Hiveworks Comics
Support Sleepless Domain on Patreon!
Posted January 1, 2023 at 05:36 pm

Heya all, as 2022 ends and 2023 begins, I feel compelled to make something of a retrospective post. It's partly an apology to people too nice to expect one, partly a general update to let y'all know what's been going on, and partly a general vent into the universe. Content Warning for discussing of terminal illness and pet death.

SD Stuff:

Sleepless Domain has obviously updated less frequently this year than it should  have, and for that I'm really sorry. Everyone's always so patient and supportive, but I want to apologize anyway and do better. Things have been really rough for reasons I'll get more into below, but I still want to do my best to improve my update rate this year. I'm also in the process of preparing files for Book 2, which I need to hurry up on. But that's happening! I know some people have been confused by the lack of it so far. There's been a lot going on on everyone's end, but it's finally coming along.

ALS Stuff:

As many of y'all know, in 2020 my dad was formally diagnosed with ALS and I moved back to my hometown to help out however I could. As is inevitable, that situation has continued to Get Worse over time. Dad's currently at the stage where he's stuck in the motorized chair, he can barely use his computer with his hands(we're awaiting a several-month-long process to get him an Eye Gaze computer atm), and everything from eating to bathroom stuff needs assistance. In a way we're lucky, since we got another Christmas in before he's fully bed bound. But I think that stage is coming soon, and we've had a ton of scares and emergencies. Suffice to say it's been A Lot, and will continue to be A Lot in 2023. It's the kind of thing that leaves everyone mentally and emotionally exhausted, especially my mother who has to care for both him and my very old Grandmother. I have no idea how many members of the household will pass away next year, but it's just a matter of time for two of them. Everything feels very transitory, and it won't be normal for a good while I don't think.

Froyo Loss:

As many of y'all also know, I lost my beloved cat Froyo this year when she got into some ibuprofen. I was pretty emotionally devastated for a full month, and I still lie awake some nights with guilt and anxiety remembering the whole thing >< But I'm trying to move on and remember the good things, and thankfully I have an amazing new fluffy boy cat named Taro to help. But god, it was really rough for a while there.

Poopoo Brain:

So suffice to say 2022 has been a fuck. I've spent a bunch of it pretty emotionally effed up and I've gained quite a bit of weight. I'm trying to find the right balance between wanting to do better on the work front, but also not beating myself more than is productive. I'm trying to get into therapy, but no dice on that so far XD But when updates are infrequent, please know that it's not that I don't care! I often sit down to work on pages, knowing more or less what needs to happen next, but having a hell of a time focusing on actually getting anything down on the page. Getting back on ADHD meds has helped some with that, along with getting help with the backgrounds! But it's still definitely a struggle.

Positive Stuff:

To be clear, things haven't been universally negative! I've been having a ton of fun with the whole Vtubing thing almost every night, and it's been great to have something creative I can work on without feeling that kind of overwhelming brain panic that makes my thoughts want to go Anywhere Else. I'm so glad there's people who have been enjoying these streams, 'cause they've seriously been a ton of fun for me! Sometimes therapy is just streaming games as a goofy catgirl apparently, lol.

I've also continued to foster, and keeping up with posting them to Cagle Cats! Which is frankly the most important thing I do, because everyone needs to look at my children at all times IMO. Cats are extremely good and important, and have gotten me through so much these past few years <3


As I said starting out, this post is a bit of a grab bag of thoughts and feelings. I seriously want to thank everyone for how patient and kind you've all been during this time. The only person beating me up for the slow updates has really been Me, haha! Which is incredibly generous, and please know I never take that generosity for granted.

2023 is inevitably going to be another rough one, but I'm hanging in there and hope to do my best by everyone. Obviously lots of people are struggling, many moreso than me, and I hope you're all taking care of yourselves and hanging in there too!  I do feel a bit jazzed by the new year rolling over despite everything, and I wanna improve things as best I can! So uh... back to work!!

