Whoa, it’s an update!
Well folks, mostly I’m posting this as an apology to you all (and because I had the page ready to go). Sorry for just dropping off the face of the Earth, but I’ve been needing to step away from posting pages for a while now, and instead of acknowledging that and doing it gracefully, I just let it get to the point where I had to suddenly drop it and walk away. Honestly, I’m not ready to start up a schedule again yet, either. But I wanted to say thank you to the concerned readers! I’m OK, my family is OK, I just need to do something else for a while. Since Galaxion has always been a labour of love rather than a big source of income, I would rather enjoy the process than feel beholden to a schedule.
I know, as a reader, that sucks to hear. But here are some words of consolation: first, you can be confident that I will continue Galaxion. I’m still writing and editing it even now. Believe me, I’ve been writing and drawing this story for decades, I won’t leave it after all this time, I want to get to the end. I’m just not sure yet what form releasing new content will take. Second, I cross my heart I WILL NOT START OVER FROM THE BEGINNING. I learned my lesson last time, believe me!
But most importantly, thank you so much for caring about me. 
Hey, it’s no sweat, Tara! Your well-being, mental or otherwise, is priority one! We will be here when you return.
What HAS Zan done now? Something in his past coming back to bite him? XD
Hope you’re feeling better, thanks for making Galaxion when you can.
Really enjoying the story.
No worries, Tara! Thank you for letting us know you are okay (I was getting worried). I am always sad to see my favorite stories go on hiatus, but I also very much understand being overwhelmed/burnt out (there are reasons my novel-writing ground to halt during grad school). I will be looking forward to seeing updates at some point in the future, whenever they may come!
We certainly care! And I can understand the need to step away when something that was fun feels like an obligation (I’ve done the samne thing, and mostly just let it drop without informing others) until it can be fun again. I’ll keep checking, and hope you get the energy and mental space for Galaxion sooner rather than later!
What they said!
Ditto. And I’d be happy to support you on Patreon if you ever wanted to generate some revenue from Galaxion.
Hi, wonderful to hear that you are well.
I love the ambiguously ominous red chevrons — “Dun, dun, dunnn!”
Hooray! I mean, not hooray on waiting for more story, but hooray on you and your family being safe and well!
I hope your break leaves you refreshed and happy!
I so understand how difficult it can be. Hey, we’re still here and we still love you! Cheers! Also, update, yaaay
Welcome back…oh, good, you’re not dead…and take your time.
Just glad you’re okay, we were worried, although I WOULD like to see the story completed.
You get the feeling that Zan hears this a lot a takes it in his stride.
“I don’t know, I do a lot of things that seem to get people annoyed for some reason, and I never know why. I’ve learned to just deal with it.”
Also, glad to see you back with an update Tara and not worried about the schedule at all. \(- -)
WOOHOO Update! *dances*
Don’t worry about the delay. I had to give up on everything in this past week, so I know how it is.
I binge read this and hit the last page just now. Take your time and get to it when you can. I do the same thing with my comic. It’s no fun if there are deadlines that you feel you have to meet. So, enjoy life.
Thank you for the comic and, even more importantly, what you wrote.
Take care of yourself and whenever there’s an update, we’ll be happy to see it – and understanding with hiatuses. (Hiati?)
Take the time you need. We’ll be here when you come back.
To the author: thank you for replying to us, I was one of those hat got a little worried. I don’t mind a hiatus, I’d rather have a living artist.
I’m glad all is well!
In a neat bit of coincidence, my latest comics review column delves into my appreciation of Galaxion a bit. Here’s the link!
https://skiffyandfanty.com/blogposts/reviews/comicreviews/reviewsffwebcomicsroundup/
Yay! New page! Ditto everyone else; glad you and yours are okay. Go on vacation, a cruise or visit somewhere you’ve never been. Recharge and renew your spirit until you can’t stand another minute of being away from this strip. We’ll keep checking in.
“The Red Chevrons are for immediate loading and unloading only. The Red Chevrons are for immediate loading and unloading only. The Red Chev
Very glad to hear that you’re OK. Please give us more as you’re ready to and not force things.
Um, Tara, I’m looking at your line, “I’m just not sure yet what form releasing new content will take.” What works best for me is, if you don’t mind me saying, the same thing you’ve been doing for years, which is perhaps not what you’ve been thinking it is. What you’ve been doing is posting pages, individually or in short sequences, when you can. Apart from short bursts, Galaxion hasn’t been particularly regular in all the years I’ve been following it, but I’ve been happy to follow it anyway. Yes, I get sad when I don’t see an update for a while, but that only makes it sweeter when it finally arrives. My outburst in my previous comment was quite genuine, although I’ll admit I didn’t _literally_ get up and dance!
