The Con Calendar is up!

And that means the store banner gets replaced on the front page, so I'll put it here instead! The banner above links to the comic collections page, but you can find art cards, merchandise and original art on there too! (There's nothing on the comic originals page as I wrote this post, since we may implement another system for purchasing those, but you can contact me if you want to purchase a strip.)

Anyway, here is the current master list of conventions I will be attending this year, along with my con wishlist and other comments. Once this blog post goes up, I will link the con calendar banner on the front page to it, so people can get more information long after this news post has scrolled off the front page.

The current convention calendar (updated as needed, and when I remember to do so)!

Fur The 'More - March 14-16 - Baltimore, MD
This is a second-year con that was a blast to show at last year! If you are in the area, I highly encourage you to come check it out. I've been looking for a solid local-ish furry con I can make my home, and this one has an amazing staff and a wonderful vibe to it. (And it's 20 minutes from one of my best friends' apartment, so I get a cherished visit in as long as I keep attending!)

Furry Weekend Atlanta - March 20-23 - Atlanta, GA
The birthday con! I'm introducing Becca of Nattosoup to the furry con scene, and we both have birthdays that week. (She's the 19th and I'm the 24th, so we *just* miss out on exact days.) This means you must be EXTRA NICE to us! This is also my return to the first con I ever tabled at. I don't live in Georgia anymore, so FWA is usually too out of my way to attend, but this year we're making it an event!  Treat us well, however, and you might lock me in for the future!

Awesome Con DC - April 18-20 - Washington, DC
Look, another "home" con for me! This is my first year showing at Awesome Con. People who attended it last year had nothing but good stuff to say, so I'm really excited about it! If my hometown peeps don't show up to cheer me on, I'll be so distressed! (It also looks like a fairly powerful con for fandoms - what a guest list! - so there's lots to amuse you when you aren't fawning over me.)

Anthrocon - July 3-6 - Pittsburgh, PA
This is the big special furry con, and also marks the estimated debut of Precocious' third book! This is always a super-fun even for me. I cherish my time with my cartoonist buddies - our hotel room alone will have the combined powers of me, Mat of Badly Drawn Kitties and the Bittersweet Candy Bowl team - and I love checking in with all my con regulars. Even if I keep getting sick and die before this, my stuffed corpse will attend and be propped up at the table. IT WILL BE MY FINAL WISH!

Mechacon - August 1-3 - New Orleans, LA
After I drag Becca to a furry con, she's taking me to her hometown con, along with lots of my SCAD buddies. I'm really looking forward to this one. I've heard nothing but glowing things about the con itself, and it is only enhanced by it being New Orleans once I walk out the doors!

I ended up missing out with lottery for Small Press Expo (SPX), AND the SpiderForest crew I'd be with for SPX needs to murder 28 people for any of us to get it, so I expect to miss it this year. (Hey, I won every other con lottery I've tried, so I can't really cry about bad luck.)  FurFright, the Halloween con in Connecticut, has closed its doors - but there's a chance something new may rise from its ashes. It was such a positive con, I'll check out the new version too. (Wishing the best to the FurFright founders, by the way! Thank you for everything!)  I adore Midwest FurFest, in Chicago, too, but it's very hard to justify the travel costs unless I have lots of buddies there to make it worthwhile. I wish I was more popular, guys! It would make these trips so much easier! One of these days I'll be powerful enough to justify a west coast con! I don't expect to be at any shows mentioned in this paragraph, but they remain on my radar for future years.

I don't have an interest in returning to ConnectiCon or InterventionCon this year. As much as I enjoyed the attendees I met, both those cons have awful staff and I don't wish to deal with them again. I don't appreciate people refusing to reply to me and never paying back money I'm owed (ConnectiCon, which did this to SEVERAL of its guests) and a shyster outright lying to people to get their money when they fully know it's a ripoff (InterventionCon).  I made profits at both last year, but the people behind the cons DO NOT deserve support. I don't like being negative, but artists have to pay and put in lots of work/travel hours to make these trips. Ripoffs are devastating, especially to those with less-known names, and thus a smaller margin of error.

Back to the happy, I really hope to see a lot of you around the shows!

Back to comics! (Wish me luck...)

I hope you all enjoyed the doll onslaught! If you want more in the future, save up some money so you can help me unlock dolls as part of next month's Kickstarter - or toss me some donations so I can at least commission a set for meeeee!

For those that missed any of last week's Copper Road story, I've compiled all seven strips together into one incentive. Vote on TWC to see it!

