A Saskatchewan Goodbye

 (Note: The Saskatchewan Goodbye varies slightly for each group of people. Depending on how comfortable you are with hugs and if you have kids you are trying to throw out the door.)

Thank you for reading my comic. 

Stay safe, stay well, you are loved.

On to the next adventure!

-Donna

Going Out in Style (The second last comic)

 This was the actual conversation between me and my brother when I told him I was planning on stopping the comic strip. The comic are based off of events and thoughts from my life, but it felt weird to say something like "In the comic I did this...." so I  refer to them as "the Donna character" or "the Thomas character". This seemed more natural since the comics are caricatures. 

One more comic to go.

Burning Out/Time for a Change

 I started making Once Upon A Donna comics in 2012 as a way to get the attention of potential art industry employers. Instead it evolved into quite the adventure! I had a lot of fun sharing stories about my family and expressing my thoughts and feelings. But I believe it's now time for a change. 

It's part of my nature to want to move on to new projects, and I find I'm struggling to maintain this one to the point that I'm starting to feel Burnout.

So I'm sorry to say that I will be stopping Once Upon a Donna comics at the end of September. I'm very sorry for you long time readers who have stuck with me from the very beginning and I'm terribly sorry for any new readers who may have only just started to follow (but there is almost a thousand comics you can still read on this site).

It's easy to blame '2020' on this, but the truth of it is; I've been thinking about this for a long time. I won't say this is the End, because I may return to these comics if I can get back to the point where I look forward to doing them again. 

I am planning on starting a NEW comic elsewhere. It won't be like these comics however, it'll be a fantasy based adventure comic, not a slice-of-life daily strip like these. 

Please understand I do not make this decision lightly. I have received great joy from people reaching out and telling me how much they have enjoyed these comics, or how they experienced or related to what I had to say. Many times it's what has kept me writing.

But it is time to move on. Thank you my friends and relations, for putting up with me this far! 

(There will still be a couple uploads after this one, by the way)

-Donna

No Privacy

 I wouldn't mind so much if he'd just close the door behind him.

Ready, Set........

 Putting my work out on social media is a scary, scary thing. I'm also new to Instagram and am getting pointers from my 16 year old nephew.

Nighttime Brain Sucks

And then I'll stay awake for a few more hours trying not to think about it.
 

100 Yard Stare

 

Some Days Are Tougher Than Others

This usually happens when I'd rather be working on something else, but I have to make a deadline.
 

Spiders are neat... But keep them away from me.

I use this knowledge to create a natural spider repellent by mixing water with a bit of lemon juice and dish soap in a spray bottle, and then spray around windows and such.
 

Transition of Seasons: Winter Steps In

 Winter just trying to help (and sneak in early)

Birthday Day Off

 I'm an introvert. This IS how I party.

It's gonna be like this for most of the month really...

Summer's got a temper. There are those big storms in the Summer Time after all.
 

Transition of the Seasons

 This is my rendition of the personification of Summer and Autumn. And it's pretty much like this...

Farmer's Tan

 (Of course the other thing I need for those long walks with Akela, IS Akela.)

Tiny Puppy Party

 Akela is terribly sociable...

My Brain doesn't want to...

 A terribly frustrating occurrence.

Summer is EVERYTHING here....

 I don't take John to all of these events, and there is other events we go to still. I tend to have fun all the same, but going requires psyching myself up.

One Can Dream...

 The only thing that happens when I do this is sometimes a piece of dead bark goes flying off...

The Idea Pool

 

The "Outside World" is any outside influence that breaks my concentration and makes me too frustrated to sit down and sort out the intricate problems of a design.

An Ant Documentary....

 This happens without fail when watching any documentaries about insects.

Remember to Blink

 This happens a lot when working on digital art pieces. It happens when painting or drawing on paper as well, but it doesn't seem to be as painful to blink then as it does with digital drawings.

Deer in the Woods

 

Too Hot

Normally I don't like wearing dresses because I have to be aware of how I'm sitting, and making sure the dress doesn't get caught on anything, among other annoyances. But it's just been toooo hot lately.
I still hate that I lose my (already too small) pockets though.

Don't EVEN Mention That Word!!

Just so you're not worried, today's comic is set a couple years ago, when this man actually said that sentence out loud. So don't worry about the face touching.

(And in case I wasn't clear, that is my personification of Winter)

Rare Item

It is incredibly hard to find a simple pair of blue-jeans, because the current fashion is for ankle cut, pre-ripped, tight at the butt, and FAKE POCKETS. I'm already tall, go through the knees of my jeans very fast (though I don't know why or how) and I NEED TO PUT STUFF IN MY POCKETS!!!!

