"And what did we see, as our tears did fall?
Why, a strange little thing, hardly devil at all."

Welcome to "Sinister & Saccharine",
a shrine dedicated to the webcomic Devil's Candy!

Introduction

Devil's Candy is a webcomic written by Bikkuri (Clint Bickham) and illustrated by Rem (Priscilla Hamby, Tsulala). The webcomic is also currently being adapted into a physical OEL (Original English Language) manga series via VIZ Media.

The story is centered around Kazu Decker (a young imp-boy genius) and Pandora (a girl he constructed for his high school biology project), as they, along with their friends at Hemlock Heart Academy, get pulled into all sorts of strange, crazy and oftentimes dangerous shenanigans in this world full all sorts of devils, monsters and mythological creatures.

you can read the webcomic from the beginning
by clicking on this image here!

History

The series initially began in 2002 as an entry for the first annual "Rising Stars of Manga(TM)" Talent Competition, a manga creation competition hosted by TOKYOPOP (an old American distributor, licensor and publisher of anime and manga, among other related works) where the grand prize was $2,500 and an opportunity to pitch your idea to TOKYOPOP, and have it become a full-fledged manga series.
There were thousands of entries, but in the end, Rem and Bikkuri managed to come out on top and win it all with their manga series, which was still titled "Devil's Candy" at the time.

(open in a new tab for a better view!)

some snippets of the original Devil's Candy RSoM entry, along with
a photo from Rem's Twiiter of them finding the original Devil's
Candy RSOM pages after over a decade and a half.

However, despite their grand prize win, Devil's Candy never ended up being publised by TOKYOPOP. According to Bikkuri, it was because of the contract they were offered by the company:

==========
"[...] the contract wasn't very appealing, even to rookies like us, so we turned it down. It was a rights issue for us, though we didn't really see much opportunity to make money off of it either."
==========
- Clint Bickham (Bikkuri),
Tokyopop vs its Original English Language Manga Creators

Rem and Bikkuri would go on to work on several other projects within the manga and anime industries respectively, and TOKYOPOP would go on to fall from grace and get mired in a pretty steamy pile of controversy regarding their contracts.

Fast forward several years later, to 2013, when a Tumblr blog was created by Rem to promote the release of a webcomic reboot of Devil's Candy. Turns out, Rem and Bikurri had decided to collaborate once again, this time to create a webcomic. They weren't initially going turn Devil's Candy into a webcomic, but Rem never forgot about it and wanted to go back to it, and the idea ended up sticking. And so came the official launch of the webcomic on October 19th of that same year.

the description of the first page of the Prologue.

The art was better, the plot was given a much-needed rework, everything about the re-release was immediately far superior to the original. Fans of the initial RSoM entry rejoiced, and the webcomic ended up being a great succes. Eventually, in 2019, the fanbase was able to raise 120,000$ on Kickstarter to fund the release of both a physical first volume and an artbook for Devil's Candy.

And then came that fateful day, November 20th, 2020, when VIZ Media announced that they would be bringing Devil's Candy to bookstores in the summer of 2021. Over 15 years after being featured in the first physical "Rising Stars of Manga" Anthology, and after the rejection of that awful TOKYOPOP contract, Devil's Candy was finally getting released as a physical OEL manga (for real this time).

(the trailer starts off kinda loud, so be careful.)

(my favorite group of [morally questionable] nerds)

Books

This is mainly just for me to use to keep track of what's in each volume. ^^"
Volume One

main chapters:
- Prologue
- Devil's Genesis (Chapter I)
- Devil's Lesson (Chapter II)
- Devil's Runway (Chapter (III)

extra chapter comics:
- Chapter Three Extra #1
- Chapter Three Extra #2

bonus content:
- Bikkuri Notes (Lesson I, II and III)
(these are basically little worldbuilding snippets and author's notes)
- Bonus Chapter: Devil's Head Trip

number of extra misc. comics: 4

Volume Two

main chapters:
- Devil's Gridiron (Chapter IV)
- Devil's Six-String (Chapter V)
- Devil's Embers (Chapter VI)

extra chapter comics:
- Chapter Six Extra

bonus content:
- Bikkuri Notes (Lesson IV)
- Short Story: Devilizer Episode 1
- Bonus Chapter: Devil's Day Trip

number of extra misc. comics: 8

Volume Three

main chapters:
- Devil's Curse (Chapter VII)
- Devil's Finale (Chapter VIII)
- Devil's Intermission: A Musterman Mystery (Chapter IX)
- Devil's Forge (Chapter X)
- Devil's Crossroads (Chapter XI)

bonus content:
- Bikkuri Notes (Lesson V)
- Bonus Chapter: Devil's Hideaway

number of extra misc. comics: 14

Volume Four

main chapters:
- Devil's Icon (Chapter XII)
- Devil's Tangle (Chapter XIII)
- Devil's Devotion (Chapter XIV)
- Devil's Bloodline (Chapter XV)

bonus content:
- Bikkuri Notes (Lesson VI)
- Bonus Chapter: Devil's Takeout

number of extra misc. comics: 9

Favorites

Favorite Characters:

form left to right:

- Nemo Musterman -
[half Grindylow, half ???]
socially awkward fish boy who likes
tinkering with technology.

- Gyro Laemanctus -
[Basilisk]
mad scientist reptile boy who's very
passionate about his work and has little
to no regard for the safety of others
(or himself, for that matter).

- Clarence R. Nosophoros -
[Nosferatu]
cool non-bloodsucking vampire boy who
dreams of becoming a chef someday.

Favorite Chapters:


Chapter II: Devil's Lesson
in which we meet Hemlock Heart Academy's Science Club,
the best club, IMO (at least before they disbanded（◞‸◟)).



Chapter XV: Devil's Bloodline
in which I am totally not biased because this chapter
features one of my favorite characters being really cool.
nope, no bias at all.

Fun Stuff
(to be updated!)

Devil's Candy Fan Game
A fan game on itch.io. Made by Corey Miller and Christina Gardner,
with music by Lanny Miller. Sorta bare-bones in terms of gameplay,
but the pixel art is stellar.

Valentine's Day Cards
Some sweet little Devil's Candy Valentine's Day cards you can use.

Why not take a stamp while you're here?
Hand-made by me, using official art.
(please save to your own server first!)

Any and all art on this website, unless stated otherwise,
belongs to Rem.
Devil's Candy belongs to Bikkuri and Rem.