Tag: art

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A2CAF 2025 – A Success!

a2caf table setup

I have come back from A2CAF 2025, which was a MASSIVE success!

Holy banana pants. I’ve been to this show twice, and both times, I come back with my heart so full. It’s a great time every time I get to go. This year was no different.

I gotta’ give some shout-outs!

  • to D Bradford Gambles, Jessi Zabarsky, and Ari for being great table neighbors!
  • to Ben Wright-Heuman for the ride.
  • to Scott McCloud for being so hyped when I told him about The Legend of Jamie Roberts! Thank you for getting volume 1!
  • to Kat Tuesday for the rad comics and the unexpected compliment about my coloring work.
  • to everybody who stopped at my table! Especially to the kiddos who were so psyched about my pirate comics and all of my kitty zines.

I also have to shout-out the organizers for putting together the Quick Draw! The Quick Draw is a drawing competition where two artists square off and draw prompts from the audience. Have a look at what I drew!

There aren’t a ton of pictures because good golly Mister molly, the event got PACKED. So many people came by to check out indie comics! We even had some folks from the No Kings protest trickle in. Here’s my favorite protest sign.

no kings protest sign

(Also I got some great protest posters from a zinester walking around. If you’re reading this, you know who you are. And You’re AWESOME).

So…What’s Next?

My next event is July 19 at the Toledo Comic Arts Festival in the Toledo Lucas County Public Library (Main Branch). The fest runs from 10 am to 4 pm. I’ll also be doing a quick draw-like event there, and showing off my comics and zines!

Speaking of zines, holy banana pants I sold so many of them at A2CAF! I need to reprint more. (If you have the means to leave a tip on Ko-fi, that will help towards the cost of printer ink!) I also need to order more copies of The Case of the Wendigo because DANG, y’all made me almost sell out of copies!

But what about between now and Toledo Comic Arts Fest?

Well, I’m giving my YouTube channel an overhaul. Like, I’m not doing Shorts anymore. Why? Because I made changes behind-the-scenes to disconnect more from social media, so there’s no incentive for me to keep making them.

I’m going back and forth on whether to keep doing livestreams on my channel. You can still find me making appearances on Ben’s Twitch and YouTube. Right now we’re playing the indie game Wadanohara and the Great Blue Sea!

As for my own YouTube channel? I want to go back to making the videos I want to make, not what “the algorithm” is trying to make me do. You can keep an eye on this website, though, for more on that.

I’m still making webcomics! Check out The Legend of Jamie Roberts AND Vanita and the Demon King. I’m also hoping to launch An Ignorance of Romance next week! Watch my email newsletter to get the first scoop.

More to come, including future comic reviews and other good stuff!

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

You. Are. Awesome.

P.S. For my fellow comics makers, The Orange Peel is a quarterly comics zine that’s currently accepting submissions for “classified ads.” This is a good way to promote your comic project and/or KickStarter!

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No Watching YouTube for 31 Days

I’m going to try a personal challenge – no watching YouTube for the next 31 days.

That’s right. For the month of May, I’m going to make the effort to NOT watch YouTube. (This likely means no new YouTube videos on my channel, either. Apologies in advance to my YouTube channel subscribers. I will, however, be doing workshops with the Cartoonist Co-op as part of Nib and Ink Fest, and those workshops will be up on their YouTube channel. I’ll post links to those workshops in the next few days.)

“But WHY?” You might ask. “YouTube is everywhere! How can you possibly do no YouTube for the month of May?!”

So, before I get into the How, let me tell you the Why.

Why #1 – May is a BUSY month for me.

I mentioned the workshops I’m doing with the Cartoonist Co-op as part of Nib and Ink Fest. I will also be packing up and preparing to move to a new apartment before the end of the month.

“You could just put YouTube on in the background – “

No. That’s part of my next Why.

Why #2 – YouTube is More Distraction Than Helpful.

I need to keep my hands busy, usually with making comics and art, or packing my apartment up for the move. I can’t be distracted with shiny visuals. Also, I have caught myself – multiple times – scrolling YouTube to try to find *something* to turn on, but realizing that nothing is catching my interest.

This leads me to…

Why #3 – YouTube isn’t FUN anymore.

collage of my frustrations with YouTube as a platform

I made this collage yesterday to make art out of my frustration with YouTube. Because YouTube used to be fun.

Used to be.

Now, because of its algorithms prioritizing the same content delivered in roughly 1700 different ways (seriously, HOW MANY videos are there talking about “productivity” or “things I do to stop doomscrolling” – on a platform formulated for doomscrolling). There’s also the sponsors who are 99% of the time scams, the ads, and my once-favorite YouTube creators no longer being favorites…

Well, it’s time that I take a break from YouTube.

So, HOW am I not going to watch YouTube?

How #1 – the Unhook extension.

The Unhook extension built for Firefox has commands for when you *do* end up on YouTube. Unhook does things like turning off Shorts, bringing you to your subscription feed instead of the front page, turning off the comments section, and other quality of life fixes.

I’m leaving this extension on in case I have a moment of weakness and end up on YouTube. That way, Unhook makes sure I only see what’s in my subscription feed. Which, right now, is looking slim, since I unsubscribed from a lot of people who stopped being fun for me to watch.

How #2 – audiobooks.