My hand is out of the cast, but things aren't so encouraging yet. The finger is VERY sore after being held in place for two weeks, so right now the pain is worse than it ever was and I have no indication those two weeks did anything positive for the issue we were trying to fix. The hope is that the hand will calm down from it's cast anger, and things will at least to be back to (the unideal) normal come morning. There is potential for a deleted scene comic later in the week, though it might get saved for later if drawing is too hard for me.

Please be nice to me this week. I don't see any probably outcome where I won't be really struggling to stay afloat.

Hand-in-Cast Week!

If you've been following my Twitter, you already know my hand ended up in a cast thanks to me re-aggravating an old drawing injury. (The legend of these kids' destructive powers lives on!) Since I didn't expect the cast to happen, I didn't have the buffer to cover two weeks of limited drawing ability. I had to bump a rather drawing-intensive story back a week and improvise! Enter the Precocious dolls, created by the mighty Eric of Duae Designs! (By the way, if you all want a second doll set to happen for book 3's preorder, make your voice heard now.) Further down in this post, I'll give you info on how you can take part in this silly week, but first...

THERE ARE ACTUAL COMICS HAPPENING THIS WEEK TOO!

Every day this week, a new page of a Copper Road story - inspired by *ahem* certain events - will go up as a vote incentive on TopWebComics. (Yes, the first comic of the story is the one the dolls are "helping" with.) You have to vote to see the updates, and you can do so by clicking the TWC button, the Copper Road preview image off to the left of this post, finding the link I post in the comments each day... or just clicking this link right here. I'll do my best to update Copper Road at the normal daily update time.

So why are the "real" comics the incentives and the doll stuff the main updates? First, doing it this way means all of these will go into the archive. Second, the comics are decidedly Copper Road and not Precocious. Third, we can ALL play with dolls! Readers, you can take part in making this week a lot of fun!

I know a bunch of Precocious dolls are out there, which means those who possess them can totally join in with the photo and caption fun. Set up a scene, take you photos and post them into the comments sections throughout the week!  Need help? You can email me your photo and idea, and I can put it together for you. In case you haven't figured out those blue letters mean those words are a link, my email is on the Contact Page. You can also enjoy the resources below:

No doll? No problem. If you have image editing skills, but no doll to photograph, feel free to use these provided photos of the dolls, with transparent backgrounds for your convenience!

Right click and "save as" to download all resources:

- Doll Bud
- Doll Autumn
- Doll Jacob
- Doll Tiffany
- The Precocious Font TrueType file

As for posting your image in the comments sections, let me borrow this handy graphic from the FAQ page to help you out:

You still need to have an image host to post anything. If you don't have one, drop me an email and I can upload it for you. If I'm missing anything, ask any questions in the comments and I (or a reader in the know) will reply and help you out.

I'm always nervous when I ask for reader participation, but a little involvement from everyone can turn this cute week into something memorable. DO IT FOR MY POOR MANGLED FINGER!

Precocious is five years old!

Forget this New Year stuff! The most important thing about January 1st is that it's Precocious' birthday! Five years, and around 2000 comics between the archive, deleted scenes and the book bonus stories. Not too shabby! (Thanks to Isabel Marks of Namir Deiter for the gift art!)

(Want to celebrate the occasion too? Now's as good a time as any to check out all the goodies in the Precocious store!)

When I started, five years was my goal. From all my reading of dailies, I saw year five as when artist competence and character development come together to bring a comic into a golden age. Well, every year I've done this has been precocious to me. Year one of Precocious was fresh and new and exciting. Year two built upon a strong foundation and expanded the universe. Year three is when I took a major level up and committed to the goal of making Precocious my JOB and not just a hobby. Year four is when I pulled out all my tricks. Year five... this was the year I took for myself and drew what I wanted to draw. The stories from the past year were so much fun for me to write, and it was so gratifying to see so many people coming along for the ride. I told myself I'd reassess the comic at year five, and I can't imagine stopping now. I'm not done. I have so much left to tell and so much silliness to share.

2013 was a great year for the comic, but not so much for me. A toothache I thought would be a one-week inconvenience turned into a botched surgery and a year of medical hell. As the year comes to a close, I'm still in doctor limbo, dealing with chronic pain and fighting all the side-issues that come up when lengthy medical issues happen. I've been double sick for weeks thanks to a cold caught due to being in so many doctor waiting rooms, and my drawing hand is in a cast because I aggravated and old finger injury due to me playing too many video games while stuck in bed during pain downtime. (Yes, this means I'll have to be clever with next week's updates, as my buffer doesn't cover the full cast stretch.)  I am so glad to see 2013 go. It was brutal. BUT I DIDN'T MISS AN UPDATE! In you face, 2013!

