Hello Newgrounds, and happy new year!

As some of you might know, I am working on a show right now, which will be released on Newgrounds exclusively! A trailer will be released soon, and the show will finally be revealed to you all!

A question arises though... when will the show actually come out?

Well, here is the thing... I only have two sections of the show done. Out of about twenty. The show is kind of a unorganized collection of sketches, and I only have two done unfortunately. Luckily though, this will change.

I am going to be working nonstop on the show from now to this summer, and hopefully I will be done with it by then. But who knows... I will probably only get a few done, only time will tell.

The thing is that my animation schedule usually consists of one animation a month, which isn't a whole lot. For a cartoon by cartoon basis, that IS quite a lot, but not for a whole damn show. My cartoons usually last around 1 or 2 minutes, while each episode of the show will be about 10ish minutes. So I'm gonna have to cram HARD if I'm gonna get anything done quickly. My plan is to get 3 animations every month, so that by the time it's summer, I will have 17 done in total, which will probably be enough for the show. The thing is that I will also have to probably make a cartoon for Lock Day as well, and maybe cartoons for something else if it comes up... who knows, only time will tell.

Another issue is that it's not just me working on the show, it's me and my buddies BizzareEmerald and Nameless Octarian. And while we work pretty well together, we do live quite a while away from each other. Like, a city over. So that means that if we are going to collab with each other, I gotta find a time on the weekends to come over and visit them, given that they are also available. And that's not even considering if we get any work done at all, and not get distracted and just play Halo the whole time.

While the skit writing process was completely online, we actually need to be in person for the recording sessions. And considering how often we get distracted, it's going rather slow to say the least.

Luckily, I can work on some of the skits while I am away from them, specifically ones that don't require voice acting and/or a single voice. There are a couple skits that I can work on by myself (about 5 or more), and about 15 that require Nameless and Bizarre. Hopefully we can find some time next weekend to do a batch recording session and record a bunch of skits at once.

Well anyways, that's about what I have planned! I can't wait to show you all what we have planned, and let me tell you, it's gonna rock. Take care, yall!

-Jonah G.

Hey everyone, I am back with another yearly review!

If this is your first yearly review of mine, I'll fill you in: Basically, every year since 2021, I have been taking a look back of what I have accomplished over the year, as well as a general feeling for how the year went for me, I guess. So let's not waste any time, and let's just jump right into it!

How many cartoons did I get done this year? Well, I got a grand total of... three. I got three done. Yikes.

Okay, well that isn't entirely true, I technically got 13 done. But what's the deal? None of you saw any of that. Well, the two projects that you DID see were some of the projects that I worked the hardest on. They are by far my longest, most fleshed out projects that I had worked on by far, and those were most definitely worth posting...

Jip The Friendly Demon was our student film for the final year of NCTA. When I say "our student film", I mean that I worked on it with two other very talented individuals. I did all of the lead animation, as well as the storyboards and planning for the film, while Illiana worked on the animatics and backgrounds, while Paul made the logo and sorta just monitored the rest of the film. Pretty neat.

Jip The Friendly Demon was actually ranked the best out of our class, and ended up making it to the animation finals with a couple other films, which meant we actually got our film screened in front of a crowd of around 100 people, as well as three animation industry professionals! ...I have no idea who they are, but hey, still pretty cool. While we didn't win, we did win the "Outstanding Achievement in Unique Perspective" award, and we got overall pretty positive reviews all around from everyone. It felt really good having it screened, and it's something that I wish we are able to experience again! It was really awesome. I am incredibly proud of my team and what we accomplished, and I hope that we are able to work on something together once again!

The other animation that I released was LL - Hellfire REDUX, my Lock Day short for the year. It was a remake of one of my favorite Lock Legion films "LL - Hellfire", which in itself was a remake of the classic "Hunchback Of Notre Dame" scene. Originally, I didn't think that I was going to get this one done, due to it being made along with Jip The Friendly Demon, both huge projects. Somehow though, I was able to finish Hellfire in the last week, a DAY before Lock Day. And honestly, I don't know how I pulled it off, it was really tough. It is by far my most ambitious project, and I am really proud of it.

...and then I made the bear animation, which was... neat.

The other animations I made this year that I didn't upload was either for school, random shitposts that I didn't think were worthy uploading, or part of my secret project (more on that later)... I mean, if you REALLY wanted to see it, sure, I might come around to putting them in a Google Drive link or something, but honestly I just didn't think they were worth anybody's time. There is one animation that I am really proud of, but I am choosing not to upload that one because it is for my boyfriend and my boyfriend only. I didn't really make it with anyone else in mind, only him specifically. So it would feel wrong to upload it, because that is his Christmas gift, not anyone else's.

