It’s been ages, but it’s time to do another mailbag comic (and one that’s gonna span two pages)! Kat, if you’re out there, thanks for this prompt. Foxy speaks the truth here: Domme has indeed gotten the most mail of all the characters. I thought it was time to let her answer one (and then promptly have the comic swerve off in another direction. A costume direction.)

This has been a bit of a lousy week for me — so, I think I want to take a moment here to appreciate some goodness:

The brilliant Jeanne Thornton is one of my favorite human beings, and is part of the collective that puts out the ROCKSALT alt-comics paper that my stuff has been appearing in far from home — my valentines are in the latest issue. She’s also the cartoonist who I would declare to have custody of the BVB universe if I died or something, for whatever that’s worth.

Justin Pierce, the mad genius behind The Non-Adventures of Wonderella, is one of the smartest and funniest people I know — and we’ve known each other over ten years now. Our overall aesthetics and sensibilities are so different, but whenever we have conversations about comix (or whatever else) they’re great — and friend, you are appreciated.

Finishing off this roundup adorably (and I’d link to these people if they had links!): Sarah has done some more awesome BVB pixel art (heeee! Lookit that Turpentine!), and Lillie made a Honey Hart My Little Pony!

I couldn’t not do this. The whole aesthetic of this comic year-round is super-girly and covered in hearts — of COURSE it would have elementary school style valentine cards. There’s also something charming to me about the fact that these mostly aren’t even jokes. That’s how this always went down: you bought like a 24-pack of valentines featuring characters from a cartoon franchise you liked, and each one had a little character illustration paired with a vaguely flirty sentiment like “Oh hey, VALENTINE, I think you’re SWELL”.
Here they are separately for purposes of, I dunno, sending to your cartoon-band-loving sweetheart or something. Plus: two bonus ones! For those of you keeping score, we’re going to consider everything taking place here to not be canonical events.

Oh yeah, and you might notice that I contextualized these with a url. That’s my valentine present to this comic (we’ve had so much fun together! Swoon!) — it’s now got an alternate address that’s easier to remember and type and etc. We’ll see whether I actually move everything over to that root directory instead of just directing it…I’m wary of messing with the database that powers this thing.

Also: I got on this serious kick of drawing variations on multiple characters sharing sodas Archie-style, and I have a couple more in my sketchbook that I didn’t even use.

She’s getting there, in her own way.
This has got to be one of the most convoluted, busy-assed page layouts I’ve ever done. Meh, it’s kind of operating on dream logic, right?

And yes, “Heidi” is indeed her non-stage name. The complete roll call for our main two bands when they’re waiting in line at the grocery store wearing their civilian pants is Heidi, Carrie, Courtney, Roy, Clementine, Nick, Dominique, and Mallory. This info has come up in the established canon before, but it’s mostly a rare occurrence.
Bonus obsessive stock-taking: by my count, the only other characters who’ve appeared and been addressed by name are Ian, Stacey, Damon, and Billy, all of which are their real first names (albeit including one who’s not using his real last name).

What makes this one work, I think, is that the previous one it’s based on is one of the least suggestive BVBs ever (at least in terms of Honey vs. Turpentine, and, um, not counting the panel with Foxy sitting on the amp. But really, it was mostly a literal thing about being unsafe with electricity.)

Also: I think I’m going to set myself a schedule to motivate me to do these with more regularly. Right now I’m thinking about every Monday — I’ll put up an official…thing…to confirm it when I decide.

I liked the idea of doing one that briefly acknowledges the necessity of mountains of gear, since this is normally a world where our bands can pull  instruments out of thin air and have musical showdowns at a moment’s notice. And don’t worry — Honey didn’t let them die.
In other news, my pal Sarah has been doing these pixel versions of Band Vs. Band characters that make me just die that I can’t play them as some charming, unforgiving NES game right now. This week she added this cute l’il Honey Hart walking sprite:

..and a BOSS BATTLE! (click for big)

Check out this adorable pixel Honey Hart that my pal Sarah sent me! I made a page for fanart to collect a couple of things that people have drawn for me. Awesome.

God, this makes me want to play a NES Band Vs. Band game…or maybe make one.

Just a couple of quick holiday-themed drawings. I actually have the next actual comic about 98% done — I’ll put it up on Monday when this whole Xmas train has passed.

Notes: re: this:

• Of all the supposedly-wholesome things that Honey Hart is into, she’s not actually into Jesus — but man, I think she’d be super into The Christmas Spirit.

• Pretty sure Damon took this job because he got fired from whatever his last one was.

Happy birthday, BVB! I started making these around the end of November last year as part of an attempt to get myself just generally drawing more, and I couldn’t have predicted that’d I’d fall crazy in love with them. I also wasn’t expecting anyone else but me to really dig it! This comic has been one of the best parts of the past year for me, and it just warms my little heart that it keeps getting positive reactions from friends, acquaintances, family (ha ha, yep, my family’s seen all the smutty ones) and rad internet people. Love you all.

My New Comic Year resolution is to maybe put an actual schedule on these things and do more of them — because seriously, I want to tell a million pastel cartoon band stories. Onward!

Something else I’ve been meaning to mention: one of my activity pages is in the current issue of ROCKSALT, a free comics newspaper that you can pick up in Austin, Texas! Which I’ve never set foot in! This is the work of my unstoppable best comixpal Jeanne and her crew, and I’m delighted to be this weird lone Canadian connection to it.

New comic! Sorry I’ve been so slow with these lately — it’s pretty much still the aftermath of moving to a new city, but it should normal out pretty soon.

I kind of love this cat. I think half the reason that Turpentine and Arsenic’s messy basement-house has become the de facto home base for these guys is because I like having the cat hanging around in the background. This cat just rolls with whatever questionable things are going on around it, and never judges. Oh, and I think I’ve decided that her name is Sassy.