Poll Time
Sorry I’ve been mum the past week. I have been trying to figure out what I should do going forward and it makes sense to use a poll to help decide.
Do I move forward with I Love My Bully or move my focus to a different comic? I will basically pitch a few projects I’ve worked on and leave it up to a consensus on which I pursue.
I LOVE MY BULLY.
So as you all know by now I LOVE MY BULLY will pick up in a post apocalyptic wasteland. This seems to be a pretty controversial change (assumed it would turn off some fans but if the comments continue to be my only basis it would seem that 100% of you are against it).
SO here is a pitch about the story that I want to tell…
At the core I LOVE MY BULLY is about Jordan. In the first chapter the one that loved her is Bailey and that love was a source of internal, and external, conflict for Jordan. In this new chapter the love would be A love of sorts one would give a leader, general, or king. She gathers her scared classmates and protects them in the aftermath of a sequence of Nukes that have destroyed pretty much the entire world. In the first chapter there are a few hints towards this that I don’t think anyone picked up on (hint there is a character in this story at the heart of the destruction hidden on a few pages)
The new world is a hot arid desert and the school is mostly rubble. They are able to use that rubble to construct a safe haven from the elements, and later some mutated monsters. As time passes they will meet other communities and start to build a relationship with them.
That is the basic APOCALYPSE story, now on to what makes it ILMB. The cast will continue to be mostly girls and they will often be in a state of undress, as there aren’t any guys around. Jordan and Bailey relationship will still be at the center of everything, They had barely started seeing eachother and haven’t even had sex yet, now the world has ended and survival is taking precedence over their relationship. Can Jordan juggle her feelings and protect the sisters she has come to love? At the heart of everything is her transition from bully to protector. That isn’t to say she won’t be a harsh leader, but she will have their well being at the center of her choices.
SO if this isn’t something that you want I have other stories that have been set aside for various reasons (mostly lack of time) that I could bring back instead of ILMB.
AUDREY ADVENTURES
This was the last page I finished before putting Audrey Adventures back on Hiatus. Like Zoe UGH has gone through many hiatus’.
If I bring this back I would pick up where I left off in the comic, instead of picking up at where she meets Zoe.
The story would center around her growing unrequited love of her best friend. She deals with the confusion as it grows from simple friendship into a sexual longing to be closer to her. As she struggles with the new feelings she also struggles with whether to tell her friend that she likes her that way. She fears that the feelings won’t be reciprocated and that telling her could destroy their friendship, but at the same time not telling her would be dishonest particularly when one of their weekly traditions is both getting naked and watching movies cuddled up on a couch. For her friend it is just more comfortable to be sans bra and on some level a bit of physical contact is relaxing and makes her feel safe. To discover that her friend is longing for more turns that platonic act into something sexual and could be construed as a violation of her personal space…
So the story would follow the delemma Audrey is facing and deal with the aftermath of opening up, both to her friend and to herself. Audrey isn’t like Zoe, nor is she like Jordan and her ways of expressing and defense mechanisms will be very different.
If brought back this would be a full adult comic similar in content to Zoe. The humor would be more focused around gaming and movies and eventually would move into the story we are currently witnessing in Zoe 12. As I have spoiled many times. Zoe and Audrey will eventually end up together in secret friends where the 2 experience their first lesbian sex together.
MY TEN-TICKLE FRIEND
MTTF is a story about Kaitlyn and Squirmee as they go off to college. There she meets 2 other girls
I have tried to make this comic work a few times. Originally it started as simply a porn parody of tentacle rape in hentai. A girl had a pet tentacle monster and it constantly tried to have sex with her, occasionally she would, but mostly she would just smack him and treat him like a bad puppy… During this time it was called Stray
MTTF did away with the sexual relationship and had her only treating him like a bad puppy. It also introduced more story elements to make it less a simple 1 dimensional story and instead turn it into something with both heart and conflict.
Who is squirmee? Is he an alien being stuck on earth? A long lost evolution of the squid? A secret government experiment? or something else all together?.
Kaitlyn doesn’t know or care, she just loves her pet, even if it is constantly trying to have sex with her. Besides, she is too concerned with transitioning to a college life. With her new roommates and boys everywhere she doesn’t have time to ponder the great mystery of WHAT is Squirmee.
The comic would be a bit more ambitious than a weekly comic could be at this point so probably would only be able to make it bi-monthly, it also would not contain any full nudity like ILMB instead it would be like that top colored page where things are strategically placed to hide the naughty bits.
So vote for which comic I should pursue. If the one you like the best doesn’t get chosen, no fear there is always a chance for them, Ugh has come and gone 3 times already afterall…
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I can’t speak for anyone else, but I was enjoying the direction that ILMB was going in. The storyline seemed interesting to me, and the growth that Jordan would have to go through to go from being the terror of the school to the leader of the survivors sounded like something I was interested in watching. So I’d prefer to have that continue.
