You read that title right - Dimitri is officially turning TWO years old!

(the comic, not the character.)

Exactly two years ago - on May 25, 2024 - I posted the first Dimitri strip. I can't believe it's already been so long since I started this dumb little comic.

Dimitri and his world of lunatics have grown so much over the years, so I'd like to thank all of you for your continued support. Here's hoping I'll still be making these by the 4th and 6th anniversaries.

I have quite a bit to share with you today, so grab a snack and a giant glass of alcohol. This may take a while...

HOW Dimitri was made

To understand how Dimitri was made, we must go back to the very beginning of recorded human history.

So, my Freshman year of high school.

Things were rough for me back then. I was reeling from a breakup with my girlfriend, I was fighting with my family, and generally wasn't doing too hot. I was also a Freshman in high school.

MeeseVenture had recently come out to mixed results in my eyes (Newgrounds gave it 3 stars, lmao), and, besides the Christmas spinoff in December, would be the last game I'd make for like a year, since Boiboi 2 would enter development and subsequently crash and burn. I'm pretty sure I cancelled like a bajillion other things I was working on, too. I was a mess.

The point is, I was miserable, and needed some way to vent it. After watching this video, specifically the part where Matt Groening started his own comic strip about his shitty life, I was struck with the inspiration to write a comic strip about MY shitty life, and I knew EXACTLY who would be the main character.

I had this... doodle that I came up with a few months beforehand. It was a man with a very large forehead, derpy eyes, a pointy nose, and a button-up. I asked my GF at the time to give this doodle a name, and she came up with "Demetri".

I thought she said, "Dimitri".

And thus, a legend was born.

Before I came up with the idea of Dimitri being a comic strip, I was initially going to put him in a video game. I am a game developer, after all (or at least I used to be one hahahahahahahahahahahaha)

The game was going to be called DimitriLand, was going to be a high-speed platformer inspired mainly by Pizza Tower. The plot was as follows:

Dimitri, a Carpenter, would have to break himself into an amusement park based on his likeness after a snake oil salesman tricked him into signing the rights to his face away.

I had an entire move set and world map planned out, with each level visually connecting to the next, eventually culminating in a final fight with the salesman, where he would turn into a demon. Very cool stuff.

The following are pictures of the art notebook I used at the time. I haven't looked at any of these in like, two years, so it's strange seeing me come up with this character in almost real time.

(I don't know where else to put this, but the salesman character would eventually be revisited and end up as Jerry D. SnakeOil in the final comic.)

Unfortunately, this game was just conceptual; there was no way in hell I would've finished this one, given my track record. The idea for a Dimitri game isn't completely off the table, though...

Anyways, since I wasn't going to use this character in a game, the next course of action was to put him into a full-length comic. But I suck at making those. So, three panels it was, then.

And the rest, as they say, was history. I've already shared everything else I still have in the Dimitri Chronicles 1-2. GO check out the second one, especially, for some cool lore! I worked hard on it!

So, that about wraps up the history lesson...

THE CAST

Although Dimitri was originally the only character you saw in most of the comics, over time, you'd see him around more and more characters of various shapes and sizes. I'll walk you through most of them, one dumbass at a time, in order of creation!

EMILY SKYE

The first character I came up with, pretty much the generic female character Dimitri can be hopelessly in love with. I just got out of a relationship (not by choice lol), so you can see why this character was ...desirable to me. Wasn't that far off from reality.

The idea I had going in with her design was to make her look somewhat odd to mirror Dimitri, even if she looks comparatively normal. That's why she has very long hair, and the Finn from Adventure Time haircut.

I honestly don't want to flesh out this character anymore. It's been two years, and things on the home front are NOT exactly improving if you know what I mean. I think she'll stay the way she is right now.

Fun fact: in Chronicles 2, I give her the last name "Skye" based on Ema Skye from Ace Attorney. The BEST detective!

SCOTTHEW MATTHEWS

Oh, Scott... My greatest creation...

The man of the hour! The country-bumpkin-jersey-wearing-nostalgic -oblivious-failure himself! I could go on...

Tied with Emily, Scott was the first character I designed for this comic. A motif I initially had with all of Dimitri's "friends" was to have all of them have a weirdly shaped face and figure, resulting in his burlap sack face you see today (it's been toned down heavily, though.)

