First, my friend Shan Wickremesinghe from the comic Exiern commissioned the esteemed Sean Harrington of Spying With Lana fame to create this wonderful piece of art you see above. I guess the ‘2099’ concept could always be an idea I could trot out if I ever needed a spinoff. Though if I did it, it wouldn’t look this cool.
Second, I wanted to give a bit of a state of the union address at the end of this calendar year – take a look back, a look forward, and a look sideways at all that has or will transpire.
This year has been a challenge for me. Without getting into details, an increasing number of stresses and issues in my personal life have led to me being rather short on time, money and patience. (The lack of the former two have resulted in the lack of the latter.) It’s been very hard and I honestly don’t see a good path forward. That said, the patrons over at Patreon really stepped up their support this year, which has been amazing. Your monthly donations have honestly made it possible for me to almost break even every month, which is no small feat. I am still hemorrhaging cash, but at a much slower rate, and that is a huge plus.
I can’t sugar-coat it; the comic continues to be an incredible amount of work for me. I don’t think I’ve stated this clearly, but I want to reaffirm that everything in this comic is hand-drawn. Nothing is AI-generated. Heck, the line art isn’t even digital! I work on paper for everything except the coloring and the speech bubbles. As such, it’s a lot of work to make a comic: around 10-20 hours, depending on the strip. Even the process of posting (including Patreon, socials, etc.) takes a few hours. It’s not a full-time job, but it’s often just shy of one in terms of the time commitment. And I already have a full-time job on top of this – a relatively demanding one. It’s hard to make everything fit time-wise.
But I can’t lose sight of how fortunate I am right now. I’m an independent artist/writer with an actual audience, making some money from my work. That’s rare now, especially in this dark era of AI slop. Speaking of AI, it’s been a topic much on my mind this year. I can’t help but feel a full-on sense of despair that there’s no real point to any of this anymore. I mean, there is always a personal point to creating stuff, but this world now has so much stuff cluttering the bandwidth that it’s nearly impossible to push through the noise. Once upon a time, I could attract a few new readers by making my comic look a little more polished than the others. Remember ‘Just the First Frame’? It was a (now defunct) comic aggregator that looked a lot like Pinterest, and it posted just the first frame of the listed webcomics. I used to have great success on that site, all due to the pop of my visuals. Now, though? It’s all pointless. The AI can draw much better than me. It might not have a soul, but most people don’t care about soul. All most people want is pretty visuals. And at a glance, in the noise of the online world, we humans are doomed.
What can I do? Well, I guess I can cling to the readership I do have. In an interesting development, this year brought in a new change to Top Webcomics where they instituted a ‘Captcha’ filter to weed out the many, many, MANY bots that were skewing results. And immediately after they shut out the bots, Puck (and other comics like Sean’s Spying With Lana) shot way up into the top ten. Real people read this comic. Real people support this comic. I cannot lose sight of that. I need to be thankful for that.
So where does that leave me in 2026? I guess it leaves me feeling sad and hopeless, while also trying to count my blessings. I’ll keep doing what I do, for as long as I’m able. And I thank you for your time, for your support. It means the world to me.
-Gecko
*hugs* i hope next year is better for you
Thanks. I don’t think it will be, but my hope is that I can get through it.
I hope the best for you too, though I freely admit a bit of selfishness in wanting to see your delightful artistry continue. After a 40 year career and into retirement, life hasn’t been a cruise here either. But beyond the health issues, and loss of many friends, I’ve taken delight in the respite of your truly creative venture in which you’ve built a loyal and friendly community. I’m pleased to be a part of your world albeit remotely. We all survived ’25, and we must hope for a better ’26. Afterall, ancient fairies of lore would tell us to persevere. In that, I remain your loyal fan!
Well, it’s the people like you who keep me trucking. I couldn’t ask for better, kinder readers. It’s a great little community and I don’t want to disappoint it.
Hang on in there EG, I hope better things will come your way in 2026. We readers begin you and your talents.
Sorry, I meant to say “believe in you.” We readers really do.
Whether you begin or believe, I thank you.
Well, I’m greatful for your, and others’, art. Thank you.
2025 was a rough one. I hope 2026 will be better.
If you like the stuff, I’m happy!
My ill-conceived plan to snatch my human pet Baldie’s pennies hit a major snag.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2025/12/17/penny-auction-results-16-million/87753262007/
Now even Janet is keeping a close eye on their copper-colored “Gold”.
So my Patreon Membership remains on hold for my Tax Refund to appear.
Though another scheme might surface soon. I’m hopeful.
Ok, I have a funding scheme.
But I want to access Patreon with a different email address.
Is it possible to retain my SalemCat User Name but pay with a different email address?
I could use SalemCat email, but sadly that account comes from GoDaddy and they have raised my rates so much I am bitter.
I dunno. You could try. I don’t think user names are exclusive. I have patrons whose handles are just things like “Jimmy”. I doubt there’s only one Jimmy.
I know you are no technie, so lacking a solution from you, I’ll take a chance and simply cancel if it does not work.
Then I’ll take a shot of strong spirits and do things the GoDaddy way.
Grrrrr…..
Well, do as you will. You can always just use ‘SalemCat2’ if you want.
SalemCat2:TheReturn
SalemCat3: Revenge of the witchcat?
I too am glad you are able to continue. I understand the changes in how the world interfaces now. Our small family niche software house has seen a large amount of our clients leave for AI/Cloud/browser-based mega software. It is sad and disappointing. But I try to keep being thankful I can still do it for some. Absolutely thankful for you comic and the hard work.
I’m in the same place as you. Every day that passes, I feel more of a dinosaur. My model has become outdated. The kids today don’t want what I’m selling and they never will. But I do have people who care about it, a ‘legacy audience’, I suppose, and I really do like to keep creating for those people. I’m grateful that so many people have stuck around. Or drop in periodically. So a big thanks to you, sir.
At work we are supposed over the next 2 years to use AI to improve our productivity by 20%. I’m glad I am 59 and close to retirement. I write embedded firmware in C, it’s all proprietary and AI knows nothing about it. I’m doomed assuming they have any way to measure productivity.
I forgot to add, I really love the comic. It’s old school feel perfectly suits my tastes.
I can keep going for all those people who love to kick it old school. We still exist.
I hate to think of what and A.I. would make of my code. Might turn it murderous.
This is a thing I’ve heard from a number of people in multiple industries. Every CEO, manager, director or leader has been sold so hard on the Emperor’s new clothes that is A.I. And they know that that A.I. Is a magic word that somehow makes their stock go up. But in terms of practical application, it currently has limited value.
A.I. Has limited value, though the tragic thing for me is that its strongest abilities lie in the same field that I spec’d into: drawing pretty girls. It’s not a very useful niche, but it was MY niche. And A.I. just ate my lunch.
Hey Gecko, you are an artist, and a damn good one. AI is not art. Every week I look forward to Puck, and you have never disappointed. Please keep doing what you do, you are very much appreciated!
I keep doing my thing. I keep drawing my drawings. Thanks for continuing to read. Means a lot.
Sorry to hear that, and hope things get better. I’ve been enjoying your stuff since it first appeared in the Sil. You do great stuff!
I hereby grant you the ‘most stalwart reader’ award. Thanks for sticking with me through the ages. We’ve … seen a lot in that time.