Bittersweet Candy Bowl

Extras

This page is just for the fans! All sorts of extra material is collected here, from fan art to comic recommendations. Dig around if you like.

Official Art

The following is a selection of the most interesting miscellaneous drawings and comics made by the author, roughly arranged from oldest to newest. Some will expand in place and others will load separately as they’re too big.

2006 Design Sheets

2006-era character design sheets.

Despite the horribly outdated art, it contains various little facts about most of the characters, in full colour.

Prismacolored Distraction

A collection of prismacolored doodles.

Nothing more than various little scenes all in prismacolour pencils.

Concept Pile

Some sketches and concept art.

Contains many sketches in planning for the Summer Vacation arc, as well as playing around with character designs—namely Abbey and Augustus.

Birthday Melody

A doodley celebration of Mike’s birthday.

At the time when Bittersweet was regularly updating and hiatuses were beginning to appear, it was August and a birthday comic was due. Also a practice in writing neatly - in the New South Wales Foundations style.

Preschool Terror

Some musings on Bittersweet children.

What would happen if Mike and Daisy were to have a child together? What about Paulo and Lucy?

First Kiss

Something that took place between Mike and Sandy before she moved away.

A canonical comic doodle that takes place before Sandy moved away to Rickter.

Search for Treasure

Another Mike and Sandy comic.

Another look into Mike and Sandy’s relationship!

Till Death Do Us Part

A comic about romantic pairings and Paulo.

Love-dodecahedrons were still rampant in Year 5. Paulo just isn’t as romantic as the others are. A silly doodle comic.

Valentine Misunderstanding

A comic about Valentine’s Day.

Yet another doodle comic that takes place in Year 5.

Bittersweet Advertisement

An advertisement comic drawn for Darkspeeds’ The Grand Ashworth Fortune comic book

This was a comic drawn as an advertisement to be placed in a comic book a friend was publishing (The Grand Ashworth Fortune.) Lucy is pretty rude and unforgiving here.

Friendship Day

Daisy tries to find presents for everyone.

Yet another Year 5 doodle comic, Daisy always tries to find presents fitting for her friends. Heavy Flanderisation going on here.

Boy with the Funny Name

A comic about nicknames.

Daisy calls her friends by a cute little shortening of their name, though it’s strange Paulo, who is a close friend of hers, has no nickname.

Snuggly Nap

Cute drawing pairing up Mike and Lucy.

This comic is beaming with MikexLucy. She is often affectionate so long as nobody’s looking.

Grey Streak, Speeds By

Sandy as Sally of the SatAM Sonic cartoon.

A comic made because some people would mistakenly call Sandy “Sally” over at deviantART.

i can has stolen humar

An attack on the lolcats phenomenon.

A comic made to attack the horrible plague of lolcats. Unfortunately, the Bittersweet cast are made to participate in it all. Many braincells were destroyed in the making of this comic.

Different Method

Lucy and Paulo conflict.

Lucy really doesn’t like Paulo’s advances, so Paulo decides to do something completely different to woo her.

Attention Please

Lucy takes the role of a Zelda character.

A comic made because a deviantART member said that Lucy’s voice should be played by some Zelda character.

Bittersweet Christmas

A Christmas comic.

Lights are glowing, snow is falling—or is it?

Bittersweet Style Experiment

The Bittersweet cast as full-on furries.

Nothing wrong with playing around with character designs! Unless it’s creepy.

FLCLBCB

Every character playing the role of an FLCL character.

A request by a deviantART member to draw the Bittersweet character in Fooly Cooly attire.

Likely Romances

Some more imaginings of character couplings.

Another look into the love-dodecahedrons that the Bittersweet characters just cannot break out of.

Battle Royale

A cross-over comic featuring a wrestling match.

Mac from an awful terrible thing, Matt from an awful terrible nonexistent thing, and Mike have all something in common.. the “M” that starts their names. So how can we find out who is the best “M” of them all?

Heeeere’s Abbey

An imitation of a 'The Shining' poster, featuring Abbey and Daisy.

A request by another deviantART member to draw Abbey and Daisy similar to the “Shining” poster.

That’s not necessarily all. If you dig around on Taeshi’s deviantART Gallery, you can find some more doodles and things, though probably not quite as good as some of the things here.

