Tag: patreon

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NOW LIVE On KickStarter – Zine Club Pledge Drive!

Now live on KickStarter, it’s the Zine Club Pledge Drive!

I love making zines! 

For the first half of my webcomics-making career, I offered zines as rewards for patrons on Patreon…back when I was on the platform. After I left Patreon, I moved to Ko-Fi and offered the Zine Club as a membership tier. 

And for this latest KickStarter campaign, I’m opening up for new pledges to my Zine Club!

Right now, our membership is small – less than 13 people. We are a pretty cozy community of creative folks. I love them! AND I would love to grow the club to more members. To get more zines out into the world AND to make more webcomics happen!

Growing the Zine Club would also mean less of a need to hustle so much for income. Less hustling means more time for making rewards, too.

With your help, I would LOVE to grow the Zine club to make these goals happen. KEEP IN MIND, These are set intentionally low so we can hit goals and spread the word faster:

(This is already unlocked!) If we raise our Base Goal of $72, all backers and Zine Club members will get the Deluxe version of my tabletop roleplaying game, Toe Beans & Broomsticks! This game was originally designed for Free RPG Day last year. In it, you play as magic-casting cats, crows, dogs, and owls on a Saturday Morning adventure. The Deluxe edition of the game will have updated character tokens, NPCs, and a homebrewed game setting, The Lost Scroll of Madam Jellybean!

(ALSO UNLOCKED!) If we raise $143, all backers and Zine Club members will get the remastered PDF of Thoughtful Dinosaur!

If we raise $220, all backers and Zine Club members will get the PDF of New Punk Signal (The Signal So Far), the spin-off/sequel to Validation featuring everyone’s favorite himbos, Mike & Steve.

At $385, all backers and Zine Club members will get The Lore of Jamie Roberts, the zine containing SO MUCH RESEARCH that went into The Legend of Jamie Roberts. The zine will also contain concept art and a recipe for the pepper soup that appears in Chapter 3 of The Legend.

We also have stretch goals if we go BEYOND $385! But we’ll unlock those when we get there.

Can you pledge and become a member – even for just a month?

Then back this campaign! There are base rewards on the main page, and whichever one you click, you have your choice of add-ons to pick with your bundle!

Broke? Share this campaign far and wide! Sharing is caring and it helps more than you know. The link is tinyurl.com/kzineclub

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

You. Are. Awesome.

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Drawing Cats and Comics – A Live Stream Replay

Today at 6 pm EST, feel free to lurk while I work on cat art for a new Crowdfundr AND draw more comics.

I’m running a Crowdfundr campaign for CATS: The Sketchbook, a collection of cat sketches I drew during Inktober last year. You can check out the campaign, but it’s not live until Friday. Be sure to sign up for the newsletter to get the first notice of when it opens!

You can also play my cat witch tabletop RPG, Toe Beans & Broomsticks, by downloading the rulebook from my ko-fi shop.

To read my genderqueer pirate adventure comic, The Legend of Jamie Roberts, you can read the free version online, or you have the option to get the print version of volume 1 with remastered art and behind-the-scenes content like sketches and bonus comics. Volume 2 is coming to my online shop soon, I promise!

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

You. Are. Awesome.

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LIVE STREAM – Let’s Draw January 2024’s Club Rewards

On Jan 4, 2024 at 6 pm EST, feel free to lurk while I work on rewards for members of my Fan Clubs! While I have some phone wallpapers and coloring pages free to download, Fan Club members get exclusive digital rewards, sneak peeks at my webcomics a week early, members-only comics, AND discounts at my store and for commissions.

Also, I PROMISE I’m working on a livesteam bingo card. Have Patience.

If you would like to join the Fan Club, you can do so on Ko-Fi (or if that’s not your thing, you can join directly through my Fan Club page).

To get free phone wallpapers and other goodies, join my email newsletter!

I have a new project coming out next week on Crowdfundr. Stay tuned for further developments!

And if you’d like to check out my other videos, check out this page or head to my YouTube channel.

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

You. Are. Awesome.

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Alternatives to Patreon

In case you didn’t see it, I had a chat with comics buddy Jade, creator of Ask the Werewolves and Fox Me Gently. In the video (now on YouTube), we discussed why we left Patreon and alternatives to the platform we found.

