News - March/April 2016

[Nekomata]

Since March is already almost over, this will be the news post for March and April.

Update Status

Alrighty, so we all know PRS has been on a rather lengthy hiatus for the last several months. To explain, a mix of health, school, and unusual amounts of stress were keeping me from drawing and doing things I normally would. I can't say things have improved all that much on any of those ends, but it's time I deal with it and get working again.

My goal for the next month or so is to get PRS back on its usual Friday update schedule. Once Friday updates are back on track, I'll start putting back in the Tuesday bonuses as they are earned. In the meantime, I WILL count posts here for future bonuses- they just won't be making their way into the schedule quite yet.

Also, I'll be posting an announcement in the next post of this thread regarding the future of PRS that I put up several weeks ago in response to the cancellations of two longer-running comics. I never got around to posting it here, but I might as well. It's important.

- School
I'm currently at a study abroad program in Germany. I'll be gone until early May- you know, in time for Suicide week. (Enter soft crying) It's been a bit rough on my health and mental state. Not that I don't love traveling, but some people and things have been causing me an unusual amount of stress. More stress than I'm used to, even- if you can believe it.

The classes themselves aren't too bad- I have enough free time to work on my own things or procrastinate, so that's a plus. I just miss my usual workspace. This chair is awful.


- Health
So, my health nonsense is still very much a thing. I believe the stress caused by the trip may be taking a rather concerning toll on my health. I won't go much into detail, but I finally sent an e-mail to my doctor asking what I should do. There's a chance I might have to go run some blood tests and find the right kind of doctor here in Germany. Yippee. Hopefully it's nothing serious and just a result of the stress like I'm suspecting.


Buffer Status

There is currently no buffer. =< I'M WORKING ON IT. I'll update this later as I proceed.


Livestreams

Lately I've only been doing livestreams at the request of one person cause that one person is usually the only one to show up. Last night was pretty active though. I might do some more, but the weird time zone does make it difficult.


Update Schedule and Bonus Updates

While Bonus updates will not be added into the schedule at this time, I will still be counting them. Just a reminder that every 50 posts = one extra Tuesday update. I'll announce when those go back into the scheduling! My goal is to get Tuesday Bonus pages in by May, but the schedule will not be reflecting that quite yet. I want to make sure I've got a comfortable buffer first.

04/01: Page 05-20
04/08: Page 05-21
04/15: Page 05-22
04/22: Page 05-23
04/29: Page 05-24
05/06: Page 05-25

[Nekomata]

And this was posted as a major news post on SJ/DA a while back, but I'll post it here as well since it is important.

---

Pokemon: Rising Shadows is going to be canceled.


OKAY. I'M KIDDING. PLEASE DON'T KILL ME.

That was a horrible joke, I know. I'm sorry. Especially considering two of my favorite Pokemon comics out there got canceled this week (I'm sure many/most of my readers know what I'm talking about.) I was sad to hear the news of the cancellations, but I do understand the authors and their reasons. The comics will be missed. </3 After reading through the sad news, I figured it was about time I do a proper PRS status update instead of the DA ramble I posted (Which was 50% advertising on my favorite comic ever anyway)- so here we are.

Pokemon: Rising Shadows is an old project. Really old. Few people remember the original incarnation of the story... and that's probably a really good thing. As I've mentioned a few times, PRS started as a written story. A very poorly written story with lots of characters and a whole lot of nonsense. Bad nonsense. I later stopped writing it and forgot about it for a long while.

It wasn't until I began to binge on great comics that I considered starting it over. So yes, those two comics that were canceled- you can thank them for giving me the motivation and inspiration to reboot PRS as a comic. It's not something I think a lot about- but reading those older comics really did have a huge impact on my life. They were the first comics I'd ever read. STLE, Beta, SoL, etc. Most of the ones I started with have long died- and with STLE and Beta ending, the last of my first Pokemon comics have come to an end.

I would never try to convince the authors to resume if their hearts weren't in it, though. Comics are an incredibly time consuming project to work on. I'm just glad they existed when they did, because I wouldn't be here doing this today. So for those who read those other comics- go say thank you to those authors for all the time they put into making those great stories, even if they remain incomplete. They were likely inspirations for many others.

