Happy New Year! We know it’s a little early for the Lunar New Year, but we just couldn’t resist the urge to celebrate a year that shares Markesha’s nickname.

It’s almost the end of December, which means it’s time for our 2022 Retrospective!

This year has been one filled with transitions and change. In March, we started Episode 4 “Windshear” after an extended health-related hiatus. It’s been great to get back to telling the story of what happens after Markesha helps Orson break out of the Halo! We’re also exceedingly grateful to all of our Short Circuits anthology creators, whose work filled the site while we were on hiatus. Thanks y’all!

Episode 4 so far has allowed us to introduce a new character (Logan’s sister Acantha), and we’re super pleased that she’s resonated with readers!

In August, we released our animated short “Trial by Fire” to YouTube. Before that, it had only been available through our shop, to our Kickstarter backers, or to Film Festival audiences. The warm welcome the short’s received on YouTube makes us feel extremely lucky to have such a supportive fan base!

This was the first year we dipped our toes back into the convention scene. Prior to 2020, we were averaging around one convention a month. For our return, we pared that back down to just four: MomoCon, AwesomeCon, MultiverseCon, and Anime Weekend Atlanta. It’s been so wonderful to be able to reconnect with fans, fellow creators, and make new friends after two hard years away from in-person events. We’re not sure how many we’ll end up doing in 2023, but we’re ready and willing!

We also announced the preorders for the long-awaited Volume 3 graphic novel, which we originally hoped to have out to fans by the summer. That didn’t happen. In fact, we’re still partway through the print-finalization process. There are some explanations for this delay, but to be honest we’ve dropped the ball on keeping everyone in the loop. As the “CEO” of Team Kamikaze, that’s completely on me for failing to be proactive in our communication and realistic in our scheduling. Our first order of business in 2023 will be to get the book out to those who’ve ordered it, and I am going to make a personal effort to keep order holders more in the loop. We’re also open to refunding any preorder holder if they so choose.

Like many other creators, we’ve pretty much moved our activity on Twitter away from the site. Instead, you can find us updating regularly on Mastodon and on Tumblr. It’s bittersweet to leave a platform that was such a integral part of our journey, but we’re settling in well in our new social media home!

Looking forward into next year, our goal is to publish Volume 3, and hopefully Volume 4, which will be the conclusion to the Before the Storm webcomic episode. It’s not our aim to split every story into two books, but it’s shaken out that way in this case! Folks have asked us if/when there will be another animated short, and while we certainly hope so, at the moment we don’t have another one in the works. If “Trial by Fire” really takes off, or we can find a way to make the time and money for another short make sense, I think we’ll be all over it. Regardless, we hope to keep growing and finding new ways to delight new and old fans. Thank you all for coming along with us this far, and we hope that you’ll come with us in 2023!

Sincerely,
– Alan and Team Kamikaze