For me, I think the most rewarding aspect of being a comic artist and creating my own setting and characters is seeing the fans get excited when a new piece of lore gets sewn into an episode. The world of Swords is big, and there are always a ton of fresh fan theories buzzing around in the comment section. It's great to see people care deeply about what happens to these characters.

When I began making Swords, the resolution was super low, because I was just making it with the web in mind. As the series progressed and it became obvious I was in it for the long haul, I began to work at higher and higher resolutions with each passing year. The result is a crisper, cleaner look that not everyone loves (haha), but I think it comes off slightly more professional.

The most challenging aspect of making a comic is trying to please everyone. Draw more of this character. Draw less of this character. Why isn't the story in order? I like to follow my muse and focus on telling jokes, and I think when the series deals with some heavy plotlines, people forget that it is supposed to be a comedy!

Balancing the comic and its business side can be tough. It's been especially difficult in the last year as platforms like Instagram pivot harder toward video, half of Reddit was shut down by its users and X experiments with its new identity. Growing as an artist is getting trickier than ever without doing video content, but I think there's also some value in slowing down, not chasing the numbers and making sure I'm delivering on all my promises to the existing fans. I'm not particularly interested in AI as a solution - I think my audience are following me because they value a human telling a human story.