There’s a new robots comics anthology coming to KickStarter!
Canonwrite Productions got 19 different creators together for The Universal Flaws of Robotics, a comics anthology all about robots. I did a short story for it, and served as editor for some of the stories!
This campaign will be Canonwrite’s biggest campaign yet, asking for $9,000 to pay contributors and make an offset print run of the paperback books. So be sure to spread the word so we can get as many folks as possible hyped!
AHHH! IT’S GODZILLA! AND KING KONG! And they’re…in BOOTY SHORTS?!
WHY??
Oh boy, buckle up.
So Godzilla’s booty happened because, at last year’s Small Press Expo, there was a cartoonist party at Fantom Comics in DC. During that party, folks set up a jam comic – basically a sheet of craft paper the size of a table, so artists could draw a comic one panel at a time.
At that party, our group made Godzilla and the Toe. It involved Godzilla, well-drawn feet, booty shorts, and beaches.
I had also been low-key inspired by nerdile art, who appeared at Animarathon this year with Magical Girl Godzilla stickers. I got one, fell in love, and needed to make something just as silly.
What better silly thing to make than a joke that came out during a cartoonist party?
So there! We now have Godzilla and King Kong having a great, booty-ful time. And now…I want to make holographic stickers of them! Because these booties need to sparkle.
So why run a campaign at all? To see how many folks want these fat-bottomed Kaiju sticking on every available surface so they can share their joy!
You tell me how many stickers you want. I’ll tally up the total orders by the end of the campaign, send what’s needed to Stickerapp, and then they’ll send me the stickers. From there, I’ll mail out everyone’s orders with a custom card and my thanks (I’ll keep the glitter to a minimum).
WHEN
This campaign will take orders until May 24 at 11:59 pm!
You only have a few days! So grab these Kaiju cheeks now while you can!
Broke? Share this campaign far and wide! Sharing is caring and helps a lot. (I also cannot be held responsible if you disappoint Godzilla AND King Kong, you mad lads.)
That’s all for now. Thank you for your time and support!
I’m discontinuing the print runs for my art books, including Witches, Gods & Spirits, and Dragons. Here’s why.
First, the cost of printing has gone up. Since 2021, the cost of printing books has increased across all the printers I work with. This is especially true for the printer who runs Witches, Gods & Spirits, and Dragons. (Stars of Fantasyville and CATS got printed with a different company.)
Second, when I looked at my sales stats across the decade, the numbers shocked me. I ran my numbers to account for which books earned the most from crowdfunding AND convention sales. Dragons and Gods & Spirits barely made it in the top 10 overall earners list and the top 10 earned per year list. Neither title made it to the top 5 in either. Witches only made one list (top earners overall).
And that’s if I took out Johnson & Sir from the stats. If I left that title in, the outlook for those art books looked worse.
Third, and this is the big one for me – I’m feeling called not to make any more art books. My energy wants to make more comics, and any art that’s not comics wants to be stickers and prints. Not art books.
I also want to work on and grow The Legend of Jamie Roberts. It’s hard to do that when time and energy are being put into art books that cost more and more to print but sell less and less. So I’m taking art books out of the equation, so more time and sweat can go where it wants to go – making comics.
So what does this mean?
Well, there are some shops I sell on consignment with who are carrying the last of my art books. Last week I dropped off the final copies of Witches and Gods & Spirits at Handmade Toledo. Quimby’s in Chicago and Indie Northern KY are also options if those are closer to you.
This also means no Junicorn or Inktober art books for the foreseeable future. My energy is not called to participate in those challenges anymore. So I’m going to honor that. I would rather pursue things out of joy and curiosity, not obligation. And Inktober doesn’t inspire me the way it used to.
The good news is – if you want art, prints and stickers are still happening! In fact, I’m hoping to do a flash sale soon to get two new sticker designs in print. If you saw this livestream replay, you may know which designs I’m talking about. Hint: Godzilla be thicc.
Here’s the difference – prints and stickers are happening when I want to make them. Not out of a viral art challenge or out of a sense of obligation. I’m making the art I want to make, that I feel called to make, that I think would bring joy to others. I want that to be my driving force moving forward.
Having said that, there are two exceptions (ish) to the final-run art books: Stars of Fantasyville, and CATS. Stars have a ton of extra copies left – like, over 60. I’m not doing another print run because the first print run is still in stock. But I won’t do a second print run of it either.
CATS, on the other hand, will get reprinted as soon as possible. It was only released less than a year ago! It hasn’t had the chance to expand its reach yet. Also, it brings joy to me and many others.
As for the other books? It’s time their runs come to an end.
Don’t get me wrong – the art books did bring me joy at the time. But for reasons including the cost of printing, slumped sales, and discontinued interest, I’m letting the concept go.
Thank you, art books! You brought joy to me and a lot of others. I think it’s time to let you rest so new stuff can be made.