Having said that, I stopped and pondered the future of PRS a bit today. Well, not just today- for the last week or so. I love PRS, it may not be great- not even in it's current iteration, but it's a part of me. It's been with me for 8 years now. And like some of the comics that encouraged me to bring PRS into comic form, it's going to be long. It's a massive project that will likely take years for me to finish.

Is it daunting? Yes. I imagine any author with big story plans feels daunted at the idea of bringing their ideas to life on their own. I stopped and asked myself 'Is it worth continuing PRS to the end? Do I want to be doing this for the next five or more years?'. I mean, yes, I've had fun working on it, but when do I move on to other things? It's no secret that PRS interferes with my plans to work on other projects that I want to work on.

I thought carefully on those questions for a while and came to a conclusion. It is.

In the years I've worked on PRS, I've met wonderful people. We met because of PRS- because they came by and commented on the pages and somehow we started talking regularly about non-PRS stuff. The people are what makes this fun for me. I love seeing each week's comments and everyone has always been so great and understanding about delays, breaks, and other nonsense.

You all know this last semester I had to take a break from comics and art in general. I found myself in a rather dark place for most of that break and I think part of it was me cutting myself off from most people and social activities both online and off. Pushing away those that I considered friends only worsened things- and PRS has always been one of the main social things I did; reading the comments, responding to them, teasing everyone with cliffhangers... I realized that PRS in the past has been a source of positive energy for me, even if I do get worn out from working on it from time to time.

Of course, I could always work on my other stories- and I've no intent on scrapping those. I love my original stories and would kill to have the time to work on them, but I wouldn't kill PRS for them. They will have their time to shine, maybe not now- and maybe not for a while, but because of my work on PRS, when I do get to dedicate more time to those, I'll be ready.

Anyway, I guess what I'm trying to say is thank you. Thank you to all you old comic authors who first introduced me to webcomics way back when. Thank you for the stories you spent ages on, even if they will never be complete. Thank you to you wonderful readers for all your encouragement, patience, and support. Thank you to the friends I've made because of PRS for putting up with my insanity. And thank you to PRS for bringing me to such wonderful people and teaching me how to sorta art.

While I cannot say for certain what the future holds for PRS, know this:

I have no intentions on ending Pokemon: Rising Shadows before the story is over. It may take me years to get to the end, but I certainly want to get there. This has been a wonderful journey- even if it does wear me out. I may take hiatuses and updates may be sporadic at times, but I won't give up on it. I want to see this through to the very last page.

[Nekomata]

Heya, all!

I was doing some sketches for the next few pages of PRS when I realized how often I was going back to reference older pages as of late. Then I remembered I had a master flash file book thing that I used to use for quick offline reference. It's been AGES since it was last updated and I had to go and add part of chapter three, all of four, and what I've got done of five to it. In the process I realized that the flash book for ch. 4 was never posted up- so I put that together really quick!

http://nekoyugito.deviantart.com/art...=1&ga_recent=1

The purpose of the flash books (aside from my convenience) is for new readers to be able to read PRS without loading 130+ pages individually on SJ or DA. It's all in one nice file that you can browse through like an e-book. Each of the chapters are individually posted instead of by page. This is also great for those who want to re-read PRS.

To navigate, use < and > keys or click the arrows that show up if you hover your mouse along the center side of each page. =D

[Nekomata]

Just a little announcement, as of last night, I'm going to resume the counter for bonus updates! While these updates won't be put into the schedule until after suicide week (May 9th-16), they will be counting towards future bonus pages already!

How to earn bonus pages?

- Every 50 posts in the forums here
- Every 50 SJ comments
- Every 15th Q&A I answer on the Ask-Blog*

*The PRS tumbr pages are currently not active at this time. I will resume these when I feel comfortable for the PRS buffer.