So needless to say, this year was a really... really inactive year for me. This is mostly from the burnout that comes from doing two huge project back to back, but most of you may know that this is also because I have been struggling with heavy depression this year. I've always had this, but this year has when it has been hitting full force, and I just had to take a step back and try to focus on getting my mental health in a relatively okay state. I'm not going to get too deep into it because I don't want this post to turn into a vent, but I will let you all know how things have gone since my hiatus has started; I have been put on medication which is helping me quite a bit, and I am seeking out therapy (though it is a bit difficult to find in my area). And my friends and family have been more than supportive, and I thank them all for being with me and helping me in this really tough time. I am doing a lot better now, and I hope to get back on my feet in 2024 and go in full force!

So... what now? What are my plans for this year? ...I'm not sure, if I'm being entirely honest. This year has been kind of a rough one for me, and I don't really know where to go from here. I want to make animations for sure, but I don't know if I am capable of going as ambitious as I wished for last year. To add onto it, this year is going to be a big year for me, as this is gonna be the year that I graduate.

I guess I'll try to start simple; I want to focus on my show in 2024. Some of you may know that I have been working on a show for the past year, and I really want to finish this, if anything else. So instead of multiple projects, I'm going to go full force on one MASSIVE project, and I want to be able to finish it this year above anything else. That is my priority.

If I finish the show early, I might sneak in some other stuff in there too, but I'm not sure what. I know I am DEFINITELY going to work on a Lock Day short this year, that's an always. (I'm always loyal to the Legion, baby.) I have been very fascinated with music as of recent, and I would LOVE to work on a music video for someone if I have spare time... it would most definitely be an awesome project for me. (I already have one in the works, actually, but I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to upload it due to copyright.) However, this is just speculation for now, as I really want to focus on the show and the show only right now.

Like last year, I want to wrap up this year with a massive thank you to everyone on Newgrounds. Newgrounds is my favorite website ever, and everyone here fucking rocks. Everyone.

In today's age, so many websites are built upon negativity and hate, and are usually just a warzone in general. Newgrounds is one of those special exceptions, and revolve around uniting people and sharing passion for animation, music, art, games, everything. And that's so fucking special and rare, dude. Newgrounds is one of the last few remaining websites that is built on it's community, and I genuinely think that Newgrounds is the future of the internet.

And it's not just people like Tom Fulp or any of the mods who keep this website strong and alive (even though they are, indeed, fucking awesome), it's YOU. You keep this website alive and strong just by posting your awesome content, donating to the site, and having fun. So thank you all, and I fuckin' love you guys.

Additionally, I want to thank everyone who has helped me through this really rough year, and everyone who is just cool and awesome in general. I want to thank Ethan (my wonderful boyfriend), NamelessOctarian, BizarreEmerald, KitPlays, Nova, Ketrick, Tom Fulp, Imp, Nuka, Maspen15, Zteagh, everyone in the Lock Legion, Illiana, my family, ShrimpOnAStick, SomeGuyWithWifi, ClubFlash, everyone here on Newgrounds, EggzLegz, Toastroodz, anyone who has made amazing music this year, anyone who has made amazing music in general, anyone who is fighting for change and equality in the world, and anyone who is spreading positivity and peace. I may have missed some people, but just know that I thank you as well. Thank you everyone.

And I think that is it! I love you all, and let's have a great 2024!

-Jonah G.

https://youtu.be/CPzFeJzGMwE

Hope you all enjoy it, I worked very hard on it!

And yes, I will return soon! I'm starting to get a little better, and I have many cartoon ideas! Thank you all for being so patient while I recover!

-Jonah G.

(Oops, I posted this a little early. It's still uploading, so check back in a little bit.)

Hey guys, I'm still on my cartoon hiatus unfortunately (read more about it here), and to keep things short, I'm not doing much better. However, I just finished a video that I posted to YouTube, and I think it turned out pretty well!

https://youtu.be/ND2IgVMQBQU?si=qr12pummgO5cQrFN

To be clear, I'm not taking the Egoraptor route and only doing lets plays from now on. This is just a little thing I made to keep you guys happy until I return. Thank you guys for being patient, and I love you all!

-Jonah G.

Today I am one year closer to death, please celebrate with me and send me your kindest t̶h̶r̶e̶a̶t̶s̶ birthday wishes :)

TRIGGER WARNING: HOMOPHOBIA/RACISM, SELF HARM

I have some apologies to make.