Fan Art

The following is a big, alphabetised collection of fan art submitted by readers of the comic. It’s hidden behind a button because it contains a ton of images—load with caution! Please email Taeshi if you’ve been kind enough to draw anything that can be put in the gallery. Most images will expand in place but comics will open separately.

Acoustic Fox

Acoustic Fox_LucyMike.jpg Thumbnail Acoustic Fox_Mike.jpg Thumbnail Acoustic Fox_MikeSalmon.jpg Thumbnail

AdeptEX

deviantART Link

AdeptEX_Lucy.jpg Thumbnail AdeptEX_Daisy.jpg Thumbnail

Agent Webdog

deviantART Link

AgentWebdog_ParappaDavid.png Thumbnail

AikaChan

deviantART Link

AikaChan_Lucy.jpg Thumbnail

Alina the Hedgehog

deviantART Link

AlinatheHedgehog_LucytheCat.jpg Thumbnail

AmberEchidna

deviantART Link

Amber_EchidnaLucy.jpg Thumbnail

Anna Marie

deviantART Link

AnnaMarie_FFCat.png Thumbnail

Avlovesnh4eva

deviantART Link

Avlovesnh4evaMike.png Thumbnail

Bumblegoo

deviantART Link

Bumblegoo_Lucy.jpg Thumbnail Bumblegoo_StubbornLucy.png Thumbnail

Bungie

deviantART Link

Bungie_AbbeyMike.jpg Thumbnail Bungie_David.jpg Thumbnail

Cat444

deviantART Link

Cat444_Fanart.jpg Thumbnail

ChocolateChipCooky

deviantART Link

ChocolateChipCooky_Mike.jpg Thumbnail

Colourfulfantasy

deviantART Link

Colorfulfantasy_Lucy.png Thumbnail

Edge the Fox

deviantART Link

Edge_Comic.jpg Thumbnail Edge_Comic2.jpg Thumbnail Edge_Comic3.jpg Thumbnail Edge_Mike.jpg Thumbnail Edge_MikeLucy.jpg Thumbnail Edge_Paulo.jpg Thumbnail Edge_Tess.jpg Thumbnail Edge_SpiderDave.jpg Thumbnail

Evan

deviantART Link

Evan_Carson.png Thumbnail Evan_Carter.png Thumbnail Evan_CarterBasket.png Thumbnail Evan_CarterLove.png Thumbnail Evan_CarterShow.png Thumbnail Evan_FFCat.png Thumbnail Evan_FFCatDaisy.png Thumbnail Evan_Mike.png Thumbnail Evan_Yashy.png Thumbnail

Greenlead

deviantART Link

Greenlead_Lucy.jpg Thumbnail Greenlead_MaeBirman.png Thumbnail

Isil the Werecat

deviantART Link

Isil_WerecatMike.jpg Thumbnail

Isaiahdjkim

deviantART Link

Isaiahdjkim_BittersweetAngst.png Thumbnail

JackPrower

deviantART Link

JackPrower_Abbey.jpg Thumbnail JackPrower_Lemonade.jpg Thumbnail JackPrower_McCain.jpg Thumbnail JackPrower_Mike.jpg Thumbnail JackPrower_MikeYank.jpg Thumbnail

JimPrower

deviantART Link

JimPrower_Lucy.jpg Thumbnail JimPrower_Mike.jpg Thumbnail

Jinkznekoya

deviantART Link

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Kaxbe

deviantART Link

Kaxbe_ChristmasGift.png Thumbnail Kaxbe_MikeThePimp.jpg Thumbnail Kaxbe_LucyCatgirl.jpg Thumbnail

Keyk

deviantART Link

Keyk_Bittersweet.jpg Thumbnail Keyk_Danielle.png Thumbnail Keyk_FFCat.png Thumbnail Keyk_HumanKids.jpg Thumbnail Keyk_LucyMike.jpg Thumbnail

Kitsunefirelover

deviantART Link

Kitsunefirelover_confessions.jpg Thumbnail Kitsunefirelover_KnifetoKnowYou.jpg Thumbnail

