Bittersweet Candy Bowl on Patreon

From Candypedia

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. These days the headline reward is getting to read the next page of the comic before everybody else, and the top tier doubles as 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]

The Patreon launched on June 12, 2015, celebrated with a weekend-long live drawstream and pitched as “specifically made to support monthly drawing streams like this one! And the comic generally.”[2] A month later it gained a tier that entered patrons automatically into every regular drawing-request lottery, with the authors cheerfully noting 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. A March 2017 overhaul brought “simplified tiers and access to SECRET CONTENT on a Patreon blog” and moved the streams to every other month,[4] and that blog began filling up the following month with behind-the-scenes work, sketches and “comic ephemera”.[5]

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

Since then, the Patreon has been folded into most of the comic’s bigger moments. Patrons got to preview the November 2020 Omnibus and Webtoon announcement days before everyone else,[7] and a 2021 offer let new patrons suggest the “closing sketches” added to remade Webtoon episodes, shoutout included.[8] In 2022, joining got you a Paulo-themed Roseville High School ID card in the mail.[9] The most recent reshape came in November 2025, when new pricing and tiers arrived. Its monthly “Valedictorian & BCI Member” tier now bundles the whole BCI Members’ Library in with the usual rewards.[10]

Benefits

The shape set by the 2019 relaunch has mostly held, with the 2025 tiers layered on top. As of early 2026, a pledge gets you:

  • Early page access: Patrons can read the next page of the comic before the public update goes up.[6]
  • Patron comments: A comment community that doubles as the main site’s comment section (see below).[6]
  • The behind-the-scenes archive: An archive of “behind-the-scenes posts, deleted pages, sketches and scripts”, plus the chance to suggest and vote on ideas for BCB mini-comics, as of 2022.[9]
  • Discord perks: Linking a Patreon account on the Bittersweet Candy Bowl Discord server gets you a gold name and access to the “secret chat room”, per the 2018 and 2022 announcements.[11][9]
  • Valedictorian & BCI Member: The monthly top tier since late 2025. It adds a custom birthday sketch and full access to the roughly 700 pages of the BCI Members’ Library.[10][12] Phone backgrounds, hi-res page downloads and the 141-page “Scrapped Book” eBook of cut Omnibus content round it out, per the 2022 tier description.[9]
  • An annual option: There’s also a permanent discount for paying a year upfront, offered since 2021.[8]

Patreon and the website

The Patreon is stitched into Bittersweetcandybowl.com rather more deeply than a promo link. The comments under each comic page are served from Patreon, and have been since at least 2023.[13] Selected patron comments are also highlighted on the public site as deliberately vague teasers for the upcoming page, a practice Oliver defended in 2026: “we wouldn’t show it if we weren’t selling access to upcoming pages on Patreon! … The patrons don’t know what’s coming on every new page!”[14] The site has spent a decade promoting the page in its own furniture, too. In September 2019 the authors announced a goal to strip the site’s banner ads “once we get to 400 patrons”,[15] and a 2020 sidebar blurb urged readers to “Keep BCB from toppling!”[16] As of January 2026, the footer under every comic page reads “Read the next page today: Join the BCB Patreon!”[17]

Trivia

  • 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.[9]
  • Patrons who joined during the 2019 holiday season were personally mailed a greeting card featuring “a special design painted just for this campaign”.[18]

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 announcing a new Patreon drawing-lottery tier”. bittersweetcandybowl.com. 2015-07-17.
  4. ↑ “BCB newspost announcing the reworked Patreon tiers”. bittersweetcandybowl.com. 2017-03-29.
  5. ↑ “BCB newspost on the patron-only blog”. bittersweetcandybowl.com. 2017-04-23.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 “BCB newspost announcing the relaunched Patreon rewards”. bittersweetcandybowl.com. 2019-06-24.
  7. ↑ “BCB newspost previewing the November 2020 announcement for patrons”. bittersweetcandybowl.com. 2020-11-16.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 “BCB newspost announcing Webtoon closing sketches and Patreon updates”. bittersweetcandybowl.com. 2021-05-03.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 “BCB newspost announcing the Paulo School ID Patreon offer”. bittersweetcandybowl.com. 2022-02-21.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 “BCB newspost: Patreon tier updates”. bittersweetcandybowl.com. 2025-11-05.
  11. ↑ “BCB newspost announcing Discord account linking for patrons”. bittersweetcandybowl.com. 2018-03-19.
  12. ↑ “BCB newspost on the BCI Members’ Library”. bittersweetcandybowl.com. 2025-12-31.
  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 400-patron ad-removal goal”. bittersweetcandybowl.com. 2019-09-02.
  16. ↑ “BCB home page (archived)”. bittersweetcandybowl.com. Archived from the original on 2020-01-23.
  17. ↑ “BCB site footer promoting the Patreon”. bittersweetcandybowl.com. 2026-01-17.
  18. ↑ “BCB newspost announcing the Patreon holiday greeting card”. bittersweetcandybowl.com. 2019-11-18.
Retrieved from “https://candypedia.wiki/index.php?title=Bittersweet_Candy_Bowl_on_Patreon&oldid=6017”