Today at 6 pm EST, feel free to lurk while I work on cat art for a new Crowdfundr AND draw more comics.
I’m running a Crowdfundr campaign for CATS: The Sketchbook, a collection of cat sketches I drew during Inktober last year. You can check out the campaign, but it’s not live until Friday. Be sure to sign up for the newsletter to get the first notice of when it opens!
To read my genderqueer pirate adventure comic, The Legend of Jamie Roberts, you can read the free version online, or you have the option to get the print version of volume 1 with remastered art and behind-the-scenes content like sketches and bonus comics. Volume 2 is coming to my online shop soon, I promise!
That’s all for now. Thank you for watching and for your support!
On Jan 4, 2024 at 6 pm EST, feel free to lurk while I work on rewards for members of my Fan Clubs! While I have some phone wallpapers and coloring pages free to download, Fan Club members get exclusive digital rewards, sneak peeks at my webcomics a week early, members-only comics, AND discounts at my store and for commissions.
Also, I PROMISE I’m working on a livesteam bingo card. Have Patience.
If you would like to join the Fan Club, you can do so on Ko-Fi (or if that’s not your thing, you can join directly through my Fan Club page).
What a year 2023 has been! But I’m glad it’s over.
A lot happened this year, so let’s get into what we made happen together. That’s right, your support helped make these things possible…
4 Successful Crowdfunding Campaigns!
In 2023, we raised funding for Vanita and the Demon King; The Legend of Jamie Roberts, volume 2; BE NOT APURRED Keychains; and Mr. Dino and Friends Keychains! We also had a Holiday Pop-Up Shop that raised $493 in support of Ohio-based indie creators.
I’m also including Ko-fi and Fan Club memberships here. While membership did shrink a bit, we still held together and made a lot of exclusive rewards.
Journey of the Mystery Won 3rd Place in the 24-Hour Comics Challenge!
This happened in January of 2023 but is still worth mentioning. The 24-Hour Comics Challenge, hosted by The Comic Book Jamboree, was INTENSE and had over 15 artists from around the world participate! And my comic, Journey of the Mystery, won 3rd place!
(By the way, you can download the coloring book version of this comic by checking it out on Ko-fi).
I Got A Short Story in an Iron Circus Comic Anthology!
I got accepted in Failure to Launch, a comics anthology from Iron Circus Comix. The anthology is all about ideas of the future that never panned out.
The short story I made is called Ninit’i, or The End, and is a story told in two lines: one line follows my class trip into Navajo Nation, the other follows the Christian extremist panic around the Harold Camping Doomsday Proclamation.
The release of the anthology did get a bit delayed but should come out in print in spring of 2024. More details are on the Iron Circus website.
I Quit My 9 to 5 Job!
(Technically it was a 7 to 3:30 job but it still sucked).
Thanks to support from readers like you, I was able to leave a toxic office job.
It took several months to unpack a lot of the crap from there, and it made me realize that my neurodivergent, genderqueer butt is too radical for “traditional” work. Also, half of my wages were taken by the temp agency that put me there and they wouldn’t let me leave because they “had no other work openings.”
Hot tip: don’t work with a temp agency.
Excuse me, I’m still very salty about this experience. On a more positive note…
I Moved To A New Apartment, Sold My Car, and Paid Off My Debts!
I sold my car for a lot of reasons – for one, I’m fortunate enough that my roommate and I moved to a new neighborhood that’s got a LOT within comfortable walking and biking distance from our home. We also sit on a major bus route in the city of Toledo, (and the bus is amenable to bikes like mine), so I can get wherever I want to throughout the city. We also have an Amtrak and bus station that I can get to in 30 minutes by city bus, so I can connect to a LOT of major cities across the US by those means. (Like, during SPX weekend I went by train and Metro everywhere).
Also, I was REALLY FREAKING TIRED of spending money that I didn’t have to repair a hunk of metal on wheels that already lost a large chunk of its value when I drove it off the lot back in 2019. And I was tired of my money being sent off to car companies and oil companies that don’t have the people’s best interest at heart.
