Suckermouth Year-In-Review Part 4: BS, Politics, and the Future

by Aaron Mystery

I've decided to wrap up this series of Suckermouth Year-In-Review articles with the various ups and downs and extraneous politics that I dealt with this year besides the pure nuts-and-bolts of each animation. I had two YouTube channels go down this year, lost my day job, lost my computer (and took two months to recover), and blew at least a couple gaskets taking criticism much too personally. Luckily, all things have been remedied as 2010 kicks off...

I started the year off feuding with YouTube and Google over kicking my videos off for no reason at all. I spat and cursed and cried, but in the end one of my greatest achievements - my first YouTube channel that had garnered nearly 7 million video views - was yanked. Over 150 posted videos were gone. Luckily, I created a second YouTube channel, but that also got pulled this year, for even less offensive videos. The third time was the charm, as my New Suckermouth channel is alive and strong. And because no channel is forever on YouTube, I made sure to keep my channel at DailyMotion alive and well throughout 2009.

Shortly after the first YouTube channel was removed, I was laid off from my day job. Although the economy and my work had been slow, I was honestly not prepared. I thought of Suckermouth much differently then than I do know, needless to say, as it is my only source of income. In the end, as a fan, customer, viewer, etc. it's good news for you, because it's given me more time to dedicate to Suckermouth; unfortunately, I have less money to spend as well.

When 2009 started, I was still far too sensitive about ratings and comments for my own good; I had been struggling with this for years. I thought when I lost my job, I would be able to handle things more professionally, but after a couple oddball videos, the mounting criticism of me caused me to explode with an obnoxious video that I am ashamed I made, let alone uploaded. But sometimes you have to hit rock bottom before you can go up. And this video tirade was certainly rock bottom.

Although I freaked out in video comments a couple times for low ratings after this, I seemed to be pulling it together. And better sales reflected better videos. Even stupid side projects like "Grizlore's Pot Party" didn't kill my momentum.

But then the unthinkable happened: My sole production computer died. I rushed into a shop that was recommended to me, and thus began the worst and most costly waiting game of my life. A week to diagnose that a new motherboard was required. Two weeks to receive the part. The part was bad. Would have to send part back and wait for replacement. Would take two to three weeks. Four weeks passed. Five weeks. No new part. I had to buy a new computer. And after my sales collapsed from two months of inactivity, it was not easy money to come up with.

But alas, December 2009 was a full month with plenty of Quickies, a What's Breast for Women episode, and the unforgettable "I Am Tiger" Featurettes. While the final month of 2009 may not be remembered as the best ever, it certainly pointed a bright set of headlights towards 2010 at Suckermouth.

It has been a real pleasure to create for you in 2009 despite the ups and downs, and you can bet that there will be many years of Suckermouth animations to come. Happy New Year!