2016 in Summary

     Last year I wrote that I'm 2016 I was hoping to: 

-Take regular breaks. Try really hard to get all my work done from 9-5, Monday-Friday.  [This was a bit hit-or-miss. But efforts were made!] 

-Take a trip to visit some friends I’ve been promising to see for YEARS.  [ACCOMPLISHED ] 

-Take a storyboarding/storytelling class?  [Not yet, but I DID sign up for Danielle Corsetto's illustration class that she offered on Patreon!  And I did, like, the first two homework assignments! Oh, and I took a watercolor class too.] 

-Trust myself more.  [At first I wrote "HAHAHAHAH" but then I remember that I actually... I spoke up for myself in some really hard situations, so yeah, ACCOMPLISHED] 

-I’m afraid to include this on the list, but oh man, I’d really like to put out a sexy coloring book.  [ACCOMPLISHED. Releasing in February, right before Valentine's Day, through Limerence Press!] 

-Publish Volume 3  [ACCOMPLISHED] 

-EMBROIDER LIKE A MOTHERFUCKER  [ACCOMPLISHED] 

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Okay, on to what  did  happen in 2016....

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 Accomplishments 

-Finalist for the Oregon Book Awards for Volume 2, runner-up for Comics Alliance's Outstanding Cartoonist  and Best Factual Comic, and runner-up for Best Local Blog in the Willamette Weekly's Best of Portland poll. Starred reviews in Publishers Weekly and Library Journal for Volume 3.

-Limerence Press (adult imprint of Oni Press) launched by re-printing Volumes 1-3 of OJST, which sold better than anyone was anticipating. I don't actually know exactly HOW well, but they're super happy! And want to keep working with us! I think we've come across as professional and reliable to them? In any case, Matt and I turned around three brand new covers just for them in a fucking absurdly short amount of time. AND they were delighted to take on the task of putting together a sexy coloring book made of drawings from previous OJST strips. Coming out next month!

-Volume 3 Kickstarter funded way better than Matt and I anticipated! Much smaller attrition of backers than we expected. And because we did our printing through Limerence/Oni, our costs were way, way down, which meant a much larger percentage of the pledges were actually profit for us.

-Amazing book signing at Good Vibes in San Francisco with a line outside the store that took FOUR HOURS to go through. Multiple readers said they'd gotten into the sex education/science fields in part from inspiration from OJST. Like, they SIGNED UP FOR MEDICAL SCHOOL because of it. So I'm responsible for at least a couple folks' future crippling school debt because of my dick drawings :D

-Refinanced our house. Went from a 30 year loan to a 15 year loan and our monthly mortgage payment stayed EXACTLY THE SAME. Feels like winning the motherfucking lottery. Also, replaced our piece of shit dishwasher! 

-Hired a friend to screen Matt’s and my social media so we don’t have to look at all of it and they log all harassment/threats into a document for us so it’s all organized. Gives us peace of mind and a bit of a protective barrier.

-Hired the most guest artists this year, more than any previous year. AND we raised our page rates again ($110 a page!). Feels really good. I fucking love paying cartoonists. Also opened up submissions to anyone, instead of being invite-only.

-Advised and mentored a handful of lady cartoonists and younger queer folks. YES, PLEASE, LEARN FROM MY DECADES OF MISTAKES. But for reals, it feels really good to share hard won knowledge with folks who seek you out for it and value it.

-Dan Savage featured me as a guest expert in his Savage Love column for a question about sex toys, which then led to him inviting me to be a monthly re-occurring sex toy advisor on his Savage Lovecast podcast. He called me "the genius cartoonist" in his introduction on the podcast episode we just recorded but hasn’t been released yet [weeping emoji]. 

-Super fantastic ECCC and TCAF, sold out. Pretty good VanCaf, too, even though I was stupid sick. TCAF and VanCaf write-up here! 

-Leveled up in taking care of my mental health and coping with fallout from my PTSD and bipolar disorder. I’m so proud of my crazy self and I’ve come so, so, so far from when I felt like a helpless prisoner to it in my 20s. Haha, if you encountered me being strange/nuts in my 20s: I’m sorry. I’m processing information and behaving a lot differently now in my 30s.

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 Challenges 

-Hahaha, I know this looks ridiculous following that huge list of REALLY AWESOME THINGS that happened in 2016, buuuuut.... This was the hardest year I've survived. Maybe not EVER in my entire life if every hard year were to be compared with each other objectively, but right now I can't think of another year that so thoroughly demoralized and destroyed my heart and mind.

-Overworked. To an unhealthy degree. It’s taking a physical toll. Like, I couldn’t stand up at a point there and my limbs had pinprick sensations all along them. And it breaks my heart to see Matt being crushed under the workload as well. It’s just too much. It’s causing real harm. We both still love what we do, but we took too much on this year.

-Mental Health has been a big struggle this year, both mine and of the people I love. It’s been really, really, really hard and really, really, really painful. 

-Ended an important relationship. I'm still mourning it.

-Internet hate intensifying the more visible OJST and I become. Had a couple months of daily violence and death threats that left Matt and me legitimately terrified. 

-OJST legal trubs that we can’t really talk about yet. Paying lawyers thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars to argue with each other. Very, very stressful. Very, very expensive. (None of this is online in any form, so there's nothing to find if you go searching. I really respectfully ask that you please not stir up  drama for us by repeating this on the public internet, too /:) Thank you!!!)

-Traffic to the website continues to decline and wow do I get bored of our formula at times. I want to tell other stories.

-Another year of not working on my memoir stories that are burning a hole in my brain. 

-Uhm. The whole presidential election thing. That's been... fucking devastating.

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 Goals for 2017 

-Hire an assistant
-Hire an assistant
-Hire an assistant
-Hire an assistant
-Hire an assistant