It’s time I let you in on something.

I’ve been harboring a grand secret… A secret of immense potential. Something that couldn’t come to the light…until now.

Okay okay, it might not be that world-changing.

However…

It’s a fun new step for me as this June I will be selling at my first comic-con booth!!

Last year I applied to booth at Lilac City Comic Con, and now it’s finally time to tell ya’ll! I’ll be sharing the table with and be selling my stickers and prints! There will be more details to come (artist alley location, etc.)! If you’re gonna be in Washington this early June, stop by the con and say hi! My booth will have the pieces on my Etsy shop as well as some new things 👀.

That’s all I have to say for now, thanks for reading and tune in next time!

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#1. Mark Crilley’s YouTube Channel

Whether it’s realism or anime that you’re looking for in your art, or stories about how to make comics, then he’s your guy! Mark Crilley is a super experienced artist (Akiko, Brody’s Ghost, Miki Falls) and a good teacher.

#2. My Mangaka Life YouTube Channel

This channel covers basic manga creation! Steps of scripting, paneling, publishing, etc! Lizbeth R. Jimenez is the creator of the self published manga Sacred. The channel doesn’t update very frequently, but its backlog is full of great stuff!

#3. S-Morishita Studios YouTube Channel

This channel focuses more on webcomics than manga, and more so with digital art! It’s helpful for people curious on how to make Webtoons.

#4. Udemy Art Courses

This online art college has courses on sale every so often, and I came across one about character design that was fun and useful.

#5. Screentones - A Webcomic Podcast

A podcast of webcomic creators, talking about webcomics! It has been hugely useful to me in learning the ropes of webcomic creation outside of Webtoons.

#6. The Heart of the Cards Podcast

Not exactly for learning to create, but super inspiring and gives you a good sense of the hero’s journey and the life of the creative individual. (Also is hosted by amazing voice actors!)

#7. READ COMICS AND MANGA

#8. Comic Lab Podcast

Hosted by Brad Guigar and David Kellett, they talk about all sorts of things in the comics/webcomics industry.

#9. TheStarFishFace YouTube Channel

Star gives you tips ‘n tricks and stories about creating webcomics!

#10. Learn To Draw Manga YouTube Channel

A channel literally dedicated to aspiring mangakas. They have manga challenges that give pro feedback, and an interactive course!

Books:

#1. Draw Manga Faces for Expressive Characters by Aya Hosoi - VERY useful.

#2. Making Comics by Scott McCloud - Great learning tool.

#3. The Shonen Jump guide to making Manga - Honestly more of a “here’s the tip of the iceberg” kind of book. Still fun though, and full of popular mangaka Q&A’s.

#4. Framed Perspective by Marcos Mateu-Mestre - I haven’t gotten very far into it, but I can tell it’s pretty helpful for technical art and complicated perspectives.

#5. Manga in Theory and Practice by Hirohiko Araki - Perfect for anyone wanting to know how a professional mangaka does it. Especially for the Shonen Jump-esque publishing route.

I might add to this later on if I find anything else. I hope this helps anyone looking for resources! Thanks for reading and stay tuned for next time!

~ Rea

A couple updates:

I’ve upped my game in learning Japanese. I took a long beginners course over a year ago, but this last quarter of college I finally continued my learning. And I’ll be continuing this quarter as well! It’s been a blast. 私は日本語をべんきょうするのがすきです。^-^

As you know, and for those who might be new, I’ve been working on a manga-style webcomic for the last 3 ish years. My last goal of finishing the outlines for volume 2 by winter break (see Winter Check-In!) didn’t exactly happen, however I think I’m very close! I’ve been focusing more on the scripting process, and I ended up writing about two chapters! In total that means I currently have 12 chapters in the can. I’m also trying to rework some early plots as new lore (which seems to do this a lot) has made some of the scenes make less and less sense.

While working on my project has been slow, I feel like after the burst of work I did during my spring break I might be able to try for a schedule that’s maybe more consistent. I’ve been more inspired to work on it than I have in a while.

Since another one of my passions is music, I’m gonna drop some music recommendations that I’ve been listening to here:

The album “Penguin” by Fleetwood Mac. I found this at a thrift store on vinyl and it sounds pretty great! I also find it unique from other bands in that many songs on the album are sung by a different member of the band.

