Category: announcements

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I’m Discontinuing Art Books (For Now) – Here’s Why

a zine opens to two illustrations. On the left is a dragon in a vest, holding a magic staff. On the right is a dragon man, wielding a dagger and shield. Fingers from a white hand hold the spread open.

I’m discontinuing the print runs for my art books, including Witches, Gods & Spirits, and Dragons. Here’s why.

First, the cost of printing has gone up. Since 2021, the cost of printing books has increased across all the printers I work with. This is especially true for the printer who runs Witches, Gods & Spirits, and Dragons. (Stars of Fantasyville and CATS got printed with a different company.)

Second, when I looked at my sales stats across the decade, the numbers shocked me. I ran my numbers to account for which books earned the most from crowdfunding AND convention sales.   Dragons and Gods & Spirits barely made it in the top 10 overall earners list and the top 10 earned per year list. Neither title made it to the top 5 in either. Witches only made one list (top earners overall). 

And that’s if I took out Johnson & Sir from the stats. If I left that title in, the outlook for those art books looked worse.

Third, and this is the big one for me – I’m feeling called not to make any more art books. My energy wants to make more comics, and any art that’s not comics wants to be stickers and prints. Not art books.

I also want to work on and grow The Legend of Jamie Roberts. It’s hard to do that when time and energy are being put into art books that cost more and more to print but sell less and less. So I’m taking art books out of the equation, so more time and sweat can go where it wants to go – making comics.

So what does this mean?

Well, there are some shops I sell on consignment with who are carrying the last of my art books. Last week I dropped off the final copies of Witches and Gods & Spirits at Handmade Toledo. Quimby’s in Chicago and Indie Northern KY are also options if those are closer to you.

This also means no Junicorn or Inktober art books for the foreseeable future. My energy is not called to participate in those challenges anymore. So I’m going to honor that. I would rather pursue things out of joy and curiosity, not obligation. And Inktober doesn’t inspire me the way it used to.

The good news is – if you want art, prints and stickers are still happening! In fact, I’m hoping to do a flash sale soon to get two new sticker designs in print. If you saw this livestream replay, you may know which designs I’m talking about. Hint: Godzilla be thicc.

Here’s the difference – prints and stickers are happening when I want to make them. Not out of a viral art challenge or out of a sense of obligation. I’m making the art I want to make, that I feel called to make, that I think would bring joy to others. I want that to be my driving force moving forward.

Having said that, there are two exceptions (ish) to the final-run art books: Stars of Fantasyville, and CATS. Stars have a ton of extra copies left – like, over 60. I’m not doing another print run because the first print run is still in stock. But I won’t do a second print run of it either. 

CATS, on the other hand, will get reprinted as soon as possible. It was only released less than a year ago! It hasn’t had the chance to expand its reach yet. Also, it brings joy to me and many others.

As for the other books? It’s time their runs come to an end.

Don’t get me wrong – the art books did bring me joy at the time. But for reasons including the cost of printing, slumped sales, and discontinued interest, I’m letting the concept go.

Thank you, art books! You brought joy to me and a lot of others. I think it’s time to let you rest so new stuff can be made.

Stay tuned for more of that new stuff – including that flash sale I mentioned.

Thank you for your understanding and your support.

You. Are. Awesome.

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Coming This Friday, It’s the Spring Cleaning Sale!

it's the fantasyville spring cleaning sale header! Shown here are the original pages for The Case of the Wendigo and Thoughtful Dinosaur, as well as three pins.

Coming this Friday, the Spring Cleaning Sale is coming to Crowdfundr!

Moving forward, I will not run future campaigns on KickStarter, but that’s a topic for a different day. (If you want an idea for why, I wrote about this previously, plus some behind-the-scenes stuff has been revealed.) That said, Crowdfundr is the best platform for the Spring Cleaning Sale.

Recently, I gave my studio a makeover. (A video about that will drop on YouTube this Friday, too, if you want to watch it!) After that, I decided to go through storage for its own refresh!

I’ve been making comics and art as a pro since 2013. This means I have a LOT…like, a LOT…of original pieces and extra stock taking up space. It’s time to clear it out and make room for new, exciting projects!

But remember that once any of these are sold, they’re gone forever.

So if you see something you like, nab it while you can. This campaign is “all or nothing,” which means your payment processes at the end of the campaign.

“So wait,” I can hear you asking, “if this is all or nothing, what are you raising funds for?”

Since I’ve been making comics for a while, a lot of my tools need upgrading. In particular, I plan to raise funding for a backup external hard drive (to back up my work), a second monitor to make live streaming easier, a scanner, and a label printer ( to replace the printer/scanner machine that broke). All of these will help in making and shipping new work out faster. 

If you want the first notification when the sale goes live, then sign up for the email newsletter! Newsletter peeps get first alerts (and also exclusive comics).

