Monthly production report for August 2026

Published on 10 september 2026

A photo of my hand over my display drawing tablet, a XPpen Artist Pro 19 and while finishing the Aesthetic Rebellion comic episode.

Weekly comic strips

Episode 64: "Authenticity Problem"
Episode 65: "Bubble Therapy"
Episode 66: "The Aesthetic Rebellion"
Episode 67: "The Minions of Avian Intelligence"

Pepper&Carrot episode
Bonuses
Community

Here is my monthly production report for August 2026! A complex month because the private part competed with the pro part (usual in August), with only five days of holidays, family visits, and preparations for a big event: a remarriage (10-year anniversary, 25 years together with my wife). I'll cover more about this and the aftermath in next month's report.

I'm publishing articles like this to log my progress, share behind-the-scenes documents that have never been published elsewhere, and finally to keep my supporters informed on what I've been up to. A big thanks to them for making my work possible! Your contributions are truly what allow me to produce free and open-source content without ads, paywalls, or corporate sponsorship. It's a privilege to create this way, and I'm grateful to everyone who helps sustain this model.

Become my patron, and support my work here:

Weekly comic strips

Four comic strips published each Wednesday as usual. After receiving too many comments identifying my art as AI-generated images (I made a blog post with many screenshots about it), I decided to reboot the "Avian Intelligence" series and jump back into the topic.

Three fictive paintings of Cepper, the gothic sorceress, that appears in the comic background. It was fun to reuse those quick abandoned sketches firstly made for the Geekfaeries 2026 poster art.

Episode 64: "Authenticity Problem"

After the "Fire" episode 63 with young Pepper, I felt like I had to speak about what was hurting me, and translate this into a comic. So, I tried to write a metaphor around the comments accusing my art of being AI-generated. A real challenge in only four panels!

It's the first time I used the Gothic sorceress, Cepper, as an avatar of myself emotionally. I usually take a lot of distance with my characters and try to avoid transforming them into Mary Sue at my own service, but with Cepper, I felt I could cross that line. I was a gothic teenager (don't blame me, it was fashionable in the late 90s), so we have this in common.

The mix was a success and it went beyond the roof! With well the million of views, more than 100,000 likes, and thousands of comments; it felt like Cepper's comeback and the revival of "Avian Intelligence" were more than appreciated.

Instagram control panel: stats like I never had before for this episode.

Unfortunately, I posted this a day before my five-day holiday trip, and my backup drive died mysteriously at the same time. Juggling the big wave of comments, feedback, and packing out without a working backup? That was an extremely stressful period... Especially with the never-ending heatwave that ruined many nights of sleep.

A screenshot while making episode 64, with Beeref on left for my references, and Neofetch to share my system spec.

Episode 65: "Bubble Therapy"

I then decided to continue with Cepper & Parrot, and for this one, I had only one dark wish: the collapse of the AI bubble as soon as possible. That's because, after a week of holidays, I started to realize that my previous comic achieved its success in part due to my art style being clearly identified as the source/origin of the "comic AI slop" aesthetic for many...

So, I was all rage about this feeling, and during my writing session, I felt a bad, comforting sensation while washing my hands and seeing a bubble of soap explode. I immediately knew I had my story for this one.

The reception was great, and it was funny to see in the comments those who were slightly lost at the metaphor, and those who instantly recognized the "AI economic bubble" reference.

On a technical note, I'm really proud of the camera work in this one: the progression of shot, getting closer to Cepper while also rotating in space. That was complex, but it was truly close to the vision I had before starting to draw it.

While inking episode 65, with a dark red over my sketch using a Color Overlay Mask to turn it to bright blue dynamically, a recent feature of Krita.

Episode 66: "The Aesthetic Rebellion"

After getting the correct diagnosis on episode 64, and externalizing my fury in episode 65, my brain tried to solve the issue. If my artworks was labeled "high quality painted comics" in the model, I could action this part, and degrade on purpose my style to something a bit more punkish.