“There is a Light That Never Goes Out” by The Smiths. This song, which my friend showed me, seems to fit well with melancholy vibes of early spring, but that’s probably just because of when I started listening to it. It has a sort of evening mood.

“For Your Sins” album by Dea Matrona. I honestly don’t know what else to say about it other than it has good vibes. A mix of chill and whimsical sounding rock.

That’s all for now! Thanks for reading and tune in for next time!

— Rea :D

Didja miss me? I appreciate your patience. I’m finally sitting down to write about all that’s been going on.

It’s been a long time since I’ve written a full post. This is mostly because fall quarter for school was crazy. I’d never taken a class before with so much coursework at once, not to mention along with 3 others. I’m currently on winter break, and finally taking some time to myself (to just breathe dangit!).

This break is also my time to reassess how I’m going to continue working on my manga, as well as my Etsy store. I had hoped to be done with my chapter revisions and writing, and be drawing again by now. However, the only thing I managed to do during these past 3 months is write more in my script, and come up with some more outline plot points.

This is not as bad as it sounds, as I actually now have the entire first volume script complete! This is assuming I don’t make any drastic story changes to what I’ve written.

Since I’ve found I want to have more things concrete in the story before I move forward, I’ll probably be on this writing track for awhile. My next goal is to have all of my second volume outlined and everything after that a bit more solidified so I feel like I know for sure whether or not my first volume can really be drawn. I would like to get this done before winter break is over. If not, I won’t beat myself up too much about it, but I’m going to make that one of my main objectives.

This might seem a bit perfectionistic, but after drawing the first part of my first chapter, and now looking at it about six months later, I wanna make sure that I have fun making it, but I also want it to look professional. And I want the story to be the best it can be.

For some random fun, here’s a picture of two mega-sized gooey chocolate chip cookies I impulsively baked a couple days ago! (“Finally-Free-Cookies!” >.< hehe)

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for what comes next! More content to come.

Have a lovely winter or whatever season you’re in!

— Rea

It’s been awhile, and there’s so much to catch you guys up on!

First off…

NEW PRODUCT LAUNCH! :D

I present to you my “Disgruntled Pots” Art Print Trio!

These cuties are now available for purchase on my Etsy Store! More info in the listings here:

Grumpy/Angry Pot Pouty Pot Worried Pot

Next, some news about the ~webcomic~!

Chapter One…is…DONE!!! WOOHOO!

So now I’m working on storyboards for Chapter 3, and I’m going to be switching my workflow from Ibis to CSP for Chapter 2’s art. So I’m going to take some more time to get used to the program before I start that.

On the chapters themselves, I realized something after reading through my completed chapter, and my mother (the first proof reader) pointed out that my chapter ends on a…more vague cliff hanger than I intended. This is because when I was doing my script re-writes way back, I split chapter one into two pieces because I thought it was too long. I now realize this may have been an error, and so “Chapter 2” is really going to be more like “Chapter 1 Part 2”. I’m gonna mush them back together.

So then the Chapter 3 I’m storyboarding is actually Chapter 2…This totally isn’t gonna be confusing! Nope… :/

And while Chapter 1 Part 1 is complete, a friend of mine is looking it over and gonna give me some feedback for revisions as well! :D So I’ll be a bit back and forth in my workflow for the time being.

Anything else to report? Not much. I’m enjoying summer and hanging out at my family’s lake cabin.

Ah! As a bonus, I was feeling inspired, so you guys get first glance at my fanart of Jinx from Arcane :D

That’s it for now! Thanks for reading and tune in for next time, which will most likely be the third character bio from my webcomic!

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And staying on this fan art track I thought I’d share this piece done by my sister! :3

Have a good day! :>

I nearly forgot that last week, April 18th, was the exact date last year that I launched my newsletter, Manga, Webcomics and Storytelling! For those of you who’ve been with me since the beginning, or joined recently, thank you so much for being a part of my lil community! :D Your readership means a lot!

Time for an update!

As many of you know, I’ve been working on completing the first chapter of my webcomic Essence of Soul since early summer of last year. Well, as of yesterday, my first draft of said chapter is complete!! I still need to complete lettering, and tweak a few things, but otherwise…the art is done! I celebrated with my favorite teriyaki microwave noodles lol.

