Tag: kelci crawford

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Destination: Imaginarium

The organizers at Imaginarium Convention this year have me scheduled to be at 4 panels – holy banana pants!

Imaginarium Convention is all about writers and other creative types, but it’s a show all about the craft. The panels they have me scheduled for are these:

SATURDAY

11:30 am in room Appalacian: LGBTQ Characters in Fiction. Moderated by Janie Franz with panelists Eliot Parker, Amanda Burkhead, Jimmy Misfit, Michele Lee, and me.

SUNDAY

9 am in room Appalacian: Healthier Habits for Creatives. Panelist include: Janie Franz (moderator), Angelyn Sherrod, Donna Dull, and me.

11:30 am in room Burley: Comics and Graphic Novels. Panelist include: Dan Jolley (moderator), S.C. Houff, Michele Lee, John Risner, Sean Dulaney, Glenn Porzig, and me.

2 pm in room Heartland: Composing Newsletters with Mail Chimp and Beyond. This will be a 2hr panel. Panelist include:  Sandy Lender(moderator), Addie King, Eric Shawn Moser, Megan McIntosh, and me.

For more details about the panels themselves, or to check the full (absolutely bonkers and lengthy) listing, check this link.

I’ll ask the event organizers if I can stream any of these panels for you to see. If I’m allowed, the panels may be streamed onto Facebook. Keep an eye on the Facebook page for further announcements on this.

If you’re unable to attend Imaginarium, then please check out these two new things my awesome friends released!

First, My friend Suzy Anderson has launched a KickStarter campaign! See, she runs this independent art and literature magazine called The Magnolia Review, and it’s on KickStarter right now to get funding for Volume 4, Issues 1 AND 2. Rewards include copies of the magazine, postcards, bookmarks, and other goodies!

Second, my friend Deci Belfry just launched their Facebook page to share (and sell) lithography prints, watercolors, and other art they make! Seriously, check out their printmaking portfolio. It’s gorgeous stuff! They also have a catalog of their work, and they do something called sliding-scale pricing. Be sure to check out the Facebook page for more.

That’s all for now. Thank you for reading!

You. Are. Awesome.

P.S. I’ll be making an update on Inktober after Imaginarium this weekend. <3

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How Did the Patreon Pledge Drive Do?

patreon pledge drive patreon screencap

Last week I ran a pledge drive for Patreon.

If you don’t know what Patreon is, that’s ok: Patreon is an online subscription service that lets you support your favorite artists, often for as little as $1 a month.

To clarify: I have a Patreon page for the comics I write and illustrate under the Fantasyville Productions label. These comics include, but are not limited to:

  • Thoughtful Dinosaur
  • The Case of the Wendigo
  • and the upcoming The Legend of Jamie Roberts.

There’s a separate Patreon page for Validation and its related stories (including Mr. Dino & Friends, Roxie Comics, and Tiny Unicorn). That’s because the Validation comics are a collaborative effort with Christian Beranek and myself.

Funding for my Fantasyville Productions comics does not go to Validation, and Validation funding does not go to Fantasyville Productions comics.

I ran the Patreon pledge drive for my page (not Validation’s) because the comic shop I currently work at has cut my hours severely. Like, now I only work there 5 hours a week.

So I ran the Patreon pledge drive to see if a) I could get new patrons to b) help cover the lost income due to my hours getting cut.

The goal was to jump from $180 a month to $250 a month. My goal for the end of the year is to make $500 a month on Patreon alone, so to get to $250 by the half-year point would have gotten me closer to this goal.

By the end of the week, we went from $170 a month to $201 a month.

It didn’t make my goal, but it’s still not bad at all, especially for only having a pledge drive that lasted a week.

What surprised me more was the current patrons I had who increased their pledges – often by an extra $3 a month! That’s amazing!

We also got a new patron on board, which is marvelous, and so immensely helpful.

And so, with the combination of the new patron plus the increased pledges from current ones, we reached one of the Patreon goals listed on the page: at $200/month, I’m now going to draw a patron-exclusive The Case of the Wendigo desktop wallpaper!

Honestly, it’s just amazing that folks who love my comics were willing and able to chip in and help during this tough time. This will help make production of The Legend of Jamie Roberts go just that little bit smoother.