I have been putting this off for a while, mostly because I didn't really know how to go about this... all that I knew was I needed to say what I'm about to say. I need to get it off my chest, because I feel like I would be lying to the people that support me if they didn't know this about me. I apologize if this is a bit messy, because I don't really know how best to go about this still. I might as well just go for it.

I guess I'll just get right into it...

One of the first things I wanted to apologize for my racist and homophobic remarks in the past. Long story short, I was sorta passed down some really shitty beliefs from a very young age, which unfortunately I have retained until 4 years ago. (To be clear, this is not an excuse for what I have done, and no context really makes it any better, but I do hope it sheds some light on where I was at mentally.)

This led me to start judging people for... you know, just being themselves. I think I was doing this for about 7-8 years, if not more so. I also ended up criticizing close friends I was with, and brought this behavior to communities that I was in (probably most evident, the Lock Legion). I even ended up breaking up with one of my partners due to their lifestyle. (I am so sorry by the way, if you're reading this.)

I think I only stopped fully around 2021ish, and I sorta realized I was a gigantic prick. But by then it was too late, and I have made the world a worse place to live in due to my ignorance. I have tried my best to apologize for my bigotry, and I am apologizing here to anyone in particular who was hurt by me, just in case I haven't reached out to you personally; I am sorry for everything.

I have linked some related charities below... I'm aware that this won't magically undo what I have said and done in the past, but it's the least I can do.

The Trevor Project

NAACP

National Center for Transgender Equality

Suicide Hotline (USA): 988

Suicide Hotline (UK): 08006895652

Suicide Hotline (Australia): 131114

I also have some really shitty sexual background on the internet, too. If anyone who I have encountered is reading this, then you probably know what I'm talking about. I won't dive too deep into it to protect the identities of the people I interacted with, but I'll provide enough that it's clear what I'm talking about:

In 2022, some of you may remember I made a cartoon for the Lock Legion specifically made around a dare that my friend gave to me, specifically our Lock identities performing sexual acts on one person in specific, in a comical manner. My memory is a bit fuzzy, but I think that person told me that he was uncomfortable with me making porn of his character, specifically at my age (14 at the time). He eventually came around to the idea, but I think the fact that I went through with it in the first place was still a bit weird... I tried to defend myself on the LL server, but really, there is no excuse. If you're seeing this, I'm sorry. I have since then taken down the cartoon, and have no intention of putting it back up.

I kinda almost did this again for another Lock Legion cartoon... to those unaware, I am gay. I was in the middle of making a cartoon for Lock Day, and during that time my ex boyfriend was with me at the time. (Identity anonymous, obviously.) I wasn't out yet, and I said that I wanted to be dating a girl in the cartoon as to not reveal my sexual identity... clearly this raised a red flag as he stated several times he was uncomfortable with the idea, despite him not actually being in the cartoon itself. I ended up canning the cartoon entirely because of this, which is why I kinda had a rushed Lock Day entry last year. If you're reading this, I'm sorry for making you uncomfortable, that was not my intent at all... the whole point of having a partner in that cartoon was for comedic effect, but clearly I struck a bad chord, so I am really sorry.

I also wanted to say sorry in specific to two members from the Lock Legion who have since left... I will leave them anonymous and I will try not to go deep into it as to not stir any drama... But to sum it up, I got in a relationship with one of them, and then cheated on them with the other on the same day due to us already doing lewd stuff together prior to our relationship. They insisted that we continued behind the scenes, which I obliged and felt really awful about, to a point where I ended up sort of having a mental breakdown on call with that person. They ended up telling the other what we were up to, and it was over. I left a statement to the person I was with, and it was done.

A while later, that same person messaged me fighting back with my statement, and we argued for a bit to a point where they were just trying to aggravate me. I essentially told them that I would harm myself if they didn't leave me alone, to which they finally did leave me alone.

I have thought about this situation nonstop for YEARS since then, and I have done nothing but felt bad about it. I think about everything that I could've done better during that time, especially around the suicide threatening stuff. That was nothing but irresponsible, I am so so sorry that I did that, nobody should ever be put in that situation. Regardless of if I felt the statement was warranted or not, it does not and ALWAYS will not warrant my irresponsible behavior.

This is my last resort of trying to reach out and apologize to them... I tried sending them a message and I'm unsure if they got it or not. So this is it, this is my final message to those involved:

I am so so sorry for everything I did. I hope you are okay from what happened, and I hope you both are doing well.

