I am moving on from Hot Shit High.
I know. It sucks. You can boo me and throw your tomatoes now.
You can even skip all this and leave a nasty comment at the bottom if you like. It won’t hurt me more than this decision already has.
It’s been nearly a year since completing Chapter 2, and I have spent almost every day since then trying to come up with a conclusion to a story that I never fully envisioned and never planned for. As I’ve mentioned in the past, the first chapter was only ever supposed to be a single issue, and while the second chapter expanded its scope and set up new things, I never had any idea what to do with it, or where it was going. No overarching story – no way to turn the pieces into a compelling narrative that didn’t devolve into a convoluted mess. Despite my many attempts, I simply couldn’t come up with a conclusion to the story that was to my satisfaction, let alone one that I was excited to work on.
Even worse than this was my memory of working on Chapter 2 of the comic. Even though I was satisfied with the work I had done, creating the second chapter saw me through one of the most difficult periods of my life. My mental, emotional, and physical health were the worst they’ve ever been, and I’m not exactly eager to recreate the conditions that brought me to such depths.
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, Hot Shit High wasn’t financially successful. While I was making the comic my income plummeted and my support dropped by over 50%, making life difficult and adding to my stress. I had hoped that sales of the comic after it was completed might help me recover some of what I had lost, but the comic didn’t sell many copies either. Simply put, Hot Shit High bombed at the box office.
And for that I blame myself, first and foremost. There’s no doubt that the infrequent updates and many delays contributed to its financial failure. Additionally, my presence and performance on Patreon only worsened as the series went on, contributing to my downfall.
But I’ve also come to suspect a few other reasons as well. Perhaps it didn’t help that I made the comic so freely available, assuming that people would want to support it “just because”. Perhaps the characters and content matter were not interesting enough to draw in a broader audience. Perhaps it was just the pressure that I put on myself, or the conditions under which it was created.
With all that said and done, I can’t envision myself returning to the experience that I had while creating Hot Shit High, and I’m not really in a place creatively, emotionally, or financially to do so either. So after months of agonizing over it, I’ve finally decided to cut my losses, try to forgive myself, and move on… as painful as it is for me to close that door and say good-bye to characters that I had grown to love, and to a story that will remain unfinished. The frustration, disappointment, and dissatisfaction are mine to own.
To all of my readers, thank-you from the bottom of my heart for giving Hot Shit High a chance. I am truly sorry to have kept you waiting for so long only to read these words. To all of the supporters who are still with me after everything, you have my eternal gratitude and undying love. And to those of you who have left, I hope I can earn your trust again and produce something good enough for you to come back and stick around for.
In the near future I’ll be revamping my Patreon and announcing a new comic project that I’ve had in the works for a while now. This time with a better plan.
Until then, much love to all of you, and may good health and well-being grace you until we speak again.
-Erotibot
I’ll leave a super nasty comment here:
Your drawing style is really good and you should focus on drawing whatever you want to draw.
Being freely available do take a share of the $, and I speak this as a free reader please don’t kill me
That said: You can set up a “revive HSH fund” if enough people pester you for that and see if they put their money where their mouth is.
Be gay, do crimes, draw whatever makes you happy.
Thank you for the work you’ve put in. I’ve not been a long time reader, discover this site in the last year, but I’ve appreciated the work. Thank you so much. Looking forward to what comes next.
Sorry to see you go, but know that your work is appreciated!
Not going anywhere. Still making comics, just moving on from this one.
Will it be the same URL?
I’ll be here for whatever comes next! I will miss Sharlene though!
Thanks, Brandon.
WELL DONE !!! For admitting this and for moving on. And an amazing job for actually coming up with something else as a back up. Hats off. Your art is amazing, and stories always funny so I don’t doubt for a second you will be even more successful because now you get to enjoy the story with us :>
Hey man, you do you. Your work has always been awesome and I’ll always support you in your endeavors. You’re a great guy and I look forward to what the future holds.
Thanks, friend. I hope you and your family are doing well.
Hot shit high was remarkable. Anyway good you closed this book for good if its not successful enough. Im sure your next project will make it all up! Dont be so hard on yourself. It was fun while it lasted, time to move on.
Hot Shit High is awesome, so I trust you to keep making awesome stuff, no matter what it is. Godspeed buddo.
ALL good things come to an end.! and i have said.. “Don’t push it.” which by your words you have,. you tried to push a “one shot” in to a novel with no planning… ( by the way you did a great job.) now you want let it go.. Great.!
that sed.. like ” rando ” suggested, if the nay sayers won’t let it go, make em pay for it.. with the understanding,, it is on hiatus, until a story line is made.!