I’d like to send a shoutout of thanks to for setting goals with me every so often that’s helped me keep consistent with the project! ^^

My next art agenda? Fixing the little things and adding all the letters! I also have plans to add more pieces to my art shop! That being said, I’m also not trying to force myself to do any insane work for the next month or so as I’m also trying to survive the last quarter of school ‘^,^

Thanks again for reading and tune in next time for…

A time-lapse piece!

The 3rd character bio for EOS!

and more!

~Rea

Etsy | Youtube

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I’m continuing these “character bios” for some of the characters in my upcoming webcomic Essence of Soul. To keep with the same format as the last character bio, I’ll be starting off with everything about the character, and then the last half will cover the creation side of it all, with old sketches, design history, etc. Enjoy!

Benjiro Akiyoshi, or Benji, is a part of my series’ main trio! He’s 14 years old, and a freshman in high school. I think my best attempt to explain his character thus far is: a bunch of charisma forced into a shorter being (as he’s a rather short fellow, at only 5 ft tall). And it’s one of his greatest pet peeves to be mistaken for a younger child.

Benji is Akeno’s best friend, and they compliment each other quite well. What Akeno lacks in enthusiasm and pizzaz Benjiro brings to the table.

He’s fairly extroverted but can hang by himself just fine. He’s also quite competitive when it comes to challenges, games, etc.

He can be flirtatious at times and while he may deny it, has had nearly every girl turn him down for a date.

Hobbies include movie theory crafting, listening to music, and learning to play guitar. His favorite song is Real Long Time by White Reaper.

Special skills? Remembering a ton of obscure movie references.

Fun fact: He’s allergic to bananas.

So, when I was creating the next character of Essence of Soul, I once again started with eyes and sort of morphed a design around that.

The picture above is the first headshot I drew of Benji. Again with the weird crease lines. I don’t know why they all had them so don’t ask >,<‘. Reminder that this was years ago.

I was being quite indecisive with his hair, and It didn’t help that my main character was taking up my drawing time, so Benji didn’t receive much attention for awhile.

This was probably one of the first full color drawings I made of Benji, and he changed quite a bit, but it still wasn’t up to current standards. After this piece was the very long break from working on the comic, and drawing the characters in general.

I think this was the first full color drawing I’d done of Benjiro in early 2023, some years after the last one. I had a slightly better handle on how to configure his hair by then, and I was coming closer to a conclusion on his design. I then did another later that year:

These are some storyboards for a slightly older version of the story that I have today, with his design pretty much solidified, experimenting with expressions.

All of which leads us back to how he looks currently. He didn’t go through as much experimentation as Akeno, but I still love this lil guy and have a lot of fun seeing his role in the story. And hopefully someday you guys can too :D.

Thanks for reading! If you want to read my other character bio as well, Click Here. If you want to do some small business shopping, Click Here for my Etsy! If you want to see my video content, Click Here for my YouTube. Until next time!

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Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@reawylie

Etsy Shop: https://behappybechibi.etsy.com

If you missed Part 1 and wanna see more, click down below!

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Akeno Fukuda is the main character of my webcomic! He’s 14 going on 15 and his sign is supposedly a Scorpio. He’s 5ft2” and a nice li’l introvert! Although he’s not against being social.

He’s got a sarcastic sense of humor, but doesn’t work the sarcasm too hard.

He doesn’t really think he has “main character energy”, but alas, what he doesn’t know won’t kill him. Maybe.

He’s very loyal, but his anxiety can get in the way.

Something he wouldn’t admit, but is most definitely true—he has a big Hatsune Miku obsession—*ahem*—in middle school he had an obsession. But did that ever fade I wonder?

His current favorite music artist is Cavetown (aka the music I listened to the most during his development). Specific songs include This is Home and Devil Town.

Alright, now on to how I made this little mushroom!

His current design is a good shot away from what it was originally, and he went through many phases. Mostly because the first time I drew him was when I was in late elementary school. If you watched my Sketchbook Tour, then you’ll know that wasn’t necessarily a good thing. Well, if there was one good thing, it was that it gave me some years to draw him and figure out what worked and what didn’t.

Here we are. Baby pictures.

“He has your eyes,” I say as I turn to…no one.

This was the character’s beginning. He started as some eyeballs that made me go “these are rad” and I decided to draw them a lot to see how well I could replicate it. Eventually I decided that said eyes should probably have a face, and y’know maybe hair or something. That was when it became difficult for little me.