And that is all I can think of right now... if there is anything I missed, PLEASE let me know in my DM's. I will personally apologize to you. I am genuinely serious, please tell me.

I have been trying to change myself for the better recently, and I think the first step is to apologize to those who need it the most. This apology has been long due, and I think it's about time I did something about it. I want to give one final sorry to everyone... I really hope you are all doing well now.

I think that pretty much wraps up everything... Thank you for reading this through all the way if you have, and I hope you're having a good day.

EDIT: I have also included the suicide hotline from various different regions, since it also seems fitting. If anyone wants any other numbers added, DM me. I will update when I can.

EDIT 2: I have edited someone out of my statement, due to me not giving them the privacy that everyone else has recieved. I have unintentionally brought them into a situation where they are being held responsible for my actions, for what is supposed to be me taking accountability. I overshared, and as a result, I risked them being in the crossfire for my actions. I'm sorry. For those who are aware of the person I am referring to, please leave them alone, and let them have their privacy.

OH MY GOD HOLY SHIT WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE SHIT HOLY FUCK SHIT WHAT

THANK YOU GUYS FOR THIS OH MY GOD

Holy shit. Thank you all so much.

I'm back with another yearly review!

(If you don't know what the fuck I'm talking about, click this)

If for some reason you are too lazy to click the shiny red link, then I'll save you a bit of time. Basically every year I do a personal review of how my year was and what I did, so that's what I'm doing now on Newgrounds. So without further ado, let's just get into it.

So let's start with how many cartoons I made this year, because apparently this is the formula I have for these. Well, I made a lot of cartoons, big and small. In total, I made around 11 cartoons! 2 for collabs, 5 for school, and 4 for personal stuff. And not one of these cartoons have been blammed, so that's progress! ...I think.

You're probably asking why I made so many cartoons for school this year, and to that I say... it's complicated. See, earlier this year I had a lot "Free Choice" assignments. This basically meant that I could do whatever I wanted as long as I did the assignment requirement. So you can guess that I basically did animation for every assignment I got.

For example, Attack Of The Flies was a project for my pop culture class, where we had to parody something from the late 50's to early 60's. I decided to choose movie trailers from that time period, mostly parodying the movie tropes from that time period, including the announcer voice actor dude, the character dedicated to sex appeal, the epic score, etc.

But the other reason I had so many school animations is because I have an animation class this year! My school has a separate program where I can take a college class, so I am taking a class in animation, both 2D and 3D (though we haven't done much for 3D yet). I mostly just did tiny little test animations like walk cycles and punches and stuff, but I don't mind. It's honestly a lot of fun, and I couldn't ask for a better class.

Now let's talk about what I did for the Lock Legion. I was pretty active in the Lock Legion last year, given the revival and all of that biz. But early this year, the legion had a bit of a drought. Whatever attempt at a group project pretty much died immediately. In fact, I tried to start a collab earlier this year with Nameless Octarian called "The Commercial Collab", a spiritual successor to comedy skits we made in middle school. The collab gained no traction, and I had to pull the plug.

Now I'm not pointing fingers of course, but it's no secret that the atmosphere in the legion was... weird, to say the least. Not that anyone was toxic or anything (mostly), but drama would occasionally break out and people's motivation's to make any cartoon were just kinda dead on arrival.

This all culminated on Lock Day 2022, where only ONE PERSON submitted something. (Thanks MarioLock!) To be fair, I missed Lock Day by one day, so I made up for it the day after, but it's still pretty embarrassing. I think that's when something clicked that the Lock Legion needed to be revived again. So in an attempt to bring the Legion back to life, I decided to revive a format that the Legion did best; music videos.

There was just one problem: Copyright is a bitch. And the fun work around I found was that I can use a non-copyright cover of the song instead of the song itself, which was given the A-OK from the Newgrounds staff (thanks!) and I started The Weird Science Collab! A collab based on the song "Weird Science" by Oingo Boingo. And with the help of Zteagh Lock, and high enthusiasm from the Lock Legion, we got the collab done in nearly 2 months! We had low standards because Lock Legion collabs usually didn't do all too well, but we were pleasantly surprised when we woke up to a Daily 2nd trophy from P-Bot, and a Underdog of the Week award.

I genuinely cannot thank everyone enough for their contributions to the collab, it makes my silly little heart swell up because of how everything turned out. I hope in 2023, we can make even more of these! Let's make this a reality, people!!