So, I realise it feels awkward, but my advice is to just post when it’s comfortable for you to do so. The risk is of course that “when it’s comfortable” might mean “never”; I face that all the time. It can be very difficult to balance ambition against capacity. In my case, I was like this wonderfully fed up “clutterfly”, I had far too many “pairs of wings” to know which way to fly! Each of the “pairs of wings” — activities or projects — were beautiful in some way, so it was hard, but I’m so glad I’ve finally been able to start making progress on one project I really really want to do!
I’ve cut out roleplaying, social media, and building 3D models to focus on a large, multi-faceted programming project which will be very useful to me not only when it’s done, but as each part starts to become good enough. I’m already starting to use the first part, and it’s only been a few weeks.
If that sounds unbalanced, it’s probably because I oversimplified. I have cut out roleplaying because I found it addictive, but I haven’t completely cut out the others. I just keep them in their place so I have time for what I really want to do. In fact, I’ve added a new activity: cycling in the countryside. I love nature, but I never had the time to get out there! It’s also better for my health to get out there sometimes. (Even on an electric bike.
I still don’t have a perfect balance, but it’s so much better to be able to make progress on the one project than face the constant burnout and frustration I previously experienced!
Some people describe this as “making time”. There’s a Biblical phrase I like: “Buy out time”. It really is a matter of trade, I had to give up some activities to get the time I was spending on them.
Having written all that, I realise that if you assess your activities to see how best to balance your time, Galaxion might reasonably be one of the things you cut. Of course I would be sad if it is, but you need to do what’s right for you.
By the way, I love Aria’s face in the last panel!
And I always love the color choices in Galaxion. 
The RSS feed does not seem to be working. That is the easiest way for me to check when you are posting an update. Thx
I’ve observed the same. It most likely has to do with the fact that the Galaxion site has been abominably slow since about August, to the point where trying to load the RSS feed times out.
The tracker I use times out too. I periodically visit because I just like Galaxion so much, but…
Still checking 3 times a week, still disappointed. It’s been four months without an update – not very reassuring. Come on, one page in three montths, is that a lot to ask?
Tara is not obligated to entertain us. I don’t know what is going on in her life, and it’s none of our business unless she chooses to share. This story is something she does because she wants to – and I am glad she does – but real life has a tendency to get in the way of what we want. I hope she will be able to return to it, and I check at least once a week. But I’m not getting my knickers in a twist because her priorities are elsewhere.
Ok. Both positions are extreme, at least to me… I understand life is problematic sometimes,and also understand the argument “Tara is not obligated to entertain us”, but not so long time ago she wanted from us (implicitly or explicitly) our support, entering the site, generatingan increase in viewers, support from buying trade paperbacks, signed items, etc (that many of us have done), so… if the author has the right to be “bored” of the work for a time (or forever), we readers and supporters have the same right to ask for a page from time to time or to be refraining to return to the comic for sometime, or forever I have been a reader from the times when the comic was printed, and then gone out of publishing. Then, after many year, it begins again, now electronic, and read it (and bought the trade paperbacks) again from the (slightly different) beginning, just to go on hiatus again… So, if Tara has the right to be “do her life and choose to share”, we have the right to ask (politely) for some pages, or to abandon the comic when it returns (IF it returns)… Respectfully, ” life has a tendency to get in the way of” the readers also, and maybe when we will be searched for, we will not be here!
Almost six months away from the last page posted, and still waiting…. I was re-reading the last post from Tara and noticed this phrase “I’m just not sure yet what form releasing new content will take”. Does it mean that Tara is considering continuing the story but not in comic form? Or is it that it will be a comic but again printed (abandoning the electronic version)? Or it will continue to be a webcomic but not free? Surely the phrase was not very reassuring!…
At a minimum, I think the statement “I’m just not sure yet what form releasing new content will take” refers to the question of what the schedule would be. Here is the context:
“Honestly, I’m not ready to start up a schedule again yet, either. … Since Galaxion has always been a labour of love rather than a big source of income, I would rather enjoy the process than feel beholden to a schedule.”
Beyond that, I think it is possible the author is considering questions about format and style and such (perhaps), but mainly the question is about schedule and how to do it as a sustainable “labour of love” that doesn’t do in the author.
I don’t think there is any indication of not continuing it as a web comic. On the contrary, the author has given assurances that we should expect that it will continue (implicitly) in a way that we will be able to continue to follow, i.e. as a web comic.
While we wait, perhaps we could engage in some fan speculation about where the story is going.
Love: which couples are actually going to get together? Will Scavina rescue Jeff? Who will Aria end up with? Is Fusella going to have a love interest?
