Tag: newsletter

Crossposted from my newsletter.

Hey all, I’ll be at Emerald City Comic Con in a couple of weeks. At least I will if the show doesn’t get canceled. In case you don’t know what is going on, several publishers and artists have already backed out of ECCC because of the coronavirus. I’m still going because I’m low risk for catching it and for me it’s go or don’t pay any of my bills the next few months.

Those of you who read my old year in summary posts would know that con sales are over half my income. And ECCC is about a 1/3 of that half. Last year was a very bad year for me finically, so this winter I’ve been taking some none art work to help me get out of the bad money situation I was in. It’s why I haven’t been posting much new concept art for the past couple of months (well that and depression from it being winter.) I thought I was getting ahead on things but that was under the assumption I would be making a large chunk of money at ECCC. I need it to basically pay my all my bills for April and May. Because that’s what it has done every year I’ve gone. 

So I’m obviously worried and stressed out about the fact that it might be canceled or even just have a very poor attendance. I’m not saying folks show risk their health to go. Obviously if you are feeling sick or have a bad immune system, stay home. But at this time I would like to encourage everyone reading this to please consider backing my patreon or buying something from my store. Did you know I have an original art lottery? For $30 I’ll send you a random page from one of my comics. I don’t think my patreon and online store could cover no ECCC but they will at least give me a little bit more time to try to get some money from else where. So again. Please help me out. 

And if Emerald City happens, I’ll be at table 208. I’ll have hand sanitizer and a lot of comics to for sale.

Anyway, on to a happier topic. C2E2 was fun. I stayed at Spike Trotman’s house and spent the evenings cuddled up with her dog, Lucy. She is adorable and a sweetie. 

I tabled with Molly Muldoon. The Field Museum had plush wolves for sale, so I bought one to display our Can I Pet Your Werewolf book. That little guy is pictured above. He’s super soft. A lot of people came up to our table to pet him. Our table topics during the show were Death Note the Musical, mostly letting people know there is indeed a Death Note Musical, explaining My Hero Academia to Blue Delliquanti, the movie Birds of Prey, and what it’s like to wrap up a long term project. 

This past month I’ve mostly been working to get ahead on money like I mentioned earlier. Not really anytime to draw. My free time mostly went to cleaning up a pitch I want to send out soon. It needs a couple of pages of sample art though, so this is more a maybe will pay off in 6 months thing rather than a it will help me now thing. 

I read two new mangas this month, curtesy of my public library. One is Way of the House Husband. It’s about a former yakuza who is now the house husband to his career woman wife. It’s very charming and funny, but is more a series of gags rather than having an on going plot. 

The other manga I read is Beastars. Beastars is a manga I was vaguely aware of. It was on my to read list but wasn’t a high priority. But then I watched Jack Saint’s video about it and made it the top on my reading list. That basic plot is it’s about a wolf boy who has feelings/a crush on a rabbit girl. However, his crush on his is also mixed up with the fact that he wants to eat her as well. It’s was weirder than I expected and I really like it. Really anything else I’d say about it would just be quoting Jack Saint’s video. So just watch it for more details. 

Anyway, my patreon this month is going to bills and what not. Again, please back it. 

Thats it for this month. Thanks for reading and your support. 

This is crossposted with my newsletter. 

Hey all! At the end of this month (Feb 28-Mar 1st), I’m going to be in Chicago at C2E2. I’m in artist alley with my pal Molly Muldoon. We are table S-5 which is right smack in the middle. 

In the meantime, I’m still working on Murky Water the next book for The City Between. I’m about 2/3rds the way through. I was hoping to be done by now but I got swamped with a loose ends on the business side of things, doing some editing for Iron Circus Comics, and was sick for a week. So I’m gonna keep working on it for the next few weeks and finish it before cons start up. Also, Spike, Amanda, and I did a lot of recording to try and build a buffer for Dirty Old Ladies.

Speaking of me editing for Iron Circus Comics, the main thing I’ve been working on is a book by Abby Howard titled The Crossroads at Midnight. It’s a collection of short horror stories and REALLY FUCKING good.  It’s getting kickstarted in about a month, so keep an eye out for it. 

My reading this month has mostly been more of Silver Spoon and Love is War. I haven’t read much new stuff because of being busy. 

My patreon dollars this month are still going to the new office chair.  This should be enough to get it. Just in time for me to spend a long time sitting in it while drawing. 

And to wrap up here are things folks might have missed this:

• I’ve still been posting some concept art for You are the Chosen One. I especially like how the slacker wizard Bril. 
• My patreon and website has a batch of reference photos I took for recent pages of The Dead Deception. 

Thank you all for your support this month. Take care. 

This is crossposted from my newsletter

Hi all! I hope you all had a good new year’s eve. 

My plan for the new year is to keep working on You are the Chosen One’s concept art. But writing wise I’m switching to focusing The City Between‘s next story. It’s called Murky Water and is another story about Maria and Connor. I’m about half way done so, it looks like I can finish the first draft this month. 

