#comic praise

Ahh - thank you so so much. And that was exactly the goal. We've always been meh about the repetitiveness of disability and LGBT+ representation where it's mainly just the characters being subjected to oppression. Or else the audience apparently has no cue as to whether or not they're part of a minority group. oof Fair play if that's the kind of story that appeals to some folks. We're not saying these narratives are always inherently problematic, of course. It's just not for us, personally. Some authors opt for escapism with these things, some don't. Same goes for the audience. Different strokes for different folks, basically. We're personally about media where things are more normalised and subtle. And a comic like this is just an ideal way to show things through visual cues as opposed to idk Jasper not respecting the pronouns of his kids or w/e. They've got enough going on with the trashy names, particularly where Viv/Aggie is concerned. As a sidenote, there's also basic things to show via dialogue too. For example: how we've tried to switch out Joyous's pronouns here and there to show that they use multiple pronouns. The same goes for Forget-Me-Not when we get to the Red Stone arc. And good luck with trying it out yourself! We have seen it here and there in other projects and it's always fun to see how other folks get creative with it. c: - RJ

I appreciate that I rambled a tad here but yeah, just wanted to go over why what you mentioned bothers me too. lol - RJ

The way you write is absolutely fine! This is such a sweet message, anon. Thank you so much for sending it. tucks under pillow The thing that stood out to me the most is - ironically - the thing you didn't really want to go into and that's the abuse element. It's such a breath of fresh air when somebody doesn't make assumptions about an abuse victim's personal life because it's not the "universal experience" that they know. It's not their life, so why bother understanding? Clearly, it's poppycock because it doesn't match MY life exactly. Jasper's characterisation is often a source of this. I've known people like him personally. People who had good lives and had everything handed to them on a platter and a support network that any victim would envy. They turned out awful anyway, long into the functional adult stage mind you! And the people around them - the people who tried to help and who ultimately got hurt - do sit there and try and rationalise it. They go as far to say maybe it's our fault. And that's fucked up, in my opinion. And it's very much normalised in our society. And a result of that is the abuser often developing a victim complex, which we do intend to show with Jasper. He absolutely has his own perception on how his early life went down. lol As for everything else you've gone over, we super appreciate that you've gotten all of this from the comic because we do try and be subtle. We don't want to patronise folks around here and it is hard to have a balance between that and helping folks get the message. Folks who read the comic know what it's like to be queer and disabled, they don't need it presented to them Sesame Street-style. Especially when it's supposed to be the norm. I will admit that the early chapters had missed opportunities for us to do more in relation to LGBT+ and the worldbuilding based on interactions we've had in our server and we do intend to fix that. I'm actually super passionate about what we're going to do with these chapter redos, mainly because there is an unhealthy stigma around going back and rectifying your earlier work when it comes to these kinds of projects. And agreed x100 on your observations regarding how social animals are often depicted, there have been countless stories of animals - lions, in particular - looking out for their disabled pride members. It's genuinely heartwarming to read about. It's also a bit sad too. To think of a world we could have if we adapted more of the principles of the animals we look down upon and dismiss as mere beasts with no feelings. We associate "humanisation" with heightened sympathy and awareness and yet it more often than not just manages to make these social animals with their deep bonds and societies so incredibly shallow and needlessly cruel. It's tiring to hear people say "that's just nature, though!". No, that's a thing we say in relation to something as natural as animals eating other animals. There's nothing natural about turning animals into bigots with no real explanation. Anyway, I apologise for rambling. Again, we are genuinely grateful for messages like this and just our audience being sweethearts in general. Especially when we read them at times of self-doubt when it comes to writing certain things against the grain. It highlights how rewarding a process it can actually be. c: - RJ

We started working on it as a MP AU. Little tidbits like combining Farleap and Feather together and making them one character (which eventually formed the basis for Adamant) and redesigning characters and what-not. Eventually, the issues with MP and its creator became so apparent that we just wanted to do this project as our own thing, as we liked the work we'd put into it and didn't want it to go to waste. As for disagreements on the comic, we have those! I think what helps us navigate things is that me and Cat have known each other for like two decades so it's all a matter of not taking things personally and falling back on the other if you're legitimately struggling. Personally, I do find the latter a struggle because I like to think I have everything pegged in my own department. But then again: a lot of this is about acknowledging your weaknesses and drawbacks. And I think the best piece of advice we have for beginner comic creators is: try and do things for yourself. Try not to worry too much about what other people want. While it is great that our audience gets something out of I Hope So, we ultimately made what we want for ourselves in the disability and LGBT+ representation department and that's really the only healthy way to go about these things. Worrying too much about the expectations of other folks can make the process feel pretty stale and stressful really fast. People not liking your content =/= your content sucks. Your content won't appeal to everybody but that doesn't automatically make it terrible. Don't worry about issues you can't fix, such as your upload schedule. You enjoying your project and not burning out is more important than entitled people being impatient over a free webcomic. Work to whatever specifications make you comfortable, even if means changing your upload schedule. Thank you so much for your kind words and we hope you have a great day/night also. - RJ

Neither of us are professionals. We're just passionate. lol And we do have another project planned aside from IHS. We've gone through several concepts but we've finally settled on one we're both super excited for. As for your last question, I think you're going to have to try and juggle your project somehow in your other interests to maintain any oomf for it. Try writing one-shots with side characters or characters you haven't really fully developed. Failing that, perhaps try and talk out your OCs and their stories with somebody so you can keep up a pace even when you're working on other stuff. - RJ

Aw, thank you so much, anon. You're too sweet. And y'all don't need to worry about asks being unique or w/e. Obviously, we'll publish asks together here and there if they're along the same theme but only because we don't want anyone to feel ignored and because they seem to be a hit with folks. lol It's especially high praise that our characters remind you of real people. It may sound silly but we all experience people differently just like we interpret characters in media differently so it's always nice to hear from varying people about how "real" our characters feel. Thanks again. c: - RJ

Thank you, anon! And I have also experienced the conflicted emotions of having a comfort series that also drives me to tears. (It's Bluey, for reference lol) - RJ

Thank you so much, anon! Yep, we're super pleased with Hope. We've talked about this before, but it can be tricky having a main character who doesn't feel overshadowed by other members of the cast, so we're always happy to hear folks enjoy her character! c: And I hear you on abuse not being this universal thing that doesn't have a textbook definition that one can refer to in order to identify it and we've even encountered folks (including other victims) who fall into this trap of thinking that abuse and abusers can't possibly come in all shapes and sizes. I completely get why victims think like this, because a textbook definition of abuse makes it less complex and therefore less scary to address. I'm also not saying this "textbook definition" of abuse is wrong but that it's not the only form that abuse takes on and that we shouldn't use it to cancel out other ways that abuse or victimhood manifests itself. It's all in the same vein as what I talked about some time ago about people finding it hard to believe that individuals like Jasper who choose to be awful and don't have a tragic backstory to fall back on also exist. Just because you personally haven't encountered a person like this doesn't mean they're made-up or whatever. Just because you - personally - haven't encountered a "certain" form of abuse doesn't mean another person's experience is invalid and/or a stereotype. - RJ