Inktober is an artist’s challenge to draw in ink every day during October. Usually, artists will follow an official prompt list, or make their own.
I don’t do that. I pick a theme and draw to it.
In 2017, I drew Witches. In 2018, Gods & Spirits. 2019 – Dragons. Then I collected those sketches into books. In 2020, I drew Landscapes and Cats. 2021 – I drew a comic panel every day and it became Puzzlespell (coming to PDF very soon).
This year, I’m drawing my characters! These folks are from my comics, written works, and roleplaying games. At the end of the month, I fully intend on collecting these sketches into a new art book.
Without further ado, I’d like to share with you the first week of Inktober sketches – up to Day 6.
Here’s Day 1 – Acrudon, a former demon turned human from The Case of the Wendigo and the upcoming Vanita & The Demon King (working title).
Follow that up with Day 2 – Claudia, a witch and Acrudon’s partner from The Case of the Wendigo and the upcoming Vanita & The Demon King (working title).
Then, Day 3 – Vanita, a witch from the upcoming Vanita & The Demon King (working title).
Finally, for this week, Day 6 – Prince Malus, a shadow elf from my current campaign of Dungeons & Dragons. He also stars in The Prince of Shadows (a work in progress).
More sketches will be shared next Thursday! In the meantime, keep an eye on my Instagram and YouTube channels. I do live streams on those platforms showing off how I draw these sketches.
Seeing Him Written by Kai and Drawn by me. June 2015.
Seeing Him is the story of Kate, a roller skating rink owner, and Adam, a transgender doctor, who fall in love and start making a life together. Also, shenanigans ensue.
Since its publication online in 2015, Seeing Him has had two homes – both of which, unfortunately, ended up closing down.
But the third time’s the charm! Seeing Him is now available as a PDF download in my Ko-Fi shop for $1.
As an addendum: In the original webcomic run of the story, a page in Chapter 2 had a deeply negative reception. After a review of the comic, I – Kelci – have elected to remove this page from the final product. This is because the page in question did not impact the rest of the story in any meaningful way. I have done this for the comfort of the reader, and to reflect the growth of the author and artist behind this project.
So if you have the means, get the PDF comic over on Ko-Fi!
The roller derby girl from Validation has starred in her own adventures before. Now, this new book collects all of them in one place!
In this book, all 30 original-run comic strips will be reprinted in full color (with retouched artwork as needed). Plus bonus content like character art and original scripts… and a preface by CB, the creator of Validation who has a WHOLE bunch of credits to her name!
Here are some specs about the book:
This book measures 5.5 inches tall and 8.5 inches wide.
Printed in full color.
Saddle-stapled.
Roughly 25 pages.
You might have some questions for me. Let’s address them here.
“Why aren’t you running this on Kickstarter?”
I actually wrote a lengthy blog post about my disagreement with one of Kickstarter’s most recent decisions. On the one hand, I COULD run a campaign on the platform while still posting that their decision is a bad one. (After all, other creators have posted similar sentiments right on their campaign’s front pages. Pressure like this HAS gotten KickStarter to change their minds on other issues in the past.)
Or, I can use ko-fi as a platform and run a book pre-order. I LOVE ko-fi, ever since I switched to the platform a couple of years ago. Ko-fi has only gotten better and more robust since I joined. I believe in it and I want it to succeed! To that end, I want to run this pre-order on ko-fi to test out some features that Kickstarter may not have. (Also, keeping track of add-ons is WAY easier to do on Ko-Fi!)
“Do I need to read Validation before reading this comic?”
I like to think it’s a perk, not a requirement. You can totes read this as a standalone story.
“Who wrote and drew this book?”
I did! I get the confusion, though – Validation was written by CB and drawn by me. Roxie is set in the same universe. But CB let me have free reign to write and draw this story.
“Your book is $10?”
Because it’s free shipping for US backers! Shipping costs are already factored into the price. (Sorry, UK and Canada, but shipping is a little extra for you to cover the difference.)
“I FOR SURE want the book! What else can I get?”
You have options!
You can get just the book for $10.
OR, you can get the book and a Roxie sticker for $15 (free shipping again for US backers).
OR, you can get the book, the Roxie sticker, AND a Macho Mujeres keychain for $20 (once again, free shipping for US backers).
You can also browse the rest of my ko-fi shop for any cool add-ons you would like to add! I’ll ship them all together for you. I also have a commission section, though I think that needs to be rung up as a separate transaction.
“What if I want a PDF?”
That will have to be a separate store listing. Sorry, but ko-fi is specific about individual item listings in their shop feature. Also, the PDF is, like, 80% done for printer purposes. Formatting it for digital sales is a different process.
