extent still consider Weird Sisters a comedy, even if it's definitely taking a turn for the spooky), as well as the magical realism and often realer-than-we-think magic inspired by several of his plays, some really interesting storylines are about to begin to unfold as this comic progresses into year two.
Once again, thank you so much for sticking with me for a whole year. I'm so proud of how far I've come, and I'm so glad you all have come with me.
your comics are awesome, i know you can strive this and be able to finish the comic despite being in such a state, I love your comic to the point of no return!
It's great to see you're having fun writing it, because it sure has been amazing reading it!! It's a great comic and I can't wait to see more of the story and characters
Yes, I'm so happy you wrote a fairly accurate representation of different types of witchcraft, with lovable characters. Surprisingly, you inspired me to start working on my own, so thank you for this amazing series.
So I've been dealing with a minor wrist injury since about May, which I haven't been letting heal as well as I should be because I keep trying to draw... and it's gotten to the point where I probably need to seriously leave it be for like a week or two to let it heal properly so I don't end up with carpal tunnel syndrome.
In addition to that, my Shakespeare-loving ass is going to be in a play! As part of a program called Shakespeare in Ten that a friend of mine runs and directs, I'll be in a production of Macbeth in Seattle, which will take up a lot of my time from the end of July through the performance on August 12th.
So Weird Sisters is going on a brief hiatus; I'll post some pre-existing sketches and doodles this week and next to fill the gap, and for the rest of the week my goofy new d&d fancomic will also be posting a few pre-existing strips, so hopefully you won't miss me TOO much! Luckily this isn't too horrible a place to have had to stop; the next page is a Mysterious Scene Transition...
WEIRD SISTERS WILL RESUME UPDATING AGAIN ON AUGUST 16TH! I'll see you all soon!
(for those curious about Shakespeare in Ten, you can check 'em out here: https://shakespeareinten.wordpress.com/ )
Hi Everyone!
A lot of folks reading Weird Sisters have been noticing the copious amount of Shakespeare references I've put into it. If you're super into Shakespeare, and you like making art or writing prose/poetry, you should consider applying to me and my friend Betsy's modern Shakespeare zine: "such stuff as dreams are made on"!
Applications are open until the end of the week, and you can find the link and information about it here: https://shakespearezine.tumblr.com/post/161331394477/such-stuff-as-dreams-are-made-on-application !
UPDATE:
Since Tapas seems to have removed their "right of first refusal" aspect of their terms of service, Weird Sisters is going to be sticking around on Tapas and will continue updating here.
I'm still going to be making my own comic hosting website, both for hosting Weird Sisters somewhere that belongs to me AND for future projects to exist exclusively on. I'll continue updating Weird Sisters here for now, but once I've got my own website up and running the updates will be posted their first, and then as batch scene updates over here, probably. It'll take me awhile to figure out, but I'll be sure to keep everyone informed.
Weird Sisters will come off hiatus on May 31st! See y'all soon!
And because I was kind of cagey about my reasoning on the original post yesterday, and got some snarky comments about the idea of me leaving:
I reserve the right to turn my back on anyone or anything that looks like it might take my artistic autonomy out from under me, whether they do it deliberately or not.
Artists get so much "for exposure" and underpaid shit as it is; I very much consider it a privilege that I can post one long-running webcomic online for free without needing to self-publish and monetize it to survive, and that's the only reason I'm hanging around Tapas after this TOS scare at all. Weird Sisters began as a low-stress project to see if I was capable of making a comic, and grew into something I came to enjoy working on. It was never meant to be anything like a physically publishable work. It is a for-fun project where I can explore and experiment with making comics while I plan the projects I want to actually publish for real as an art career, and figure out what it really takes to be a comic artist, what I want my work to look and read like, and how to self-promote in the world of online popularity.
Because of this TOS shenanigans, I now am very wary of posting anything I ever want to sell on a site someone else controls the rules of, whether I want that thing to be a professionally published comic, a kickstarter project, or an independently produced work, just in case the TOS gets changed without my knowledge again. I'm allowed to want to protect my creative liberty and control over my own work. I would hope that that's respected.
Thank you everyone for sticking with me. I hope you have a wonderful day.
I think you're completely right on worrying about this stuff. I was really surprised when I heard the news yesterday, I guess I forgot Tapas is a company, after all. I hope that even after this, Weird Sisters can remain as a low-stress project to you. It's an awesome comic with great characters, but on top of everything, it is your comic, and as fans of your work, we want the best for you and your creations
Question: Will Hack & slash eventually move to the same/it's own site, or have you given any thought to that? If you do continue it somewhere else I would love to follow it there.
Hi all!
Since I've been on hiatus this month, I've come to a decision in regards to my comic: while Tapas has been fantastic thus far, I've always wanted full control over the website I post my comics on, to set the scene better and all that, and so I'm now looking into getting a website set up on which to host Weird Sisters and any future comics that I produce! I'll be moving exclusively over to an independent website for the purpose of posting comic updates, and I'll be making a twitter account to tweet whenever it updates, so people can still get notified in some way if they'd like to be.
What this means: the Weird Sisters hiatus might go on slightly longer than just this month of May, while I figure out how to code a website or pay someone else to do it for me. I'll leave the prologue of Weird Sisters up here on Tapas, but the rest of the story will exist exclusively on my own site (or possibly update later/in batches on Tapas, if I think that might work out). I hope that's alright with everyone! I'll keep you updated, and I'll post the link to the new site both here and as an update to Weird Sisters so everyone knows when and where I'll be.
Thank you everyone!
Hey, dont mind some random people's snarky remarks, i think youre taking a step in the right direction. For an artist looking to expand their horizons, this is probably one of your best moves, especially if you're planning to make a living doing what you love. Besides, the people I know who manage their own comic website say that it's not something they regret doing. So go for it! I'm sure it'll be great for you to have complete control over your own works and how they are presented~
Awww, we'll miss you! I'm really sad about everyone leaving, because I don't have a twitter or anything and I can't remember to visit all the sites of everyone who's moving away. This is your comic tho, and this is probably better for you and other readers if you feel more comfortable on your own site. (If the TOS thing was what was bothering you, it's already gone. ) Good luck with your site! <3
it is the right way to go, full control and 100% of the revenue will head your way, you will have a lot more work to do getting your comic exposed to your audience, however, good luck and I'll see you wherever you are :)
Yeah, it was the TOS that was bothering me, and since they've taken it off I've decided to stick around but I'm still pursuing making my own website to post individual updates, and once it exists I'll be posting batch updates here.