Klaskah

FurAffinity

Klaskah_PauloxLucy.jpg Thumbnail

Knuxthekiller

deviantART Link

KnuxtheKiller_Bittersweet.jpg Thumbnail KnuxtheKiller_TGAF.jpg Thumbnail KnuxtheKiller_TGAF1.jpg Thumbnail KnuxtheKiller_fivearttrade.png Thumbnail KnuxtheKiller_BleachEDBowl.png Thumbnail

Kou

deviantART Link

Kou_BCBCast.png Thumbnail Kou_DSBattle.png Thumbnail Kou_FightLucy1.png Thumbnail Kou_FightLucy2.png Thumbnail Kou_FightLucy3.png Thumbnail Kou_GoodbyeLoneliness1.png Thumbnail Kou_GoodbyeLoneliness2.png Thumbnail Kou_GoodbyeLoneliness3.png Thumbnail Kou_JustFriends.png Thumbnail Kou_Playwithfriends.png Thumbnail Kou_Run.png Thumbnail Kou_ScarfGuys.png Thumbnail Kou_YashysWrath1.png Thumbnail Kou_YashysWrath2.png Thumbnail Kou_YashysWrath3.png Thumbnail Kou_YashysWrath4.png Thumbnail

Lily

deviantART Link

Lily_Beautiful.jpg Thumbnail Lily_Bittersweet.jpg Thumbnail Lily_Boys.jpg Thumbnail Lily_Christmas.jpg Thumbnail Lily_Daisy.jpg Thumbnail Lily_Frash.png Thumbnail Lily_FreeHugs.png Thumbnail Lily_FutureTess1.jpg Thumbnail Lily_FutureTess2.jpg Thumbnail Lily_Guide.jpg Thumbnail Lily_Lesbians.png Thumbnail Lily_LucyFark.png Thumbnail Lily_LucySleep.png Thumbnail Lily_Lucyko.jpg Thumbnail Lily_Mike.png Thumbnail Lily_PauloLucy.png Thumbnail Lily_Renaissance1.jpg Thumbnail Lily_Renaissance2.jpg Thumbnail Lily_Renaissance3.jpg Thumbnail Lily_Renaissance4.jpg Thumbnail Lily_Sandy.png Thumbnail Lily_SeniorTess.png Thumbnail Lily_Signs.jpg Thumbnail Lily_Sophomore.jpg Thumbnail Lily_Song1.jpg Thumbnail Lily_Song2.jpg Thumbnail Lily_Song3.jpg Thumbnail Lily_Song4.jpg Thumbnail Lily_Tanabata.jpg Thumbnail Lily_GotYou.png Thumbnail Lily_NotAnotherOne.jpg Thumbnail Lily_WanderingMinstrels.jpg Thumbnail Lily_KMNC1.png Thumbnail Lily_KMNC2.png Thumbnail Lily_KMNC3.png Thumbnail Lily_KMNC5.png Thumbnail Lily_KMNC5.png Thumbnail Lily_KMNC6.png Thumbnail Lily_KMNC7.png Thumbnail Lily_KMNC8.png Thumbnail Lily_KMNC9.png Thumbnail Lily_KMNC10.png Thumbnail Lily_KMNC1.png Thumbnail Lily_KMNC12.png Thumbnail Lily_KMNC13.png Thumbnail

LisaCat89

deviantART Link

LisaCat89_Bittersweet.png Thumbnail LisaCat89_candywall.png Thumbnail LisaCat89_Cataloid.png Thumbnail LisaCat89_CatsandDogs.png Thumbnail LisaCat89_Duuuude.png Thumbnail LisaCat89_Girls.png Thumbnail LisaCat89_JordanJordan.png Thumbnail LisaCat89_LucyBirthday.jpg Thumbnail LisaCat89_WorldisMine Youtube Video Thumbnail LisaCat89_ColourLoveChart.png Thumbnail LisaCat89_Couples.png Thumbnail LisaCat89_AbbeysWalk.png Thumbnail LisaCat89_HeyGuys.png Thumbnail LisaCat89_Tabbylove.png Thumbnail LisaCat89_WantCookies.png Thumbnail

