Update: Erin Dies Alone is now live on www.escapistmagazine.com and www.dyingalone.net

Who are you? What is this? Where am I?

We're Cory Rydell and Grey Carter, the creative duo behind The Escapist's videogame webcomic, Critical Miss. We've been updating that comic twice a week for nearly five years now, and during that time we've made fun of gaming's narrativetropes, explained the origins of Nyan Cat, explored the ins and outs of dating an Activision employee, discussed the importance of self reliance and responsibility, talked about the intellectual process of criticizing games, commented on numerous gaming controversies and created a few of our own.

What we haven't done is introduce a consistent, character-driven narrative to Critical Miss. We always planned to, but by the time we felt our skills were honed enough to attempt a traditional story, the comic was already well established as an irreverent, goofy gag-a-day satire. Now we love creating Critical Miss and have no plans of stopping any time soon, but we've always felt that it's a shame that we never got to use those narrative arcs we designed. Rather than try to change Critical Miss into something it's not, we created Erin Dies Alone.

Erin Dies Alone

Erin Dies Alone is an ongoing comic strip that builds on the same foundation asCritical Miss. It's a comedy about a young writer named Erin and her somewhat tenuous grasp on reality. Erin spends her life trapped in her own apartment, with only hallucinations of her favorite videogame characters for company, but that's where the similarities with Critical Miss end. While Critical Miss uses its premise as a jumping off point for eclectic gags, Erin Dies Alone is a slower-paced, more character-driven comedy.



That sounds really dark...

It's a dark concept, sure, but we believe the best comedies - the ones we want to emulate - explore dark themes with a light heart. Emotional pain and side-splitting comedy have always been two sides of the same coin. We already make a dark comic, it's called Critical Miss and it uses up all the anger and cynicism we've got. Erin Dies Alone is a much gentler strip. It's about loneliness, yes, but it's about friendship too. It's about the dangers of delusion, but it's also about the strength of imagination. It's about how videogames can be silly, and also how they can be beautiful.



Do I need to have read Critical Miss to understand Erin Dies Alone?

Absolutely not. The two comics share roughly the same premise, but they're completely separate stories.

Will Erin Dies Alone be onThe Escapist?

Yes, but it will also be available on our own, ad-free website.

If Erin Dies Alone is on The Escapist, why are you running a Patreon? Doesn't The Escapist pay you for each strip?

Nope.The Escapist pays us a flat fee for each Critical Miss comic we produce, but that isn't the case with Erin Dies Alone. That isn't The Escapist being cheap, we actually suggested it. You see, the paycheck we get from The Escapist comes with a few strings attached, one of which being that The Escapist and Defy Media own the Critical Miss IP. It's possible, though unlikely, that The Escapist could fire us both tomorrow and continue to run Critical Miss with writing from Stephenie Meyer and art by Rob Liefeld. Do you want that to happen? No? Us neither.

So with Erin Dies Alone, we wanted full control of the IP, to completely guarantee our freedom from corporate interference and to ensure we aren't completely dependent on The Escapist. Us owning the IP means that, should we ever have to part ways with The Escapist, we can continue the comic on our own website.

It also lets us offer the comic to our readers ad-free, and choose the manufacturer and pricing of our own merchandise.



Will The Escapist be taking any of this money? Grumble, grumble, Extra Credits fiasco, etc etc...

This is a completely independent Patreon. Every dime you contribute goes directly to us.

Sounds good! Do you have any pictures of your pets positioned to subtly imply that their well-being is contingent on you meeting your funding goals in what can only be described as a disgustingly blatant attempt at emotional manipulation?

YOU BET WE DO.




I want to ask you. Do you think love can bloom even on a battlefield?

Yeah. We do. We think at any time, any place, people can fall in love with each other. But if you love someone, you have to be able to protect them.