Funny thing is I thought I could keep those little anger lines in his face like it was just…part of his face. I soon found out how hard it was to draw him happy without it looking painful. A lot of drawing later, we entered a new phase: Full Body. With a semi-decided bright red poofy hair that was hard to replicate. The hair is still huge, but I feel like I’ve tamed it to a reasonable size.

And as we can see from pictured above, the art skills were still not ready to start drawing a manga, despite what I thought back then. A little after this point made an executive decision to NOT make his hair bright red, since I kept finding myself being reminded of other spikey haired anime characters. I finally decided purple would be a good replacement.

After Akeno’s design was what I had initially considered “done”, I went to design the other characters. I had the first script in the works and apparently these other characters in the story also needed pictures. Selfish jerks. Suffice to say, a lot less thought went into their original designs. Although they’ve for sure evolved since then.

Once I had my cast, and enough script that I thought was in peak condition (It wasn’t), I knew the next step was storyboards. I think I almost storyboarded the whole first chapter before I eventually quit.

Then we fast forward to the end of 2023, when I started drawing him again for the first time in years.

Then in 2024 when I decided to re-write the script, I had also been in the process of refining my drawing skills, so I started drawing Akeno like crazy. This resulted in subtle changes to his design for the better.

Here’s probably the most recent sketch I’ve drawn of him aside from drawing the comic:

I’m gonna be honest here, I’m not sure what expression or storyline I was going for with this, and his neck’s a bit small, but here’s basically what his current design is now. The hair hath finally solidified, and the facial features aren’t changing.

Well, as with all things, down the line some years from now he’ll probably evolve again somehow in his character design, and personality as well!

I hope this was entertaining, and maybe a bit insightful! I know this post is a bit longer than the norm so if you made it this far, congratulations. :D

Art & Stickers: https://behappybechibi.etsy.com

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@reawylie

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Being the listy person that I am, I’ve made quite a few different lists for things I want to accomplish in the new year and upcoming goals I have. So I have some sort of base plan for my upcoming posts as well! Which is nice, since I was running out of ideas.

I started up a YouTube channel again! So if you wanna check that out, the link is at the bottom of this post! That said, expect some videos on the stack this year as well!

I got a couple different books this Christmas! Manga in Theory and Practice by Hirohiko Araki (Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure), and a (very big) guide to Clip Studio Paint! I will be slowly migrating to CSP from Ibis Paint X once I learn how to work it! (And finish drawing the first chapter of my comic, I don’t wanna switch programs halfway through)

Here’s the first drawing I’ve done in Clip:

As for Araki’s book, I’ve already started reading it. 2 chapters in, and I think I’d already recommend it to anyone wanting to start a manga. While I see tons of how-to-manga books out and about, this one is more about story structure and fundamentals rather than art, which I’m greatly enjoying.

For an update on my manga, I’m over halfway through chapter one, and my new goal is to finish it by March 1st! Here’s my lil tracker:

Pencilled: 10/16

Inked: 10/16

Screentoned: 9/16

Lettered:7/16

Annnnd special progress sneak peeks:

I don’t know why but I’ve always been hesitant at displaying in-progress work. Like somehow any panel revealed is a spoiler. But I realize I care too much, and that I LOVE seeing people’s sneak peeks of work, even when I’m not in the story loop or know what’s going on. So here you go lol.

That’s all I got going right now. I know that I’ll be going into more detail about some of the cast from my series sometime soon (like I mentioned in the last post about character bios). I’m nervous and excited about that!

Now, time to bombard you with links!

Etsy Shop!

Youtube!

Podcast Appearance!

Thanks for reading! And if you’re new here, welcome!

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It’s finally hitting me that the end of the year is literally less than 2 weeks from now. Let’s take a walk down memory lane!

I started this Substack in April of this year. We’ve been going for over 8 months now! I’m super grateful to everyone who’s read my newsletter during the time I’ve been around.

For the statistic junkies:

Over these past 8 months, I now have 76 subscribers! XD

And I’ve published 28 posts including this one.

As for progress on my webcomic, I started its major re-write in February, started storyboards for it in June, and started Chapter 1’s creation in late August/early September. I’m over halfway done with Chapter 1!

While it won’t release for a while, I plan on posting more about it, like character bios maybe! (This is still in a brainstorm)

Fun update! I made an appearance on my dad’s podcast! After a hiatus, The Steven James Wylie Show is returning with episode 17. Listen to it anywhere you get podcasts! We talk about independent creation ranging from Indie Animation to Webcomics.