Indeed. Pushing ‘one shots’ into larger projects has killed many great things. Take the show ‘Heroes,’ it was written as a single season with a clear end, but in the last couple episodes, they bowed to public pressure to give it a second season and ruined their beautiful ending, destroying the foundations they’d laid shoehorning in a ridiculous twist. I’m glad Erotibot recognizes the end and isn’t trying to twist things up like that. Leave us with the great comic that was.
Draw what makes you happy. I look forward to seeing what you come up with in the future.
Good for you, Erotibot. I’ll miss it, of course, but far healthier to move on than to dwell on a project you can’t enjoy. And I’m glad to see this notice. Many comics die off without readers ever hearing why or what’s next. Thank you for the good times we’ve had, and whatever you choose to work on next.
I feel like it’s my obligation to come clean and to be forthright here. I put a lot of emotion into this series and still have a lot of attachment to it. Anyone who feels the same way deserves my honesty at the very least. I only have my readers to thank for even giving me a chance in the first place. I am grateful for everyone here.
Hello, your artwork is beautiful is bad that you was in bad place when you make chapter 2 of HSH but you got up so good luck on your new project.
As much as I enjoyed this comic, I will always look forward to what comes next from you. Your art work has always been top notch. And I’ve followed you on hentai-foundry for years now and you’ve never disappointed. We can all understand moving on if something isn’t worth the effort you put in. Keep yourself healthy and work where you have your passion.
That’s the plan.
That’s a bit of a bummer, but all good things must come to an end. It was short lived, but well lived. I bought both chapters once finished and if you do another comic like this, I’ll buy it when finished too. I hope you find a better balance for your future works. I’d rather have something worked on with love than obligation.
As much as I loved how this was going no creative should ever risk burn out to please anyone, not even themselves. If you don’t have a story then create what you do have, and if you don’t have anything of your own due to writers block see if anyone wants to pay you to help them artistically.
If this gets another chapter ten years from now or never as long as you are creating something you can be at least satisfied with if not happy then you are ahead.
I’ve seen way too many creators burn themselves out on something that no longer brought positive energy, and I applaud your decision to stop before that happened. You’ve got a great, strong and expressive style and I’m really looking forward to seeing where you go next.
…Can you at least give us a few bullet points on what would have happened in Chapter 3?
Bigger and Better was my MO going in, but I also wanted resolve the story in a single chapter so that I could move on. Ultimately I realized what I was trying to do would have required several chapters, and when I tried changing the bullet points to fit inside a single chapter I wasn’t able to connect the dots, or make the message that I wanted to make, and I wasn’t willing to sacrifice my vision for a disappointing ending just so I could move on.
The reason why making this decision was so hard for me is because a part of me desperately wanted to finish the story, but doing so would have probably ruined me, for reasons I’ve explained above.
Do what you must, While It takes a lot of courage to abandon something that hurts you. ultimately “it” is only a symptom of something much bigger that’s wrong in life overall.
I’ve seen it many times, whether on art, music, movies… the entertainers pushing further and further beyond what’s healthy to escape something others have no idea that’s happening.
Robin Williams, Chester Bennington, Kentaro Miura, we lost all of them. and many more.
Only Filthy Frank and Jim Carrey had the strength of mind to say “stop”.
Take your break, recover your strength, but by no means ever think of abandoning it. When you look back, you’ll see that THIS, was the thing that gave you strength to push through.
And everything else would keep gnawing at you regardless
Hey, Ero, just a quick comment from a fan, just looking forward to all you create on here and publish on HF. I certainly appreciate you letting us know what’s happening and can’t blame you for letting a flop sit.
Damn. Was hoping to see Marv bed some of those hallway hotties
Also, will your next comic be published on here too or will it be a patreon exclusive/behind a pay wall?
It’ll likely be a combination of those things (IE released first on Patreon, and then later here), but I’m not entirely sure yet. Either way I’ll be sure to let everyone know the plan going forward.
I would avoid releasing it for free at any point. Not many will pay for what they can fet free with a little patience. I’d suggest patron gets everything (maybe have coloured pages as a higher tier) and only release small teaser sections per page for free. Long story short, if you’re good at something (and you are) never do it for free
That’s very good advice. Ultimately, I ended up releasing HSH for free because I desperately wanted it to be shared with people. Above all else, I just wanted everyone to be able to read it… but that choice may have hurt me in the end, so I have some serious thinking to do.
Here’s an idea: Is there any chance of you letting someone else finish HSH, then? Someone you trust to treat your baby with the love it deserves?
You’ve worked too damn hard on HSH for it to cliffhang for all eternity. 😐
That’s the last thing I’d want to do with it. If HSH gets finished someday, it’ll be because I come back and finish it.
Thanks for the hard work you’ve been doing. Reading Hot Shit High was a blast. Sure, its a bit sad to not see any continuation, but better end it now then try to force something that isn’t meant to be.
so yeah, thanks for the work so far, and I can’t wait for whatever the future holds =D
You know man, do what makes you feel the best.
