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Hey all! I hope you all enjoyed your New Years Eve festivities (or got a well rested night in). Usually this time of year I try to plan new year. But since several things still aren’t done, I’m tending toward mostly just finish those things. I gotta do these things:
Finish art for the videogame I’m working on (which is almost done. I just gotta draw two or three more settings
Finish writing Blue Moon
Write the next City Between story
Once I got those three things knocked out I can get back to You are the Chosen One. So they are my goals for the year.
Last year, I also made a resolution to get in better shape and I’ve been more or less succeeding. It’s slow but steady progress. I’m gonna keep sticking with it.
I also am gonna try to make a dent in my two read comic pile. By pile I mean whole shelf. So that might be the trickiest one. In past years, I tried to read a comic every day. I’ll try to at least read 100 pages a day. But if I can’t I’ll stick with it, I’ll switch to a graphic novel every Saturday.
December was mostly full of prep for the end of the year and holiday stuff. My discords full moon movie this month is The Company of Wolves. We’ll be watching it January 25th at pm PST. If you want to join, hop in my discord.
As always I’ll be streaming art on Twitch. My schedule is currently the following:
I’m still working on Blue Moon’s script. I’m still kinda frustrated that I’m not done yet. But after looking over everything I did this year, I realized I’ve edited A LOT of books for Seven Seas this year. Here’s a picture of all of them
That’s too many books! Fortunately, I only have two scripts to edit for Seven Seas in December.
So this month I got my to do list:
Get pages for The City Between ahead enough to update over the holidays without interruption.
write Blue Moon
draw the last two settings for my werewolf videogame
Write two crowdfund video scripts of Iron Circus
That last two shouldn’t take too long.
Also, before the Writer’s strike I was writing about stuff I recently watched or read. I need to get back to doing that. I might change how I do it though. Whenever I did my end of the month round up, I always had more to say about the stuff I watched or read at the end of the month since they were fresher in my memory. So I might post smaller reviews/thoughts on my site’s blog and then just collect them here at the end of the month.
I’ll have a bigger post next month after I decide on stuff. Thanks for your support everyone.
Hey folks! First things first, Indiginerds is currently crowdfunding. It has made goal but we really want to get it to the 35k stretch goal as soon as possible. When we hit that, Iron Circus will be able to donate copies to indigenous libraries and schools. It will help indigenous kids see themselves in stories and it gets the indigenous artists in the book a raise. November is National Native American Heritage Month, so it’s the perfect time to back something like Indiginerds.
Watching Wolf Guy last month turned out to be a bust because of technically difficulties. The full moon movie watch parties have been tending toward horror lately. So for a change of pace, next one will be a comedy. On November 27th at 5pm PST, please join me and some other fine folks while we watch Teen Wolf the movie (not the MTV tv show). Click if you want to join.
I’ll also be doing my usual streaming
As always I’ll be streaming art on Twitch. My schedule is currently the following:
This month I’m gonna try to finish Blue Moon’s script. My work load from Seven Seas is kinda light, so gonna focus on getting that out the door so Meredith can start drawing it. That and get ahead on The City Between.
After Blue Moon is done, I’m gonna write the next City Between story. It’s called Glass Diamonds and will be about Rebecca and her next client. Shards of Reflection is about half way done, so I need to make sure Glass Diamonds is ready to go sooner rather than later. I’ve been fiddling with some concept art for it.
Once those two things are off my plate, I’ll finish up the art for my werewolf videogame and get back to You are the Chosen One.
While doing all that, I need to sit down and build a crowdfund for Murky Water. I’ve been putting it off because there was a paper shortage. So the cost of printing had shot up. I was hoping to wait it out and I think things have settled down. Obviously they are still higher than last time I printed a book because of inflation, but it’s as cheap as it’s gonna get.
I was also waiting a bit because I wanted to see how the crowdfunding landscape shakes out. About two years ago I wrote about Kickstarter saying they would try out block chain. At the time I said I wasn’t gonna use them and was looking into Indiegogo and Zoop. Since then, Crowdfundr and Backerkit got into the crowdfunding landscape and Kickstarter has walked back blockchain (sorta).
