Fantasyville Productions Has An Official Website!

fantasyville productions header

Today, I’m introducing Fantasyville Productions’ official website!

Fantasyville Productions is the official name of my business. It’s the name I use when publishing books, releasing prints, and launching KickStarter and Crowdfundr campaigns. Fantasyville focuses primarily on fantasy-themed stories, many with queer characters and/or creators who are LGBTQ+.

The name Fantasyville comes from my first webcomic ever, Johnson & Sir, which took place in the titular town! I named my business endeavor “Productions” to encompass more than just comics.

With this business, I hope to release comics, tabletop games (like Dragon’s Roost and Toe Beans & Broomsticks), pins, keychains (like Be Not Apurred, which recently got successfully funded on KickStarter), and even books by other authors, like Danse Macabre and Other Works by Sean McGavin!

Tune in on the Fantasyville official website for KickStarter news and project updates, as well as appearance and product announcements. Not just from me, but from other creators, as well!

If you would like to see updates from me specifically, like works-in-progress or personal updates, I’ll be posting more on this site and on YouTube. This is especially true since social media is…kind of on fire right now.

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

You. Are. Awesome.

February Pin Club Is Open for New Members

My Pin Club is open for new members once again!

Each month, members of the Pin Club get a new acrylic pin in the mail, plus a new zine, sneak peeks at comic scripts, and early webcomic updates.

This month, we’re celebrating Fantasyville Productions, LLC being around for 5 years! I filed the paperwork for starting this company in 2018. I can’t believe it’s been that long! Most indie businesses don’t last 5 years…and yet, Fantasyville Productions beat the odds.

To celebrate, we’re unveiling this design. It’s Fantasyville Productions’ new official logo – and it’s this month’s Pin!

If you would like to get this, sign up for the Club by Feb 6! Any new sign-ups after that date will be rolled over into March.

Keep in mind – Pin Club memberships are for folks in the USA only. Sorry, my international peeps. I’m working on an option for you.

So if you have the means, join the Pin Club today, yo.

If you’re broke, or unable to join right now, share this post and celebrate Fantasyville Productions’ 5-year anniversary with me!

That’s all for now. I appreciate your support!

You. Are. Awesome.

Is Fantasyville Productions Getting Its Own Site?

In short – YES. Fantasyville Productions will be getting its own website.

WHAT?

Fantasyville Productions, LLC is the company I run that publishes books, art, and merch (including print-on-demand work). There’s plans to expand into other media, as well, such as board games, podcasts, and videos.

WHERE?

The site will be at fantasyvilleproductions.com. Everything connected to Fantasyville Productions will be housed there.

WHEN?

I hope to get the website up AT LEAST after the KickStarter for The Legend of Jamie Roberts, Volume 1. (By the way, the campaign is STILL going! Go back it before March 27 if you can).

HOW?

I tangled with this question for a looooong while. I originally wanted to use a totally new kind of site layout, but in the end, I opted to use WordPress. (The same software this site runs on). I’m familiar with WordPress and know how to use it and tweak it to my ends.

BUT WHY?

Don’t you think it would be nice to have one central hub for all the things that Fantasyville Productions does? I think so! And there’s SO much that Fantasyville is doing right now:

There are so many future plans for Fantasyville Productions, but all of these really need one home. That way, folks can find what they’re looking for.

The email newsletter I run already has the Fantasyville Productions brand to it, so that is not changing. But there may be other social media outlets coming soon.

But first, the website has to be made.

WHAT WILL THAT MEAN FOR THIS WEBSITE?

Well, I have to keep my portfolio SOMEWHERE, don’t I? I also have some other ideas for what to do with kelcidcrawford.com, but I’ll talk about them later.

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

You. Are. Awesome.

A New Horror Story Collection?

monster madness horror sketch art, showing an eyeless, hunched-over, horned monster with a large grin laughing and pointing.

You read right – Fantasyville Productions (the company I run) is working on a new horror short story collection.

My good friend Sean McGavin wrote these stories last year, and I said to him, “Holy banana pants! These stories are good! Let’s get these printed!”

