Dead (Until Further Notice)

My hopefulness in the past was gravely misplaced.

I mentioned several times that Duality could possibly get worked on as long as production for Sanity Within Dystopia was not hindered.  After pages were finished, I used to frequently ask the artist, Ayla, when we would get back on the fan comic, and through the months I pulled back on asking until I just stopped, since the only responses I ever got were maybes, I-don't-knows, don't-wanna-talk-about-its and general noises of disapproval, with only a vague promise that if things went well with the other comic, then things would move forward this one.  It's been over a year, and I'm sapped of hope.  To some degree, apart from the lack of interest in the project, I have gotten the general impression that she's ashamed of it.  Two grown adults, making a comic based on an existing intellectual property of a cancelled children's cartoon, and producing it for years as a mere hobby when we could be making our own material instead?  Even further, now there's a Zim comic that is going to continue where the show left off, so why bother?

And you know what?  She's right.  I understand.  It's the most infuriating feeling, but I understand.  This comic means the world to me, but it's not doing anything for us in our personal lives.  With Dystopia (and her other comic, Ichabod the Optimistic Canine), we're making something that may be worthwhile, that could maybe produce some kind of income in the future to support larger projects like them.  We can't do that with Duality, not really.  It certainly was never our intention to make a proper profit out of fan work.  And that, perhaps, is the bane that makes Duality so difficult to continue.

I've had a conversation with Ayla recently, perhaps the first time I've brought up our old comic in months, after a brief back-and-forth with a follower got me thinking about the possibility of returning to the misadventures of Abi & Trad.  Asking her about when we would continue Duality earned me a shrug.  Asking if she still is considering coming back to it earned me the usual vague response.  She tells me that she still wants to focus on the other comics (both of which are also not doing great in terms of a steady schedule) before she ever considers continuing Duality, and even when we do get back, it'll be a sporadic thing, making pages every so often without regard to how long between pages it takes to update.  Still not the answer I want, but it may be the only answer I'll ever receive.

This comic was for us.  We shared it with you because it would be weird to make a really nice-looking comic for no one to see.  But it was really for us.  Now it seems I'm the only one that still wants anything to do with it.  And I linger around, floating to check on any messages on the account to simply declare "I'm still here."  But updates will not come frequently enough anymore.  Certainly not in time to keep those of you who were interested in the comic happy and coming back for more.  If we update, who knows if we'll make more after that, or when?  What's the point in getting invested if we're going to let you down again?

If you want to stop watching the account, it's fine.  If you stay, I can't give you what you want, not with any regularity.  I'll still be here either way.  Y'know, I never even acknowledged that we got over 500 watchers.  90 of those came after the last page we submitted, some of them from this year.  That's crazy to me.  Thanks for the love, and sorry that it can't really be reciprocated appropriately.  I don't know if we'll ever be back, but I thank you all for the bits of joy you sent our way.  Ayla and I both appreciated it immensely.

Take care, everyone.