Aside from the Legion, I also participated in "The Life and Death of Boe" collab, a collab based on a classic flash game about a character named Boe dying in random ways. I was fortunate enough to receive a part in this collab, and it is probably one of my favorite things I have made all year. I'll go as far to say it's one of my favorite things I have made ever. I just love how it turned out, and it's one of the few cartoons I show people that make them laugh, so I must have done something right. The collab also did really well, receiving a Daily 2nd trophy, a frontpage, and a Weekly 3rd trophy. Bling bling, baby.

I also had the pleasure of showing my cartoons to hundreds of people this year! For those familiar with 4H, I got to do a technology showcase this year, and I got a little booth to showcase a highlight reel for people to see as they walk through. I ended up getting hundreds of people a day looking at my cartoons, which was a really cool experience. To those who passed through and saw my shit, thank you a ton. You made my week. I'm supposed to be doing it again in 2023, so I'm really excited for that. Next year if you're in the Washington area, come say hi! I highly doubt any of you actually will, but it would make my week if you did. I'll specify when the time comes.

As mentioned earlier, I also made cartoons for my school, which I then showed for my classmates, and that was really cool too! It was awesome whenever they laughed at a joke I made or someone pointed out the work I put into it, it was awesome. I even got applause after it was done, that felt really good. I'm sort of known for my cartoons at school now, I'm the "cartoon guy" as people put it. Which is a way better title to have than "crack head", so I guess I'm moving up in the world.

Anyways. let's talk about my goals from last year. Did I achieve them? ...mostly. While I did move away from context centered cartoons, I never actually got around to announcing my show, let alone start it. Whoops. I also put a hold on the comics for a bit, though I have actually started making them again. I have found that I am much better at making comics than I am actual cartoons, which is probably because comics take less effort to make, and I can just make jokes for the sake of making jokes, and not have to worry about much else. I do enjoy making cartoons a lot more though, I think they are a lot more satisfying to make.

But let's get back on topic, what are my ambitions for this year? Let's start with negatives: I most likely won't get to my show this year. As much as I hate to admit it, it would just take way too much time out of my very busy schedule. I MIGHT work on it during the summer, but I'm gonna try to save it for my other goals.

Speaking of which, the main priority I have this year is to make shorts. I feel like I stepped in the right direction when I made the decision to make less context based cartoons. so why not take it a step further and make straight on short films? I have tons of ideas in my stupid brain that I just want to take out and slam into my computer. I feel like short films are the way to go if I want to grab someones attention with my stuff, music videos and collabs can only take me so far.

I also really want to work on a documentary I'm making. This is my first dive into a full length feature, and I have no idea how it will go, but fuck it, I think I am capable of doing this one.

And of course I'm gonna get some of that Lock Legion love in there too. I'm gonna host another music video collab because the last one went really well. What song will it be? I guess time will tell.

I'm gonna wrap this review up with a thank you. A big BIG thank you to everyone on this wonderful site. I hate to get sentimental. but I seriously struggled this year with my mental health and legitimately considered suicide at times. But wonderful people like all of you have helped me push through. Thank you all. So so so so so much.

I wanna thank Newgrounds for letting me post all of my stuff here censor free and being so supportive of me and the dinky cartoons that I make.

I wanna thank Nameless Octarian for being one of the best people I have ever met and being a fun person to be around.

I wanna thank Ethan for being so so so amazing, and just being a lovely and wonderful person in general, as well as getting me through my struggles.

I wanna thank the Lock Legion, for being a wonderful group that makes me feel like I belong.

I wanna thank BizzareEmerald for being the best buddy anyone can ever have, and for sticking with my ass for god knows how long.

I wanna thank Maspen15 for being a cool ass dude and keeping me in check.

I wanna thank my dog Duke for keeping me sane and calming me down on days I feel stressed.

I wanna thank my teachers and classmates who have supported me.

I wanna thank NakeyJakey for making ROMCOM. (I don't know him personally, ROMCOM is just really good.)

And of course, I wanna thank you for doing what you do. For watching, sharing and talking about my weird cartoons. I wanna thank you all for showing me that people DO care about the things I make, it genuinely is the greatest thing. I'm literally about to reach 100 followers on Newgrounds, and that means the world to me. Thank you.

I probably missed some of you because I'm writing this at like 3:30 in the morning and my brain is slowly dying as we speak, but just know that I thank you all.

I think that's a wrap for this year, thank you for reading this long ass blog and taking the time out your day watch my shit. Thank you all. I can't wait to see what 2023 has in store.

~Jonah G.