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The Legend of Jamie Roberts Six-Page Preview and More

The Legend of Jamie Roberts now has a six-page preview! To read it, go here.

And just in case you missed it, I started posting “Mermaids” to Mini-Comic Theater. To start that, go here.

Don’t forget, too, that Validation updates tomorrow, and then Johnson & Sir updates on Tuesday.

Plus! Another new comic will be premiering this week! I’ll be sharing a link once it’s ready here, on Facebook, and on Twitter.

You would think I’d get tired of making comics all the time, but I don’t. That’s the fun part.

I can hear you asking, “You’ve been hyping up The Legend of Jamie Roberts for months now! When will it launch?!”

Here, I’ll do it in bullet points, because it’s easier for me to do it this way:

  • Jamie Roberts launches in the first week of November
  • Once we get closer to launch, I’ll set a date and announce it.
  • The comic will be full color
  • The comic will update once a week…to start.
  • Once I feel comfortable, I’ll increase production to twice a week.
“And what about your other new comic? You haven’t told us anything about it!”
Well, I can at least tell you the title and then explain my reasoning.
The new comic is called…

Adventures With A Bipolar Sister.
Now let me explain:
  • This is a personal, autobio comic about living with my older sister, who has manic depression. 
  • My little sister, who will appear occassionally, also has manic-depression, but she experiences it differently than my older sister does.
  • This comic is not just autobio; it’ll also be an exploration of mental disorders.
  • There will be comedy, but I don’t want to make manic-depression a laughing matter, because it’s not. This comic is a reflection of my life: there’s comedy, but there will be a LOT of arguing and spite. And that’s ok.
  • I’m making this comic for not just myself, but other people who either have, or no someone who has, a mental disorder. I’m making this comic to help say, “It’s ok. Having a disorder won’t cripple you for life. No. Really. It won’t.”
I try to make comics that have meaning to me in some way. That’s why I do Validation, The Legend of Jamie Roberts, Adventures With A Bipolar Sister, and Johnson & Sir (yes, Johnson and Sir have meaning to me).
To me, comics aren’t fluff: they’re a way to express a story I could not express otherwise.
I’ll probably talk more about how I feel about comics later. Or maybe I’ll tackle it in a comic. Who knows?
Thank you for reading, and always remember to be awesome!
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Hi New Readers!

Oh hello there you fabulous person you.

So you might have found me through Validation, the webcomic I make with the ever fabulous Christian Beranek (we’ve been getting some good press from that. Did you see the article on Comic Vine about us? Of course you did. That’s probably what got you here, too).

Or you might have found me through the illustration I did for the ever awesome Tumblr blog Cool Chicks From History (I drew the illustration for Rafaela Herrera, who is a badass lady).

Or you could have found me from Johnson & Sir (the webcomic I do about an Odd Couple-like pair of elf cops).

Any way you slice it, there’s more of you lovely readers out there.

So hi!

As you can tell, I’m pretty busy with webcomics and making art for cool people.

I’ve also been busy with moving from Ohio to Arizona. I’ve been settling into my new place (which is sharing space with my older sister) and then my mom came to visit from out of state, so I’ve been on vacation to be with them.

So, my apologies for not welcoming you sooner.

To gain your favor, here’s a picture of the Grand Canyon the same day that the government shut down. The blurry hand is a bonus, I guess?

Will there be more comics?

Of course there will be!

Keep your eyes open for a new semi-auto-biographical comedic comic soon! I’ll be announcing the launch here and on my Twitter and Facebook pages.

I’ll also begin producing my latest Halloween-inspired comic, Charlie & Clow!

And of course, my hyped-up, never-shut-up-about comic, The Legend of Jamie Roberts will launch next month! I’ll be releasing a six-page prequel on SmackJeeves on October 6th.

So you came in at the right time. :D

Thanks for stopping by! I do my best to update my blog every Sunday. So please bookmark this page for more news about my comics (I also do comic and book reviews here, so if you think I should be reading something, drop me a line at kelcidcrawford at gmail dot com).

I also post the occasional work-in-progress and art/writing tutorial here, so let me know if you would like me to tackle anything from character design to plot development.

Thanks for your support, and don’t forget to be awesome.

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On the Road!

First: I know I promised a blog post about my opinions on whether college was worth it. I’m still working on that. It’ll be posted next week.

Second: This blog post!

I left Ohio around 10 am this morning to start my road trip to Arizona!

I was hoping to get to St. Louis before I stopped for the day, but traffic delays and construction on I-70 prevented that. (Grrrrrr…) Now I’m staying in Illinois at the exit that boasts the World’s Largest Golf Tee and Wind Chime. And I WILL check those out before I hit the road again tomorrow!

