I worked in a pizzeria which is what inspired NLPCo. Welcome to my little world of frustration and exasperation. Enjoy your stay. Avoid the soda machine.
What up, folks? Just popping in to say I'm not dead. It's taken a long time to come back to anything NLPCo-related since I just wasn't in the right headspace to address it. Lots going on in my day-to-day, but I'm entertaining the notion of returning to Neon. Don't get your hopes up, it's only a possibility. But at least it's there now. Fingers crossed.
I quit my job today. Part of the reason NLPCo had been so sporadic for the past half a year was due to the horrifically inconsistent schedule I was dealing with on a weekly basis, which would wreak havoc on my ability to consistently work on the comic. It was also another food service job, and as you all know I have very strong opinions on food service... *coughcough*
Anyhoo, my mental health had degraded to an alarming degree due to the fact that I was back in the industry, and as a result it took away my motivation to draw the comic, which is doubly bad because the comic was a huge outlet for my stress. I'm almost done writing out the rest of Chapter 1, it's coming along nicely, but I'll admit it was difficult to even motivate myself to just write. I do have to look for a new job, hopefully one that can be more consistent and afford me adequate time for Neon every week, but quitting was the most important step. Once my mood stabilizes and my depression wanes I'll find myself wanting to get back into the comic routine again. Hopefully you haven't all forgotten about NLPCo, I know the internet has a four picosecond attention span, the algorithm has probably declared me dead already, but I don't want to leave Neon unfinished so I'll soldier on regardless.
So yeah, that's the latest. Like I said I'll try to get episodes flowing again in July, might be mid/late July but I'm eager to fire it up again. Thanks for putting up with my nonsense.
Between my hours at my day job getting shifted around and other artistic endeavors I've chosen to work on in my available time I'm, like, SUPER behind on the next episode of NLPCo. I've got the rest of the weekend to work on it and I really want to get into this next bit of the story because it's gonna be a lot of fun to share with you folks but I wouldn't be surprised if I had to push it out to Tuesday or Wednesday. Just lettin' you all know. As for the following episodes, well... they're gonna be really "basement-centric" and that might take even longer to get through from an artistic standpoint, so apologies in advance if I don't crank out four entire episodes in March. It'll be worth it, I promise. Chapter 1 is entering the third act. Might wrap it up before the end of 2022. 😅 Thanks for being cool! See ya!
Hey, kid! Are you the kind of hipster that enjoys wearing t-shirts with obscure webcomic references on them? Sure you are! Me too! OMG twinsies! ANNOUNCING the new NLPCo Merch Shop (beta) on TeePublic! For the next 72-ish hours every item is up to 35% off! Get some new stickers for your laptop or water bottle! Buy a t-shirt so you can put off doing laundry for another day! Confuse your loved ones by wearing things with logos on them for things they've never heard of! Say "I was into it before Netflix bought the rights!" Buy one for your friend! Buy three for your enemy! HELP ME PAY RENT!
I almost forgot to put the friggin' URL in the post! Exclamation points EVERYWHERE!!
http://tee.pub/lic/Oj_PtisRg8g
Thanks for putting up with me! New comic next week! Love you bunches!
-Chris
So I realized that I'm coming up on episode 150 (which is a nice solid number) and thought maybe I should mark the occasion somehow. 150 will probably be coming out around the three year anniversary of NLPCo as well so maybe I can make an extra big deal out of it. Anyway, I wanted to check in with you folks and see if you had any ideas for something I could do. I know people like doing Q'n'As and whatnot, would that be cool? People could ask questions directed at both myself and the characters... Uh... that's the only idea I have so far. Any suggestions from you? Anything you'd like to see me do? Lemme know. I'll bring it up again probably before New Year's.
Before that I'll have to think of something to do for Inksgiving. Maybe I'll offer OC cameos in an upcoming episode or something, I've had my characters show up in other people's comics before and that's really cool.
Anyhoo, yeah, feel free to leave ideas below if you have any. Thanks all!
Peace out, sauerkraut.
- XXVII
Not working on a new episode of Neon for next week because I'm FINALLY getting around to putting the website together. I put it off so long that I lost my original domain name so I had to buy it again hahaha...
Anyway building websites is something I've never tried before so it's stressing me out and I feel like I've got a lot of extra stuff I need to draw for it so I'm pausing comic uploads for the time being. With any luck I won't have to skip more than one week but by the end I'll finally have the NLPCo site live after all this time! You're more than welcome to keep reading it here on Tapas, I'm not going to stop uploading here, but I might have some extra stuff on the site that I just can't have here. Stay tuned! I'll be bothering you all about it (hopefully) soon!
Thanks again for all your support over the last couple years. You folks rock!
- Chris
*Is that weird? Should I not call you that? I gotta come up with something better to call my readers...
Okay, so, turns out that job I was trying out is just too far out in the middle of nowhere for my comfort. I was leaving my girlfriend and our daughter home alone with no car or any reliable way to get in touch with me for large chunks of the day and since I'm a worrier I was already paranoid about something happening back home and I wouldn't learn about it until it was too late to do anything about it. Being a half-hour away in the countryside made it even more unnerving. So while it was a decent full-time farming gig I'd much rather find something in town. Preferably inside. With air conditioning. God, I'm such a city boy...
On the bright side this means I can already end the dreaded hiatus and continue NLPCo for a bit! I didn't have the time or energy to even *look* at my computer all last week and that didn't bode well for the future of the comic, which I was surprised to discover made me more upset than I thought it would. So I'm going to keep cracking away at this silly story about pizza and robots and familial grudges and get back to working on Chapter 1 soon. #117 might not be up tomorrow but I'm definitely not going to leave it until the end of the Summer. Yeah, I figured that'd make you happy. I'm happy too.
Just some general news about the state of NLPCo for the immediate future. Couple things: first up, no Neon tomorrow. I know all four of you will be bummed, and I'm sorry. Due to some family matters I'm just not in the mood to finish #117 right now (or draw anything at all, really) so it's not going to be done in time for its usual Monday upload. Secondly, my 13-month long unemployment is potentially coming to an end tomorrow and while I've been told that I can have as many hours as I *want*, what they're actually looking for is someone who wants to work as many hours as they possibly *can*. I'm hoping I can explain that while I'd toooooootally love to work six days a week I do have a little family that I'd like to see on occasion and I also have this silly comic hobby I'd love to continue doing on a regular basis even though it doesn't make me any money. I'll know more tomorrow, I just didn't want to wait until my normal upload time came and went with no comic and then just drop this note on you instead. That wouldn't be cool of me.
So anyway, yeah, that's where I'm at right now. Either Neon will continue normally, or sporadically, or none of you ever get to find out how NLPCo ends. As of right now it's all up in the air. I'll let you all know what I manage to shake out soonish. Until further notice Neon Lightning Pizza Co is closed. Regardless, I love each and every one of you, thank you SO MUCH for making me and my silly story a part of your weekly routine, I appreciate the support more than you probably know (unless you're a creator yourself and then you likely know exactly what I mean).
Aw, best wishes! I'm glad I still have more episodes left to read, at least. Take care, and I hope to see you posting again in the future, but no worries if it doesn't shake out that way. FWIW I think your comic is hilarious.
Hi folks,
No update today. Needed to take a weekend to get myself out of a slump and just have some fun hunting monsters. NLPCo returns in April, so until then have a good week and remember to take care of yourselves! Drink water! Get some sleep!