I have a long-ass TBR list of audiobooks on hoopla, an app available from my public library. It’s basically free Audible (so stop paying for Audible. You literally get hoopla and Libby – two audiobook apps – free thanks to your tax dollars). So instead of turning on YouTube, I’ll turn on an audiobook.

OR, I’ll turn on…

How #3 – podcasts.

This one might be trickier for me, as I’m trying to cut down on the number of apps on my phone. Podcast apps are freaking storage hogs. Also, as it turns out, a lot of podcasts I listen to don’t have episodes available on their websites. Their websites are basically place holders to tell people, “Listen to us on Spotify!” Which does nothing to help me.

Still, some podcasts have their episodes on their websites, and those will be super helpful this month. I also have some of my favorite episodes downloaded onto my laptop, which I don’t mind listening to The Dollop talking about the 1904 New York to Paris Car Race for the 17th time.

How #4 – music.

Y’all. My music playlist on my hard drive is entirely too big and I don’t play it enough. I gotta turn on some tunes!

Also, my library offers an app called Freegal, where you can download 5 songs a month – for free – that you can keep forever on your devices. Freegal’s music library is a little tricksy to navigate, and they don’t have everything. Still, I like that they have some of my favorite bands on there.

If Freegal’s not your speed, hoopla also has music. Hoopla has a lot of songs that Freegal does not, like Chapelle Roan.

So here’s something I’d love to hear from you: how do you listen to podcasts? Let me know in the comments, because I really want to listen to more podcasts!

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

You. Are. Awesome.

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Now on Crowdfundr – A New Collaboration, “An Ignorance of Romance”!

Announcing: a new collaboration with Kai (co-creator of Seeing Him) on a new webcomic project! “An Ignorance of Romance: Adventures in Wooing” is now on Crowdfundr, looking for support.

An Ignorance of Romance is the story of an unfortunately straight young man named Lian, tasked by his father The Duke with embarking on a quest to find his True Love™. Assisted by his squire, the two encounter Amber, a warrior woman searching for her lost husband. Adventures and attempted seductions ensue!

Here are some sketches we have finished so far for production!

pencil sketches of a young, effeminate man with two different haircuts
sketches of a lady knight and her facial expressions, from determined to perplexed
a sketch of a knight looking off-camera, one arm propped on the handle of a battle hammer
sketches of swords

Kai and I are running a small Crowdfundr campaign to cover the cost of domain registration and webhosting costs so we can host this comic ourselves. We also want to cover the labor for the first handful of pages of the webcomic.

We have some fun rewards available, including (but not limited to):

  • Early access to the webcomic pages!
  • Commissions!
  • And even the opportunity to be drawn as a character in the comic!

This campaign will run for one month, starting March 28 and ending on April 27, 2025.

And full disclosure – we are running this as a “Keep It All” campaign, not “All-or-Nothing” like KickStarter. This way, we can start production as soon as possible!

If you have any other questions, check out the campaign first!

Broke? Share this campaign with your friends! Sharing is caring and helps more than you know.

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

You. Are. Awesome.

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The Membership Campaign’s FINAL COUNTDOWN

a header shows kelcidcrawford on ko-fi. Under the "Memberships" tab are 3 options - Digital Club at $3 per month, the Zine + Sticker Club at $5 per month, and the Art Club at $10 per month

It’s the Ko-fi Membership Campaign’s FINAL COUNTDOWN (queue “The Final Countdown” by Europe).

To celebrate, I’m running a YouTube livestream on the final day, Jan 31 at 6 pm ET. Feel free to tune in, watch me draw, and let me answer any questions you may have about Ko-fi.

As a reminder, we are at 10 members currently – we’re trying to get to 12 members by the end of Jan 31! By doing that, all members (new and current) will get a Little Caticorn mini-print, a Prince Odinon mini-print, and a Caticorns zine.

If you’re interested in becoming a member, head to my Ko-fi Memberships page and check the options that work best for you.

Broke? There are two free things you can do: Subscribe to my YouTube channel and spread the word about the Membership Drive! Sharing is caring and helps a lot.

Thank you for your support!

You. Are. Awesome.

P.S. I’m also available for Valentine’s Day commissions. More info is on my Commissions page.

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The Membership Drive Have Slowed. Will It Pick Back Up?

Things have really slowed down in the Ko-fi Membership Drive. Will things pick back up?

Here’s what we’ve got so far:

  • We made it to 10 total members on my page! Which means all members will get a Little Caticorn mini-print mailed out to them after Jan 31.
  • At 12 members, all members will get that mini-print PLUS a Caticorns pocket zine mailed to them.
  • That Caticorns zine got drawn live on YouTube! You can catch the replay here.
  • We still need to hit the 12 member threshold for folks to get this zine. Which means we just need two more people to join the club!

So if you have the means, consider joining as a Ko-fi Member on my page!

If you are broke, do not stress about it. Seriously. The two best things you can do to support this drive if you’re broke as heck are:

  • Spread the word to the folks in your life who like comics about genderqueer pirates, caticorns, dragons, and adventure! Use the link ko-fi.com/kelcidcrawford
  • Subscribe to my YouTube channel. My other goal this year is to get to 1,000 subscribers on YouTube before the end of the year. It’s free and you get to see my art process in my livestreams!

That’s all I’ve got for now. Spread the word and get some zines!

Thank you for your support.

You. Are. Awesome.