I've added in counting comments on PRS since, like this forum, I can easily count the total number of comments made. I'll be posting here whenever a goal is met to announce a new bonus page! The first possible bonus page will be on May 17- that's when they will start being posted. It may seem a bit far off in the future, but that just leaves plenty of time to earn them! =D

SJ posts until the next bonus page: 23
PXR posts until the next bonus page: 22

[HKim]

Just a little announcement, as of last night, I'm going to resume the counter for bonus updates! While these updates won't be put into the schedule until after suicide week (May 9th-16), they will be counting towards future bonus pages already!

How to earn bonus pages?

- Every 50 posts in the forums here
- Every 50 SJ comments
- Every 15th Q&A I answer on the Ask-Blog*

*The PRS tumbr pages are currently not active at this time. I will resume these when I feel comfortable for the PRS buffer.

I've added in counting comments on PRS since, like this forum, I can easily count the total number of comments made. I'll be posting here whenever a goal is met to announce a new bonus page! The first possible bonus page will be on May 17- that's when they will start being posted. It may seem a bit far off in the future, but that just leaves plenty of time to earn them! =D

SJ posts until the next bonus page: 23
PXR posts until the next bonus page: 22

So spam Neko's threads. Got it.

[Nekomata]

So spam Neko's threads. Got it.

Or get on skype once in a while. >P

[Nekomata]

Not entirely relevant to anything here- but I'm copying this over from today's SJ update anyway. xD

--

_{Here, have a floof.}

Firstly, you know how great it felt to shade Naya without using so many extra layers like I have in Ch. 5? No? You want to hear the announcement- oh right. That!

ANYWAY.

I'm still in the process of phasing out of my hiatus- it's slow going, but I'm getting there. The next phase is getting the PRS site/s cleaned up- so here we are.

You may have noticed that the update schedule and buffer status are now updating again! More importantly however, you'll see that the affiliates bar on the right has shrunk.

I have removed some of our affiliates for one of two reasons:

1) The PRS link is not present on the affiliate's site
2) The affiliate site/comic has gone inactive for over 6 months without any sort of hiatus warning/news.

If your comic was one of the ones removed and you wish it be re-added, please contact me- even if you are on hiatus. Right now I'm just removing clutter. I am always willing to re-affiliate.

More importantly- since the list has shrunk, it feels sort of empty- so I'm opening up for new affiliates! Here are the guidelines:

- You must have the PRS affiliate banner/button somewhere on your site. It doesn't have to be on the main page.
- It does not have to be Pokemon, but Pokemon comics are preferred
- PRS will not affiliate with comics that are very NSFW. This means any comic with explicit/sexual content. Cursing and violence are acceptable. Sexual themes are okay- just not graphic sexual scenes.
- You can either PM the affiliation request or post in the comments below! Either works!

I may go hunting for affiliates myself at a later date, but for now an open call for them will suffice. All affiliates will have the buttons added onto the right sidebar for all to see! =D

Thanks for reading!


P.S: You all earned a bonus page just for funny comments in the April Fools page. That page will be deleted soon but will be available for view at the PRS forums.

Thanks for being awesome!

Edit: To clarify, that Bonus update is for May 17th. The May 9th update currently visible on the schedule marks the beginning of Suicide week.

[Trainer17]

I hope you get through your suicide week neko! Hope to see more lovely wrk from you. You already know I love your background works and basically your art style (esp dragons). Please keep them coming! <3

Sent from my SM-G901F using Tapatalk

[Nekomata]

I hope you get through your suicide week neko! Hope to see more lovely wrk from you. You already know I love your background works and basically your art style (esp dragons). Please keep them coming! <3

Sent from my SM-G901F using Tapatalk

='D Thanks for the reminder that I'm doing unholy amounts of art when I get home. -sobs-

On another more news-related note- I'm in the process of planning a stream prior to the kick-off for Suicide week! =D

[Trainer17]

='D Thanks for the reminder that I'm doing unholy amounts of art when I get home. -sobs-

On another more news-related note- I'm in the process of planning a stream prior to the kick-off for Suicide week! =D

It was supposed to be a good luck charm kinda reminder XD and all your artworks are holy by the way if you hadn't noticed :3

Stream prior to suicide week? This will be interesting...will you talk maybe? :3

Sent from my SM-G901F using Tapatalk