As I established Cepper to be also a painter now, I had the idea of something very meta: her explaining the degradation of her painting style while her reality itself, the style of the panel was degrading at the same time.

It was super difficult to paint this one, but very rewarding because this effect was well received in the audience.

Side by side screenshot: the last panel without the style overlay, and then with all the effect and degradation necessary. Many GMIC 'glitch' filters were used for that.

Episode 67: "The Minions of Avian Intelligence"

Of course, the three previous episodes attracted many, many comments, and also bots. It's very opaque; not clear whether it's the platforms or some user effort, but it was possible to identify three or four bots trolling, spreading doubt, or promoting AI usage. I don't remember where, but I saw a comment from someone: "...and here come the minions of AI," and immediately had the first panel in mind: a little army of Parrot walking.

Unfortunately, I don't have a good souvenir of this episode's production: it was complex to paint (a crowd, even if I copy/pasted a lot of them), and I struggled with whether I should sustain the "degraded painting technique" established in the previous episode. I had trouble enjoying painting that way at all.

But I still like the QR code part of the background :)

Screenshot WIP side by side: Final, Sketching and Inking, this time the degradation was directly part of the coloring process.

Pepper&Carrot episode

I feel guilty I couldn't make any progress on Pepper & Carrot in August... The viral nature of MiniFantasyTheater, my focus on their writing, and the private life overflowing everything else kept episode 40's production dormant, even after the good progress from July... Meh.

Bonuses

Here again, I underestimated in June when picking three tablets to review after reacting to the conclusion of Why Drawing Tablet Brands Won't Collaborate on Linux FLOSS Drivers.

While coding late at night the driver, using this display tablet on a little easel from Ikea to use it as a second 1080p monitor, nice!

Three tablets... where I had my mind? In July, I released the review of the 27" XPpen Artist Pro, too long, too complex to review so when in August I had to deliver the final review for the pink XPpen 12 Artist 3rd, I decided to go simplier. And it was a success! This time, I finally understood how to bypass some bottlenecks in my video workflow and simplify the creation of reviews. It was also a very good tablet to review, that became my main when I travel, so making a review like that was pure pleasure in a way. But still, video editing, posting, and all the efforts around it took me days.

My fourth cat, Geuloush, assisting the filming process. Making this spare new desk for filming reviews, but also testing, coding their driver was the best decision as it doesn't mess with my main workstation and desk.

Alright, I'll stop complaining about that, because I'm almost done: in September, I'll release the last review, the Gaomon PD1161 V2, and probably stop accepting hardware after that. It's just too much work. I'd prefer to invest this time on Pepper&Carrot, or post new brushes or tutorials instead of doing that!

While video editing in Kdenlive: voice over is my nemesis; I don't like the quality of my english while speaking it, and also it's rare to have silence in my home so the few moment free to record are stressful because always limited.

Community

Nicolas Artance translated weekly new episodes of Mini Fantasy Theater into French.
Karl Ove Hufthammer and Arild Torvund Olsen translated many new episodes of Mini Fantasy Theater into Nynorsk.
Kate translated episode 49 in Deutsch the episode about Dark Patterns.
Gurugurusp translated MiniFantasyTheater episode in Japanese from ep26 to episode 30, yay! Avian Intelligence series in Japanese!

And that's all!

If you want to read more blog post like this one, check my previous monthly production report here

Did you know? The low productivity of August is a serious topic that was studied carefully. A study from The University of Bedley found a correlation between sunlight over 560 cd/m² and existential crises and crying because nothing really progresses.

The IEO (Institute of Existential Overwork, which closed this August after all members declared burnout) reported scientific evidence that the sun is just too bright during that month. Basically: you can't do serious work in August, but many keep trying, and it often backfires on them and makes them feel miserable.

"August is the illusion of motion when stillness speaks louder."
~ Confucius

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