Life and hyperspace: my money is on the Myradi being the solution to the Miesti’s problem, the Miesti realising that they’ve behaved very badly to the humans, Jeff and his crew being freed, and Fusella being left in the charge of the Galaxion to do what she loves doing.
Sorry, but your interpretation of the phrase “I’m just not sure yet what form releasing new content will take” seems wrong to me. If the problem was the schedule, I think she could directly say it, but she uses the word “form”, as in the “physical form” the story will take or continued with. And the form could be webcomic, printed comic, prose story, etc. Obviously, each one of us can interpret Tara’s phrases as we please, but….
My previous comment was in reply to Thomas, but appeared as a new comment. Sorry about that to all the rest of fans
So sad to see Galaxion languish into obscurity. It was my first introduction to web comics, but now just seems to be a zombie site.
Hi all! Almost a year from the last page posted and still no news! Sadly, I think this comic will not return in any form and we will have to think about how the story would develop by ourselves (again)! I liked the story. I bought the comics when first went out in paper (comic book format and TP), then returned (from the beginning, even if it was slightly changed) to read it online and bought the TPs again…..I’m sorry to say that I will not do it a third time, if it happens at all (I do not think this will be on again)!
I must recognize I’m a little disappointed.
Bye
Gabriel
Well, that’s it! After 13 months without anything, not even a sketch to share with the fans, this comic (and this story) is officially dead…Pity!
Hi Tara,
It would be lovely to know that you’re well, especially in the current Covid uncertainty.
Well, I’m glad the website is still up. Still looking forward to updates, I’ve been following this webcomic for so long.
It’s been two years and I just wanted to pop by to say that I would still love to see this story continue, but no pressure. Comics are a lot of work!! The art is lovely and the story is SO intriguing. I wish you the best of luck wherever you are and whatever you’re working on!
Cosigned. (Just checked Patreon, just in case.)
Thirded.
Merry Christmas! Just checking in to say I hope you and your family are healthy and well. (My kids have discovered my old Galaxion/Amy Unbounded double issue, so I need to point out to them that they can binge-read your archives here….)
Hard to go wrong with Amy Unbounded especially for kids and of course I would definitely recommend Rachel Hartman’s two YA novels Seraphina and Shadow Scale, both of which take place in the same universe as Amy Unbounded.
Meanwhile sending best wishes and warm thoughts to Tara. This is still one of my favorite SF webcomic stories.
Hi, just as a “total aside” just finished Rachel Hartmann’s third novel “Tess of the Road”. This is a very rewarding read on so many levels, not the least of which is the device of the “-utl” suffix which indicates a paradoxical quality of both the named word and the opposite of the named word at the same time.
Well, sort of in the same world as Amy Unbounded. Amy shows up briefly, but a lot of the early worldbuilding in AU got altered for the Seraphina version of things. They’re closer than DC’s Earth-1 and Earth-2, but some of the stuff that was established in AU no longer fits. Maybe closer to Hobbit (original printing) versus Lord of the Rings?
More than three years in “hiatus” (if it is a hiatus), and no news (not just a little commentary) about the possibility of returning to this comic/story. Sad
I kept trying to find this story after “things happened” and I was off the internet for a couple of years. (“What was the name of that great SciFi epic that just Ran and Ran?”) Finally, a wiki had Galaxion on a list and it was only a click away. But it’s only been updated one page since I last read it….! Oh gosh. Well, it happens, no matter what anybody wants, it just happens.
It’s just one of those facts that authors/artists get tired, need to work at something else for a while, or just quit for any number of reasons that we may or may not be able to understand. I’ve read lots of other webcomix that just end, with no explanation and it seems fair to just take the last page and imagine what comes next, but with the highest production values, like it was a movie that cost millions. That’s what I like to do when this happens.
>>>I forgot to say “THANKS!”<<<
ALSO Becky Chambers has written a massive and great series of books starting with "the long way to a small angry planet." (A quietly profound, humane tour de force) Winner of a HUGO Award for best series.
The James Webb Space Telescope launched this morning at 0420 where I am (California) and it was magnificent, with our last view, at +33 minutes, of the package from the discarded 2nd stage booster’s camera. The telescope was still folded but with the solar array extended and the high-gain antenna pointing towards Earth as JWST moved away from the falling 2nd stage. The next stage in it’s journey to L2 will be unfolding and tensioning the 5 solar shields -which seems to be the most complicated part of it’s whole assembly, with more than 100 pins that must release or the protective shielding won’t be deployed and then the telescope won’t be able to reach it’s operating temperature to use the IR sensors that the telescope was designed to work with. The reason for IR is because the light from those distant galaxies at the edge of time, when the Universe as we know it began, is stretched to the IR wavelengths due to the expanding Universe. If this deployment doesn’t work then it was a great show but all for nothing.