Here's hoping 2014 brings me health, and chances to do all things that I wanted to do in 2013.  Book 3 is coming, and the preorder looks like it'll start in February right now. (It will be in color, and thus VERY expensive to print, so I'll really be needing your support!) The other plans? We shall see. I'm a one man operation, so I can't put in the extra work needed until I'm healthy enough. My convention schedule is likely to be scaled back, again due to health.  I'm confirmed for Fur The More, Furry Weekend Atlanta, Anthrocon and Mechacon. I'll try for SPX. Not sure about any others.

Thank you all for reading Precocious. Keep coming back. Keep contributing. Keep spreading the word.

New Copper Road! 12/25/13

To all those reading this on December 25th, I salute you! Bonus points if you actually celebrate Christmas. I too believe I am more important in your life than your family. (What have they done for you lately?)

Since my family isn't one that celebrates today, I was supposed to use this week to grind out some comics. Instead I got a bad cold, and I'm so congested I lost the use of one of my ears and gave myself two black eyes from coughing. BUT I FIGHT THROUGH THE PAIN FOR YOU! A new Copper Road is here as a lovely stocking stuffer - or Chinese restaurant side dish, as the case may be.

Unlike your family, *I* reliably add goodness to your life! Enjoy!

New Copper Road! 12/16/13

'Tis the season!

Chrispmas time is here again, and that means casual giving, lots of slacking off and fun without pressure! In my family, we mostly use December as an excuse to buy needed or desired items, then give to ourselves in honor of the rest of us. (I got myself a dedicated art and publishing laptop! Mom gets to take credit for it.) We don't really mind exact dates - just get it when it's needed.  That's my big Chrispmas selling point.  The reign of Chrispmas is officially from December 8th to March 24th, but, really, give when you find the right gift - or work out a give-to-yourself deal with loved ones.

Anyway, the Hus might not be enlightened as my family, but they could be getting there... Vote here to see the new bonus comic!

New Deleted Scene! 12/12/13

So it turns out I wrote nine scripts for seven days, and that means a deleted scene! (Just the one. I hinted at the other in Monday's alt text, though.) Vote here to see the deleted scene! Consider it comic 1741b.

Like all deleted scenes, once this rotates out as the vote incentive it won't be in any online archive. See it now, or wait for the book. (I suggest doing both, actually.)

(Edit: away it goes!)

New Copper Road! 12/8/13

Hey, look, another one! I don't know if the timing of this comic on Sunday night makes it funnier or not. Either way, it's good advice - or just a cartoonist way of life. Vote here to see the new comic!

Hey, Pokemon players! (And Tumblrfolk!)

JANUARY UPDATE: Not that most people scroll this far down, but I'm still taking friend codes.  Drawings got off-track due to an 18-day (and counting) cold. Because of course I get a devastating COLD the one year I get a flu shot. The universe has a cruel sense of humor. Oh, and I can't make up those drawings soon too, since I got my drawing hand put in a cast. Cruel sense of humor. Told ya.

Hello, I am abusing front page news posting!

For those too lazy to check out all the links on the sidebar, I'll point you to my Tumblr page. It's become a place where random sketches end up, when they should be on the sketch blog - mostly because I can mirror the post to Twitter and get more than 10 people to see them. This month I'm doing a Pokemon challenge, with a new Pokemon drawing every day. It's a fun bit of drawing warm-up for me and gives me something to share.

For you Pokemon players, you can see my friend code up there. I've got enough room to add a bunch of you, so if you're playing Pokemon and want access to my fire-type Friend Safari - which does have Autumns/Braixens - let me know your friend code. Easiest way to do it is to add my code, then put yours into my Tumblr ask box. (I also accept actual questions!) I'm looking for a few Pokemon in particular, by the way. Looking for Steel (someone give me easy access to Magnetons!) safaris most of all. Grass, Fairy and Normal safaris also loved.

New Copper Road! 12/5/13

Hooray, it's another comic! More tales of doom and gloom, because those are the best things. Vote here to see the new comic!

While I don't have a script for it yet, I want to have another Copper Road on Monday(ish). Gotta space things out so I can run the deleted scene from next week's comics!  #tease #tease #tease