Here’s the Spotify Link:

As for the part 2 of Harshini’s and my interview, that’ll be coming next week, so stay tuned!

I hope this was a good year for ya’ll! May exciting things come your way in 2025!

I’m excited to get the ball rolling again in terms of new topics to write about, and new additions to the newsletter.

See you guys next year!

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I wasn’t able to meet my little goal of 3 Inktober drawings, but I’m not gonna beat myself up too much about it, the month got way busier than I thought it would. I had an almost two-week period where I got next to no work done on my webcomic due to other plans. I was sick for one of the two weeks. I was glad I could at least get my horror story put out there before it got too late. I’ll just leave a link to that here.

Fall is essentially winding down here, November is already in full swing which means Christmas is right around the corner and next thing you know it’ll be the new year.

I’m working on getting back on track with making progress on my comic, but homework has taken the bulk of my time so it’s proven harder than I thought. This sort of productivity break isn’t so bad though, because I’ll be that much more excited to get back to working on it!

Here’s my current progress tracker for Chapter One:

Cover: Done

Pages Pencilled: 9/16

Pages Inked: 8/16

Pages Toned: 8/16

Pages Lettered: 6/16

If you’re new to the newsletter you can read about my upcoming webcomic/manga here:

I don’t quite know what else to add, but I know I want to write more about other things within the storytelling and art sphere, not just comic updates. If you have any topic ideas or things you’d like to read about from me, drop a comment!

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Here’s some cool stuff other peeps are doing!

Melissa J. Massey just started bringing her 1920’s webcomic Black Ball over to Substack! Give it a read!

Black Ball

Prologue Part 1

Magic! Murder! Mystery! Welcome to the world of Black Ball! We start our tale on an evening in 1923…

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2 years ago · 3 likes · 1 comment · Melissa J Massey

Tate Parker’s webcomic FlashBang finished it’s first chapter recently! Jump on the bandwagon!

Robotatertot's scriptorium

002 - Flashbang begins

If you haven’t heard, I’m finally doing a full length Flashbang webcomic…

Read more

2 years ago · 16 likes · 2 comments · Tate Parker

Thanks for reading!

(This is Part Two, check out Part One up there if you haven’t already!)  

“I’d hate to use this on you, as it damages the skin, but you’re not leaving me with much choice here.” She struggled to escape his grasp, kicking and trying to bite his arm. He sighed, and tossed the knife away, letting it clatter to the ground. “I just can’t ruin a specimen! Last time it was so terribly difficult to mend. Suffocation it is.” With that, he began to squeeze his arm around her neck instead. She gasped for air, trying to maneuver her way out of his grip.

       “No! Ack!” she coughed. She continued to try running from him, kicking and thrashing, but it wasn’t working, and her head and chest began to hurt from the loss of air and constant struggle. She had eyes on the discarded knife, but she couldn’t get to it. With a flash of brilliance, she went limp and stopped the struggle, causing the Puppeteer to pause enough to give her a moment of strength. She slammed him sideways with the full force of her weight, crashing him into one of the glass domes. He quickly dropped her to prevent free-falling into the glass and the corpse inside. The Puppeteer’s eyes went wide as a thin crack now lined the dome, threatening to grow.

      “Now look what you’ve done!” he shrieked. A terrible smell slowly seeped from the crack in the glass. She backed away as soon as he’d let go, and now held the knife in her shaky hands. She couldn’t escape the room unless she got the key from him, if he even had one. She pointed the knife directly at him.

      “Give me the key or let me out, now.” She tried to sound menacing. He didn’t seem fooled. He stood up slowly, temporarily taking his gaze off the broken case. He smiled cruelly.

      “You not only refuse my offer, but you break my case and point a knife at me?” He shook his head. She moved the knife towards him threateningly.

      “Let. Me. Out.” Her mean facade didn’t faze him. He was either very perceptive of her slight shakiness or was too insane to care. If she’d had enough strength, she could’ve grabbed his collar, yanking him to the knife, or taking a swipe at him, but she knew she was outmatched. Before she decided on her next move, he made moves to grab the knife from her hands. She pulled back, and his hand gripped the blade, slicing his palm. A small burst of blood sprayed to the floor.

