Vote over at TWC and you can see Charlene in tomorrow's page! It's the only panel that's not full of dialog or a spoiler for a joke lol

I'm back! Thank you everyone for being chill about me taking off for last week's pages. My gramma ended up passing away last Tuesday, so having more time to work on this week's pages was good. And I know, I could take off more time and I'm sure you'd all support me, but as I was telling my friend last night, when I'm bummed, it's nice to have something to eat up my spare time and keep me busy while I work on processing my feelings little by little. Having the comic to work on, even though it took longer than usual (all those damn tiny dancing people!!!) was good for me, because it gave me something to focus my day around. The days I took off entirely left me feeling worse, because I couldn't motivate myself to do anything. It's how I roll, so I'm just going to keep chugging forward, and if and when I hit a wall, I'll let you know! Idle hands are the devil's playground, etc. Any other time of year, I'd be out planting things in the yard and shoving my hands in dirt, but I've already repotted a bunch of my houseplants, so I'll just make comics and clean the house instead. I know you all worry, but please know that I've spent like two decades figuring out healthy coping mechanisms and having lots of friends and family to lean on as needed, so I'm good. Sad, because I miss my sweet, funny gramma, but overall good. Everyone, go out and cultivate meaningful relationships with the world and people around you, it's extremely important to keep you going through the bad times!

Anyway, I think the fun part of this chapter is that I get to explore a different character who feels out of place, but this time it's Charlene instead of Malaya. The whole theme of HTBAW is finding a way to deal with being uncomfortable and learning how you fit into the world around you. Charlene is a lot like me, in that she's comfortable and confident when she's in control of things, but has a hard time adapting to new situations. A witch commune full of hippies is probably not a place she'll ever feel at home, but it's fun to explore her trying to come to terms with being so out of place.

I spent a lot of time researching photos of hippies and Burning Man for this chapter's vibe, btw. I do not know this life lol.

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I haven't forgotten about my idea for a contest yet! It got a bit waylaid because my life is chaos and I'm trying to get a million things done this month it seems, but we'll come back to it one day! In the meantime, there's new merch up at the Hivemill store. I added some new prints and tshirts finally, so if you like my comic and would like to support me, please go see if there's something you like! The shirts are American Apparel, so size up if you're not sure what size to get.

I made a TikTok? I haven't been using it really, but China already knows my whole life at this point anyway.

HTBAW Fandom Wiki is up and running! Thanks to Myk Streja for tons of help with moderation efforts and everyone else who's done a ton of work on adding information and filling out the Wiki. I know nothing about how this stuff works and I'm too old to learn :D.

Feel free to check out my goofy Amazon store if you're so inclined (this is an ad, as I get a tiny commission if you do buy something), or I have some merch up on Society6 if you're looking for my old store link! Thanks to everyone who's come out to support me through Ko-fi and Patreon!