Glad to hear it, I would as well and was really excited to share it with all of you. I chose this route because based on comments it seemed a majority didn’t like the path it was heading. If this comic is what people want then I will be happy to continue it. Regardless which comic I focus on I don’t make any money off of this, it is all about sharing something i love at this point, so without money coming into the decision it is all about what will give joy to the most readers.
Why don’t you just stick to Zoe and not worry about splitting your time and attention between two comics for now? You might even mix a few selected elements from your other ideas into the single story.
Just a thought.
I’ve found from doing comics for 4 years now that to keep myself happy I need variety. I can get worn out from Zoe from time to time and it has been hard to find something I care about as much as Zoe to compliment it, that is why so many other comics have come and gone.
So for those times when I want something other than Zoe to put my attention on it is good to have a secondary comic.
Zoe is always going to be my #1 focus here, but as an artist it can get repetitive drawing the exact same thing over and over, and as a writer it is nice to also do something different as well.
In a perfect world I would do all 3 of these and Zoe but sadly there just isn’t enough hours in the day.
As for taking elements, I do that too. There has been a comic page that I have been sitting on for a year now that deals with the game Horizon, it was originally going to be a Audrey Adventures page, then I decided to repurpose it as a MTTF page and now it will be coming up in this arc of Zoe in a few pages.
TO be honest, I can’t get behind any of the stories as you’ve outlined them. I’ll give you my reasons.
ILMB: I got tired of the apocalypse storyline about the time “Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome” was in theaters. I like the high school romance as the bully turns her life around by finding someone to care about story. No need to blow up the world to tell it.
Audrey: Have read the previous versions, couldn’t connect with the characters, don’t see that changing.
MTTF: Would be OK with the story you’ve outlined if you throw the sex back into the mix, with all the girls, and ramp it up to 18+. Otherwise, meh.
So, needless to say, I vote D: None of the above. And if it’s going to take a year or more to get rid of Caleb, I’m probably dropping Zoe, as well. Sorry, YG, that’s just my opinion. 🙁
If you don’t like my stories nothing I can do about that, as Mitch headberg said. “People either love them, or they hate them… or they think they’re ok”
As for Caleb being in the story. He will only make appearances in probably 2 arcs in the time that he is dating Zoe. He for the most part is already gone. He has 2 more parts to play in the story before the story is done with him, but he isn’t a focus in the slightest.
Basically, trying to avoid spoilers, he will try anal with Zoe and he will do something that betrays Zoe’s trust enough to knock sense in her head.
Personally I would be fine with either UGH or ILMB, not so much with MTTF
You have got to realize that not all your audience is ADHD. I personally really like Zoe, all versions, and ILMB and even Audrey, what I’ve seen. However, the constant changing of direction and abandoning of story lines I find very off-putting; I think that’s true for most of your readers also. The reason we read your comics is because we like them – that should be obvious. We do not read them to see the story lines abandoned.
When you draw a comic that updates as slowly as Zoe you got to stay fluid. I at all times have like 4 arcs in my mind that I want to tell. That doesn’t mean that when I choose 1 over another to follow that the others won’t happen just means the order is shuffled around. I try to go in waves. Tame, story focused arcs, and arcs that are more explicit and focused on Zoe’s sexual side. I try to keep things interesting from week to week both for all of you and also for myself. With Zoe I have already did this story, so it is about exploring other facets of it. In the first version of Zoe it was all about the carefree lighthearted side. This version is all about what is happening between those happy little moments and about a character sexual opening.
As for ILMB The main reason the story of ch2 was abandoned is because I felt it wasn’t strong enough to warrant 3-4 months of my drawing time, and your waiting. Instead I decided to move forward and get to the story that I wanted to tell. If it ends up being the story I pursue, which based on votes seems a good bet, I hope to show you all why this story is going that route.
Okay, I’m coming on board with your plans for ILMB. It would still be okay with me if you still incorporated UGH story lines in ZOE.
Well for my two bits and half a broken broomstick on this.
For the positives. I rather enjoy your drawing style and the overall direction of the storylines as they are but………
For the negatives the fact that your storylines never go very far before either stalling out to never move again (how longs Audry been riding that guy in customer service now?) or going off in some random direction, No thanks.
I’m about one more story line drop or major redirection (short duration character crossovers and sub story lines are good to a point though) for dropping you off my lists altogether.
ILMB. Good as it is.
Zoe. Well…. to be honest good art style but given the way your story lines and overall character personality/life choice drifting/random hoping around goes, if she was a real life person I would slap the crap out of her and those two dip shits until they all learned to focus and take their ADD meds.
If you want to see it in a straight line you can find it already finished in multiple places online. THIS Zoe is about the journey and about exploration. So if you don’t like it, then maybe it isn’t the right comic for you to be reading.
As for abandoned stories. I have no obligation to you to continue a comic just to make you happy. I don’t get money for this (the little I receive in Patreon goes right back into the comic and site), I do this because I love it but I also have a job and a life so there are times where I have to weigh my free time. That means that sometimes I have to make the hard decisions and put comics on hiatus, I never just abandon things. Each of the 3 above as well as the many others including TPCN, VIXI, Which is Witch, In Paradise, MDH, FRONTIER and the numorous other comics that I have hinted at but never got beyond the planning stages will someday (god forbid an untimely death) get made.
