NPC

Author notes

To those still waiting

NPC_Girl

on July 6, 2021

Wow… it's… been a long time since I've been here. A really long time. I can't believe I updated this in 2017. Wow.

A lot has happened since I started this comic when I was 14. I mean, I'm almost 32 now. But I still think of this fondly. I loved doing this comic, I loved the story, the characters. I had such big ambitious plans. But I never came back to finish it. I kind of feel like I owe those who loved this comic, enough to come back and look at it an exsplination. Especially as a few people were kind enough to give me money in my time of need, and it was all thanks to this comic.

So this is going to be a long post. About where we came from, and if there is a future.

Where we came from

I started NPC when I was 14. I fell in love with RPG world, and thought it would be neat to make a web comic based on the NPC's in video games. But that quickly got boring and I loved writing stories. I don't know how people enjoyed my lame teeny humour. I guess we all teens back then ey?

The more I wrote for NPC the more I felt like I wanted to be ambitious with it. I wanted to do better art. I wanted to make a better story. I got frustrated with myself because I'm really bad at drawing anything but front view people. I can't do hands. The only thing I'm reasonably good at is shading. And it would take me most of a day in the end to do one page.

I think I came a long way artistically when doing it. I haven't drawn in years now and you can see, it's alright. Still stiff and frontwise right?

One of the main reasons I stopped doing NPC is because I went to univercity. It was fine while I was in halls. But when I moved into an appartment, I didn't have very good internet. It was slow, and uploading anything took ages and I only had a stick internet thing that allowed like 1 GB of internet per month. And I think that challenge really put me off creating. And once you take a break from something it's really hard to get back into it.

Eventurally we did get good internet and I tried. But you know, I was a shitty elder teen, bad at keeping scheduals and more interested in other things. I hadn't kept to schedual for so long, that I just failed to get back into it. I tried. But I appreciate those who helped me out when I was struggeling for cash because I was the one who had to pay all the bills and wait for my other student flat mates to pay me back. awkward as you can imagine. I left uni still being owed probably over half a grand in unpaid money that was ment for electric bills and all sorts. It sucked. and I guess didn't make for a great environment for making comics. But it also didn't help I really wanted to be more ambitious with NPC. I really wished I could take it to print and go to the next level. and it just never got there.

How things changed


After uni I went to work as a HCA in a hospital. I worked weird hours. I didn't really have any friends at home any more. and I didn't feel like drawing. And then the most amazing thing happened. I met someone on one of the wards, and he really liked video games, and knew about MCM and all these geeky things, which up to now I might as well have been an alien for enjoying. Being a girl into geek stuff really just… was a weird thing back then.

This guy, he was also really into table top and he invited me the first day I met him around his house for DND and well… thus began my long enjoyment of table top gaming. From there he also got me into LARP. And I spent a lot of time making charactrs, and buying kit. And for… I guess almost 10 years now I have been a big part of the UK LARP and TTRPG community.

Through it I met my now husband. It was great. But it did mean I spent a lot of my free time writing Pathfinder campaign monsters and not thinking about drawing. I really stopped drawing all together by this point.

A lot of stuff happened. I had a terrible london job after my hospital job. Working in London is terrible, just trust me. But now I work in a really good stable job.

I've also had a kid in 2019, and he kinda has been absorbing every bit of free time. But I've wanted to get back into art and creating again. A big thing that has stopped me is space. For the last 4 years I've had a tiny dinner tray table as a desk. It was pretty impossible to draw on, even with a wacom. There was even a portion of my life where I was half living at my now husbands house, with just a few clothes I had grabbed from home and occationally switched out availble for me. It's just… not been a great decade for art to be honest.

The future


I think about this web comic a lot. Especially when I feel sad about not being artistic anymore. I wish I had finished it. It's weird to see other web comic creators who started when I did still going. I think if Patron had existed when I was doing this I might have been able to keep it up.

But now… well, I have a desk. I have a good computer. I don't have a good Wacom but well I could get a tablet. But… do I go back to this? I don't know. I don't know if there are people out there who care about what happened to NPC.

I think I'd want to restart the comic if I came back to it. My old stuff is just really cheesy and bad. and hasn't aged very well. I think I could do some more interesting things with it now. I've… become a better story writer, and I would like to bring my exspierence in TTRPG and LARP to my writing. But I don't know.

If you stil l care… or maybe are interested. Leave us a comment down below.

Would you like NPC to be revived?
Should I start a new project focused maybe on my new hobbies?
should I start over? or do you really just want the story to continue from where it left off?

I want to leave a big thank you to everyone who has supported me through the years. I still treasure all the fan art I got. And I really appreciate those who went a step further in my time in need. You are all great people.

xxx
Fiona

Sorry for the typos ;P