DZO Page Update Schedule

After talking with Salaiix, we decided it would be best to postpone the DZO page updates for a week, so that we can get ahead of schedule. This was not something either of us wanted to do, and Salaiix was very worried about how readers—especially Patreon supporters—would feel about this. This was a major concern for me as well, but I’m also equally concerned about Salaiix experiencing artist burnout, due to the heavy workload over the last few weeks.

All of the recent extra art for the backgrounds, posters, magazine covers, photos, etc were things both Salaiix and myself really wanted to include in Wilkos’ back room, despite it probably being a little too ambitious. Unfortunately, that put more of a delay on the pages than we expected, especially since our goal is always to maintain a high level of quality on each page.

We had been making some progress getting back on schedule, but the power outage that forced Salaiix to redo most of Page 45 was really the tipping point. After he pulled an all-nighter and worked for close to 20 hours, fueled on a steady supply of Red Bull to get that page finished, and then doing a similar schedule to complete Page 46, I suggested we take a week’s pause.

As always, Salaiix was ever-determined to keep pushing along, but I know how quick fatigue and burnout can happen. Having been producing webcomics for a while now, I’ve learned that pushing harder and harder to make deadlines after repeated things go south doesn’t usually end well. I take pride that for most of DZO’s run we’ve been on schedule and updated on time—as I’ve always treated this like a professional comic—but sometimes things happen and the schedule gets out of control. I've hated missing early access updates, and falling behind on the actual site updates was equally frustrating.

I know I’ve mentioned this in the past, but Salaiix does all of the art. In most American comics, there’s a penciler, inker, colorist, etc and, in manga, many artists have assistants. Salaiix does everything himself. About a year ago, we planned to find a colorist to help alleviate some of the workload, but 2024 was a rough year for Patreon and we fell short of our goal more often than not, which made hiring a colorist impossible. Hopefully that turns around in 2025.

DZO will return to our regular update schedule on Sunday, February 16th. Fortunately, early access supporters should already see the next page by Wednesday (February 12th), if not sooner. Panel previews will be posted even earlier than that. And the good news is there will be no pause to our Patreon content — we will be posting art as usual without interruption.

Thank you for your understanding and we’ll do our best to make sure the wait will be worth it! (Above is a WIP sketch for the “Under Construction” art that will be posted on the DZO site this Sunday.)

TL;DR: DZO will not be updating this upcoming Sunday/Wednesday and will resume on Sunday, February 16th. Early Access supporters will see the next page on Wednesday, February 12th or earlier. All other Patreon content/art will continue being posted without interruption.