I just wanted to say that I support your decision to change ILMB. I wouldn’t want you to make something that isn’t working for you… it is easy for people to say they don’t want the change but it is just words.
Do your thing, bro.
ILMB has the best outline and most solid sales pitch of the three. From what came earlier it was clear the characters were advancing and changing as they got used to new feelings and situations. Having a literal bomb go off to change things again is risky but done right should lead to a stronger and longer story line.
Length was the reason I voted against the others. They seemed like they wouldn’t last too long.
Good luck. I hope things are going in the way you like.
Well, that is the downside to asking for opinions. Sometimes you get roses and sometimes you get hit with a stick! ;P
As I said I rather like the drawing style but for me, the apparent jumping around of the story lines and long pauses between updates tend to come off as a distraction and in many ways makes the story lines appear less than focused or outrightly abandoned at times.
Since Audry jumped over to the Zoe comic (I rather like Audry for some reason) I am sticking around to see where that goes but as for ILMB you better pull one hell of a rabbit out of your hat to keep me interested.
For me, I say no on the post-apocalyptic blah blah blah story line. No matter how they are done thy always come off as overly unrealistic hack jobs and totally lame.
If it was me and I wanted to send the story in a whole new direction putting the characters in a whole different setting like a deep rural type life Vs a modern urban city type is good. Shit loads of culture and social shock to deal with there without having to end the world as we know it!
Do what you want, if you don’t you’ll grow to hate it and leave it unfinished.
Could you put an archives section in your page, so that we the readers may get a chance to read the old discontinued story lines any way?
I have a section I am building of all the old comics in my VIP section for patreon supporters. Almost everything I’ve done is also available for free on my old sites, all except one of my sites is still there, I continue to pay the hosting and domains (except for yellowgerbil.com unfortunately that one lapsed and got picked up by one of those assholes that try to extort money to get it back charging 800$ for a domain name that cost me 20$ originally… that is why this site is called yellowgerbilcomics.com instead of yellowgerbil.com) If you don’t want to become a patreon supporter and still want to see the stuff a simple google search will show you all my various old comics.
Your original MTTF sounds like it was pretty good & I wouldn’t mind seeing more of it. The proposed “PG” version, though, sounds a little dull.
MTTF would definitely NOT be PG. Every MTTF image up there except for the b/w one of the monster cumming in her mouth was stuff for the new one which I was planning on doing prior to switching gears and doing ILMB instead
Not quite sure what happened to ILMB in the fourish years this page has been here. Probably you focused on something else. Which is good, because despite creating it, I don’t think you actually understand what makes ILMB work? Not if you’re going to veer off into apocalyptic survivalism, which is an entirely out-of-nowhere and bizarre genre to add to the mix.
I’m more than happy with an incomplete, but cute coming-of-age story about a girl learning who she is and overcoming her darker impulses with the help of the girl she likes.
I have actually been working on a new version of ILMB as a sponsus premium comic (got about 13 or so pages up so far).
I have always envisioned the story as one of a unlikely hero (Jordan).
The characters arc is a person that “terrorizes” her classmates as a bully, who then leads and protects them.
I understand how it can be a jarring change, if it was in a different medium (like an animates series) I would be able to tell the story in a non linear fashion (picture lost with the flashbacks) but that isn’t really possible as a webcomic. So it needs to be linear.
Even in the new version the story will eventually go to a post apocalyptic action story, but it will happen more gradually, I got a bit impatient the first time and that was part of ILMB’s downfall.
Originally I planned on Jordan’s growth as a character to be gradual. Her going from a person who teases and bullies her classmates to one that stands up for them. Leads them, first as class president, then as leader of their “Amazonian” civilization.
The school would be their kingdom and under Jordan and Baileys rule they would keep their classmates safe in a world that would eat them alive.
Another thing on your final paragraph. I always treated more like Bailey was the bully. My buddy hated the comic and couldn’t comprehend the character dynamic (he was convinced it was a bdsm story of Jordan being a sadist and Bailey as a submissive). That was never the story I was telling. It was a story of Bailey bullying her way into Jordan’s heart and changing her. Jordan isn’t a mean person, like most bullies that aren’t just evil people, Jordan has trouble opening up and instead hides her emotions and vulnerabilities behind violence. She actually from the get go considered Bailey a friend, maybe even her best friend, but doesn’t know how to show it (think like a boy who has a crush on a girl and teases her because he both can’t admit and is scared of rejection).
Sorry it is really late so this might come out a bit incomprehensible. But in summation, I get why you don’t think the stories direction works, and I definitely dropped the ball, but I still think it is a premise that has promise and hope that I can make it work on my current version.
Here is a twitter preview of the current version if you are interested
https://twitter.com/yellgerbils/status/1212245259494793216