tomfonder

The original Business Cat strip redrawn four years later.

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Four years ago I uploaded the first Business Cat strip and was awoken in the dead of the night to find my phone going crazy with an endless stream of notifications. The post had gone viral and was finding it’s way to seemingly every nook and cranny of the internet.

I had never intended it to be anything more than a simple one-off gag, but with the bevy of such positive responses flooding in, I began to realise that I had ideas for another one. And another one. Until eventually I find myself here realising I’ve been doing ‘another one’ every week now for four years.

In that time the comic has grown to help support me financially and even made me a published artist/author - something I never thought I’d be able to say about myself - with a second book on the way.

But all good things must eventually come to pass (boy, am I learning that the hard way these days) and so too must it be with Business Cat. I had been toying with the idea of ending the series for a while now, as I was beginning to feel there wasn’t enough new ground left to cover, and I’d rather end the series while I can still be proud of it than run the premise into the ground.

From as early as the IRS investigation storyline I knew where this story arc was headed, and I have to say that I really enjoyed taking the series in new and unexpected directions for the readers. It was a decision that certainly divided a few opinions, but at the end of the day I’m happy with the results and I can only hope that most of you were too.

I had written these last few strips to serve as a series finale, if need be, but with room to go forward in case I decided continue. Up until as early as last week I wasn’t quite sure which it would be. But I can say with certainty now, for the foreseeable future, this is in fact the end.

I don’t often put much of myself out there for you all to read, but the last five or so months have been hell. Between the diagnosis of a cancerous tumor in my cat’s mouth (don’t worry, a few stressful operations later, he’s now fine), and the extremely sudden/unexpected ending of an eleven year relationship, a lifetime’s worth of living with depression has finally caught up with me and I’m now having to confront that.

I’m not sure what I’ll do next. It’s been a very real struggle to stay creative, and at this point, I’m just looking forward to some time away from it all for a while. But I just want to thank each and every one of you for being along for this ride with me, and for making the last four years possible. This comic would be nothing if not for all of you reading and sharing it, and it’s been incredible to see such positivity surrounding my work.

Finally, I’d like to encourage you all to keep following on the social media outlet of your choice if you’d like to keep up to date on the status of the upcoming book Business Cat: Hostile Takeovers (release date pending), and if you ever want to be made aware of any of my future projects, be they the return of Business Cat or otherwise.

For my Patreon subscribers, don’t worry, you won’t have to do anything, I will be deactivating my account for the time being and will give plenty of fair warning before it becomes active again (if ever). In the meantime, I will be filling out the remainder of the month with some never-before-seen extras and maybe another prize raffle or two.

It’s been fun guys. Until next we meet.

- Tom
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