Lostflame41

deviantART Link

Lostflame41_FatChanceBCB.jpg Thumbnail

Mechasonic2

deviantART Link

Mechasonic2_Contestlucy.png Thumbnail

MegaYoshi

deviantART Link

MegaYoshi_LucyMike.png Thumbnail

Megz

deviantART Link

Megz_Mike.png Thumbnail

Oddguy

deviantART Link

Oddguy_FearsomePierceEm1.jpg Thumbnail Oddguy_FearsomePierceEm2.jpg Thumbnail Oddguy_FearsomePierceEm3.jpg Thumbnail Oddguy_FearsomePierceEm4.jpg Thumbnail Oddguy_FearsomePierceEm5.jpg Thumbnail Oddguy_FearsomePierceEm6.jpg Thumbnail Oddguy_FearsomePierceEm7.jpg Thumbnail Oddguy_FearsomePierceEm8.jpg Thumbnail Oddguy_FearsomePierceEm9.jpg Thumbnail

Peachifruit

Peach Pop!

Peachifruit_MikeandLucy.png Thumbnail

Ryuzan

deviantART Link

Ryuzan_BCBlolfanarts.jpg Thumbnail Ryuzan_BCBlolfanarts2.jpg Thumbnail Ryuzan_BCBlolfanarts3.png Thumbnail Ryuzan_BCBlolfanarts4.png Thumbnail Ryuzan_GuessWhatCatsHave.png Thumbnail Ryuzan_SittingMike.png Thumbnail Ryuzan_Alone.png Thumbnail Ryuzan_BCBFanart7.png Thumbnail

ScarfNinja

deviantART Link

ScarfNinja_Tess.jpg Thumbnail

Selphite

deviantART Link

Selphite_Character.jpg Thumbnail

Shaa619

deviantART Link

Shaa619_Lucy.png Thumbnail Shaa619_Paulo.jpg Thumbnail

Skyen

deviantART Link

Skyen_Crafty.jpg Thumbnail Skyen_Crafty2.jpg Thumbnail Skyen_Jerkass.jpg Thumbnail Skyen_Poke.jpg Thumbnail Skyen_Shegwa.jpg Thumbnail Skyen_Tree.jpg Thumbnail Skyen_HappyBirthdayTashy.gif Thumbnail Skyen_Psyche.jpg Thumbnail Skyen_HumanPaulo.jpg Thumbnail Skyen_JesterandDavid.jpg Thumbnail Skyen_michaelhokey.jpg Thumbnail Skyen_BittersweetParkBears.jpg Thumbnail Skyen_AlternateCats.jpg Thumbnail Skyen_FatCatMike.jpg Thumbnail Skyen_ColourLoveChart.jpg Thumbnail

Sofychan

deviantART Link

Sofychan_Lucy.jpg Thumbnail

TakuniChan

deviantART Link

TakuniChan_LucyBreaksAway.jpg Thumbnail

TH351

deviantART Link

TH351_Lucy.jpg Thumbnail TH351_LucyYashy.png Thumbnail

Tom Wilson

TomWilson_Concrete.jpg Thumbnail

Ved the Flame Devil

deviantART Link

VedtheFlameDevil_Jerkityjerkjerk.jpg Thumbnail VedtheFlameDevil_ContagiousSmiles.png Thumbnail VedtheFlameDevil_DayontheTrack.jpg Thumbnail VedtheFlameDevil_HiddenConflict.png Thumbnail VedtheFlameDevil_TreeofThoughts.jpg Thumbnail

In this section are a few of the author’s favourite webcomics and some other links that you might find interesting!

And hey, these links are not only one way! If you’re nice enough to want to link to Bittersweet Candy Bowl on your own site, you’re welcome to use the following banners and buttons. If you can find a space for them, we’d appreciate it, as we love new readers.

Bittersweet Candy Bowl banner

Bittersweet Candy Bowl half-banner Bittersweet Candy Bowl regular button Bittersweet Candy Bowl regular button, Lucy design Bittersweet Candy Bowl tiny button

Graveyard

This section contains a number of comics that were part of the original storyline and eliminated in the November 2009 site\comic refresh. These are all actually canonical, just of such quality they’re no longer allowed in the proper archive.

Other Things

The author is also grateful for the use of Cabel Sasser’s FancyZoom script, Chipmunk’s simple forum script and, clumsily, on the Introduction page, MickeyRossi for the “Ballpark Weiner” font.

