Yeah, who didn't see this coming. Turns out when you have everything screaming at you to take a break your response shouldn't be "well I'm gonna do it anyway." I should've just said I was taking a break earlier this month when I needed to.
So I'm gonna pause payment for next month and post the next page in the next few days followed by the next a bit after. Then take the rest of the month to tackle a whole mountain of projects and things I've been neglecting. (I didn't even mow this weekend. Oops.) Then pick back up in June. I also need to take that time to update OOTB publicly. I believe you guys are like seven pages ahead at this point.
And not to like, pull back the curtains or anything but hey you're here for the comic you probably want to hear my thoughts on it or at least why I'm struggling with it. I started OOTB as a short comic in 2016 and I definitely didn't expect it to go on as long as it has. I'm sure this is a problem with a lot of webcomic artists but the comic I started isn't the comic I would make today. Not even close. It's like the worst game of Exquisite Corpse ever. You look at the person to say "what am I supposed to do with this?" and the person is you.
And OOTB is in that weird middle of the story where the barebones plots I locked myself into years ago have to all come together and I gotta untangle that mess and make it something halfway decent. On top of trying to keep the art at least somewhat consistent you can probably see why I struggle with this. And taking such a long break and only coming back a few months ago definitely didn't help. It's been fighting me ever since I came back to work on it. And I really hope I don't give the impression that I just put off working on it every month. Most of my drawing time is spent agonizing over this little comic.
And I know what you're thinking. "It IS just a little webcomic." And yeah, it is. But I don't want to half-ass it. It's my first and I want to do right by it. I should've taken this break between chapters and took some time to think about what I'm doing with the comic but I guess it's better late than never. And I don't want it to sound like I don't like OOTB or need to stop it. I love it and I want to finish it. Also don't want it sound to like I'm searching for sympathy. I think I just need to rant about it a bit and get it out. Then just take some time to reevaluate it. (And also rest my eyes some more.)
Anyway sorry for the rambling mini rant and sorry for the delays. I feel like I'm always apologizing for delays these days. This comic man. Woof.