Around here it's the time of year where the weather can't seem to make up its mind. Breezy summer days followed by frigid winter nights are a common theme, so this is still seasonally appropriate.
You're going to see some HUGE NEWS today from me if you haven't already!
If you follow the RSS feed, the Newsletter or the Facebook page, you have probably seen this comic before. It's finally getting a proper home on the site, and it's actually pretty appropriate timing, because this was the first Extra Comic I did after realizing I needed to reboot the comic.
I've been sitting on this one for 4 years! If only my buffer was always that big.
My art style has evolved quite a bit since then, but I still think this is a cute comic, and it was fun to try a wordless one.
See you next week for the premiere of the TG Reboot!
One thought on “Extra Comic | Sweater Weather”
Bon
Kutao knows how cold it gets on Mars.
Treading Ground REBOOTS on March 20th!
We’re Going Back To The Start!
If you’re a TG Patron, you’ve been reading a never-released project I called Treading Ground Season 2, a followup to the original webcomic featuring Miranda as the main character.
It was a fun project, but eventually I realized that before I could move forward in the TG universe, I needed to take a fresh look at its origins.
TG Has Been Around A LONG Time
I started work on Treading Ground 22 years ago, with the comic debuting on Keenspace on October 13, 2003. There was no Facebook, no Twitter, no YouTube. Even MySpace was only a few months old!
While I’m still happy overall with my work on the comic, it is, uh, of its time. There’s a lot of early-2000s edgelord humor and questionable narrative decisions, especially in those first few years. I always knew I’d do things differently from the start if I had the chance.
Well, now I have the chance.
I’m 22 years older and wiser since TG debuted. I’m a better artist and writer, I’ve worked on many more creative projects, and I’ve learned a lot about the craft of writing and just life in general.
And instead of just trying to fix old stuff, I can really expand this story and fully explore these characters in a way I couldn’t before. It’s time to put all that experience to good use!
What To Expect From The Reboot
It All Starts Next Week!
If you follow me elsewhere, you may know that I haven’t exactly been great about keeping this a secret, but it’s fantastic to finally be able to announce it officially.
As always, Patrons get the comic one week early, so they’re already reading the new stuff! If you don’t want to wait, why not jump on in?
I’m excited to bring you more Treading Ground, and I think you’re going to love what I’m cooking up!
Extra Comic | Flirty
This week, we’re running “Fingered” over on the main site, but as a newsletter reader, you’ve probably already seen that one. Click through if this preview image doesn’t look familiar!
How many fingers is Aya holding up?
Here’s a Bonus Comic Just For You
You know I don’t like to leave you hanging, so here’s a comic I did a while back as a quick non-canon crossover with my friend TFP’s characters. Looks like Sylvia isn’t too happy to find Rose flirting with her boyfriend Adrian…
I think she has a solution!
Check out TFP on Bluesky, DeviantArt or Ko-fi. He does cute characters and reasonably priced commissions.
One Extra Comic Left
There's one more Extra Comic left before we start the next storyline. I'll have a big announcement about what that will be in the next week. All I'll say for now is don't miss the 3/20 update – it's going to be the start of something huge!
Welcome r/comics Readers!
I posted last week's comic over on Reddit and it kind of blew up, quickly becoming my most upvoted post by far. Welcome to everyone who is discovering (or re-discovering) the comic thanks to that post!
The comments did not disappoint.
Wise words from u/Pup_Femur. Rose does got that freak in her.
The TG Newsletter Is Changing Hosts, But You Probably Won't Have To Do Anything
For a variety of reasons, I'm in the process of migrating from Substack to Beehiiv for my newsletter provider.
Since you're already a subscriber, you'll be rolled over automatically! There shouldn’t be anything for you to do, but the new emails will be coming from treadingground@mail.beehiiv.com if you need to poke a hole somewhere.
See you next week!
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Extra Comic | Good Hands
Extra Comics continue!
We’re doing Extra Comics while I build my buffer back up for the Next Big Thing. As a reminder, these are individual comics that don't fit into any particular storyline and may or not be canon.
BUT – the comic running on the main site today is one you’ve probably already seen if you’ve been reading the TG Newsletter for a while. As one of the badass TG cognoscenti, you get a lot of good stuff first.
SO – I’ve decided to share something that I haven’t shown anywhere publicly. A quick comic featuring Aya and new/old character Bex!
In the early character design phases I noticed that I’d unintentionally given her a couple of unusually large body parts, and I wondered how that eventual silly conversation might go.
This was actually a test comic, and I was experimenting with a couple of different ways of coloring it.
Over the years I’ve been repeatedly tempted by the siren song of black and white comics, because in theory they should be quicker to produce than full-color. So once in a while I will attempt B&W, or grayscale, or screentone, to see how it goes.
As you can see, it wasn’t bad, but once again it ended up being just as much work as my full-color comics, so I ended the experiment there. If it’s not going to save me any time, I may as well stick with color!
Instead, I decided to dust this off, color it the way I do it these days, and share it with the Newsletter for today’s update. It will probably never go on the main site, but I figured you might appreciate it here.
So, who is Bex?
We’ve been seeing her pop up a lot in extra art lately, including this Bunny Suits art that I seem to plaster everywhere because it makes me happy:
Without spoiling too much, I can say that she’s going to be a major character in some upcoming stories, and I can share this refsheet (which is already slightly out of date).
If you recognize that 2011 design, you’re one of the OGs!
Bex first premiered in a comic I was calling The Idle State that came out right after TG finished its initial run. Extra points if you remember her original name!
Those comics haven’t been online in years, but they will resurface on the Patreon eventually. In the meantime, I’m excited to introduce the new and improved Bex, even though it will probably be months before we see her. (we might actually see her on the NSFW Patreon before she shows up in the comic)
I’ll be at Con Nooga in Chattanooga, Tennessee this Weekend!
Fortunately/unfortunately I am not doing the normal Artist’s Alley thing – I’m a panelist!
If you’re in the Chattanooga area and want to come to a fun multi-fandom con and see me talk mainly about Star Trek, here’s my schedule:
That’s all for now. See you next week for a new comic (and if you’re a Patron, five new comics!)
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