History

There’s also a 2000-word-ish “BCB History” essay you can read. It’s long, but it’s an explanation of where the ideas came from straight from the horse’s/author’s mouth. Worth reading if you are curious:

First off, this series was created wayyyy before the first (now second!) comic that is archived here. Hell, this series has gone through some revivals.. about three to be exact (Or not). It all started when I developed an adoration for comics such as Garfield, Condorito, and Mafalda. Comics and cartoons were always so fascinating to me and I loved the way we could be told a story in sequences.. we could be put in the scene with the character and just watch the character react to situations, whether it be everyday or pretty damn extraordinary. I loved that.. and I loved seeing reactions happen, especially when it came to funny situations.. it wasn’t like I read serious business comic books back then like Batman or something XD I grew up on silly slapstick junk that had the characters getting violently hurt.

So I thought “Hey.. I wanna do that!”.. but the question was.. how? So I just made little boxes.. and at first just drew sequences.. like a character walking.. they trip.. and fall. Oh snap. It was originally just random little characters.. like a little human girl.. or a dog. It was only after I became obsessed with reading cat-related comics (Garfield, Heathcliff) that I wanted to make my main characters cats. I just thought cats were so cute.. and they could do so many little things.. like roll on the floor.. tilt their ears back.. the motion of cats always fascinated me! Sounds silly.. but yeah. I liked drawing little cutesy things at first.. like a cat curled up, its head facing us.. I thought I was pretty amazing to do that. Nyarhar.. I was easily entertained back then.

Mike was the first real character I created.. he was originally a yellow and dimwitted cat, who always got hurt at the end. Surprisingly enough, Sue was the first protagonist rather than Lucy. They looked pretty much the exact same, nyarhar.. black nose and everything. Sue was bossy and rude.. and yeah. Just that typical comic idea with an idiot and a smartass. I later wanted to draw a pretty cat.. and what is prettier than a pure white, blue-eyed, red nosed kitten? Yeah.. I made Lucy then.. and I really loved her.. way more than Sue. Sue then became a secondary character.. but soon faded off into the background.. funny how that happens in this Bittersweet Candy Bowl series!

So yeah.. regular comics started when I was about seven or so. I used to make little tiny books called “Cat ___”.. comics about cats, obviously.. it got up to like chapter 50, I swear. Unfortunately, I threw the majority of my old comics away because I was so ashamed of them.. I regret it to this very day. Don’t ever throw your old work away, guys. It really hurts when you one day feel “Hey.. I wanna look at my old crap” and you realize you don’t have them.. and they were one of a kind. Never to be retrieved again.. no matter how hard you try. I really wish there was a way to reverse time.. seriously, I had SO MANY COMICS.. hundreds.. in little booklets.. just put them in a bag and threw them away. Horrid.

By “old comics”, though.. I mean the ones I did when I was about seven-nine or so. Those comics were originally done on white computer paper that were bended and stapled to make into a mini-booklet. Those were thrown away.. but all the ones I drew in an actual notebook are still with me.. and some are as old as.. nine, ten or so. So at least I have that.

So to get to the ACTUAL comics rather than their tragic destruction.. I ended up putting in a setting for the comic by the time I was about.. nine or so. Before, they were just stupid comics with random animals doing things.. but I finally decided to focus on the characters Lucy and Mike.. so I developed them up. I gave them a family, siblings, friends, a school to attend, teachers to harass them.. the works. In a way, the series used to chronicle what I was going through in school. If something funny happened in school, I always drew it up except made Lucy and Mike experience it. Lucy soon became what I woulda been if I wasn’t so shy.. so she was used for me to vent. I was a pretty bratty and horrid child back then.. so Lucy was very cynical and very cruel to others. I sometimes shudder when I look back at the old comics and see how.. angry I was back then. Seriously, some stuff was really bad.

As I grew up, there were changes to the story.. Lucy softened up more (She was still immensely cruel, but she had more control now).. and Mike became less of a bumbling idiot. I thought yellow was too girly a color for him so his color was changed to silver.. he also originally had brown-gray eyes.. those were changed to green. Along with his new look, his personality began to form.. and in the old series, he started showing signs of actually being in love with Lucy. Before, he would hit on her.. or make little jokes that would get a slap in the face as a response.. but I made him start genuinely feeling strongly for her.. that was around eleven or so.

