The story on which the comic is based began in 2009, and took about two years to write. It's meant to cover a year in real time, give or take, though I deliberately avoided giving it a firm time line. Violet started out as a separate parallel story. She was so popular with readers that I brought her into the story.
when we did the comic, we took the early Violet stories, and made them part of the story as well. So, yes, you are right. The story is much older. It dates back about 12 years, while the comic, obviously is a work in progress.