Bittersweet Candy Bowl on Patreon

From Candypedia
The comic’s Patreon page, with the pitch, the goals and the top of the tier list.

Bittersweet Candy Bowl on Patreon (usually just called the BCB Patreon) is the subscription page through which readers support Veronica Vera and Oliver Bareham and the making of Bittersweet Candy Bowl. It launched in June 2015 to fund the authors’ monthly drawing streams, and it has been reshaped a few times since. The 2019 rewards relaunch made early access to the next comic page its headline reward. A top tier introduced in late 2025 also provides a monthly route into Bittersweet Club International.

History

The authors’ 2015 planning whiteboard, shared by Oliver in 2016. The June entry “Patreon launch stream” is crossed out.[1]

Veronica and Oliver launched the Patreon on June 12, 2015. They celebrated it with a weekend-long live drawstream and pitched it as “specifically made to support monthly drawing streams like this one! And the comic generally.”[2] The launch even came with a pitch video from Veronica, a send-up of Amanda Palmer’s own Patreon launch video, which had gone up a few months earlier and was everywhere at the time.

A month later, they added a tier that automatically entered patrons into every regular drawing-request lottery. The authors cheerfully noted that the pledges were “supporting these streams (and our groceries.)”[3] The streams stayed at the center of things for the first couple of years. In March 2017, the authors overhauled the Patreon with “simplified tiers and access to SECRET CONTENT on a Patreon blog” and moved the streams to every other month.[4] The following month, they began filling that blog with behind-the-scenes work, sketches and “comic ephemera”.[5]

In June 2019, a full rewards relaunch made early access to upcoming comic pages the flagship benefit. The new rewards included a patron comment community, patron-suggested ideas for BCB mini-comics, and phone backgrounds for the new “Valedictorian” tier.[6]

Since then, Veronica and Oliver have brought patrons into some of the comic’s bigger moments. When the big Omnibus and Webtoon reveal was coming in November 2020, patrons got to see it days before everyone else.[7] A 2021 offer let new patrons suggest the “closing sketches” added to remade Webtoon episodes, with a shoutout in the episode itself.[8]

In November 2025, they changed the pricing and introduced a new tier. The monthly “Valedictorian & BCI Member” tier bundled the whole BCI Members’ Library in with the usual rewards.[9]

Benefits

The rewards have looked much the same since the 2019 relaunch, with the 2025 tier added on top of them. As of early 2026, the documented benefits included:

  • Early page access: The flagship reward. Patrons get to read each new page of the comic before it goes up for everyone else.[6]
  • Patron comments: Somewhere to talk about those early pages — a community on Patreon that also doubles as the main site’s comment section (see below).[6]
  • The behind-the-scenes archive: “Behind-the-scenes posts, deleted pages, sketches and scripts”, in the 2022 announcement’s words, along with the chance to suggest and vote on ideas for BCB mini-comics.[10]
  • Discord perks: Linking a Patreon account on the Bittersweet Candy Bowl Discord server got patrons a gold name and entry to the “secret chat room”, as announced in 2018 and 2022, respectively.[11][10]
  • Valedictorian & BCI Member: The monthly top tier, introduced in late 2025. It carries a custom birthday sketch and full access to the BCI Members’ Library.[9][12] The 2022 tier description also listed phone backgrounds, hi-res page downloads and the 141-page “Scrapped Book” eBook of cut Omnibus content.[10]
  • An annual option: Pay for a year upfront and there’s a permanent discount, offered since 2021.[8]

Patreon and the website

The Patreon does more on Bittersweetcandybowl.com than sit in a promo box. The comments under each comic page are actually served from Patreon, and have been since at least 2023.[13] As of August 2026, selected patron comments were also highlighted on the public site as deliberately vague teasers for the upcoming page.[14]

Trivia

The Roseville High School ID cards mailed to new patrons, drawn by Veronica.
  • The June 12, 2015 newspost that launched the Patreon also announced “Comments are dead”.[2] The site’s comments did eventually return, and when they did, Patreon was the thing serving them.[13]
  • The 2022 School ID offer was a rerun. Its announcement opened with “They’re back! In Paulo form”, and Veronica drew each new patron’s favorite character on the back of the card.[10]
  • Patrons who joined during the 2019 holiday season were personally mailed a greeting card.[15]

References

  1. ↑ Oliver (2016-04-10). “Bittersweet Candy Bowl Tumblr post”. Tumblr.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 “BCB newspost: “BCB Drawstream now live! AND OTHER STUFF””. bittersweetcandybowl.com. 2015-06-12.
  3. ↑ “BCB newspost: “Updates to the Patreon, “Another Boyfriend” and Otakon!””. bittersweetcandybowl.com. 2015-07-17. Archived from the original on 2015-07-21.
  4. ↑ “BCB newspost: “Anime Boston! And.. a stream already?!””. bittersweetcandybowl.com. 2017-03-29.
  5. ↑ “BCB newspost: “Play Date! Plus! Patreon!””. bittersweetcandybowl.com. 2017-04-23. Archived from the original on 2017-05-15.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 “BCB newspost: “We’ve got a hot new patreon, and you’re gonna love it!””. bittersweetcandybowl.com. 2019-06-24. Archived from the original on 2019-07-17.
  7. ↑ “BCB newspost: “One Week To Go””. bittersweetcandybowl.com. 2020-11-16. Archived from the original on 2020-11-23.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 “BCB newspost: “A Patreon special offer: read the next page early AND suggest a sketch!””. bittersweetcandybowl.com. 2021-05-03. Archived from the original on 2021-05-15.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 “BCB newspost: “”Fork in the Road” returns — in print””. bittersweetcandybowl.com. 2025-11-05. Archived from the original on 2025-11-15.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 “BCB newspost announcing the Paulo School ID Patreon offer”. bittersweetcandybowl.com. 2022-02-21.
  11. ↑ “BCB newspost: “Sakura-Con, Ships Ahoy, San Japan and… sssDiscord””. bittersweetcandybowl.com. 2018-03-19. Archived from the original on 2018-05-11.
  12. ↑ “BCB newspost: “Fork in the Road 2 is out!””. bittersweetcandybowl.com. 2025-12-31. Archived from the original on 2026-01-17.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 “BCB comic page with Patreon-served comments (archived)”. bittersweetcandybowl.com. Archived from the original on 2023-10-03.
  14. ↑ Oliver (2026-08-10). “Bittersweet Candy Bowl Tumblr post”. Tumblr.
  15. ↑ “BCB newspost announcing the Patreon holiday greeting card”. bittersweetcandybowl.com. 2019-11-18.
Retrieved from “https://wiki.bittersweetcandybowl.com/index.php?title=Bittersweet_Candy_Bowl_on_Patreon&oldid=6132”