       “Agh!” He clutched his hand with the other. She took the opportunity and quite literally jumped onto him with all her weight, elbow first, knocking him backwards to the ground. The result ended with his blood on her dress, her elbow to his chest, and the knife to his neck. He struggled to push her off of him, but she refused to budge. She pressed the knife closer.

       “Move, and you die. Now, give me the damn key!” She could barely hide her desperation. He looked around the room, contemplating his situation, and looked back into her eyes. She stared back, refusing to lose the upper hand.

       His eyes were a deep honey, and they now looked resigned. He coughed. She looked down at his neck. Her hand was so tense on the knife she had accidentally broke the skin. His insane smile returned.

       “Guess you’ll have to kill me then!” His hands grabbed hers, and violently pushed the knife into his neck. Her eyes went wide, and she screamed. His face, very pained, looked up at hers once more, and he brushed her hair from the Seamstress’s face. With his last breath, he choked out, “The show must go on, darling!” The light left his eyes, and his hand dropped to the ground.

       The Seamstress rolled off of his body, sitting on the cold floor. Her breathing very rapid, and sweat dripping from her brow. Had she just…killed someone? No, he did it to himself. He did it.

       The lights flickered. She took a moment to regain her composure, then searched the pockets of the Puppeteer’s jacket for a key. No key. What had he meant by “The show must go on”? The show would close. She would go to the authorities…wouldn’t she? The lights flickered even more. She sat there, unsure of how to escape. Suddenly, a sort of smoke, unnaturally colored, emerged from the puppeteer’s mouth with a hissing sound. The Seamstress backed away, eyes wide. She had to be hallucinating now didn’t she? She kept her eyes trained on the strange smoke. It floated up and up, but then, with a seemingly magical flourish, its direction changed to float down to the Seamstress herself. She backed away and picked herself up off the floor determined to avoid this strange smoke, but whichever way she turned, it followed. She ran around the room, weaving through the glass cases, but the smoke caught up to her in the end.

        “No no no!” She turned to the smoke to see if she’d outrun it a second too soon. It passed right through her, knocking her to the ground, although the smoke itself had no tangibility. After a couple seconds, she sat up again, and coughed until she felt like she made some progress getting rid of the smoke, which was none. Her head hurt. She looked around the room, it wasn’t so bad. The lights had stopped flickering, and yes, there were many dead bodies and the smell was not pleasant, but she could dispose of them. For instance, she could put the puppeteer’s body in that empty case, after all it had his name on it. Wait—it had his name on it? She looked closer at the empty case’s name plaque. It read: WARNER. Was that his name? Yes…It was. Had she gotten his name? No? That was peculiar. She shook her head with confusion, but she still stood and attempted to lift the Puppeteer’s body. Oh, but the blood. She paused, and carefully laid his body back on the ground. She’d have to fix those dreadful cuts. Fix the cuts? What was she thinking? She was developing a strange compulsion—that she could fix everything—no, make it better. She could put the Puppeteer—Warner, in that glass case and preserve him! She could seal the crack in the glass, and not only fix the collection as a whole, but add to it!

        She held her head in her hands, these weren’t her thoughts. At least she didn’t think they were. When she could no longer take it, she searched her dress pocket for her miniature sewing kit and sat by the Puppeteer. She began by dabbing away excess blood with the end of her dress, then sewing the cut shut. After assessing her work and deeming it acceptable, she backed away, shaking her head. She couldn’t wrap her head around herself. Then something clanged to the floor near her. A small key that fell out of her dress pocket.

         That wasn’t there before. She reached for the key, and desperately cradled it to her chest. She didn’t care why it was there, all that mattered was that it was real. She stood and went to try it on the door, and smiled when she heard it click. But she couldn’t leave the collection in disrepair! The turmoil of making the decision to leave versus fixing her collection was going to drive her crazy. Yes, her collection.

        No!! Leave! a small voice inside her cried out. But it was getting smaller and smaller, less and less significant. It didn’t really seem like her anymore, did it? She couldn’t be sure, but what she felt now was so…purposeful and passionate. She had something that depended on her to be sustained and to grow! Almost like a child, but not quite. The collection was looking to her for guidance, and she wanted to deliver. Slowly, but surely, she slipped the key back into her dress pocket, turned back to the collection of corpses, and smiled. The smile did not seem to form naturally on her face, taking a few moments to settle into a permanent shape. It was a crazed smile. Her eye twitched. That might’ve been her old self’s last try at breaking through, but she’d never know.