Posted November 2, 2021 at 12:38 pm

Heya!! So in case you haven't already heard, Volume 1 of Sleepless Domain is now available from Seven Seas Entertainment!

They named volume 1 The Price of Magic. I wonder what a theoretical volume 2 would be named!? The Radness of Friendship? XD

ANYWAY! You can buy it on Amazon, or at a bookstore! Like just a general store that sells books! Wild!!! I've already been seeing some pictures of peoples' preordered copies, which is very exciting! I also got a few copies and they look amazing. The extra bit of graphic design work they did to 'em makes it feel so professional! This is me, gushing about how my book looks like a real book.

The content is the same as the kickstarted volume 1s, so you don't need to buy this one if you got that one. Unless you really want a slightly smaller book with cooler covers. Because I do think this cover turned out pretty dang cool!

I'm super grateful that Sleepless Domain has been given opportunity by Seven Seas, and I hope the book sells well for them!

Oh and as an aside, the Character Poll Results are in and ready to go for a goofy update. But I'm holding off on that until this sequence in the comic is finished, because it feels Wrong to interrupt with such shenanigans hahaha.

Thank you all so much for your readership and support! It means the world to me that I can draw my magical girl story for a living, and I'm incredibly grateful! 

Now back to drawing the next page~!

(From the back cover, very dramatics)

Posted July 30, 2020 at 12:49 am

Heya guys, it's time for the awards ceremony from the bonus poll my friend Phoenix ran for me!

Without further ado, here are the results of your votes!

Barely a team for two nights, and already they're bustin' up the charts! I think this might be slightly biased by the discorders >;3 >;3 But I'm very proud of them!!!

Here's the results breakdown for this category!


I'm real happy for Rue winning best outfit! I'm so glad people like her Urban Witch Aesthetic.

Here's the results breakdown for this category!



I was really please with this transformation, so I'm really glad people like it too! I need to draw more transformation pages!! All transformations all the time!!!

Here's the results breakdown for this category!


Hahaha I'm so glad people like Cassidy's whole weird scissor split situation. It's quite a specific power set compared to Undine's water control or whatnot! But it was so much fun to draw.

Here's the results breakdown for this category!



This line has been so memefied in the discord that I constantly forget it was just a thing that happened in the actual comic. What a dork!!!

And here's the results breakdown for this category!


Thank you to everyone who voted! This was a ton of fun to see the results of!


Posted June 25, 2019 at 01:21 pm

Heya Magical Kids! With the help of the SD discord (and especially my friend Phoenix Feet), we've got the results of another Sleepless Domain character poll for ya!!! A lot has happened in the comic since last time, so how will the new rankings shake out!?

(FULL SIZE IMAGE)

(For clarification, voters were able to choose their first, second, and third favorite character. Each choice got 3, 2, and 1 points respectively.)

I also realized I might've only posted about the poll on my twitter and discord this time, so I'll be sure to put it on the site somewhere next time ^^; probably in the blog under a current page. But thank you very much to everyone who participated, and to all ya readers in general!

Posted March 8, 2018 at 04:25 am
Greetings, Mahous!
If you've been looking for a place to discuss Sleepless Domain with other cool people, SD has an Official Unofficial discord  now! Everyone in it is super nice and it's been really great to hang out with everyone and see their theories and reactions. I drop in and out as I'm working during the day, so you can also ask me non-spoilery questions! >:P
Posted February 2, 2018 at 08:42 pm
Heya Everyone! First regular blog post in a long time, huh ^^;;
I wanted to let you all know that I'm heading out this weekend on a trip to visit a friend in Taiwan. Thanks to travel time, though, it'll end up being closer to two weeks that I'll be out.
In the meantime, I've lined up some really awesome guest art that I'm excited to show you guys! I'm really sorry to break things up in the middle of the chapter, but I've honestly been sorely needing a break like this. I think I'll be able to come back at the next pages stronger than ever as a result! >:0

In the meantime, if you're not already familiar, I have a youtube channel you might enjoy! I recently started doing occasional Let's Plays of games I find interesting, and there's also some Sleepless Domain process videos if you've ever wanted to see a page get made! Like this one!

