Treiss is wearing something under that, right? Only Belle knows for sure.

Here's this week's Catena update.

We don't have any sort of buffer for Catena, so when there is any kind of extra work whatsoever, the comic is the first thing to grind to a halt.

Fear not, I'll have something up next month and maybe some doodles in between.

At the moment, we're gearing up for Comic-Con in San Diego. We'll be with Blue Dream Studios for a while signing Gary the Pirate and then eventually I imagine that we'll be wandering around in general.

There won't be any Catena merchandise at Comic-Con at all - sorry. We don't actually have anything to sell right now and we don't have a booth to sell it at anyway. ;) I'm sure there will be copies of Gary the Pirate around though, so feel free to grab that up if you can!

Just keep reading this LJ for news. I may even post a con report next month when we get back.

Ciao!

Catena updated.

Please read through the interview too. It's neat!

There's some new fan art in the fan art section too. Thanks for that!

I hope everyone is staying cool in July. I know we're having a tough time of it. Ugh!

At the end of this month we'll be at Comicon in San Diego. Is anyone else going to be there? We'll be there the entire time it runs, including "preview night".

Catena updated.

And now there's a tanuki. Oh dear.

I hope everyone has had a good time with Catena in the last year. We will almost certainly be taking a vacation from the strip in August, with hopes to return in the fall. One of the firms we work for has some deadlines that must be met soon. Since I need to help with the project, I won't have time to write any more script!

On the plus side, this gives us a little time to regroup and redo the site like I wanted, get some things actually printed up, and maybe start some of the other stuff I wanted to start last year. You'll have to see when we return.

You can check this journal for updates. I'll probably update it at least once a week whether the comic updates or not.

And yes, we will be finishing the beach episode before we leave, so please keep coming back! :)

Catena updated.

Okay, okay, this is the last of the chicken puns, I promise.

Don't flail on me - everything will be fine. ;)

Ciao!

Catena updated.

I honestly have no idea what Treiss is doing, but she appears to be having fun.

I am thinking about using Wordpress and Comicpress so that we can automate some of the less-automated features of the website. That would also make it easy for me to place ads on the site.

I know everyone grumbles about ads, and that's fine. On my side of the coin, the site costs money to run, there's significant opportunity cost in making the comic itself, and people who really hate ads can always use Firefox and Adblock. ;)

On the plus side, the ads will most likely be for other webcomics, so... It should be fun - assuming I can make it all work.

Edit The site is getting hammered or something, so the comic may be slow loading. I'll try to look at it tonight. For now, you can try reloading or you can try again tomorrow. Sorry!

Edit 2 Our web provider has reported that it is recovering from a power outage. The site will probably be unavailable until they get everything powered back up. It's a big provider, so they have procedures for this sort of thing. If Catena's not back online today, try again tomorrow. Thanks! :)

Edit 3 Everything seems to be back up now. Exciting!

Ciao!

Catena updated.

Awful, isn't it? I'm so ashamed (but not really ;).

In other news...

We're quite happy to announced that Gary the Pirate in now available in stores (Barnes and Noble should have it soon). Sales on that book help to support Scott Sava, who in turns supports us. Working for Scott has been great and we'd love to keep working for him in the future.

Enjoy! :D

We all learn lessons in our own way.

I planted 40 lily bulbs over the weekend and now I just want to sleeeeeep. What'd you do over the weekend? Tell us about your creative or otherwise productive efforts!

Have a good one!

Catena updated.

We're a little early today. I hope you aren't too shocked. Just don't get used to it. ;)

I hope everyone had a great weekend.

And really, who does sell donuts at the beach?

Buddy learns the hard way.

Poor Buddy.

I hope everyone is prospering.

Believe it or not, I'm working my way through my second playing of Fallout 3. I finally bought all the DLC and I'm running around the wasteland again. Maybe there'll be another Fallout comic later since Hank seems to dig it too. If you've already played through all the DLC please don't post any spoilers!

Is anyone else out there into gaming? I've been playing since before Ultima 3 came out.

Cheers!

What the octopus said.

Patches is, well, Patches. I'm sure the octopus will be fine.