“Oh, this is a pre-order! When will my order arrive?”
After May 1, but before June 15. I’m leaving a few weeks’ buffers just in case something happens at my comic book printers’ HQ.
“Why should I support you?”
Do you mean, OTHER than the fact that I have 10 other successful crowdfunding campaigns under my belt? Because I’m a genderqueer comic artist who REALLY loves making comics and sharing them with the world! I’ve been at it non-stop since 2013.
Also, I’ll just throw this out there: by purchasing this pre-order, you become a sidekick on my ko-fi! That means that, no matter what you pledge, you get access to ko-fi supporter-only content. Things like exclusive webcomics, podcasts, and other goodies.
“Great! How long are you accepting pre-orders?”
UNTIL APRIL 30 at 11:59 pm EST. After that, the listing will switch to “Draft.” That way, I can fulfill orders without fear of last-minute purchases that would throw off my numbers.
Can you support this book? Marvelous! Are you broke? Share this! Use tinyurl.com/roxie-book to share with your peeps.
The other day, I got on Twitter, because I’m back on that platform for the fun of it. (Follow me for RPG content and hot takes). While scrolling, I spotted a Critical Role fanart piece. For folks not in the know, Critical Role is a show where nerdy voice actors sit around and play Dungeons & Dragons. In the fanart, The Dungeon Master sits at a table with miniatures scattered across it. The miniatures, of course, are the players’ characters.
One of the responses to this fanart said, “Hey! This is so good! Shout this out to Crit Role so they can use this into their intro sequence instead of using colonialism!”
Did that make you scratch your head? Here’s the missing piece:
Critical Role’s intro reel shows the cast in explorer costumes, poking around fantasy ruins. This is a callback to fiction like Edgar Rice Burroughs (Tarzan) and H. Rider Haggard (King Solomon’s Mines). You know…fiction where rich white explorers poke around “lost continents” (read: Africa and India) to search for treasure.
Burroughs and Haggard wrote in a time when this narrative was seen as “romantic” and “adventurous.” Nowadays, this isn’t as good – it’s seen as exploitative of the native people. (Because it is).
Thing is, this Twitter commenter got me thinking about my own comic, The Legend of Jamie Roberts. It’s about a genderqueer pirate and their two best friends treasure-hunting in a land full of dragons. This is true – but it also leaves out the Indigenous people I have in the story. Put a pin in that for a second.
One of the works that inspired this comic is the Dreamworks movie The Road to El Dorado. It’s no joke that this movie is a foundational piece of who I am as a person. A LOT of my humor and sensibilities stem from this movie. (And The Emperor’s New Groove, but that’s for a different time).
Here’s a secret about The Road to El Dorado, though…
When the movie came out, the ads declared that this movie would have a “respectful presentation” of Central American history. Why? Because the art and animation teams went on location to do research. So imagine the backlash the movie got when people watched it and said, “ah shit, of COURSE the Indigenous people think the two white guys are gods.”
Now, Breadsword on YouTube already did a fantastic video on the history behind The Road to El Dorado. So watch that for more context. But the reality is: The Road to El Dorado is a callback NOT to Indigenous Central Americans. It’s a callback to Bob Hope and Bing Crosby comedies. The Road to El Dorado’s twist was that not everyone believed the two protagonists were gods. But the doubters kept up the charade for the sake of the people.
When I rewatched this movie for roughly the 187th time, I thought, “What if white people came to a new land… and actually INTEGRATED instead of raiding?”
That’s how I started writing The Legend of Jamie Roberts. At least…one of the previous drafts.
Now, The Legend of Jamie Roberts DOES have three white people plotting to rob Indigenous people. I’m not going to sugarcoat that. They’re pirates, after all. So what’s my twist?
Well, in Chapter 6, Jamie Roberts is going to do something that has lasting consequences. And they destroy something. And for the rest of the story, they have to deal with the consequences of their actions… and the reactions of the Indigenous people.
In Chapters 7 and 8, the story is going to shift from “I’m seeking treasure” to “I’m seeking redemption.”
That’s right – I’m going to subvert the White Explorer narrative.
The trajectory of “I’m seeking redemption” has been at the core of the story since the start. It took several drafts and many years of writing to figure out WHY. But I’m confident in this final draft of the story.
I hope you stick with me. Because The Legend of Jamie Roberts is about to get REALLY juicy.
Today at 2 pm EDT, I’m drawing a page for my webcomic, The Legend of Jamie Roberts! Tune in if you love dragons, genderqueer pirates, and kicking monster butt.
Got questions? I’ll answer them LIVE! But you need to post them in either YouTube or Twitch chats.
