Is it just me or we've been all collectively put into a coma and then to wake up to mid 2026 already. Hello. You're on the kohiu.com mailing list. Apparently the last newsletter was a quick one to announce the new original comic coming out, and just generally convention-busy-things I wanted to mention before. Things have gotten slowed down for a bit so now I can write to you about everything.
Road to PICOF. July 10 - 12 |
A 40-pages zine version of Insect Course will be brought to PICOF 2026 by Du Bút in the next weekend. This is one of the very few occasions where my books can be sold outside of HCMC so please come check us out at table A05!
PICOF is an international comics festival in the Philippines that brings together comic artists, publishers, creative groups, and readers to celebrate independent and creator-driven comics from the Philippines and across the region.
"Insect Course" is included as one of the limited zines to be brought to PICOF as part of Road to PICOF project by Du Bút. --- Road to PICOF with Du Bút
- Table A05 Du Bút
- July 10 - 12
- Philippines International Comic Festival
- Ayala Malls The 30th Pasig, Metro Manila
Hobby Horizon, July 17 - 19 |
I will be at Table A63 for Hobby Horizon event in HCMC. Just selling some books, original art prints and leftover postcards.
- Table A63
- July 17 - 19
- Hobby Horizon: Singularity
- Sky Expo, HCMC, Vietnam
Art Highlights in 2026 (so far..!)
hecajun 2025 art compilation. Published date: December 30th, 2025.
Hi did you get yuri jumpscare. Despite the fact that I've been drawing Hecatia and Junko together for so long, this is the first time they get to kiss? Ah, milestone achieved. This piece also wrapped up the Hecatia/Hecajun compilation for 2025 on fanbox that you can check out! It will be awhile until I have time to draw them again (indulgently)
year of horse. redesign of horse zodiac OC from 2014. Published date: February 16th, 2026.
I finished drawing this just in time for Lunar New Year! And as an art gift for the stamp rally at my local artist alley. The design on his jackets is actually based on Tam sơn thuỷ ba (三山水波), a traditional clothing pattern on royal attires during Nguyen Dynasty.
2026年3月ﾗｸｶﾞｷ (march doodle log, post is public). Published date: March 1st, 2026.
Everyone who has followed me long enough would know my history with Dramatical Murder back in 2013 or so. We've all missed you Shiro Aoba, you crazy bastard. This was supposed be to drawn during Cat day (22 Feb). Unfortunately February - March was the most busiest period of the year for me to create anything for myself.
finished sakuya fan art on stream (in 2.5 hours!), happy meido month everyone. Published date: May 4th, 2026.
It's May and it's also Maid month! Somehow I got so caught up with churning out as much maid arts as possible for this month that I actually forgot to put my Touhou maid fan arts compilation on Fanbox. The maid Hecatia one has been on my mind for so long actually.
abigail and her lobster mech (maid prototype), log. Published date: May 26th, 2026.
I haven't drawn my mecha yuri characters for so long. The linked fanbox log has a suggestive bikini maid of my character Michelle so please mindful of your surrounding before clicking and viewing it!
メイド男子, log, Published date: May 29th, 2026
As per year tradition, and by obligation I *must* finish a drawing of maid boys. I was streaming my sketching process for these two characters (Toukun/桃薫 and Sir Leyn) around this time last year in 2025. I'm happy that I finally got to finish these sketches, plus there's another skimpy maid drawing as well... (this is also in the linked art log, so please be mindful before opening the link!)
And thus, Maid month coming to a close.
HOLD BAROQUE INSIDE. Published date: June 19th, 2026.
The hyperlink will lead you to a youtube music video of the same name, "Hold Baroque Inside" by Masaharu Iwata. I hope that this will motivate people to actually play the original version of Baroque on Sega Saturn or Playstation 1. If you have wondered where to start playing this game please check out the Nerve Tower website. I can go on forever about this game, to be honest. Dungeon crawling is not my forte and yet the level scaling was just perfect, the music and atmosphere and THE STORY(!!) were so enthralling. I too must embrace my distorted illusions.
ULTIMA. Published date: July 4th, 2026.
I have finished playing Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions this year. Apparently this fan art should be considered as a spoiler and yet everyone seems to love it, I don't know why. I just think the sprite artworks in this game are just crazily detailed, so when Ultima finally made her appearance I was just, awestruck. Maybe I have delivered the accurate experience of my encounter with the Archangel of Blood to my fellow FFT fans. By coincidence my recent fan arts ended up having repeated angels/wings motifs somehow. Maybe the late 90s videogames were really just Angel vs Devil aesthetic.