The problem almost all the non-kickstarter crowdfunds are having is no one browses their websites to find crowdfunds. It means all your crowdfunding success depends on the fanbase you already have and spreading the word on social media. But social media is currently falling apart. Part of my duties at Iron Circus is making the schedule for all the crowdfunds. So I’ve seen first had as social media referrals become smaller and smaller. Which makes crowdfunding harder than ever, especially if people aren’t browsing the site in general.
I was considering using Backerkit which is what Iron Circus has been using lately. But I won’t recommend them to the average creator. Backerkit gets around the no browsing problem by having a robust advertising service. Which seemed promising at first, but myself and several smaller comic artists quickly learned the Backerkit will only run those ads IF you’ve already hit goal. So all their promo help is designed around you already being super successful. Like after the first day, Backerkit turned off ads for Indiginerds and didn’t turn them back on until after it hit goal. So while they are good for Iron Circus, who’s projects usually fund in a day or two, they would be pretty useless for me. My projects usually fund in the last week if not that last few days.
Also, since I’ve built several backerkit pages for Iron Circus, I know that I find their back end UI obtuse. I lose a lot of time trying to find stuff when I build those pages. But if their ads had been more useful, I would have sucked it up.
As for Kickstarter’s end of things. I said the sorta walked back using the blockchain. Basically, the guy who pushed for it was forces to leave. I forget if he was outright fired or if he left on his own. But either way, after that Kickstarter said they were still open to maybe using blockchain in the future but wouldn’t put any resources into it until a benefit is proven. And since their blockchain plans were mostly all buzzword gibberish before, that means they won’t be using it anytime soon. I’m still annoyed they won’t swear it off, but that seems the best they are gonna do. So whole crowdfund landscape in my mind is:
But with social media falling apart and none of the crowdfunding sites having a lot of browsing going on, I’m like 90% I’m gonna have to go back to Kickstarter. It’s really frustrating.
I also got to figure out what to do about international shipping which is it’s own mess. The post office has been gutted so badly that international shipping has gotten wildly out of had. Like sending one of The City Between books to Europe now costs like $25. It’s ridiculous. So before this crowdfund happens, I need to figure out what I’m doing on that end.
Hi everyone! And welcome to everyone who signed up for my newsletter at Rose Comic Con. It turned out to be the best Rose City Comic Con I’ve ever been to.
If you’re new here I’m making these comics:
Blue Moon is a werewolf romance gn I’m writing and Meredith McClarren is going to draw. I’m late on its script.
The City Between is my webcomic about werewolves in the future. It updates Wednesdays. The current story is called Shards of Reflection.
You are the Chosen One is a fantasy comic about 23 kids who got the same prophecy dream. It was posting on Fridays on my Patreon. But my editorial work has been piling up/overwhelming me lately. So it’s on hold until I finish up some other stuff.
My day job is an editor at the manga company Seven Seas and the indie comic publisher Iron Circus Comics. I like folklore, fantasy, and especially like werewolves.
The big exciting thing this month is I’ve been helping my good friend and streaming cohost, Alina Pete, build and prep a backerkit campaign for the anthology they’ve been editing, Indiginerds.
Indiginerds wants to celebrate the ever evolving Indigenous culture. Organized by the ever talented editor Alina Pete, one of the co-editors on Iron Circus’s wildly successful anthology Woman in the Woods, this book collects work from several indigenous artists and writers. From gaming to social media, pirate radio to garage bands, Star Trek to D&D, and missed connections at the pow wow, Indigenous culture is so much more than how it’s usually portrayed. Join this anthology as it examines balancing traditional ways of knowing and pop culture.
It will launch October 16th. If you want to be one of the first people to backer, you can sign up to be notified here. It’s a great book and I’m excited for the world to see Alina’s hard work.
Also on full moons, I host a werewolf movie watch parties in my discord. Next full moon is October 28th. And at noon PST, we will be watching the 70s Japanese werewolf movie, Wolf Guy! If you’d like to join click here.
