Ha ha, um, hey guys, it's been a while. D: I finally have a bit of free time this weekend though cause spring break is coming up and most of my major school projects are out of the way for now, so I got around to finally writing this blurb explaining my absence.
Basically, I'm still alive? It's not QUITE the dire barely-surviving situation that many of you might have expected though, for better or for worse. The story goes that my grandma left for Taiwan back during winter break soon after finals, and since my mom works two jobs and my little brother has tennis practice til 6PM on most days (HEY GUYS MY LITTLE BROTHER MADE THE HIGH SCHOOL TENNIS TEAM WOOOOO), I'm basically the maid/housewife now, lol. Also, four of the five classes I'm taking this semester are studio art classes which have double the hours and workload of normal lecture classes, so I haven't had a whole~ lot of time to do much else.
But I want to!! I feel like it's been so long since I worked on stuff for myself, and I really really want to be able to work on this comic especially, but every time I think that I'll have some time to do it, there's always some other project or household chore or some hungry mom or brother to feed that needs my attention more.
...That being said, um, screw that!! I'm gonna try to work on the comic anyway, because it makes me happy!!! ...is what I'd like to say, but it was easier to work on the comic before with my lecture classes cause I could bring them to class and just work on them while I listened to the teacher, but I can't really do that in studio classes since we're expected to actually work on our projects the whole six hours. :/ And most nights I want to just skimp out on cooking and get take-out instead, but in this economy and our current household financial situation (we're in debt is all I'll say ha ha), it'd be really irresponsible of me to needlessly spend money.
Still, I really do want to do more comic work! I even told a lot of people who bought my book that I'd have the second volume out by the summer conventions, except that's looking...less plausible now. But basically, my goal is to try to get the first two chapters of Unit 2 done by the end of the semester so I can do another little mini-book like I did in 2005 with the first two chapters of Unit 1. So if I want to do that, I'll have to SOMEway or another get my ass hauling on it in the immediate future, which means that updates ARE coming.
Sooo for now, tentatively, I'm saying that there'll be updates again around May. It could be sooner, it could be later, but I can't say for certain yet. I do know that my grandma's coming back finally some time in the middle of April though, so pretty soon I'll be relieved of my maid duties so I can dedicate more time to comic-drawing at home. :B
In conclusion, I apologize for keeping so many of you in the dark, but I have not and WILL NOT abandon this comic, because it really is like a child to me. In the meantime, I'll be periodically updating my personal website again with stuff I've been working on for school as well as general life updates, so you can tune in to that if you want while you wait. :D For the rest of you, see you again in May(?)!!
Ah cool. Well I can understand that. You do what you have to do. I had no doubt that something was holding you back. Well good luck with the rest of your term and housework and such. Also congrats for your brother! ^_^
Alright for your brother. I know the tennis team is hard to get on because there are only about 6 or 7 slots. Thank you for the update. It’s all we’re asking for.
Yay! You’re okay! =)
Thank you for informing us :) Best of luck, and it definitely feels a lot nicer knowing how you’re doing, instead of wondering every time I click to this page.
:) Congrats to your brother and good luck with everything Hans! I’ll be looking forward to whatever you’ll be working on for class.
Thank you Jeesiang for always defending my honor ;DDD
I am super excited to hear you are coming back! i was sad when i read through the whole thing and saw that no one knew where you went, but i decided to bookmark the site anyway in hopes of you continuing it! i’m stoked! :-D
Grats to your brother on making it :D
Sucks that you have such a load on your shoulders, but I never doubted that you’d abandon the comic. Good to hear that nothing awful happened to you though!
And although the majority of us knew you were probably going through hard times, thanks for informing us officially ^^
SideNote: Are you Taiwanese Hans?? So am I! :D
Yes, actually :B I immigrated when I was 5!
Yay! You’re back! Thanks for informing us! I offer my sympathy (because I don’t have much else :P) for the workload and responsibility and my admiration for the dedication. Congrats to your brother too! :) :)
I’d just like you to know that I absolutely love DoD and it inspired me to draw/ learn to draw. Thank you.
Anyways, it’s awesome to have an update of some sort ^.^ Thanks and Good Luck!
Good to hear from you ^^ I’ve been waiting patiently for your return~
And I totally feel you with being busy as heck.. I’m full-time student (7.5 hrs/day) with a full-time job (8 hrs/day), so the only time I have for myself is spent sleeping. I hardly ever have time to draw or write or sing these days :/
But enough about me. I look forward to DoD’s revival.
It’s always amazing to me how people can balance both. If I had that kind of diligence I’m sure I’d be further along on this comic ha ha D:
Hey man congrats on your brother making the tennis team.
Totally understand though life getting in the way of art. I’m a single mom myself putting myself through school and taking care of my kids so trying to find time to do personal projects that are not house/class related can be really hard to do. kudos to you though for helping your mom on top of all this too.
I patiently wait for your next update while wishing you and your family all the best.
Wow I never realized such a diverse age group read this comic. So what happened to Buzzcomix?
Shoot, I just realized it wasn’t working ha ha O_O Wikipedia says the site admin accidentally deleted it lmao.
Yay you’re alive! Glad to know >w<
I know what you mean about becoming the maid around the house when grandma’s not around… except I don’t need to do the cooking, since I might burn the food or have the kitchen explode on me or something <_<”
Happy to know everything is good, and congrats to your brother on making the team!!! Along with quite a few of the people on this page, I am also a college student, with a part time job, so I completely understand time and money crunches, especially since the economy is taking a huge hit lately. I look forward to seeing new stuff in May, in the meantime good luck with life in the real world!