I highly recommend giving it a watch! It’s less than an hour and a half long. But if you need cliff notes, here are some highlights.

Jade and I Both Left for Security Reasons

I left Patreon in 2018-ish, returned in 2021, and then left again last year. And I did that because Patreon had laid off their security team.

Jade left on March 1 (just over a week ago!) for the same reasons. On top of that, she found out that Patreon is outsourcing its security to an outside company. One that may sell the data of any NSFW creators at any time.

Not only that – Patreon requires creators who make NSFW content to post their IDs for face recognition software (already a YIKES). But patrons are not scrutinized to the same level. Any patron can check off a box saying, “Yes, I’m over 18,” even if they aren’t. If Patreon’s goal was to stop underage consumption of NSFW content, this policy is a failure.

What a Platform Deems as NSFW is Often Never Defined Until You’re Punished

Ko-Fi is a Patreon alternative, but it has its faults. The first of which is that yes, you can mark your page as NSFW. But you’re not allowed to post NSFW content on Ko-Fi.

This is already a “…What?” But don’t worry, it gets worse.

I’ve shared this story in multiple places, but I’ll repeat it here – back in August 2022, my Ko-Fi page got taken down by the platform. They did not email me about it. They did not tell me why they did it. I had to reach out to them and ask why. They only responded, “You’re posting content we disapprove of. Please remove it.”

No specifics. No details. Just that.

By process of elimination, I figured it had to be one of two posts I did shortly before the take-down. It was either this page of The Legend of Jamie Roberts that dared to show off male nipples. Or it was a product listing with the words “Fuck off” in the title.”

To be safe, I removed both. And my page was immediately up.

That scared the hell out of me. So I researched alternative platforms in earnest.

Alternatives DO Exist.

Thankfully, there are sites like Buy Me A Coffee, Stripe, and Big Cartel. Jade and I discuss other options in the video (which you really ought to watch). But we do hope that these are just the start. We both hope that there are innovators out there who want to build alternatives to Patreon and Ko-Fi.

(And now for the shameless plug.)

I chose to build my own alternative from scratch, using Stripe to process payments. I’m calling this Subscribe.

By going to Subscribe, you can choose a Club that works best for you and your budget! To check out the options, head over to Subscribe. Members get early webcomic updates, exclusive crowdfunding rewards, and discounts on commissions. The more you pledge, the more rewards you get.

That’s all for now. Thanks for reading!

You. Are. Awesome.

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Introducing – Zine Club 2.0

characters from the Charlie & Clow adventures are celebrating the holidays - from the Fantasyville Holiday special zine

If you don’t know, I created an alternative to Patreon for my fans and myself – my Subscribe page. On this page are 3 different clubs, each with rewards that stack the more that you pledge.

Previously, one of these clubs was only for folks who lived in the United States: the Zine Club. As part of the rewards, I mailed physical zines to members each month. For the sake of how much postage costs, I kept the reward to only folks who were based in the US. International shipping just cost too much.

But now, things are DIFFERENT…

It started with the zine I made for February. I made THAT zine digital, because of how I formatted the pages. It just couldn’t work to make it a print book, so I made it a PDF download instead.

Then I thought, “What if I did that…EVERY month?”

Because here’s the thing – I’ve made a few comics exclusively for digital release, not print. Comics like PuzzleSpell, for instance.

So I did some poking around on the backend, updating the Stripe system, making a special segment of my newsletter, and now, we have…

ZINE CLUB 2.0!

By joining for a subscription of $5 a month, you get a new zine downloadable sent to your inbox before the end of the month. No shipping is necessary! Plus you get early webcomic updates and behind-the-scenes news in your inbox each week.

Here’s What’s Next

If you are currently a Zine Club member, you don’t have to do anything. Everything will continue as normal.

If you aren’t subscribed, use this link to sign up.

Are you a Pin Club member but wish to downsize? Here’s where you do that. (It’s also the place to go if you’re a Zine Club member and want to upgrade to the Pin Club.)

If you’re a Digital Club member and want to upgrade to the Zine Club 2.0, reach out to me directly. I have to make certain adjustments because of backend stuff.

Bottom Line…

I’m VERY excited about Zine Club 2.0. Now anybody worldwide can join – and I have SO MANY fun comics and zine Ideas!

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

You. Are. Awesome.