I’ll also be doing my usual streaming
As always I’ll be streaming art on Twitch. My schedule is currently the following:
Last month I was mostly keeping my nose to the grindstone except for selling stuff at Rose City Comic Con. Thanks everyone who stopped by and grabbed a book. I mostly took pictures of cosplay when I wasn’t selling books. You can see them all here. But there are the highlights.
The leads of the Sabriel series by Garth Nix!
An excellent Claudia from Interview with a Vampire show
Nedry from Jurassic Park, complete with shaving cream dna holder.
And best for last, an older cosplay rocking a Granny Goodness from New Gods.
This month I got several of the backgrounds done for the video game I’m working on for Iron Circus games. I have two or 3 more settings to draw. But I’m gonna spend next month focused The City Between and the manga I’m editing for Seven Seas.
Speaking of manga, one of the favorite titles I’ve been editing for Seven Seas, Reincarnated into a Total Fantasy Knockout, is out now.
It’s about a guy who is transported into a fantasy world and is turned into a hot girl. His best friend is also transported and the two have to stop a demonlord to get home. It’s complicated by the fact that they are cursed to be attracted to each other. It’s a deconstruction of both romance and fantasy tropes while talking about gender identity. It’s a lot of fun!
This month I’ve mostly been watching Star Trek stuff. Particularly, Lower Decks. I appreciate that while Lower Decks is an adult comedy cartoon, it’s humor doesn’t come from one character being awful and abuse to other. That’s a refreshing break from all the adult cartoons trying to copy Rick and Morty. I think the characters are just a lot of fun. Also, this season the little monster Moopsy has captured my heart (and my bones.) They need plushies of this little guy.
I also reread one of my favorite mangas, Pluto. If you are unfamiliar, Pluto is a retelling and modernization of an Astroboy story. It is a murder mystery as a robot detective looks into someone murdering the worlds most advanced robots. I decided to reread it because there was a question going around bluesky about what scenes from comics have stuck with people/”live in their head.” For me it’s a scene between Astroboy (or Atom as he is called in this book) and the scientist who built him, Dr Tenma, having diner.
Basically, this scene sticks with me because Atom was built to replace Dr. Tenma’s dead son. This starts with Atom talking about his interests and how he happily did his chores. Everything Atom cares about isn’t what Dr. Tenma’s son cared about. Both of them realize over the meal that Atom is his own person and he can’t replace Dr. Tenma’s son. So even though Atom is the most humanlike robot ever made and is a grade scientific achievement, Dr. Tenma failed in his goal to bring back his son. And Atom is left is an impossible task. I think it’s just such a well paced and laid out scene. In context, I think it’s heartbreaking.
That’s it for this month! Have a good one everyone.
I’m going to be at Rose City Comic this month. It’s September 22-24 and will be in Artist Alley table Y-1. Stop by and say hello!
Slow tweaks are still happening to my site. Last week I updated all the photos of stuff in the store. My bud Kevin is gonna change the design of the store soon.
On full moons we watch werewolf movies in my fan discord. So September 28th we are gonna watch When Animals Dream, a personal favorite werewolf movie of mine. If you want to join, click here and hang out at 4pm PST
As always I’ll be streaming art on Twitch. My schedule is currently the following:
Speaking of streaming, on the most recent stream I went on a bit of a rant about the musical Rent. Feel free to give it a listen.
Otherwise, things have been pretty quiet online for me.
I’ve had a lot on my plate for while, hense why You are the Chosen One is on pause until I finish sometimes up.
One of those things has been under NDA until now. I’m doing art for a small videogame. It’s a time management puzzle. The plot is you are a single parent of a werewolf child (pictured above). You have to prep the basement and backyard for the full moon. It’s about 30% of the way done. I should be done by the end of the year.
While working I’ve been relistening to the October Daye series which is one of my favorites. There is a new volume in the series coming out on September 5th. I always like revisiting it before a new volume drops.
Otherwise this month I’ll mostly be doing editorial work and getting as much done of Blue Moon.
That’s it for this month! Have a good one everyone.