Sorry again for the bit of a hiatus, and thank you as always for your patience and readership! I've seriously gotten so many nice and thoughtful responses to SD, and I'm so excited to show you guys more of what I have planned! >3<
Posted August 10, 2016 at 06:22 pm

Heya Mahous, Cube here!

I realized I haven't made a proper post here since I took over art duties, so this seemed like a good time!!

First off, if you're curious about who these losers are that Undine's currently interacting with, they're crossover characters from one of my other comics, Kiwi Blitz!

You certainly don't need to go back and read KB for the sake of this lil' cameo, but if you happen to be curious about my earlier work, KB can be started over here! Like SD, it's all available online for free. It's more of a goofy near-future scifi adventure, but obviously I write and draw both so there's a lot of stylistic similarities if you like this one!

And yes, these are Alternate Universe versions of the characters, so don't worry about any kind of nonexistent shared continuity ;0

And meanwhile, thank you so much for your patience and understanding as I've learned to draw this comic! A lot has happened since I took over art duties, like moving back home from Japan and switching to full-time comicking, and I think the art's made pretty big improvements since I first came on! Oskar had some big artistic shoes to fill, but I'm doing my best not to disappoint! :0 I've certainly learned a ton in the process, and I hope to keep improving and make SD really impressive to look at as time goes on.

But on that note, I better get back to tomorrow's page work! Thank you so much again for reading my magical girl comic. I'm really excited to share it all with you guys!!

Posted November 5, 2015 at 12:55 am

Heya Guys, Mary Cagle here, aka Sleepless Domain's writer.

First off, this is probably going to be a bit of a hefty post, so let's start with the TLDR version:

Chapter 3 of Sleepless Domain will resume on December first, And will drawn and colored by me.

Up to this point, Sleepless Domain has been a collaborative effort between myself and the super talented Oskar Vega. Unfortunately, Oskar's moving on to other full-time illustration and comics work, and thus very understandbly won't be able to continue as the artist of Sleepless Domain. I know many of you are here for Oskar's stellar art, and his absence will definitely be felt.

But I promise to do my best to bring you a beautiful comic in my own way. If you're unfamiliar with my art, you can check out my twitter or either of my other comics (Kiwi Blitz and Let's Speak English) to get an idea!

Of course, drawing three comics is going to be a challenge, especially since I'm still working as a full-time English teacher in Japan until spring next year.  That's why we'll be taking this one-month hiatus until the beginning of December, to make sure I have time to get the art right and build a buffer. I have a lot of big plans for SD, and I really want to make sure I can execute it to the best of my ability.

Thank you so much to everyone who's read the comic so far, and thank you to Oskar for bringing the first two chapters to life! I promise this is just the beginning of the story.

And just to clarify; the main character is, indeed, Undine ;0 See you magical kids in Chapter 3!

Posted May 17, 2015 at 04:49 am

Greetings, Everyone!

Now that the comic's really picking up speed, it seemed like a good time for an inaugural blog post.

First off, I'm Mary Cagle, and I'm the writer of this comic! It's always been one of my aspirations to do a magial girl story, and I'm really excited to share this one with you! Let's just say I have big plans, and we already know where the comic's going and how it shall end. But that's a long way away off, of course. I hope you enjoy the ride for now! ;)

If you aren't already familiar with our crew, please say hello to our artist, Oskar! We needed someone who could draw the most magical of shoujos, and Oskar delivers the hits.

And none of this would be possible without the support of Hiveworks, especially its CEO Jojo and Isabelle of Namesake.

We're all working hard to bring ya the best comic possible, so please look forward to new pages every tuesday and thursday! I'm really excited by all the positive feedback we've gotten already, and we have some serious surprises in store for you as the story develops.

Stay magical, everyone~! ;)

Page 1
Privacy Policy