Couple things:

  1. I had never printed a book of prose before. And it turns out – the self-publishing world of prose? VERY different from comics. Because,
  2. It’s tricky to find printers for these kinds of books who are NOT Amazon. And
  3. It’s expensive to hire an editor.

I’m handling the book cover design because I designed all the covers for my books. It’s one of the skills I’m really good at, to be honest.

For an editor, I hired Melanie D., a friend of mine from college who’s very good at what she does. Shout-out to my readers who backed The Case of the Wendigo on KickStarter. They voted to have the leftover funds from that campaign go towards paying Melanie to edit this anthology. (And also go towards two different charities. More info about that can be found in this KickStarter post).

Where will this book be printed? Well, I’m going for Lulu. Unless you have a different recommendation. But when I did my research, Lulu had what I was looking for. (And I’ll go into THAT in a different post).

When will this book be available? Stay tuned on my email newsletter for updates.

Sorry to cut it short, but that’s really all I have for now. Thank you for reading!

You. Are. Awesome.

What’s Next for Fantasyville?

To say this year took me by surprise is an understatement.

My original plans – “just keep doing what I’ve been doing, but go to 10 conventions/shows, not 14” – HAD to shift hard to the left.

As it turned out, though, canceling convention season meant I could work on the following things:

NeverEnding

I started working with these folks back in February this year. In that 10-month window of time, we’ve run a successful KickStarter, started production on a new app, and got some buzz going with Satine Phoenix, the Sirens, and a LOT of tabletop gaming companies. INCLUDING some folks connected to the Hugo Awards (but I can’t give more details). Like, holy dang.

I’m still working with the crew as the Creative Director, leading the art team while we make art for the app. It’s my first time being in charge of other artists. I’m still getting the hang of it.

Livestreams

In lieu of conventions, I ran livestreams. For a while, I did them every Saturday, until I burned out on the schedule. I stopped for a bit to reassess.

It all started with live-draws, where I streamed myself drawing new stuff in Clip Studio Paint. But the most watched streams have been the most recent ones I’ve done: with guests, talking about some business aspects of comics. Things like how to run a successful KickStarter campaign, and converting KickStarter backers into long-time patrons.

The Switch from Patreon to Ko-Fi

I dragged my feet on this decision for a while, until I couldn’t anymore. Patreon just kept on dropping pledges from patrons – often, from the high-tier patrons. And this had been a problem for OVER A YEAR. A problem where, each month, I had to reach out to patrons individually to ask them to check their information. (I had originally reached out in group messages, but a previous patron stopped pledging because they saw this as “public shaming.”)

And then, in the last month, every time I made a new post, the website would just…shut off. My internet connection worked. I could save a DRAFT of a post. But when I hit “publish,” the Patreon site would just…stop.

In short, Patreon as a system has bugs that aren’t being meaningfully addressed, and it’s aggravating myself and other people.

I made the switch to Ko-Fi recently. While it lacks some things (like scheduling posts ahead of time), it has other things Patreon does NOT have. Like more consistent payment processing. And the ability to leave a tip just once.

What’s Next, Though?

I want to continue growing the audience I have on Ko-Fi. It’s a platform with a lot of promise and I want to help it grow. A lot like what I’m doing with NeverEnding, actually.

I also want to keep going with YouTube. Livestreams, yes. But I’m THINKING about dipping my toes back in to making proper, edited videos…I just don’t like editing because I don’t have the right tools for it. So an upgrade to better video editing software is on the table.

Another thing on the table? Better audio recording set-ups. I wrapped up doing vocal tracks for a friend’s punk song and it made me realize…I miss doing audio work.

Other than that? The Legend of Jamie Roberts will keep going. CB and I are remaking some early pages of Tiny Unicorn. We’re also doing more with Tiny Unicorn (and Mr. Dino & Friends) in the near future. BreeBree Bootique is a new project I’m doing with chubby cat art (now on Instagram and RedBubble).

AND…

Keep an eye out for two new book projects that Fantasyville Productions will be releasing in the next few months. One’s a prose anthology, the other is a comics anthology.

I’ll write about those two books in the next update.

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

You. Are. Awesome.