Despite what Dimitri thinks, he is not normal. So, that is visually conveyed to the reader by him looking different than everyone else who has the same dot-eyed look. The side characters (mostly) follow this same logic, as all Dimitri has are all the other outcasts of society.

Scott also still lives with his mother, even though he's in his late 20s. Heavily based on my older brother, who is in a... similar situation.

Fun fact: Apparently Scotthew is the ship name between Matthew Patel and Scott Pilgrim in Scott Pilgrim Vs the World. I need to stop looking up my characters' names on Google...

MIA NOLASTNAME

This one's kinda cheating - since she wouldn't actually become a character until WAY later, and that's stretching things. She was just a one-off that I made for the "Lobotomy Class" comic, but when I was working on a model sheet in December, I decided to throw her in, along with some other background characters.

Basically, in her modern incarnation, she's a hoe. That's about it.

This character will be used WAY more relatively soon, so that's why she made this list here.

CODEY E. STATEMENT

Again, a one-off that got upgraded to being a major character. His whole schtick is that he's "A game developer that sucks at making games, " Which is what 98% of everyone in the Scratch TW communities would describe themselves as.

His introduction was the last comic I made with my old Windows 7 PC before the 'ol girl drew her last breath, which is rather ironic.

That comic was a fucking self-fulfilling prophecy... I was even working on Boiboi 2 when she croaked.

Anyways expect more Codey in the future because we love Codey! All of us LOVE Codey ALL OF US ALL OF

CAROL KUREIJI

The first real character I made with the intention of being a real character after the strip went digital.

While most of the characters before her were one-offs that later became more prominent, Carol, from the get-go, was supposed to be a new character I could make more jokes about. Back then, it was pretty much just Dimitri and Scott, so this was inevitable.

Carol's partially based off myself, and a girl I used to know. She's a character that doesn't look that different than everyone else, but is still weird as hell in her own special way. She's flirtatious, has an unorthodox sense of humor, and loves messing with people for her own amusement. Definitely the side character with the strongest personality.

Is Carol YOUR favorite??? Comment below if she is!

Fun fact: She was originally going to be the girl in this comic, but I just got too lazy to go back and check what she looked like, so I just made a brand new character lol

JEROME ONYEARA

Fucking lunatic

DEVIN NIGHTINGALE

Ok, ok, I'll talk about Jerome.

Don't really have much to say about him. He was originally going to be one of Dimitri's friends who worked at a GameStop clone, but he immediately got fired in his reintroduction comic, so that was scrapped to keep him closer to the main cast. I've also never been in a GameStop before.

He, again, was a one-off, who became a beloved household ICON overtime. Don't fact-check that.

Fun fact: If I could describe Jerome in one image, it would be this one.

Alright, NOW it's time for-

DEVIN NIGHTINGALE

He uses Reddit. Need I say more?

Well, I want to. I cooked SO hard on his design, I love drawing him and his stupid big nostrils.

He is 95% based on somebody I used to be friends with. That guy got into a heap of drama with my other friends, and kinda doesn't shower... so I barely see him anymore. Immortalized in this character, though.

Fun fact: When I was coming up with last names for Chronicles 2, I looked up "most reddit sounding last names" and discovered Nightingale in a R/AskReddit post. Literally perfect, so I immediately stole it.

ALINA AND NIKOLA SLACKOV

The best parents one could ask for.

Dimitri's parents are very interesting, seeing how they barely show up yet are treated almost like main characters. I guess them being the parents to the title character has SOMETHING to do with that...

Alina and Nikola are some of the best designs I've made for this comic, second only to Dimitri himself.

My thought process with these two was to split Dimitri in half.

If you look at their designs, you'd notice that, although they both have key traits in common with Dimitri, they don't share those same traits. Nikola has the same nose, hair, and dressing style, while Alina has the same tumor forehead and giant smile he has sometimes, all the time.

Their personalities were designed this way as well. Alina takes after Dimitri's loud and sometimes oblivious side, while Nikola takes after Dimitri's quiet, poker face side. They're just one half of Dimitri stretched out to make a full character.

So basically, heredity. Who would've thought?

THERAPY MAN

He's a man of many professions, but his latest job involves him listening to Dimitri's incriminating ramblings.