With the end of the year, my buddy Kevin and I tweaked my website a little. Mostly small changes. Like now if you click the art tag on the blog you can see the art in the posts, not just the title of the post. My instagram is now linked on the social media buttons instead of tumblr. I also moved everything from sorcery101.net over to kelmcdonald.com. It’s something I’ve been meaning to do since Sorcery 101 wrapped up, but I held off because the company I was using for ads approves domain names and I would have to reapply after the move. 

This month I read a whole bunch of Vineland Saga. It’s historical fiction following a boy from Iceland named Thorfinn. He is a member of a band of vikings during the raise of King Canute. It talks a lot about the cycles of violence continues and is glorified. It was super engrossing and I went through the first 5 volumes in one day. 

I also rewatched Bojack Horseman on Netflix. Bojack Horseman is probably my favorite current show and and since it’s wrapping up I wanted to watch it for the millionth time. It’s a mix of funny and depressing that really hits me. Frequently, when a show is about depression and abuse, if it’s constantly serious I find it dull and unrealistic or just exhausting. So I like it when humor is mixed, especially the puny visual gags of Bojack helps ease the tension. I also like the way the show has Bojack be a shitty person. While it is sympathetic to the terrible up bring he had, at the same time it doesn’t excuse his behavior. One of my favorite scenes is when Bojack is told it’s not enough to say sorry and feel bad after he does something shitty thing. He has to stop doing shitty things. I could probably write pages and pages about Bojack Horseman the show. If I do it, I’ll save it for when the show wraps up. Until then I’ll just leave you with this quote which I kept in mind while trying to get in better shape.

Anyway, my patreon this month is having money go to getting a new office chair. I’ve had the same office chair for about 10 years. It’s still comfortable, but it’s padding is coming out of the seat cushion. Lately I’ve been putting my feet on a stool under my desk to keep my feet up while working. So I found one I like that has a built in foot rest. 

As for stuff on my website that folks might have missed. There isn’t a lot because December/Christmas time makes me depressed. So I’ll just post them all next month. 

This is crossposted with my newsletter.

Hey all, right now everything in my store is 15% off with the code “GIFTS” until December 15th. This is my first time doing a holiday winter sale on my site and it’s thanks to having White Squirrel take over my store. I haven’t done holiday sales in the past because I usually have a kickstarter running this time of year. But also because Christmas time usually makes me depressed and didn’t want to add more stuff to my plate when that basics are hard enough. So I’m really grateful that White Squirrel is taking the lead on my shop. It and any extra funds this sale generates will help with what is usually a tough time of year for me (both mentally and financially).

This months plans are mostly keep writing You are the Chosen One so I can launch it next year. I posted an art round up for the concept art I did this month. I’ve got about 200 pages scripted. So when I’m done with the chapter I’m working on, I’ll probably start drawing. Then I’m gonna switch focus to the next The City Between book. I’d like to kickstarter that in June, so I need to make some headway. Not a lot mind you because like I said, I always have some serious depression issues around Christmas and probably won’t get a lot done.

I’m still on my manga kick this past month. (Also, last month I tried to imbed a video into my newletter for Delicious in Dungeon. It worked in all the preveiws mail chimp let me see but not in the newsletter. So here is a link) I finished up Silver Spoon, which I mentioned last month. My favorite character has to be Tamako who is a fat girl that takes zero shit.

I also read a whole bunch of Love is War by Aka Akasaka. The premise of which is two teens at an elite private school like each other but think the person in a relationship who makes the first move ends up in the weaker position of the couple. Neither wants to surrender the high ground, so they are engaging in a battle of wits where each is trying to trick the other into admitting their feelings. Basically, the first to say “I love you” loses.

It’s extremely over the top and rather funny. So even them playing old maid is presented as EXTREMELY dramatic. And half the time neither of them ends up succeeding but they over complicated everything.

With catching up on those two series, I’ve mostly caught up on/looked into the manga I’d heard good things about. So my reading for December will probably stick American comics on my “to read” shelf. Some of those have been sitting there for a couple of years.

As for stuff this month that some of you might have missed. I already pointed you to the art round up on Patreon. My patreon also hit it’s first goal, so I’ve been posting the reference photos I took for each page of The Dead Deception. Then my Patreon has a round up for those as well. Cat Farris posed in most of them this month. So big thanks to her.

My Patreon dollars this month are going to internet bill. As I said, December is usually tough for me, so I can’t put it to fixing/replacing something this month. Any new patrons or purchases from my store would really help me out.

Other things folks might have missed this month are:

• Dirty Old Ladies did two interviews this month. Since Spike, Amanda, and I are all US based, we chatted with some comic gals outside the US to compare notes. The first was with Kate Ashwin to talk about comics in the UK. Then we talked to Nina Matsumoto about making comics in Canada.
• Also, apparently my facebook updater (which I use to update my facebook page) is broken. I’m trying to fix it but you’re better off following me elsewhere for update reminders.

Thanks for all your support. I hope December treats you all well.

• Dirty Old Ladies had two episodes this month. One is about how we would adapt Skyrim if we were hired to make the comics. The other is about discussing the difference between genre comics and literary comics.
• I posted some pictures I took at Rose City. They are cosplayers I liked.