Treading Ground REBOOTS on 3/20!

It's been a long road, treading from there to here

We’re Going Back To The Start!

If you’re a TG Patron, you’ve been reading a never-released project I called Treading Ground Season 2, a followup to the original webcomic featuring Miranda as the main character.

That’s not even Tracy’s final form

It was a fun project, but eventually I realized that before I could move forward in the TG universe, I needed to take a fresh look at its origins.

TG Has Been Around A LONG Time

I started work on Treading Ground 22 years ago, with the comic debuting on Keenspace on October 13, 2003. There was no Facebook, no Twitter, no YouTube. Even MySpace was only a few months old!

The original “First Comic,” before later restructures removed it from the archive. Nothing like wacky roommate antics that were already tired in 2003!

While I’m still happy overall with my work on the comic, it is, uh, of its time. There’s a lot of early-2000s edgelord humor and questionable narrative decisions, especially in those first few years. I always knew I’d do things differently from the start if I had the chance.

Well, now I have the chance.

I’m 22 years older and wiser since TG debuted. I’m a better artist and writer, I’ve worked on many more creative projects, and I’ve learned a lot about the craft of writing and just life in general.

And instead of just trying to fix old stuff, I can really expand this story and fully explore these characters in a way I couldn’t before. It’s time to put all that experience to good use!

New character designs!

What To Expect From The Reboot

  • Familiar Characters, New Story - You’ll see a lot of characters you know from the original comic, but their backgrounds, interactions, appearances, and personalities will take some different turns.

  • Bigger and Better - The original TG comic was around 250 strips total. I already have more pages than that written for the Reboot, and I’m not even halfway done. We’re in it for the long haul, and we’ll have a lot more time with these characters!

  • The Face to Face Prequel Is Still Canon - I’ve been planning this Reboot for a long time. When I wrote Face to Face, I wanted it to bridge the gap. The story of how Nate and Tracy got together fits nicely into the original narrative, but it also sets the stage for the Reboot. As for what happened between them after that, well, we’ll see!

  • Older Cast - If you did the math in the Prequel, you know at least that in [Current Year], Nate is 27 and Tracy is 29. The other characters will be aged up to roughly match. It’s not as much as the rest of us have aged in these last 22 years, but it will certainly add some more dimension to the characters.

It All Starts Next Week!

If you follow me elsewhere, you may know that I haven’t exactly been great about keeping this a secret, but it’s fantastic to finally be able to announce it officially.

As always, Patrons get the comic one week early, so they’re already reading the new stuff! If you don’t want to wait, why not jump on in?

I’m excited to bring you more Treading Ground, and I think you’re going to love what I’m cooking up!

Today’s Extra Comic

While the reboot is the big news today, today’s site update is the Extra Comic “Sweater Weather”.

As a TG Newsletter reader, you’ve probably seen this before! I always give you folks the inside scoop, but today it’s actually going up on the site. If the preview image doesn’t look familiar, click through to see it!

See you next week for the premiere of the Reboot!

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