So I sold my car and used that money to pay off debt, including my remaining student loans and the debt I accrued on car repairs.
In the end, I traveled further AFTER selling my car. Seriously, after the car sale, I went to DC (for work) AND Florida (for visiting family. It’s fine, I can pass as a woman. No one in Florida but mom knew, wink wink).
The Legend of Jamie Roberts, Volume 2 Came to Print!
It got mentioned up top, but I’m SO happy that y’all love this genderqueer pirate adventure so hecking much. Not to get too into the numbers, but The Legend of Jamie Roberts has now raised more in crowdfunding support than Validation did. And The Legend is still ongoing!
2023 was a VERY packed year for Fantasyville Productions, yo. For 2024, I want to keep building on what’s working and keep making comics, especially The Legend of Jamie Roberts. That story has a LOT to share in 2024 and I can’t wait to get into it with you.
Also in 2024, I want to do new things, like offer free downloads for my newsletter peeps. The first downloads are available this Friday, so sign up for free to get it when it’s ready.
Keep an eye on that newsletter, too, because I’m announcing more crowdfunding campaigns for 2024 – including one coming soon for CATS: A Sketchbook!
That’s all for now. Thank you for your support! You helped make all of this happen.
Jamie is not a boy or a girl – they’re a pirate! And they found this unfinished map with their friends, so they’re going treasure-hunting in an unexplored land. But along the way, Jamie and friends find magic, restless spirits, dragons, and a tyrant locked away for centuries, coming back to haunt the people across the land…
Volume 1 (which will be available as an add-on) collected Chapters 1 through 4 of The Legend of Jamie Roberts. What we’re asking for is funding for Volume 2, to get Chapters 5 through 8 in one shiny book – with bonus content!
WHY?
The Legend is the story I wish I had as a genderqueer teenager, trying to figure out my gender identity and my place in the world. Jamie is the protagonist my teenage self WISHES they had.
At first, I made The Legend of Jamie Roberts to fulfill my teenage wishes. Wishes for validation, magic, dragons, and adventure. And along the way, readers found The Legend – and REALLY resonated with the story. Which is how we’ve made it to 8 chapters long! And there are plans for more. But first…
If you don’t have Volume 1 yet, that’s ok – Volume 1 is available as an add-on reward for this campaign! (You can also read the webcomic version for free, but the print edition has remastered art and bonus content not available on the website).
For Volume 2, we’re also working with a different printer – Comix Well Spring! They’re giving a partner’s discount for running this campaign on Crowdfundr, which means less printing cost, and a more affordable price for you, the backer!
So if you love pirates and dragons and magic and mayhem, what are you waiting for?!
This post is for friends and family who are on Facebook.
First of all: WHY?
Second of all: you may have noticed posts coming from my account. That is, in fact, me. I’ve been sharing links to my Ko-fi shop stuff.
If you’re still on Facebook – for some god-forsaken reason – I’m going to keep sharing links from outside platforms, like Ko-Fi, KickStarter, and my webcomics and blogs.
That said, DO NOT expect me to reply to any comments you leave on those posts.
If you have feedback for me, you’re more than welcome to comment here on this blog…or email me, at kelci@kelcidcrawford.com.
I’m choosing how I use Facebook, and here’s what I’ve decided on:
I’m not downloading the app.
I’m ONLY using the web browser version.
I’m ONLY using Facebook to post links to my work on my personal profile.
I will check notifications ONLY once every few days or so.
I refuse to scroll on the site, I refuse to look at other people’s posts, and I refuse to post pictures there. I will not start a separate page for my business, because one of the reasons I LEFT Facebook years ago was because Facebook stopped supporting small businesses.
Also – DO NOT TAG ME IN ANYTHING ON FACEBOOK. Tagging people is a form of data and I want my data to be kept to a minimum on that platform.
So why am I even posting on Facebook again?
Because a lot of friends and family – FOR SOME REASON – continue to use it, and I want them to know I’m alive and working.
I’m also low-key hoping that those friends and family will choose to support my work if they see I’m still at it.
