LIVESTREAM – Let’s Start 2024 With Drawing Comics!

Today, on Jan 2, 2024, at 6 pm EST, feel free to lurk while I work in this livestream on some comics to start the new year.

I have free phone wallpapers and other goodies coming this year! To get those, join my email newsletter. It’s free and I protect your info.

Get early updates and behind-the-scenes peaks at The Legend of Jamie Roberts by supporting the comic on Ko-fi. You can get exclusive rewards, too!

By the way, commissions will open next week, along with my special announcement. Stay tuned for more.

And finally, be sure to follow my YouTube channel for shorts, videos, and livestreams!

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

You. Are. Awesome.

2023 – What A Year!

two cats look up sleepily at the viewer. One is a gray older cat, the other is a younger tabby kitten. The tabby is blanketed by a purple crochet blanket

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.

You. Are. Awesome.

Happy Holidays! Here’s a Free Desktop Wallpaper

Happy holidays! I have here a free desktop wallpaper for you to download – fit for the season.

Now, full disclosure, my Fan Club peeps got the first download. (They also get a ton of other exclusive wallpaper downloads as thanks for their pledges.) This one in particular, though, I went, “This is too cute – everyone should have it!”

So here’s the link to download it from my Ko-Fi shop…

For 2024, I want to offer monthly freebies to folks much like this offering. These freebies would include phone wallpapers and hi-res coloring pages. If you would like to get freebies next year, sign up for the email newsletter! The freebies will be shared there.

To get exclusive phone and desktop wallpapers (and early access to my webcomics to boot!), be sure to pledge on Ko-Fi and become a Fan Club member! If Ko-Fi isn’t your speed, you can pledge directly through my Fan Club Page.

Oh! You can also watch how I drew this wallpaper by checking out two videos: This one shows the pencils and inks while I talk about my Inktober social media experiment…

And here is an archived live stream where I show the coloring process!

That’s all for now. Happy Holidays, and I’ll see you in 2024!

Be safe. Because you. Are. Awesome.

I’m Going to SPACE (In Columbus, OH)

Find me at SPACE this weekend! That’s the Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo in Columbus, OH. I’m sharing a table with Canonwrite Productions. Find us at table W26, yo.

If you’re in Columbus – I’m sending a special email to my newsletter subs. It’s about a reward for folks who can make it to SPACE. If you want to know more, get on the newsletter.

Can’t make it to SPACE? That’s ok! There are still plenty of comics to catch up on, from The Legend of Jamie Roberts to Vanita and the Demon King, and my Ko-fi shop and commissions will remain open this weekend.

WHAT I’M BRINGING TO SPACE

At SPACE, I’m marking down all stickers and mystery bags. Stickers are 2 for $1 (or get 1 free with a book purchase), and mystery bags are 2 for $5 (or get 1 free with a book purchase). I want to clear out all the stickers and mystery bags to make room for new things, like more keychains and pins!

I’m also bringing misprints of The Legend of Jamie Roberts, volume 1, available for $12 each. I still have a BUNCH of these, too.

Also at SPACE: original pages from my sketchbooks, a framed piece of art (this one will be pricier), and the last of my 11 x 17 prints. Again, I want to clear out a BUNCH of stuff to make room for new things.

IF TIME ALLOWS…I’ll bring along BOYZ, my Dragonball Z zine. I make no guarantees on this one, though. 

There will be a newsletter sign-up sheet there, as well. Do you think I WOULDN’T talk about my new tabletop RPG, Toe Beans & Broomsticks? I mean, it’s coming out in less than 10 days, on June 17! It’s available on my newsletter first before the rest of the world gets the game. That’s why I’m bringing the sign-up sheet – so folks can sign up to get the game!

Toe Beans & Broomsticks is a game where players roleplay as magic-casting Cat Witches, Dog Warlocks, Crow Witches, and Owl Wizards. Practice magics like Neko-mancy, cast spells like Meow-maturgy or Purr-estidigitation, and fight alongside friends against the dark forces of The Madam.

If you can’t make it to SPACE, but you reeeeeeally want Toe Beans & Broomsticks – good news! You can sign up for the newsletter using this link and get the game on release date.

And with that, I must be going. I have some last-minute prep to do for the show.

BY THE WAY…

I was featured this week on the Columbus Cartoon Coalition’s YouTube channel! Check it out, yo.

That’s all for now. Thanks for reading, and I hope to see you at the show!

You. Are. Awesome.

My “Plump the Post” Zine Submission

an illustration of a plump transgender/nonbinary person holding a flower. Below them is a banner saying "liberation" and above them flies the genderqueer flag.

I can’t remember the exact year that Plump the Post happened. But I think it was no later than 2018.

Plump the Post was a zine collecting art made by and for fat representation. For my entry, I wanted to highlight chubby genderqueer people because they’re valid, too.

(Also Hollywood has a tendency that even IF they highlight trans characters, they’re, 99.9% of the time, skinny.)

The model who served as inspiration for this piece was a friend of a friend, a chubby trans dude whom I am not naming to protect his privacy.

Is the zine available for sale? Well, it’s here.

Will there be another issue? Hard to say.

But I’m glad I participated in it.