What's up? and What's coming up next?
If you have already visited my comic page at www.kohiu.com/comics at some point you probably have seen the TBA (To be announced) banner right at the bottom of Insect Course's page. I will tell you about it soon-ish, hopefully by next year.
Early 2026 was insanely hectic for me in which the only thing that came out of my mouth was just "I'm so annoyingly busy...", and the second thing I'm also constantly complaining about is "I'm so annoyingly broke...". Which begs the question how can one be busy AND broke at the same time, great question, next!
During late May I finally got to attend Square Enix' Distant World concert in Singapore. We weren't allowed any photos so I have nothing to show off to you all, however, it was my first time in a long while to attend a concert (THAT WE CAN SIT). The orchestra played a roster of Final Fantasy music, opening with the infamous FF7's One Winged Angel song. I was surprised they also included some older games like the Mana series (聖剣伝説), but there wasn't any from Legend of Mana, which was the one I first played on PS1! With the flight cancelling hiccups and me getting stressed out during the day that at the evening of the concert I ended up falling asleep to two songs... I'm incredibly grateful to my friend who had to put up with me for the entire concert trip and also my insane rambling every time they finished playing a Kingdom Hearts' song (yes... I remember every Kingdom Hearts' song for each game). I was and am still very happy that they played Vector to the Heaven - Xion's theme song in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. It's the first song I learned to play on the midi keyboard! Ahh! Thank you Ms Yoko Shimomura for being there and waving at us (BOTH HANDS!! ENTHUSIASTICALLY!!) every time we cheered and clapped so loud haha.
I thought of writing+drawing a report of my first Distant World concert as a scrapbook comic by the time I got home in HCMC but I was so... tired. All the hustle of 2026 finally caught up to me that I just passed out during the first week of June. Although in the irony of luck that I didn't have that much commission orders to begin with so I could slowly power through them by the time I recovered, I am forever thankful to my ever patient and incredibly generous commission clients. Despite my complaints I enjoy every commission I've gotten to draw this year!
The Distant World concert really got me to actually try out a few JRPGs that I've missed the chance to play; I think you already noticed from my fan arts schedule that I've gotten to play BAROQUE. After that I learned the BAROQUE's composer is the same as one of the Final Fantasy Tactics' composers (Masaharu Iwata) - and while I still vividly remembered the Opening of FFT played in the Distant World's Orchestra that has imprinted in my brain somewhat, it seems the universe really really wanted me to play it. Which I did~! Until the game credits I also got to learn that Keiichi Okabe (Drakengard/NieR composer) also contributed to the OSTs?! The credit didn't mention which song though, I couldn't search it out online at all, so my "trust me bro" is asking you to pay attention to the FFT credits like I did! I'm glad I finally got to see Ultima/Altima, how comes no one told me about her. Although because I haven't played any SRPG for a long while, with the last ones were either Fire Emblem or Devil Survivor, I was really really bad at Final Fantasy Tactics. I think I can only indulge in roguelikes games like BAROQUE (despite it's being one of the first dungeon crawling / roguelikes in the genre!)
Speaking of, I have also played Fear and Hunger 2: Termina. Although I don't intend to do any fan arts about it, it was an enjoyable (and also punishing) game, I've only finished two characters' stories so far and now stuck at Olivia's playthrough. I guess the true evil in Prehevil is that THERE IS NO RAMP FOR WHEELCHAIRS!!!
I think that's it for now. TL;DR: Busy trying to sell my books (because it costs money to print and vendor), have no money, attend concert, oh and burnout recovery by videogaming. If you're already in doomer mode absolutely do not look at news of videogame industry right now hahahaha let's hopecore together, yeah?
That's the end of the newsletter. As always, you can support me via Fanbox, or Ko-fi. or order a Commission from me.
If you'd have any further discussion related to the newsletter, you can reply directly to this newsletter email.
Thank you for being a part of KOHIU.COM newsletters.
Talk to you all more in September! Happy month of Wrath (post-PRIDE).
ー Kan Pham (KOHIU)
KOHIU.COM | Art, Illustrations and Designs 2026 KOHIU Illustrations All Rights Reserved
Unsubscribe · Preferences