       She was forever changed. She laughed as she skipped through the rows of corpse-cases—no, marionettes—and gingerly figured out a way to hoist Warner the Puppeteer into his new home. She stroked the glass of each case, familiarizing herself with her new collection.

      A thought popped into her head. The Seamstress would need an assistant. Hmm…why was that familiar? She could no longer place it. She whispered a goodbye to the collection room, and finally made her exit back to the main warehouse.

      This was the curse. This was the collection. The collection that would never cease to grow. The collection that would always make sure it has a new caretaker. After all, the show must go on.

The End. 

      “That is quite remarkable,” he commented. 

      “This little stitch? It was quite simple really.” She waved off his compliment, not really sure what to think of him. 

      “While that stitch may be simple, I can still see the talent in it.”

The Seamstress pondered this, but had no response for it. 

      “How can I help you?” She asked. “Need something mended?” 

      “No, rather, something created. You see, I do shows around the country—puppet shows. I had a friend who made the puppets and marionettes for me—Rebecca was her name—but she, unfortunately, has passed away. I need someone who can make new ones for me, someone with the talent. I do believe you possess that talent.” He paused, waiting for a reaction from the seamstress. When she didn’t say anything, he finished. “Would you be interested?” 

      The Seamstress pondered this for a moment. While she had never made a marionette or puppet, the idea was intriguing. What had she left to do at this clothing shop? She would have been there the rest of her life—rotting. She stood from her desk. 

      “Yes, yes I would.” The man held out his hand, and she shook it. After her shift was over she quit her job at that drab store. 

       The next day she headed to the warehouse out behind town—where the man had instructed her to go. She knocked on the warehouse door. It was opened by the man, dressed the same as yesterday. He directed her inside. The warehouse was old, but the stuff inside was relatively new. There was a big stage set up at the back, and rows of seating in front of it. Over to the side of the big stage, were tons and tons of marionettes, puppets, and stage props. Some of the puppets' eyes seemed to stare at her, following her movements, though she knew that couldn’t have been the case. 

       “This is where you’ll be working.” He instructed. She nodded. He showed her the basics of what kinds of puppets he needed, and got into the basics of some marionettes. She began work that day. 

       Over the next few weeks she had crafted a dozen puppets, and the Puppeteer had used them in his shows. She had never gotten his name in this time. One day, when she was going to the supply closet to get more fabric, she noticed a door to the side of the room, very close in color to the walls making it almost unnoticeable, but it was left ajar. Curious about the door, she put her fabrics down and decided to take a peek around its edge. It was too dark to see anything so she cracked the door wide open, and fumbled around the wall for a switch.

       A bright light came out of the hidden room, illuminating the supply closet. To her surprise, this room was much bigger than anticipated, almost the size of the main theater. There were no puppets she could see in here though. It would have been a very empty space if not for giant glass domed cases on display lining the walls. She couldn’t tell what was inside these cases, so she took the first of many steps into the room. The first case was labeled: FREDRICK. She looked inside the case, and nearly jumped.

       “Oh dear lord!” She looked again, and chuckled to herself. It was just another puppet inside, although with much more realistic and human features. Not to mention life-sized. She walked over to another case, this one with a puppet by the name JUDY. Then there was MARCUS, DIANNE, and a few others. The last puppet in the row was named REBECCA. The last case was empty. She wondered why these were separate from the others. “What show could these be for?” she muttered to herself.

       “They’re for the grand finale of my career!” The Puppeteer said enthusiastically. “But I haven’t been able to use them yet. I’m one short, you see.” She turned around, nearly leaping out of her skin in the process.

       “Ah! I didn’t see you there,” she said as she regained her composure. Then it occurred to her that she might’ve overstepped her bounds by being in this room. “Um…I’m sorry, I probably shouldn’t be in here should I? I just found the door was left open—”

       “Oh think nothing of it. I was planning to show you this room one day anyways.” He smiled.

       “Do you want me to make you one like those?” she asked. 

       “No, you see….they’re special, and can’t simply be made.” His brow creased, as if debating to say more. 

       “How?” she asked, curiosity taking over. Finally, he sighed reluctantly, but something about his expression had shifted. His eyes held something darker.

