Feels great to finish Volume 4 with all 10 chapters successfully released biweekly!
The change from colored pages to black and white and screen tones has helped me drastically to keep a more consistent schedule, but I still want to use the spaces between volumes to take a few weeks to work as much as I can on the next volume chapters.
On the bad news, I might need to get my hands off the tablet for longer periods because of holiday season and personal plans for 2027.
On the good news I have all of Volume 5 chapters drafted and am excited to get back with chapters releases as soon as possible!
…with maybe a small pause, depending on my aforementioned 2027 plans, but I’ll do my best to make such pause not happen.
Volume 5 is coming this December!
Break Umbrella started as a short spin-off for a bigger story.
Initially, I only had a few arcs planned for it, but when I opted to turn it into the first part of the main comic, I had several ideas on how I could extend it to better explore what themes and events I had in mind.
My approach, was to make sure that, whatever extensions added to the original story, should only be included if either:
- It impacts a character arc
- It sets up for the next volumes/the final arc of part 1.
- It pays off to an already set-up problem that the readers would want closure for.
- It gives time to the characters to interact outside fighting and power system shenanigans
- It helps for world-building.
- It sets up events for the second part of the comic. (or beyond)
I think of the Cynical Theater arc is my attempt to checkmark all six in one arc.
All while making a dynamic, high-stakes arc that will close the “first act” of Part 1.
But this is a “Theater” and the arc itself is also divided in three acts!
… sort of.
Volume 4 started the first act of the theater, showing the involved, giving hints of future developments for the following acts, and closing with Chiclen in the most vulnerable we have ever seen him in 36 chapters.
Volume 5 composes the second act of the theater, and it is named after it.
Currently, Volume 6 will make for the third act, and Volume 7 would make for the climax of the arc…
but I might need an extra volume and that’s for another time…
From its very first chapter, the reader should have a better idea as to why this is not “The Town-Hopping Mosquito-Smacking” arc, but “The Cynical Theater” arc.
Our main characters will have to deal with their own personal struggles, and the consequences that come with how they decided to act about them.
Specially, the effects their actions will have for the overall conflict with Millonario Ganen and his unfriendly allies.
Talking about Ganen’s allies, this volume will mark the first direct fight between Chiclen and company against the Dark Legion, and it shows from its cover.
WORK IN PROGRESS!!!!
| 37. The Cynical Theater |
| 38. Buried Deep Within My Fears |
| 39. Choose to be good |
| 40. Lost Wanderer – Too Young to Kill |
| 41. Pigcarus |
| 42. Return to Monkey |
| 43. Hateful Light |
| 44. Mercy in an Act of Cruelty |
| 45. Bear the Glass |
| 46. Bitter End in a Sweet Place |
Just like Volume 4 had a mini-arc for Margot that gave her the volume cover, Filo will have again a bigger role in the upcoming one, taking the spotlight in the last chapters; although if there were other characters that I would like to highlight as much, Alonse, Garras and Baltazar would be the ones.
Chiclen will of course be very present across the volume, as he recovers from the aftermath of the living hell he descended into when fighting Mosqueda, and the highs and lows that await him.
So stay tuned for Volume 5 coming December 4th!
I hope you can find something you can connect with there, or that at least you can find entertaining.
The First 3 volumes, but Black and White
Getting the first three volumes in the same format as the new ones will still take some time.
I want to re-release all at once because they really won’t have a lot changes other than corrected drawings, and dialogue corrections.
Although chapter 1 will have one change that might stand out more than others.
Specifically for this dialogue:
William is meant to be a douchebag, but chapter 1 barely made it clear prior to this point so early in the story; in fact, this is William’s first dialogue ever!
And Chiclen’s response was too extreme for how little the reader knows about the story at that point!
It even gives me nightmares! How did I not catch that before? Was I too tired at the time?
That change aside, among drawing corrections, I’m mostly making the characters look like the young adults they are meant to be from the start, and changing Chiclen’s hairstyle to the one he uses in the later chapters.
His first one was an attempt of mine to make him look different to how I wanted him to look by part 1’s end, but his spikier hair was so ingrained to my soul that I just gave up.
It wasn’t like Téa’s case whose hair changes a little after the first fight with Wolfer to show her more aggressive persona in fighting, or Espinard’s and Glad’s that grew longer because they didn’t cut it after the breakout.
Maybe it is not a huge deal for most readers, but I’m a big fan of visual consistency.
I know that, as one’s art style develops, it is inevitable to break that visual consistency, but because the first three volumes were in color, I intend to continue the series in black and white, and that I want to later on make printed versions for cons and myself, it’s now or never to make those kinds of re-draws.
The colored version will still be available in a different section, for those that want to see how this run started; while the original posts for these 26 chapters will be updated to have the black and white pages instead.
A few covers will also receive some redraws, with Chapter 2’s being the only one that will be completely different.
It uses the redraw of the first cover I did for the first version Break Umbrella in 2020/2021, which is also used as the cover image for the first arc.
Perhaps these few changes I’ve shown might make you think as if I will do a full redraw of the series, but that’s not ideal at all!
I want to decolor Volume 2 and 3 without any major redraw, unless it is completely necessary. Volume 1 has the most inconsistent drawings, and that’s why it is taking more time, but this should be done at some point next year if nothing odd happens.
Oh! About next year…
2027 and socials
Depending on how fast I get the decolors, I plan to post videos/shorts/reels/videos of the comic for social media.
That’s a second point to my need of visual consistency. If I were to make those videos with the colored chapters, when I switch to Black and White it might make people that liked me for the color to move away, and nowadays aesthetics are key for those type of videos too.
I was never a big fan of vertical format, but some things are do or die, and I want Break Umbrella to be read.
I’m still on my 20s, I got to stop acting like a boomer and modernize myself a little!
Jokes aside, I was only active in Bluesky (with a few posts in Newgrounds and Pixiv recently) for the last year because it was the only social were I was able to find some organic grow without making videos or posts saturated of hashtags to get at least one real person to at least scroll and miss it in a blink.
Posting-wise, I also like it is as simple as twitter.
I honestly have felt happier not making the same post adapted to different pages for this period of time, and I don’t miss the burnout I felt in 2021/2022 when hunting for likes in the dozen of platforms I used, but I can’t stay in my comfort zone forever.
Currently, I only re-opened my Instagram and made a TikTok account.
I intend to post a few drawings (new and old) every now and then while I get the B&W chapters and the videos ready, so I would appreciate if you could stick for a while following me in those, even if I might not be as active.
The short videos will be uploaded to YouTube too in the classic and objectively superior format, but currently I don’t have anything big to share there, outside a quick animation I did for a joke during my Tapas era and that I wanted to use for my “first video” in the channel.
How weird I started showing this part of me to the internet almost 7 years ago!
I wish I had known a lot of stuff earlier, but even if it took me this long, I’m feeling in a comfortable spot on my chapter release plans.
Chapters will take priority always, so if for some reason the socials stuff doesn’t work, or I have less time available to work on anything Break-Umbrella-related, be sure you will have a chapter and updates from me here or in at least one of my socials.
For the time being, let’s keep going!
Meanwhile, I’m posting a big halloween-themed drawing split in four parts in my socials:
I want to share more on the final drawing in a new entry too for when I’m not able to work as much in the comic later this year, but in the meantime…
Stay tuned, and stay safe!
