Netherworld Post Office

I have this inescapable notion of having buying a business card holder from an office supply store and filling it with tiny art prints.

Characters featured here: Strawberry (mermaid) and her wife (Red Leaf). Penny (vampire) and her wife Zelda (witch).

Slowly
oh so slowly
I can feel things coming together for Netherworld Post.

atticus returns from vacation plump, relaxed, and ready to make art. I have decided glorifying relaxation and slow art is officially part of my mission in life. As is loud print shirts but that wasn’t a revelation

No newsletter this week. I am going on vacation for at least a week, everyone be good (and/or "good" and/or bad and/or "bad", you rule your own lives).

I have a pile of mail that I have been wanting to respond to for months (if not several months, if not, gulp, longer).

All open orders are being carted happily to the post office as soon as I am done writing this. Then it is off to the park to sit and absorb shady sunshine under tree energy.

This is not an advertisement for fountain pens.

and

Writing with a fountain pen is making writing significantly easier.

This is not an advertisement for vacations/stay-cations (okay, maybe it is, is this my life now? writing letters, making art, making suggestions to enjoy time off dilly dallying and romanticizing leisure? that started as an Actual Question but it Answered Itself, so, yes).

and

Taking a vacation to, essentially, write mail, read books, drink coffee, watch the sun rise and/or set, and Enjoy is the task at hand. Might even sit in a steam room and only think about gorgons for awhile.

Wherein these two lines cross --

The three things that have kept me from writing mail as much as I desired:

1. normal pens are uncomfortable (to me) to write for very long

2. I didn't have the stationery/cards I wanted to write back with (this is not an advertisement for the shop, but I wanted to write on spooky cards and that is now My Life Forever)

3. I didn't have a site handy to show off what was coming in (sender details obscured for privacy, obviously) and show off what I was sending out (ditto addressee). And now I do!

Looking for someone to write? Write me!

https://netherworldpost.com/pages/our-letter-writing-office-hours

The singular goal for the rest of 2026 is "catch up on everything I have wanted to do for the last few years.”

I can feel

In the quiet parts of my soul

That things are slowly coming together for Netherworld Post.
I am admittedly very anxious about the road ahead. There is zero chance I'll reach the next phase in less than "a few years" and a reasonably large chance it will take "several years."

The anxiety comes from...
..okay, have you ever watched an 80s or 90s movie where you have the High Strung Business Weirdo whom did not fit into the corporate scene and so struggled constantly to balance and then The Plot Happens and they said "I WILL NOT ACCEPT THIS FALSE BALANCE ANYMORE"

instead of going off and building a surf shack on the beach, I'm building a tiny, haunted card shop that just, lingers wherever you need, just out of reach until you want it

anyway
that
yeah
cheers everyone

maybe that's too much, personal and whatnot

maybe it is just enough, given the corporitization of our -- OUR, IT BELONGS TO US ALL, WE BUILD THIS THING DAILY -- internet

part of this vacation is to figure all of that out
and
write a bunch of letters to friends and strangers

eat a lot of food cooked in unwise to my stomach's construction spicy food

watch a few movies
and plan
and dream
and figure out what comes next

This Was Meant to be a 200 Word Post! It Is Not! (laugh)
in ink and letters and hearts and jack-o-lantern grins, I leave you all until next week or so

I'll come back with presents in the form of essays, comics, something similar

Does anyone reading this run a page with an instagram account attached? Previously, the posts would auto-post from Instagram here. I got a note about my "Meta Accounts changing" and then now it doesn't?

Nothing else is wrong, everything is lined up correctly as far as I can tell. If I post here, it posts to Instagram (but not threads, which has never been available. Though if I post on Instagram, it does post to threads).

Thank you for your time whilst I attempt to navigate the ever shifting social media landscape.

If you would accept an email newsletter instead of socials, please give a thought to signing up: https://netherworldpost.com/pages/newsletter

I am finding the landscape of socials to be shifting away from my ability to keep up. I will always do everything I can, I enjoy immensely building this shop and the stories, but I am also acutely aware of the direction social media (as a whole) is taking vs. the direction Netherworld Post is headed in.

Thank you for your time and attention, my fellows.

Newsletter Sign Up Emails are sent about once a week with essays on Halloween, fantasy monsters, and art studio discussions, as well as annoncements of new projects and status of things upcoming.

(Very) old studio shot. Thinking about opacity in the art studio space all morning.

To crack the wall and do my part in dismantling hustle culture (I was a part of for years and have left behind) —

Netherworld Post is somewhere in the realm of “more than hobby” and “I do other nonsense to pay the bills, my producer + assistant’s salary, they help me handle the other business nonsense to pay for all this.”

I have been cashing in my chips and professional favors over the last few years to pay for the research and development of what I want this place to be.

(side note: do not cash in your retirement to launch a business, the penalties are wretched. Your costs immediately skyrocket. I would Thanos-snap that piece of advice if I could.)

The goal is to be at full capacity / full strength / full of hot wind (laugh)… in 10-15 years. If it takes longer, okay.

I explicitly want the rest of my life to be as casual as possible.

A few times a year I look into the void (ambition) and think “I could do this so much faster!!!” … I am (was) a brutally ambitious person. And now I draw ducks and ghosts and tacos and coffee mugs. It is (to me) better.

I get asked advice (mostly on Tumblr) sometimes and I shy away from it, because everything I know is so niche and specific and out of date except for my specific path.

Realistically one of the few pieces of actually useful info: watch your spending if you are interested in profit. This means starting and growing slow, slow, slow. Learn how to use spreadsheets and count your coins. Production upsells work great if you know you can sell out quickly, and don’t if you can’t.

Written sincerely but appreciating it isn’t something actionable, you just have to (I hate this term so much) vibe it:

Your art project isn’t your studio. Or your shop.

It’s your life. All of it. Make it yours, every part of it. Customize your space, your clothes, how you write, what you make.

I have had work shown in museums and on national ad campaigns and in grocery stores and I have given lectures and been published…

…what makes me happy?

“I sent a card from your shop to a friend!”

“I read your story and enjoyed it!”