The update for Johnson & Sir was late today because of that, and because I forgot to set it to update automatically (I’m a dippy bird sometimes). Next week that won’t be an issue.

Thanks for reading!

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Say No to the Art Institutes

Story Time.

Once upon a time (a little over five years ago now) I was looking for a college to go to. I knew I wanted to study art, especially comics and animation (I was really into animation at the time). During a high school field trip we visited the Art Institute of Pittsburgh.

Then I took a summer workshop there in their animation department where I learned to do character designs, the stretch and squash animation, and a little 3D rendering.

I even went so far as to try and see if I could go to school there.

This is what I learned:

  • The Art Institutes are not accredited by any national education boards I could find.
  • Because they are not accredited, scholarships and grants would not cover the costs of going to this school.
  • Because scholarships and grants wouldn’t fund an education at a non-accredited school, if I went, all the schooling done would be paid for by loans.
  • And at the time they were $60,000 a year. Not covering food or lodging.
So I took a heaping dose of “NOPE,” and went to Bowling Green State University instead. And my education (and life) was better for it.
But in the present, I have a friend, who was believing that she had to go to the Art Institutes because she needed a degree if she was to get a career in the field she wanted to go in (which is video game design and art).
She was taking online classes, but now she has discovered the following:
  • the majority of the classes teach you how to use outdated equipment and tools in the graphic design industry. (I couldn’t help but notice in the workshop I was in years ago that their animation tools were outdated as well).
  • she’s had three different advisers in a year and a half because they’re all temps. Yes, the advisers at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh are all from a temp agency.
  • she has not had a non-class school day since February 2012. That’s over a year and a half of constant classes, no breaks.
  • she’s learning more from outside online classes and workshops than she’s learning from the Art Institutes.
  • Most shocking of all (but not to me): The Art Institute was in two class-action suits in the last 5 years, totalling over $11 billion. The reason? The Art Institutes raise their costs to more than the maximum grant amount so students take out more loans, so the Institutes will milk them (and the loan agencies) of their money. The students and loan agencies wised up to this, and filed suit.
Clearly, the key to happiness (and a good degree) is not with the Art Institutes.
Besides, even if you think “Oh, but no one will take you seriously as an artist if you don’t have a degree!”
No one wants to hire ANYONE who graduated from the Art Institutes. Their methods are outdated, and the school might as well be a scam.
If you’re insistent on getting a degree (which you probably shouldn’t be), go to a traditional school with a great art program, or go to an accredited art school.
I’ll tackle my thoughts on art school next time, because I know there are a LOT of people (including art students) who wonder if going to college is even worth it.
Thanks for reading, and thanks for your support!
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Birthday Shenanigans

Yesterday was my birthday!

I spent the whole thing offline, which is why you haven’t heard from me for a bit.

There were so many good parts to the day that I can’t tell which was the best one!

Well, there was the cake Marc got me: a Dairy Queen ice cream cake with my cartoon face on it (he asked the lady to copy the picture from my business card), and he knows I love my fun initialisms, like DFTBA (Don’t Forget To Be Awesome), so he added DFYAL (Don’t Forget You Are Loved).

It was offbeat, but it’s also one of the sweetest presents I ever got! (I got the first slice. I ate the portion with my right arm in an effort to subconsciously encourage my broken right wrist to heal faster).

Marc also got me knee pads, elbow pads, wrist pads and a helmet, just in case I ever pick up roller skating again.

(picture)

And he also gifted me a new wrist wrap! It’s like the back wrap I have already, but for the wrist, so that when the cast comes off, I can have extra support when I draw and write.

(picture)

Yesterday was also the first time I ever watched BBC’s Sherlock. Holy shit I had no idea what I was missing! That show is SO good!

And after that Marc and the family and I got together to play board games like the Evil Baby Orphanage.

It was the first time we ever played the Evil Baby Orphanage, and the rules were a little weird and complicated. It took some explaining and talking out loud to figure out what was going on. But we eventually did, and the game was pretty fun. And surprisingly quick! We finished the first (and only) round in fifteen minutes.

The basic premise of the game is that you adopt Evil Babies (like baby Joseph Stalin or baby Hannibal) from the Time Stream and raise them in your Evil Baby Orphanage. Each player has one, and the goal of the game is to accrue a set number of Mischief Points (in our game, we defaulted to 8). Mischief Points are the points your evil babies are worth. But you have to keep your evil babies happy or else they might do something awful, like bully a baby from your orphanage into another orphanage, making you lose points. Whoever can get to 8 Mischief Points wins the game!

But mom and Rob (her boyfriend) weren’t interested in any complicated board or card games, so we changed to Apples to Apples, then Clue.

It was still a fun day though.

Thank you to all my friends who wished me happy birthday yesterday! You are all awesome!

That’s all for today. Thank you for your support!