I've heard criticism from some readers that I don't draw my own art to tell my stories. Personally, I don't see the issue here. Instead of paying talented artists such as Nohra compliments, I pay her actual money. I get great quality art that I can enjoy for life, and she gets to create art for a living. Win-win! It's actually not that uncommon. I have personally met 2 other comic creators who commission art from their artists on a weekly basis.

I met Nohra fresh out of art school when a mutual friend introduced us in 2018. It was supposed to be a short-term collaboration for her to create some comics as a series of love letters to my then-boyfriend Alex. However, Alex soon commissioned her to create a comic and proposed to me with it, cementing her importance in our relationship permanently. We were fortunate enough to be able to afford her services, so the relationship continued weekly for the past 5 years. Once our son Pork Bun was born, it became even more important for us to document his anecdotes in a visual format.

Fun trivia: I sometimes send Nohra money when I get drunk because I get super sentimental when I drink. Hahaha! My Venmo is full of transactions like: "I'm drunk again. Thank you for being a part of our lives. Here is $20. Lunch is on me tomorrow!"Want a CAMEO in Alloy Comics? This December we joined Buy Me A Coffee for readers to either support us by making a one-time donation or by purchasing a cameo in our comics! Nohra will be taking the photos of the supporters and inserting them into a future comic that will appear in all of our social media. The money we raise from this will go to Nohra as her well-earned bonus. And yes, she has received a raise every year (unprompted) since we've started working together. Still, she deserves way more, so please help us give her a BIG Christmas bonus!

Something that people don't often realize is that the primary audience for Alloy Comics is actually just us: Alex, Joy, Pork Bun, and our family members. This is a visual diary created by us for us to enjoy when we're all old and gray. In fact, Pork Bun has already been reading these since he was 3. We skip the episodes with cuss words or inappropriate content, of course, but he is able to enjoy most of them. Entertaining the masses has never been our main goal, and it never will be. If people like an episode, awesome! If they don't, eh, it's for us anyway. So we haven't really tailored the creation of Alloy Comics to the readers. At the end of the day, it's a personal project, but I'm glad that people have been responding relatively positively about it. Occasionally, I'll get a message from a new parent or a loyal reader telling me how our work brightens their day, and that always brightens mine as well.