Why the sudden long breaks?

Aerokat and I originally began working on this comic in 2012 at Anthrocon. We started posting in October of that year. Despite this, six years later we’re only on issue three. Why is this? Multiple reasons really.

Both of us are married with kids. We are both employed. Careers have changed for both of us as has the size of Aerokat’s family since 2012. Then there are the unexpected things in life that can put plans on hold. In short – we have lives that take precedence.

This is a fan project, a personal just for fun thing we wanted to do for the series we both have enjoyed since it’s original airing (and which introduced us to one another over a decade ago). This comic is non-profit as we do not own the rights to SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron. We did make contact with the Tremblay brothers years back to ask permission to do this comic. Even though they are unable to read it (Guild rules and the like), they said it was ok so long as we don’t make money from it.

Currently Aerokat works for Ringtail Cafe where she works on her own comic titles as well as some of theirs along with other paying art jobs through them. She also does art commissions on a fairly regular basis. She has two kids, one is a toddler aged daughter who keeps her pretty busy. She also attends various conventions with Ringtail and takes commissions completed at the con. Oftentimes fun projects like Nova Squadron have to be put on the back burner as paid work is a priority.

As for me, I work outside the home at a shipping company which involves paperwork and data entry. I have one kid who is now a sophomore in high school. I also look after my elderly mother who lives alone nearby. 2018 was not a good year for me. My only brother passed away suddenly from a heart attack. He wasn’t even 50 yet. My mother had open heart surgery to replace a couple valves. She had complications a week later and was in a coma for a few days. She’s recovered but has to take it easy as she had a couple “mini strokes”. Then I had an injury at work. I’ve had several eye surgeries over the years due to having glaucoma all my life. The latest one was a cornea transplant in my left eye and just as it had fully healed, WHAM. A tire I was unloading off a truck smashed against my eye, pressing the safety glasses down and squishing the eye like a grape. I was fortunate that I didn’t lose that eye and the cornea is still clear but it’s taken over a year to heal.

So here we both are at a point to where both of us are able to work on the comic again. We’re on a roll working one page at a time as long as we are able before life has us putting Nova aside again. When that happens, we will make more of an effort to let everyone know. Aerokat and I plan a six issue run for this fan comic, so while there may be long pauses between pages and issues, this project is not dead. 🙂