I really enjoyed your comic, but it’s YOUR creation, YOU decide what you do with it.
Even more… what if you make like a mock 4 panel badly-drawn “and then the whole earth exploded” kinda ending for it… hehehe, just sayin’. Take care man, your work is amazing as always
Now I have to make up my own part III:
Marvin is possessed by a sexual demon, his teacher is just its servant.
There is a ton of porn, but in the end it turns out the teacher is actually Rod Serling and it was another story from the Twilight Zone and Sharlene is just pretty hot still and that is the end of it, with future Spud washing Marvin’s car since his dick got crushed by a concrete filled football he never got a normal job.
(And something with a small UFO that says “US Government” to keep an open eerie ending if Sharlene and Marvin were aliens or not.)
(Yes. I did enjoy it!)
Maybe you could start kickstarter ? for part 3 ? I would be glad to see more of HSH. and I don’t care how long it would take. backers could get page per page.
I don’t know how big your user base is but your art stands out. It is the best I have seen – rivaled only by my japanese guru ones 🙂
It really looks like established author… give it a try. Patreon for me was always the vague one more than simply “give me $, i’ll make HSH 3 in X years”
I wish you luck
As sad as I will be to not see any more of Marvin and Sharlene, it’s more than understandable that there are times that you need to cut your losses, and move on. I will continue to happily watch and read whatever comes next, your work has always been absolutely wonderful to see! You’ve been a major source of inspo for my own nsfw endeavors over the years.
All the best with your work going forward!
Well damn i’m glad you came to your senses, if you are not happy with how you handled hot shit high then at least move on to something that can bring you happiness in regards with trying to get money from the comic for a website and living cost more $$ due everything happening during and after the pandemic screwed up the economy for EVERYONE, Artist took a real hit because everyone was scared to support artists and buy anything..
I’m staying with you i want to see what your brain is cooking up for us that love the stories and artwork you work hard on.
Hopefully this will help you plan more so for the next project.
Can I know what your plan was for the teacher becoming the demon fox semi transformation thing from Naruto?
I explained above that there was no plan, and that was the problem and part of the reason why I’m moving on.
Do you want help coming up with stuff or just cutting ties completely for now? I can submit several ideas and such. I don’t know how much you would like my ideas though, I was the guy some pages back that suggested the principal walk in on the sex in the gym and reveal the dress code only applies to male students then the story itself quickly spiral into being an oddly rare willing CMNF comic. However, I was joking while hoping you would do it anyways.
I have not a dime to spare to my name, but I’ve had an idea of a completely different comic for many years now that would be great in your art style.
Like before there is a 99% chance you won’t actually do it. Because I expect you’ll say no I won’t go in much detail, but it is a CMNF comic which the nude female part is an all female superheroine team who each gains different powers when nude.
Yo! I’m glad you’re putting yourself as a priority. I love HSH – I love how aware you were of how stereotypical the tropes were and exaggerated them to such a fun degree. Not only did it make it hotter but enjoyable, remarkable and drop dead hilarious. This is the kind of shit I expect to see in porn: instead of focusing only on what’s erotic and sexy you also put some life into it which a lot of people don’t do and I highly commend you for that. While it’s sad to see it go for the time being, I sure as fuck hope you keep this writing style because I can tell a lot of love and effort was put into it, and God would I love to consume more sexy shit like that.
Thanks for feeding my bisexual ass for the past few years, would definitely stick around for more!!
Thanks. The witting style is going to evolve moving forward. Gotta try something different now, but don’t worry. The love and effort aren’t going anywhere.
Well, that sucks. Sorry I couldn’t contribute, but all the best on your next venture!
can i get the comics on patreon? BTW i loved this series, i’m sorry you couldn’t make more, would you be alright if someone else picked it up?
okay, why delete it?
Not mad at all, and completely understand! Just make sure to let us know when you start a new project so I can join in!
Hey, it’s completely understandable. You gotta take care of yourself, physically AND mentally.
If doing Chapter 2 put you in a bad place, by all means don’t replicate that. Do what’s best for you. Draw whatever makes you happy.
Ah, that sucks. Hope your life goes the way you want it in the future. I can’t patreonise, but I’ll keep an ear to the ground for if you ever do more stuff I can read. Best of luck
Just wrap it up then!
No more conflict, no more drama. just the rest of high school life.
Thornton and Marvin getting to leave eachother alone on some acceptable terms.
Some Marvin/Sharlene pages on top.
And the Graduation to wrap thing up.
putting everything else as red herring.
all in three pages or so, can’t be any simpler than that.
Will you continue later if other comics go well or is a confirmed funeral tithe series?
Enjoyed the ride, E
(I hope you don’t mind if I call you “E”)
Be sure to come back though and post a link to where people can find out about your new project when it’s ready.