Stay tuned for more of that new stuff – including that flash sale I mentioned.
Thank you for your understanding and your support.
Recently, I gave my studio a makeover. (A video about that will drop on YouTube this Friday, too, if you want to watch it!) After that, I decided to go through storage for its own refresh!
I’ve been making comics and art as a pro since 2013. This means I have a LOT…like, a LOT…of original pieces and extra stock taking up space. It’s time to clear it out and make room for new, exciting projects!
But remember that once any of these are sold, they’re gone forever.
So if you see something you like, nab it while you can. This campaign is “all or nothing,” which means your payment processes at the end of the campaign.
“So wait,” I can hear you asking, “if this is all or nothing, what are you raising funds for?”
Since I’ve been making comics for a while, a lot of my tools need upgrading. In particular, I plan to raise funding for a backup external hard drive (to back up my work), a second monitor to make live streaming easier, a scanner, and a label printer ( to replace the printer/scanner machine that broke). All of these will help in making and shipping new work out faster.
If you want the first notification when the sale goes live, then sign up for the email newsletter! Newsletter peeps get first alerts (and also exclusive comics).
I’m making it official. I am leaving Instagram, and here are my reasons why.
I know. Shocker. It’s yet another declarative blog post, YouTube video, or what have you declaring that yet another person is leaving Instagram. How original.
But I want to list my reasons. I feel that these are different enough from the reasons other folks have cited.
Does this mean I’m encouraging you to leave Instagram? I’m going to leave that up to you. These are just the reasons and arguments that I have for leaving. What you do with this information is up to you.
Reason One: Instagram is designed to keep you on the platform. It does not encourage sales or outward links to other work. There are no hyperlinks unless you make Stories, and Stories only last for 24 hours. There is also the dreaded, “Link in bio,” but doing that adds so many steps that it is not audience- or user-friendly.
Reason Two: my old Instagram account already got stolen. I was able to make a new account and recover a lot of my old followers. But Instagram is still a hotbed for scammers and bad actors.
Are scammers and bad actors exclusive to Instagram? No. But there’s an awful lot more of them lately. It’s gotten so bad that I had to leave a message in my Instagram bio saying, “Do not DM me.” And I know that strangers who send DM’s my direction are more than likely scammers.
Reason Three: I keep in touch with all of my work opportunities, colleagues, and friends outside of Instagram. All of my connections are either on outside platforms or directly with the people that I need to talk to.
Reason Four: I did a social media experiment back in October. In it, I realized that Instagram was the worst-performing platform that I posted to regularly. So if I leave Instagram, I won’t suffer for it.
Reason Five: I’m finding artistic inspiration in places outside of Instagram. To be honest, I’m finding inspiration on YouTube and through indie creator’s email newsletters.
Reason Six: nobody makes money on Instagram. Anybody who says they are is either already rich by other means or is trying to sell you something. And frankly, it is wild to me that some people still use Instagram saying that “it gets them work.” I have never found this to be the case, even since 2018.
And you might ask, “But what if somebody rejects me because I don’t have an Instagram account? Or don’t have enough Instagram followers?”
Any work opportunity that demands you have X amount of Instagram followers is not going to pay you well. It is more than likely a scam. Do not engage.
Every opportunity I applied for an art opportunity asks for your portfolio website first, then any social media handles after. It is more important for you to have a portfolio site than to have a social media account.
Reason Seven: Instagram operates on Skinner box logic. If you are unfamiliar, here’s a link to the Wikipedia article about Skinner boxes. But the short version is that Skinner boxes are designed to randomize results every time you push a button. The endgame is that users who push the buttons try to find reasons why the Skinner box rewards them. The fact that these platforms are randomized and act like slot machines is peak gambling behavior. It WILL warp your brain in bad ways.
Reason Eight: I am not paying Instagram in the form of my attention and labor anymore. This ties into my anti-attention economy manifesto, but it also ties into an argument from Yanis Varoufakis. He argues that platforms like Meta, Google, and Amazon have turned into techno-fiefdoms, extracting rent from their users. And that includes attention and data. Honestly, just give this interview from Adam Conover a watch. It completely changed my outlook on how I interact with the internet at large.
So what’s next?
I will let folks know on Instagram with official announcements. I will still maintain my email newsletter, this blog, and my YouTube and TikTok accounts. That said, TikTok will not see as much activity from me.
Any art that would have gone up on Instagram will instead go up on this website. Having said that though, I don’t have to update it as frequently as Instagram would demand that I do.
That’s another reason that I’m leaving: Instagram demands that you post multiple times a day or multiple times a week. With no breaks. Again, the platform is trying to extract rent from you as much as possible. It’s what it’s designed to do, no matter how much it advertises its timer feature or its “wellness” features.
In short, I am leaving Instagram to engage with other platforms in healthier ways. With boundaries that I set for myself.
I hope you stay tuned, and that you stick around to check out my art and other updates.