(More Later…)
2022 began a few minutes ago and the sunshield is deployed on the port and starboard J2 mid-boom! The next step (after tensioning the 5 separated shields) is deploying the secondary mirror. Over halfway to L2 now as the JWST slows with each moment. The trick from the launch was to underpower it, so there would no chance the telescope could overshoot the L2 location. Careful burns of the telescope’s own rocket engine are putting it gently on course and when it gets to it’s final spot in orbit around the Sun it will be moving very slowly, only in the motion of it’s orbit. It looks like it’s going to work…!
Day 14 of JWST: 74% of the way to L2 and ALL the assembly is completed! Now as the telescope continues moving slower to it’s parking spot at L2 the mirror segments, each over a meter in diameter will be individually adjusted for angle and pitch as well as curvature of the mirror to merge all the mirrors, one by one into a complete mirror, focusing at a single point. This operation could last until June 2022 when the telescope is expected to begin operation to show the Universe as never before seen. The telescope will observe the earliest images of the infant Universe as early as +200 million years. But it still has to get to that place and do the work.
I should mention that even the assumption of “The Big Bang” is what JWST will support or not support. In the previous post I mentioned +200 million years: that’s from the creation of this Universe- the zero moment when everything began. That’s about 14 billion years ago. They’re hoping to see the formation of stars and galaxies as early as 13.5 billion years ago. Another theory is the Steady-State where there was NO beginning, where it’s all recycled like into another dimension then back to this dimension endlessly. What Webb will find may support either of these or suggest something else completely new. It’s ultimately a mystery. What is this place? Why is it here? How did it happen? Is there a reason for anything? What does it mean? Questions that have been asked for thousands of years. Do we really exist or is this all a simulation or dream?
The James Webb Space Telescope made it’s final trajectory change to enter L2 in orbit around the Sun, in locked relationship with the Earth and Moon, so they will always be in the same relative positions as they orbit the Sun. Webb now begins the final phase of it’s setup: the adjustment and fine-focus of it’s 18 mirrors and the testing and calibrations of the instrument package. Around June 2022 the telescope will begin it’s Science to discover never-before possible facts that will surely change our views of this Universe and how it works.
Checking in to wish Tara and family all the best for the new year.
Been a few years now. I check in every year to see if it started back up. Even a story written out for conclusion would be nice at this point, doesn’t need to be drawn at all. Hopefully I’ll be around next year to check again. Hope everyone else is alive and well, cheers
hey, its been a while.
merry Christmas
still hopeful, just like the US shipments of sandra and woo/gaia books.
looking forward to the future and a finished story here…
with kind regards
MNR meoi lass
hello, just my yearly comment…
i saw Andromeda a week or two ago, pretty cool. I’ve still been coming back here. in the next month i will likely reread the archive of the story up to this point again. hoping. waiting. some of the other webcomics from the 2k teens have sadly discontinued server usage and are on the way back machine. i hope i can read the thrilling conclusion to my favorite sea creature inspired spaceship’s adventure.
…ya know… i first stumbled upon galaxion about 12 years ago, by way of an advertisement or recommendation from someone. i think it was the first webcomic i ever saw. may it finish well. CtSs closed its doors, chiralt finished, a dozen and more have gone silent and dark, some have come back, and some have not.
i will return, frequently and soon here is to many more stories, years, and returns!
Shalom
mnr meoi lass
well… i got to see the totality of the 2024 eclipse last week. whoa. it was amazing. also, no, the world didn’t end.
maybe the next page will be done in time for the next one to cross America? … hopefully. if not, i will still be here. this is still my all time favorite sci-fi space opera webcomic. i will keep coming back for more! regardless of how long it takes. or the format.
Just checking in again. Still wondering if my guess about the future plotline is anywhere near Tara’s actual plotline
Meoi lass: I got my Gaia books in the end, did you? Though I was horrified at how much it took out of Oliver Knorzer to get that finished – graphic novels are really tough to produce.
wow. saw the Aurora borealis south of the 42nd, at less tha 5k about sea lvl. beautiful and stunning.
hey Fred! yeah, i got my books in 2022 actually. about a year ago now? maybe more… yeah, it cost Oliver a hefty chunk, and i will personally never do business with the state side fulfilment partner. i literally almost made a 6+ hour trip to their warehouse and actually made an offer to process the shipment myself, for all us fans. it was a dumb waste and i think everyone lost time, money, and enjoyment in the entire shipping process.
sadly one corner of the box was a little pressed in, and the books have a tiny corner wrinkle now, but at least i got them. some still haven’t last i heard. the boxes just disappeared…
ill be back again
shalom
mnr meoi lass