By the way, don't try that at home, kids.

Other misc:

I spent all weekend planting vegetables and flowers. Gardening must be great exercise because I feel like I went 9 rounds with Mike Tyson. Ouch!

Have a good one!

Those... Eyebrows.

Tracy and I went on a bit of a trip. It was a lot of fun, but it ate our weekend, which kept the comic from being posted Sunday night. On the plus side, we still updated Monday, and that's all we ever really aimed for anyway. ;)

I hope everyone is having a good week!

Ciao!

Catena updated.

I've mentioned that I like anime, right?

Hopefully enough of you are familiar with Ah! My Goddess, that you can laugh at the shout-out and maybe explain it to others.

If you're not sure what's going on, well, enjoy three cats in bikinis (or surf the Wiki link above). Next week we'll return to our regularly scheduled story. :)

Blue sunblock? Yes.

Have a good one, folks!

Catena updated.

Reaper is not amused.

When IS Reaper amused? Perhaps we don't want to know!

I just thought I'd stop and say "Thanks" to all the people who are reading the comic. It's fun to imagine that the internet, for all it's problems, can make people crack a smile - sometimes half a world away.

Have a great week, folks. :D

Catena updated.

I think Belle is going to blow a gasket. Let's hope that things go smoothly (or at least fashionably) from here on out.

Hey - how'd she do that anyway?

Hey!

Catena updated.

I hope you're having a great week - if not, fight me in the arena!

I've taken "Donation Annie" down for a little bit. I may redo the website (again) later in the year, which will allow me to have the flexibility to take in revenue from advertisements rather than relying solely on the generosity of well, you guys.

I'm also still looking at ways to get things into print. Basically there are two ways to go and I'm not sure which way to... Go.

I worked on an art degree on and off for some years. Sometimes I will follow an artist who works on art far distant from what I actually do.

Does anyone else have an interest in kinetic sculpture?

Catena updated.

Someone lost her spots. How clumsy of her.

We had time to do some shading this time. I don't know if that will be the case every week, so enjoy it as it comes. :)

Please vote for us with the Topwebcomics button! Donations are also still being accepted.

In unrelated news, does anyone else out there enjoy fantasy?

Does anyone enjoy science fiction?

Tell us what you like (series, manga, movie, anime, or novel)!

--
Tracy & DeBray

I know there are some manga people on my list. Does anyone else out there read Blame! or maybe Biomega (it isn't here yet as far as I can find so no spoilers please)?

I mean, I'm just asking - because I came across this...

And well, ya know. Lolz. :D

Catena updated.

I think I know where this is going.

The new story arc has begun. This page also marks our return to black and white. For those of you who aren't aware, Tracy also works on contract illustration projects. Those projects are our "bread and butter", without which we probably could not afford to do anything at all. They are lengthy projects with built-in deadlines, however, so we have to give them priority over the webcomic when "crunch time" rolls around. Last summer this caused us to go on hiatus. This year we are going to try and keep the comic going, but to do that we've decided to go black and white.

Eventually we would like to have enough Catena readership that we could contract other artists to do projects for us, but we're still new at this and we have some years to go before that can happen. If you wonder how donations fit into this scheme, they are sometimes used for Catena advertisements, and they are sometimes used for very mundane things like buying food. In addition to writing the comic, DeBray also works a full time job to help cover our regular expenses (plus "big ticket" items like Comicon). Nobody here is slacking!

If you're long time reader, perhaps the new look will hearken back to the days when Catena first started and everything was black and white. Think of it as nostalgia. If not, well, we hope you like the new format anyway. :)

--
Tracy & DeBray

Catena Updated.

If you're confused by Bryony's reaction, think of cherubim as a "four headed power-house" instead of "Cupid".

Petting the cherubim may not be a good idea. Annoying the grim reaper? That's the ticket! ;)

I hope everyone enjoys this week's comic. The next story arc has Beau and Bryony featured, along with several other regulars. It should be fun!

As always, please leave your comments in the comment box. I don't get to reply to all of them, but I really do read them! :)

Thanks gang!
Tracy & DeBray