Lucid Dream? I guess?

Treehouse Try and Fails

This tends to be how a lot of my plans go...

Time for New Shoes...

I don't like shopping for anything that requires me to try it on first.

Sleep Window

People say that when you are tired, you should just go to sleep then. Except the time I feel the most tired is not very convenient.

Sunscreen Required....or Else.

SUNSCREEN. WEAR IT.

Creative Grounding

My mom had to eventually get creative with what she'd ground my siblings from. At certain points in some of my siblings lives, they had gotten so involved with school programs, and other things that they had stopped doing conventional teen things like watching tv. We also didn't have any kind of gaming system, and the internet was not common yet.

Angry Clouds

We've been having a lot of weird weather this summer....

Things I Like: The Ocean

Ocean life makes for great drawing ideas. But I still don't like not knowing what is directly under me, or sometimes knowing just how deep it is can be even more terrifying.

Party for Mom: Part 09

SURPRISE!!!......(whew!)

Party for Mom: Part 08

Dad never invited anyone over for a visit spontaneously. We had people over, but it was always a well thought out event, cus you gotta prepare when there are seven kids living in the house.
As far as my mom assuming the candy canes were put up to annoy my dad.... yeah that's pretty much how my older sisters rolled.

Party for Mom: Part 07

We're getting there, but it ain't over yet!

Party for Mom: Part 06

The Zerr's didn't live far from us and had to decided to walk over. Unfortunately they were running late.

Party for Mom Part 05

John has always been adamant about when things are supposed to happen, and Christmas did not belong in July. He also couldn't keep a secret to save his life at that age! We'd be like: "hey John, I got mom slippers for Mother's Day! But it's a surprise, so don't tell her ok?"
and John would say "Ok." and then IMMEDIATELY go tell mom about the slippers. So we couldn't warn him about why we were decorating the house in July as if it were Christmas until it was almost too late.

Party for Mom Part 04

Poor John...

Party for Mom Part 03

Mom just changed into some 'work out' clothes, which incidentally is also the same clothing used when painting the house or other physical labour that would mess up nice clothing.

Party for Mom Part 02

Migraines are the worst. My mom used to get migraines so painful, that she would feel sick all day. 
She usually felt better by the evening though.

Party for Mom Part 01

I should preface, this is all from my memory of someone who didn't do the planning, cus I was probably 10 or so when this happened. So some of the details may be off.

The Purple Kangaroo

When I was little I sometimes had nightmares about a purple kangaroo who wielded lightning from their hands.
Another version of this distraction tactic is "don't think of the white polar bear" which is considerably more boring.
On an interesting note, because of my experience with this as a child, if I notice a kid starting to become too worried about the consequences of a purple kangaroo, I will add in the White Polar Bear. And if they still looked concerned I turn it into a whole skit about different coloured animals not to think about, and just keep adding more and more onto the list until the child starts adding their own, at which point it becomes a game.

Quick Break Announcement

Just a heads up: Once Upon A Donna is going to take a week off, so June 22-June 26 there will be no comic uploads.

This month has been incredibly busy and I need to take a quick break to play catch-up on things.

I hope you are all doing well, staying safe, and keeping in touch with your loved ones.

Thank you for understanding, and as always thank you for reading!

Take care my friends and relations!

-Donna

Avoidance is Key

I mean, it's just how I used to shop, but amped up to 11 now.

Akela's Greeting

Silver lining is that he gets so excited that he can't maintain it, and he calms down much faster then he did before.

Things I like: (Some) Spooky Summers

If I type in "spooky animated ghost stories" into a search bar, I get mostly urban horror. And that's not what I'm after. If there's a high probability of it happening in the real world, then I'm not into it. Also I don't like too much gore or when they super focus on the victim suffering. Like that scene in Jurassic World where that one lady just keeps getting attacked by different dinosaurs. What was WITH that scene?? But if it's kinda hokey and got a vampire or other mythological creature in it, I'll check it out (but even that list has specific requirements).

Chicken and People

This is more or less how Jeanne got one of her first jobs.

Continually Learning

Wake Up, Wake Up........Wake Up.

The longer I try to ignore him, the more he softly whines and shifts his weight back and forth.

Warm Weather Woes

Warmer weather also brings out more people that this introvert wants to be far away from.
But the alternative is more Winter weather, and I'm SUPER done with that by Spring.