       “Corpses. Corpses are used to make them. If you can find a corpse and craft it into a marionette, that will be acceptable.” Her eyes widened, and she took a step back. 

       “Those…are dead bodies?” 

       “Indeed,” he said thoughtfully. “So, if you can go find a corpse-” 

       “Heavens no! I’m not digging up a dead body to turn it into a puppet! That’s demented!!” She took another step back. 

       “Oh no, don’t dig up an already buried corpse, the fresher ones are easier to work with. Besides, they don’t smell as bad.” Another step. 

       “I…should go. I believe I have a dinner to attend-” He put his hand on her shoulder. 

       “My old puppet maker had the same reaction. She tried to run if you can believe that. But, I couldn’t let her go could I? She had to keep making my props! And when she said she wanted to quit, well, I thought she could still serve me as being part of the collection! Don’t you think so?” He gestured to Rebecca’s case. The Seamstress took an audible gulp of air. 

       “Y-you killed her?” she finally asked. 

       “Don’t mistake me for a murderer! I merely reinvented her! She died in the process. But now, instead of rotting in a grave, she can be preserved as her beautiful self!”

Rotting. Exactly what she had thought her life was like at the shop. At this point, she’d prefer it. 

       “I think you’d be the perfect finishing touch to my collection!” He smiled like he’d gotten a puppy. That’s why there was an empty case. That was the last straw. She screamed, stepping on his foot so he’d let go of her. She ran as fast as she could—but the Puppeteer had shut the door. It was locked. She cursed and banged on the door until his grip reached her shoulder, pulling her backwards. He yanked her into his hold, and pulled a small knife from his jacket and placed it near her neck.

To be continued…

Thanks for reading! The “short story” became a bit longer than it was originally after my most recent edit/rewrite, so I decided to break it in half. Stay tuned for part 2!

Heyo! I present to you my first Inktober piece! Using Boy Fear’s Fear ‘o ween prompt “gravestone/script”. Enjoy the time-lapse!

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So, down to business. I’ve decided to semi-take part in Inktober. Using some of the fun prompts found, I’ll be picking and choosing ones I like and doing it for fun on the side. Right now I’m using the Fear o’ ween prompt list by Boyfear, gravestone/script. I’ve got the penciling down for it!

As well as Inktober, I’m working on my webcomic Essence of Soul when I can, despite having school, although my page speed has decreased significantly. I wasn’t able to make my end-of-month goal :(. I’m over halfway though, so that’s something! There’s also been a priority of fall/halloween decorating.

Me and my mom have a sort of Halloween Movie list we try to get through every October, and so far we’ve already watched Death Becomes Her, Haunted Mansion (the newer one), and we’re watching the Agatha All Along releases on Disney +. Others on our list include Nightmare Before Christmas, Corpse Bride, The Great Pumpkin, halloween Psych episodes, Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, the Eddie Murphy Haunted Mansion, etc.

I also have made an annual tradition to read the Halloween themed mystery manga The Comiq by Kazuki Takahashi. I definitely recommend if your a fan of Takahashi’s other work or if you like a fun quirky mystery.

With all the halloween festivities coming up, I plan to release a short horror story I wrote a year or so ago this month! That should hit your inbox in a couple weeks.

Well, that’s all I got for now! Do you have any movies you watch for Halloween every year? Let me know in the comments!

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Soon, I will be launching the first installment in my webcomic, so, consider this a trailer.

Secret Project #1 is finally not so secret!

The title for my webcomic (at least for now) is Essence of Soul. My original title before that was called Soul Searcher, but too many webcomics had very similar titles so I forced myself to find a new one.

“What’s it about?” You ask?

Well here’s my best attempt at a blurb:

Akeno Fukuda is a freshman in high school. He’s got good friends, decent grades, and is starting the new adventure that is getting older. But what happens when he’s killed—and comes back to life?!

I’m sorry that’s so short, but I can’t give too much away now can I?

This is a YA (I’m gonna say recommended 13+) Paranormal/supernatural comic, coming to ya’ll soon. I’m super excited to finally be releasing this! I’ll be posting the updates in bite-sized chunks, then I’ll combine up chapters and such in a section on my Substack site. I’ll also be setting it up in other places to read, such as Comic Fury and maybe Tapas, although the stack will be most up to date on releases.

Here’s full-color art of my main character because what kind of trailer doesn’t have any imagery? And for a comic of all things!

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