Happy Friday! Here's a pretty big announcement (in the form of dailies, of course)! (Patreon)

Hello, my little Fridaylings!

I had a FANTASTIC time at TCAF. To those of you who came out, thanks for making the time to stop by my table!

Unfortunately I caught some wild summer bug when I got home, so this is another comic-sparse update! This first one's about CRIME. 😈

Whoopsie! I gave the money to a guy outside who was asking for change. He needed it more than Loblaw's. Here's the original if you want it! Use DAILYSMILE50 at checkout for 50% off!

I've never had such an easy border experience! I'd printed out all the correct forms to sell my books in Canada, only to be blown off by the guard who clearly did not wanna deal with my $11.01 tariff.

I forgot my phone Saturday (my brain's been fulla marbles, more on that later), so I didn't get a photo of the final drawing I did for Commission Guy, which is a shame; it was a Lara Croft drawing that followed up another Lara Croft drawing I did for him way back in 2007! Crazy that I've been doing this convention gig for THAT long.

While I was working on his commission, another man saw me drawing and exclaimed "you're doing COMMISSIONS?!" I tried to say no, but then he just.... threw $200 on my table?! So I did two commissions for him, too. Apparently all you have to do to get me to draw a commission is throw money at me (I'll be at Heroes Con next weekend, so keep that in mind if you're there!).

I didn't have any paper, so he insisted I just draw on the pink endpapers of the GWS books he'd bought from me. That was a first! I finished them on Sunday when I had my phone on me, so I got these very mediocre photos:

And congratulations to my good friend Boum (of Boumeries) whose book The Jellyfish has been SLAYING IT in the awards circles!! I hate awards ceremonies, but wanted to support her, so I went. It turned out to be a really fun time! (Which is to say, there was a bar and my friends were there.)

Oh, and our panel on webcomics was fun, too! Here's a photo of our moderator Megan Halsband, yours truly, Michael Grover of Deeply Dave, and Ryan North of Dinosaur Comics (among many other things).

Fun fact, Megan is the reason my & Ryan's webcomics are archived in the Library of Congress!

I've been trying not to be a downer about my State of Things lately (especially when the universal State of Things is already so bad), but I want to share where I'm at mentally right now. It's really just the 8th panel - that's the big one I've been keeping quiet about.

(The house-/rent-related texts are from my property manager, Roger, who likes to raise my blood pressure with vague texts about the house.)

He doesn't have a vest, but Pip is my emotional support animal. Here's the original art if you'd like it - remember DAILYSMILE50 at checkout!

A little more context:

The HouseThe rent's been way under market value since I started living here 18 years ago; the increase is long overdue. Not the greatest timing, but at least they're not selling it! I can't move my home, studio, office, and warehouse on short notice. And I definitely can't afford to buy this place. I'm taking on more caricature gigs and looking for a housemate!

The MoneyDid I need to share that I'm overdrawing my account for the first time in over a decade? Nah, but if you've known me awhile, you know I love to be transparent about finances (which is why my Patreon revenue is set to public). I'll be okay, I'm just dipping into savings that I never wanted to touch. Self-employed folks are encouraged to keep half a year's worth of income in the bank at all times, and I'm way below that now. I'm trying to remind myself that THIS is the reason for that rule - I'm dipping into Past Danielle's safety net. Very nice of Past Danielle to set this up for me!

Personal Stuff is personal, but it's okay! I'm good, we're good.

Secret ProjectThis is the big bummer. I've known for awhile, but I've been too down about it to share here. In short, the comics distributor Diamond - which went bankrupt earlier this year - owes Dark Horse & a bunch of other publishers a ton of money, so Dark Horse had to shelve projects like mine (I'm assuming because mine hadn't been announced yet). They've paid me for my work. I don't know if it'll ever be released. For that reason, I still can't share what it is/was, which makes me nuts because I'm not good at keeping secrets.

What that means, though, is that I'm planning a comeback for Elephant Town, which I'm PUMPED about!! I'm aiming to bring it back this fall. We're already halfway through the story and I'm really proud of the pages I've made so far - I can't wait to share the second half of the story with you all. :)

I'm also planning to do open some monthly commission slots to keep my bank account afloat, so stay tuned for that! I'll be offering the first ones within my community, so if you're local to Shepherdstown, this may be of interest to you. It'll be a specific theme (and kind of a boring one, to be honest, but one that people have been asking me to do for years, and I'll make it interesting).

That's it for nowOH WAIT WAIT, geez, what am I doing?? I forgot the GOOD news, which is my garden. LOOK AT MY GARDEN.

My kale plants are officially OFF THE HOOK. So is this anise hyssop plant that surprised me and came back on its own?!

It's TALLER THAN ME!?!

Not sure if you saw the WALL of sugar snap peas behind the kale, but the peas that didn't grow last year are being MORE THAN MADE UP FOR this year! These earlier ones near the house are already starting to plump up.

This front raised bed will be full of tall flowers that tower over the fence later this summer:

And here's Ollie cooling himself off under the dahlia bush:

Okay, NOW that's all. Thanks for indulging me this text-heavy post full of woe and worry. I'll be okay! Onward and upward.