Keen readers would notice that I've used this same character multiple times in other comics. Previously, he's been a doctor, a package delivery man, and will definitely be much more in the future. He should be much higher on this list because he predates like half of the cast. Don't really care though.

I just love his stupid design, man.

That about wraps up the history lesson...

Behind the SCENES

THIS is where the magic happens!

My messy chud desk where I draw messy chud comics. Wouldn't have it any other way.

I use a Viekk A15 pro to draw, and software-wise, I just use Turbowarp. I dabble in real art software from time to time, but I just work best in TW, and nothing I make really needs anything more complex.

It's honestly really funny, because I keep getting comments that are like "woah you use TW??" or " I can't believe this is in Scratch!" and I just always thought it was obvious (I do post in Scratch adjacent communities after all). Guess I'm just THAT cracked at art, amirite???

School just ended for me (FUCK YEAH!), so a goal I have for the summer is to have more artwork coming out consistently. I have been doing fairly well at this (I have something at least weekly), but now's the time to really lock in and get more stuff out.

Oh, and here's my old computer. Or at least its final resting place. This is where the magic used to happen before... y'know....

Anyways here are some BTS files before I forget.

That about wraps up the history... You know.

QNA

You guys didn't have many questions, but I had answers nonetheless. I'm just going to get straight to the point because I assume you all know what a QnA is.

This one's tough, but I'll have to say, Carol. She's just the character whose personality aligns with my own personality the most( keyword: the MOST), and I love short people. Definitely not my favorite to DRAW though lmao

Originally, I had it so that Dimitri had, like, Up syndrome or some shit, which made his head inflate like a balloon and make him fly away. I'm not sure if that's canon anymore. I think I have a comic where it's implied he keeps liquor in there.

Dimitri likes Codey (short guy with the square glasses) a lot more than he lets on. Also, he has a symbiotic relationship with the bugs that infest his dorm.

I often struggle with coming up with ideas,

Writing down jokes on paper as they come to me. It's really helpful for planning things out, figuring out what's funny and what needs work.

Though this can have unintended results... I still don't know what this one means.

(Says, 'Straight teeth Olympics')

I also just doomscroll on insta reels for extra inspiration lol

Aaaand those are all the questions I have. I forgot to announce this earlier, so I have nothing in time for the actual post. I want to drag this out longer, though, so I'll just use inspect element and -

All of them, at some point.

He doesn't have a favorite color, because there is no color. All he knows is black, white, and sometimes, various shades of grey....

My favorite part about making comics is just doodling. Doodles are my specialty; this comic just gives me the chance to just go for it and draw whatever the hell I want. Half of these comics only exist when I just started drawing the characters in some random pose, even if I had a basic outline beforehand.

Dimitri was born a doodle, and he will die one. Mark my words.

Excluding Scott and a few others, most characters in this strip go to college, which has a strict "no pets" policy. Doesn't stop Dimitri from having a pony, though.

As for non-MWU characters, Scott's(mom) has a German Shepherd, and Jerry has a Snake, for obvious reasons. Carol has stuffed animals that she treats like her babies.

And, finally..

H- HEY! This isn't a question! Also, that's his FOREHEAD!

This one's real, too. At least they like my old characters...

Or, at least they did. This user blocked me a while back. Oh well...

WOAH, you guys, you must LOVE this strip, because YOU asked SO MANY QUESTIONS!!! THANK YOU!!!

(sorry.)

Closing

Welp, that's all I got for you...

Y'know, the more I worked on this post, the prouder I got of this entire comic strip. My main goal with it was to provide fewer comics overall at a higher quality than the last strip I made, and I absolutely succeeded. It may not be perfect, but you can see the improvement from the first comic all the way to the most recent one.

I made Dimitri at a darker point in my life, and while it didn't cure my depression or anything, and I certainly had my issues making it, I can look back and be proud I have two years of some of my best work behind me.

Dimitri has many years ahead of it, and I hope you stick around for more hijinks with Dimitri, Scotthew, Carol, Jerome, and more. This is only the beginning. Thanks to all of you for reading the comic over these two years!

Though, before we leave, I have one last thing to show you...

ONE LAST THING

What is this? nothing...

You'll see it soon enough. Or maybe you won't. You know this song and dance by now. Let's just hope I make it this time. No I will not answer any questions.

ALRIGHT that's IT see you in another two years BYEEE