indie comics Archives - Page 9 of 30

January 12, 2023January 11, 2023

Coming Soon: Vanita and the Demon King

A thousand years ago, the Demon King and his armies marched across the lands, terrorizing the people who crossed their paths. Only one man stood up to the Demon King, and his name…was Richard.

At least, this is the history Vanita grew up with her whole life.

Her story takes place in the present day. But one morning, on her usual jog in the park, she comes across the legendary Demon King himself – heavily beaten and close to exhaustion in the bushes.

And so begins this domestic story of a trans girl trying to make sense of the fabled Demon King passing out on her couch.

The Origins

This concept all started with this sketch.

concept for vanita and the demon king page 1

concept for vanita and the demon king page 2

(In the beginning, the Demon was a Golem, but the more I researched it I went, “Nah. Demon.”) So I started with this sketch and the notion of wanting to make a slice-of-life/romance story. But I made it a fantasy with a demon king because…fantasy is my MO.

(To be honest, if I have an idea for a story but it doesn’t click with me for some reason, I’ll transplant it into a fantasy setting. Then the story clicks. It works 98 percent of the time.)

The Twist

So I started scripting the story as part of the National Novel Writing Month challenge in 2021. I was a rebel that year and drew thumbnails for the script of Vanita and the Demon King.

As I scripted the story, something happened that surprised even me…

Claudia, from The Case of the Wendigo, showed up.

vanita meets claudia from The Case of the Wendigo

And that’s when I went, “Wait…is this…a spiritual sequel to The Case of the Wendigo? Is this another Charlie & Clow adventure?!”

Yes.

I know! I’m surprised, too. It only took…4 or 5 years from The Case of the Wendigo going to print to the beginning of production for Vanita and the Demon King.

The story is 90 percent scripted with an outline in mind for the very end. I only have roughly 20 pages or so left to thumb.

After That…Will There Be a Crowdfunding Campaign?

Yes!

At first, I thought I would need to pivot because of Journey of the Mystery. But thankfully that project is being handled separately. By doing that, it frees up time to focus on getting Vanita and the Demon King funded before launch.

How?

Well, I’m looking at running a campaign on either KickStarter or Crowdfundr. Both have their pros and cons, which I’ll talk about more tomorrow.

Whichever platform I pick, though, I hope to launch it soon.

The goal is to get certain back-end costs covered. A domain name for a website and website hosting are the two biggest concerns right now. Extra funding after that can help with overhead during production.

If you would like to see more development sketches – or get the first notice when the crowdfunding campaign launches – sign up for my email newsletter.

Your email is secret with me. I don’t sell it anywhere. Plus I only post once a week unless it’s a special occasion. Like if you’re Subscribed to any Clubs I run.

I hope you’re excited about Vanita and the Demon King! I know I am.

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

You. Are. Awesome.

January 11, 2023January 11, 2023

What’s Next for Journey of the Mystery?

So I made Journey of the Mystery during the 24-hour comic day challenge. All 24 pages. Done.

What’s Next for This Comic?

I had a chat with the project organizer of the Comic Book Jamboree. And we’re figuring out the next steps to get this book to print together.

Which…is exciting!

It also means that any crowdfunding campaigns for this comic are not happening soon.

I think that’s fine for now. I had another crowdfunding campaign in mind anyway. One for another comic idea, Vanita and the Demon King. I’ll talk about that story in tomorrow’s update.

But I DID ask about one thing I wanted to do with Journey of the Mystery. And thankfully, I can move forward with this idea.

journey of the mystery, a comic coloring book by kelci d crawford (and you)

Here’s a Coloring Book download of Journey of the Mystery!

Believe it or not, I wanted this comic to do double duty from the start. I wanted a finished version and a coloring book version of this story, so that it can be told AND exist for you to make your own.

If you want to download this coloring book version, head over to my Ko-Fi shop. It’s there now for $2+, and any extra you give gets you access to behind-the-scenes things through the Digital Club for one month.

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

You. Are. Awesome.

January 9, 2023January 9, 2023

24-Hour Comic Book Day – DONE

I DID IT. I successfully made 24 pages of comics in 24 hours!

Technically I did it in 22 hours and 11 minutes. And BOY am I still exhausted.

Here are some teaser pages of the story I made in the challenge.

And that’s just the first 4 pages!

I also streamed the process of making this comic on YouTube. As I’m writing this, an archived version is not available yet but will be soon.

What’s Next?

Well, I made this comic with the folks at Comic Book Jamboree. Right now they’re judging the entries from folks who participated in the challenge. I at least made the top 3! Check out the official page to see the other finalists. Their work is *chef’s kiss*.

No matter what, though, I have plans with this comic. I hope to get it to print soon. And maybe even…make a coloring book out of it. I mean, this coloring page on Ko-Fi was the inspiration for this story.

Stay tuned for more updates.

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

You. Are. Awesome.

January 7, 2023January 6, 2023

24-Hour Comic Day with #ComicBookJam

Join me, starting on Jan 7, 2023, at 11 am EST – for the 24-Hour Comic Day challenge! I’m joining the fantastic folks at Comic Book Jamboree with #ComicBookJam.

As a heads up – I WILL NOT be responding to the live chat during this challenge. Why? I signed up to do 24 pages in 24 hours. This will require my total concentration.

I WILL, however, be checking in once in a while. If you comment or act in bad faith, I will put you in time out or block you.

If you would like to see the other artists – or join the challenge – check out the Eventbrite page, as well!

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

You. Are. Awesome.

January 2, 2023January 2, 2023

New Pin UNLOCKED!

a dragon baby with the transgender pride flag colors

Thanks to Subscriber support through my indie clubs, we have unlocked the Trans Pride Dragon Baby Pin!

Originally, I created this baby dragon design as part of a Crowdfundr I ran last year. But thankfully these designs are great for keychains AND pins. So it was easy to take this design and make it into a pin instead.

We didn’t get to make this pin for the Crowdfundr. But I didn’t give up on it!

Instead, this is what I did. I set this goal:

If we made it to 10 Subscribers, then we would unlock this Pin as a reward for Pin Club members. And then we did it!

Subscribe and the Clubs connected to it are my alternative to Patreon. I built this service myself using Stripe as the payment processor. I could get into why I left Patreon, but that’s a separate post I’ll write up later.

Anyway, Subscribe exists for folks who want to subscribe and get extra perks. Right now there are 3 Clubs available – The Digital Club, The Zine Club, and the Pin Club.

This new Trans Pride Dragon pin has been unlocked for members of the Pin Club. I’ll print up extra so they can also be available for Digital and Zine Club members at a special discount.

What’s Our Next Goal?

Well, if we can get to 15 Subscribers, then my webcomic The Legend of Jamie Roberts will have a bonus update each month! It currently updates every Wednesday. But if we reach 15 Subscribers, an extra new page of the webcomic can drop on the first Friday of each month!

Surprisingly – as of this post – we’re two Subscribers away from this next goal!

So if you can join, there’s more info on my Subscribe page. You can join and cancel anytime, no questions asked.

Alternatively, if pins aren’t your thing, you can join the Digital Club on Ko-Fi. (This link is a mirror to my Digital Club offering through Subscribe. The Zine and Pin Clubs are exclusive to my website here and will not be on Ko-Fi).