Wishing you well and that everything goes smoothly! That’s really awesome and admirable of you to be such a good family member!! I’m so impressed - it makes me want to try harder myself <3 Your art and comic are worth the wait, and it’s wonderful to know you haven’t given up :D
so glad to hear that you’re alright in all this! Such a horrible economy to go up against; i work in the mall and it’s very obvious how much its effecting people right now :(
Take care of you and your family first…you’ll always have your die hard fans here and waiting for whenever you can return to us! :) Congrads to your brother as well n.n
Peace love and penguins!
Yay! Because you’re alive, not because the busy-ness (ish that even a word?). Wait … O.o Did you say your studio classes are 6 hours now… like at time… like you show up at noon and go leave at 6… that kind of 6 hours?! ish in art school too, so kinda scary Oh well, thankies for telling us and good luck with teh classes and your recent chore upgrade.
Yeah, six hours at a time. :X Well, one of my classes is split into two three-hour sessions, but everything else is six hours at once.
Wow, and I thought that 3 hours for a knock-down drag-out rehearsal in jazz was bad…
I completely understand uni and its life/time consuming powers. Let alone all the other stuff. :/ I’ll be sure to check out slime mansion in the meantime! But take care!
Ah, It muat have been…interesting reading all those comments?
It was like a rollercoaster :D / D:
Meh >< Got a new PC, missed to copy the DoD-URL and just remembered it again after looking through my old CDs with the pictures (read: Vote Incentives) on… And it’s on Hiatus again ;; Not that it’s your fault. I really hope you can manage everything without getting yourself hurt - eat much raw fruit and vegetables, it strengthens your tissue so that you won’t have to face what I had to after living a rather… vegetable & fruitless life with only half a litre of fruit juice a day. Tissue weakness on both hands, aka every move hurts. Don’t strain yourself too much and I hope you get a bit of free time to rest and sleep :) Don’t forget to sleep! ^_^ 6 hours straight? Reminds me of my Thursday… Stand up at 6.34 (listening to radio news xD), leave house at 7.10, lessons start at 7.45 and go until 17.05 (Chemistry practica double lesson, physics, German, religion, English, CAE training club (we’re practicing for the test on old tests to get used to the type of questions etc.), maths, geography and then double lesson sports), each lesson is 45 minutes, with a 5 minute break and between 10.10 and 10.30 there’s a big break. We in the upper third of age (classes 11-13, 5-10 have to go out on the school yardxD) mostly use it to learn for tests or do homework. Mind you, not the homework we got in the 3 lessons before. But luckily, that’s only one day, 5 days of this without break must be hard… I am, however, glad to hear that you’re alive and well and I will keep the RSS-Feed in view to be immediately informed when there’s something new :)
Best wishes, Sul’Zala
YES YOU’RE NOT DEAD AFTER ALL :D:D:D It’s okay, real life does get in the way. I’ll be keeping an eye out for updates in May :P
Wow… well try to find some time for R&R.
Wow! I’m so glad you are okay. Hang in there. As someone who has had to jump in and become the homemaker of the family before (although at that time I wasn’t going to uni as well. Ouch!) I feel your lack-of-personal-time pain, and I am looking forward to the eventual revival of DoD. Kodos to your brother!
keep on trucking, hans. we love the comic and i know i will keep reading it. your art is unique and beautiful. i wish i had half your talent. have fun in school, dont stress yourself out with school work and come back to us when you can. dont burn so bright you fade.
-Tea
Not much for me to say here, I’m kinda pressed for time.
Good luck with your stuff at home!
-Jet
OMG! yay! You’re back!!!! Missed you lots!
I’m glad you haven’t died, and it’s good to hear from you again. Your situation is understandable, and even if it wasn’t, I don’t really have a right chew you out over the lack of up-dates. Hope you can start them up again soon though; this is an excellent comic. I must ask that you would please inform us next time you put a hold on the comic a little sooner though.
P.S. Sorry for taking up all this space.
Lol, I haven’t been here for a while on account of scool as well, (trying to cram 3 semesters’ work into one Dx) So when I finally got a break though and got to check all of mai comicz and found three of them on indefinite hiatus, I officially panicked when this was one of them. Glad to hear you’re still alive and kicking; and I look foward to attending the Alatus Institute again. Thanks! P.S Also, I hear you on the chore bit; I come from a family of 14 and the amount of mess we make under one roof in one day is so big it isn’t even funny!
I’ve been out of touch with all of the webcomics I read for a few months, (If I’m too busy with studios classes to -read- comics, you are certainly much too busy to be drawing them, hah!) so I am glad to see that updates should be coming sooner than later!
I recently re-read my volume of Unit 1, so I am even more excited to see how things unfold in Unit 2! :) But don’t forget to take some time to relax!! Good luck!
hope you come back soon. peace and love.
when are you coming back? its near the end of the month!!!! :(
Are you okay? Haven’t heard from you in a while. Keep in touch! =)
Hey, Hans. Just asking for an update of when you think you can get back to Directions of Destiny.
Hans! Stop failing! >;P
Hey I was on Animenewsnetwork.com and found your name in the gallery section. I read that you self-publish your own comic which impressed me because I’m hoping to self-publish future books. Anyway, I just started to read a few chapters so far but I love the funny Ryan moments and the beautiful setting of the school. My favorite characters are Libelle and Azalea. Hopefully, things work out for you and that you can start working on DoD again. Good luck.
Um, chill Esther. :-/ It’s a comic…
Happy Friday, Hans. :) Look forward to hearing from you again.