Twelve came.. and I brought them closer.. the comic began getting less slapstick and began focusing on the characters more, sometimes having little arcs happen. It was still meant to be funny, but they were showing more emotions. I then became a teenager.. and veered the comic to something a lot more serious (I also got into anime some more.. so I wanted to make stupid touching “animu” scenes). Lucy began getting more sentimental and soft, Mike more strongminded.. Paulo and Daisy were also introduced (Yeah, they were not exactly characters that existed this WHOLE time) I soon made a side-story from that influence.. which was my first attempt at a full-on serious story.. once it ended, though, the comic did.

The series laid dormant for a while.. and was revived for a short gaiden side-story that was so animay, it makes me keel over at the thought. The personality of the characters were IMMENSELY different, Lucy a sobby crybaby and Mike a tough and heartless douchebag who is really A GOOD GUY INSIDE REALLY :((((. Definitely the stereotypical animay pair. It was only another experiment.. and when the story ended, I didn’t draw them again. God what was I thinking.

That was when I was.. about fifteen or so. So insane. I thought the characters were finally dead, too.. so I began focusing on other comics.. I drew little comics with my “self-character” and comics with the character Carol.. those can be seen in my deviantART page. Notice I was sixteen when I started my account in deviantART..so it shows that the cat series was dead for quite a while. Anime influence was supreme by that time.

Years passed.. and I turned eighteen. I’ve been drawing and trying to get my style away from anime.. but that’s really hard, obviously. I sat around one day, though.. and noticed my drawer with all my old comics.. and I flipped through them and really did stop and appreciate my cat characters.. the characters that pretty much lended me a helping hand in my whole life of trying to become a cartoonist.. obviously they gave me A LOT OF PRACTICE in terms of sequences and expressions. I have to thank them.. those nonexistent characters. This was coming from a person who abandoned that dream of being a cartoonist to instead follow the footsteps of becoming a teacher, though.. so it was pretty sad to see them.. posing and interacting.. knowing that back then, I wanted to make SOMETHING of them.

Keep smiling, little Lucy~

I was sitting in university one day, bored out of my mind and waiting for class to start up.. so I started doodling. I drew up two little cats.. and thought “.. Haha Mike and Lucy” so I made the cats look like them.. except I gave them accessories. I gave the boy a scarf.. and the girl a bow. I thought that was pretty cute.. so I doodled them up more.. playing about. I soon drew Daisy and Paulo, giving Daisy that pearl necklace but not giving Paulo anything. I was really happy doodling them up.. and it became a bit of a focus for a while.. to the point that when I was studying for my Psychology Final, I drew little comics with the newly revived characters to try and stay awake for the night. Whenever I was getting sleepy, I pulled my notebook out, sketched out little lines.. and drew the cats.

Needless to say, the first few comics you see in the archives are scans of comics done on those nights.. hence the terrible quality. I wasn’t trying.. but after a while of posting them on deviantART, I noticed a bit of a positive feedback. People.. liked them! I guess. It made me wanna draw them up more.. to the point that I was constantly drawing them.. constantly working on their personalities and trying to develop them. Soon enough, it became a story.. and I feel the series truly starts with the “Prom Preparation” comic.. that was the first comic I drew in a separate notebook.. a notebook I bought specifically for the cat comic.

And I guess that brings us to today. So why is this called “Bittersweet Candy Bowl”? In the words of my friend Lily who was the creator of the name: “i made it up XD i was trying to decide whether or not to name it after a song, but suddenly i thought of how their relationship is bittersweet, and yet they can’t get enough. so i figured it fit. if you like it, use it! i’d be honoured :3”

So yeah.. this story just chronicles the life of Lucy and Mike.. as did the old series. They retain the same birthdays given to them in the old series.. and they’re growing up as time passes like any normal person.. going through High School now, in fact! So yeah. I hope this was informative enough! And if you wanna know what’s REALLY going on in the story.. well.. umm.. read the comic!

If you’d like, you can head back to the home page!

Page last updated July 23rd, 2010.

Bittersweet Candy Bowl is written and drawn by Veronica “Taeshi” Vera (Email link), © 2006–2010. Use the content for any noncommercial purpose you’d like, but if you make something interesting, let us know! The site’s admin and design is by Oliver “SuitCase” Bareham (Email link). A page-by-page RSS feed is available, as well as a chapter-by-chapter RSS feed.