If you would like to pledge support, and help bring The Legend of Jamie Roberts to life, please check out my Patreon page. You can adjust or cancel your pledge at any time.

Even if you pledge $1 a month, you get to see behind-the-scenes development of the comics I do.

For example, here’s a post about Jamie and their two best friends; here’s another post about the dragon Norsa; and here’s a post about two gods in the Jamie Roberts universe, The Voice and The Messenger. These three posts were made free during the pledge drive, to give a taste of what rewards patrons can get for pledging support.

If you’re broke, that’s totally ok, because Patreon is optional. If you would rather make a one-time donation, there’s a Paypal donate button on the side of this website, or you can purchase a convention goody from my online store.

That’s all for now. Thank you for reading!

You. Are. Awesome.

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Put-N-Play-Con: A Vlog with Some Swearing (Just FYI)

Ho dang, this one took a while to edit.

I don’t know why my creativity demanded I make this a video, but I did it. I hope you enjoy it.

In it, I talk about Put-N-Play (the last show I was at), the way conventions tend to promote their shows, and other behind-the-scenes convention secrets.

Here was my set up at Put-N-Play this year:

put n play con artist alley table layout

Sadly, as mentioned in the video, I barely made sales this last weekend. Which is a shame.

My next convention appearance is Kennywood Comicon on June 17th. Wear a nerdy shirt to get a discount on your admission ticket!

After that, I have quite a few more appearances: June 23rd I’ll be at The Big Idea Bookstore in Pittsburgh for Punk, Comics, and Feminism (a discussion group) at 5 pm. Then at 7 pm I’ll be at The Feminist Zine Fest Pittsburgh Zine Reading at the Irma Freeman Center. After that, on June 24th, is Feminist Zine Fest Pittsburgh!

That’s all for now. Thank you for watching and reading!

You. Are. Awesome.

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3 Rivers Comicon 2018 and How It Went

3 rivers comicon artist alley table 2018

This year’s 3 Rivers Comicon was a mixed bag. But to explain why, I need to split this into 3 parts.

PART 1: THE BEHIND-THE-SCENES DRAMA

Full disclosure: right now, when I’m not making comics, I work part-time at my local comic shop. It so happens that my local comic shop is a branch of New Dimension Comics, the same company that runs 3 Rivers Comicon. Because of that, I could talk for like an hour about some behind-the-scenes stuff regarding how gaming tables were pilfered at the last minute for use at the convention, but I’m not going to get into that.

I could also tell a funny anecdote about a behind-the-scenes debate concerning what food to provide convention guests (pb & j sandwiches or pizza??), but I’m not going to get into that either.

Instead, I’m going to call out the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle fandom because it is a massive piece of shit. Continue reading “3 Rivers Comicon 2018 and How It Went”

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“I Am The Land,” An Art Piece

i am the land american gods art illustration by kelci crawford

If you’re a fan of Neil Gaiman’s book, American Gods, like I am, then you know why this piece is called “I Am The Land.” If you haven’t read the book (or read the comic, or seen the TV show) yet, you should fix that. Like, ASAP.

American Gods is one of those books that shook me when I first read it. Every time I re-read it, I discover something new about it. It’s dream-like and jarring yet also grounded (in the sense that the god characters act like people and not like high-concept “I am above petty emotions” personalities. Zack Snyder should learn a thing or two from this book).

One of the recurring characters in American Gods is a man with a buffalo head. He doesn’t outright murder anyone in the book. However, when I got the idea for this piece of art, I finished a section of the comic book adaptation of the novel – specifically, the section about Vikings landing in Canada and killing a Native American, and then the Natives killing every Viking in retaliation. Yes, the account is fiction, but there’s an element of truth to it, to the idea that America is a land stained in blood.

That’s why I made this piece.

This was drawn with my trusty mechanical pencil and Pentel Brush Sign Pen, with colors by my Copic markers. The background color was done with a Kuretake Zig Clean Color FB brush pen. It’s dying out a little though, so I’ll need to replace it soon.

Soon this will be a print measuring 11×17 inches. When it’s in the shop, I’ll announce it on the email newsletter first. It’s going to be a limited print run, though, so because of that, it’ll be a little more than just $10.

Thank you for reading!

You. Are. Awesome.