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

You. Are. Awesome.

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I’m Leaving Instagram, Here’s Why

I'm leaving instagram! Shown here is an artist-rendered selfie gesturing to a balloon. The balloon reads "find me instead on YouTube, youtube.com/@kelcidcomics." Below are the words "thank you for your support! You. Are. Awesome."

I’m making it official. I am leaving Instagram, and here are my reasons why.

I know. Shocker. It’s yet another declarative blog post, YouTube video, or what have you declaring that yet another person is leaving Instagram. How original.

But I want to list my reasons. I feel that these are different enough from the reasons other folks have cited.

Does this mean I’m encouraging you to leave Instagram? I’m going to leave that up to you. These are just the reasons and arguments that I have for leaving. What you do with this information is up to you.

Reason One: Instagram is designed to keep you on the platform. It does not encourage sales or outward links to other work. There are no hyperlinks unless you make Stories, and Stories only last for 24 hours. There is also the dreaded, “Link in bio,” but doing that adds so many steps that it is not audience- or user-friendly.

Reason Two: my old Instagram account already got stolen. I was able to make a new account and recover a lot of my old followers. But Instagram is still a hotbed for scammers and bad actors.

Are scammers and bad actors exclusive to Instagram? No. But there’s an awful lot more of them lately. It’s gotten so bad that I had to leave a message in my Instagram bio saying, “Do not DM me.” And I know that strangers who send DM’s my direction are more than likely scammers.

Reason Three: I keep in touch with all of my work opportunities, colleagues, and friends outside of Instagram. All of my connections are either on outside platforms or directly with the people that I need to talk to.

Reason Four: I did a social media experiment back in October. In it, I realized that Instagram was the worst-performing platform that I posted to regularly. So if I leave Instagram, I won’t suffer for it.

Reason Five: I’m finding artistic inspiration in places outside of Instagram. To be honest, I’m finding inspiration on YouTube and through indie creator’s email newsletters.

Reason Six: nobody makes money on Instagram. Anybody who says they are is either already rich by other means or is trying to sell you something. And frankly, it is wild to me that some people still use Instagram saying that “it gets them work.” I have never found this to be the case, even since 2018.

And you might ask, “But what if somebody rejects me because I don’t have an Instagram account? Or don’t have enough Instagram followers?”

  1. Any work opportunity that demands you have X amount of Instagram followers is not going to pay you well. It is more than likely a scam. Do not engage.
  2. Every opportunity I applied for an art opportunity asks for your portfolio website first, then any social media handles after. It is more important for you to have a portfolio site than to have a social media account.

Reason Seven: Instagram operates on Skinner box logic. If you are unfamiliar, here’s a link to the Wikipedia article about Skinner boxes. But the short version is that Skinner boxes are designed to randomize results every time you push a button. The endgame is that users who push the buttons try to find reasons why the Skinner box rewards them. The fact that these platforms are randomized and act like slot machines is peak gambling behavior. It WILL warp your brain in bad ways. 

I wrote an entire anti-attention economy manifesto calling this out. Here’s a link where you can read that manifesto.

Reason Eight: I am not paying Instagram in the form of my attention and labor anymore. This ties into my anti-attention economy manifesto, but it also ties into an argument from Yanis Varoufakis. He argues that platforms like Meta, Google, and Amazon have turned into techno-fiefdoms, extracting rent from their users. And that includes attention and data. Honestly, just give this interview from Adam Conover a watch. It completely changed my outlook on how I interact with the internet at large.

So what’s next?

I will let folks know on Instagram with official announcements. I will still maintain my email newsletter, this blog, and my YouTube and TikTok accounts. That said, TikTok will not see as much activity from me.

Any art that would have gone up on Instagram will instead go up on this website. Having said that though, I don’t have to update it as frequently as Instagram would demand that I do.

That’s another reason that I’m leaving: Instagram demands that you post multiple times a day or multiple times a week. With no breaks. Again, the platform is trying to extract rent from you as much as possible. It’s what it’s designed to do, no matter how much it advertises its timer feature or its “wellness” features.

In short, I am leaving Instagram to engage with other platforms in healthier ways. With boundaries that I set for myself. 

I hope you stay tuned, and that you stick around to check out my art and other updates.

That’s all for now. Thanks for reading!

You. Are. Awesome.

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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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CATS: The Sketchbook is NOW LIVE on Crowdfundr!

this is the header for CATS: The Sketchbook, now on Crowdfundr. We see the title card witha paw print in the A of CATS. We also see a cat man with tuxedo-patterned fur in a pinstripe blue suit, bowing and winking to the viewer.

They’re cute, cuddly little goblins who steal your food and your hearts. It’s CATS!

BEHOLD! I have put together an art book full of cat sketches I drew during the Inktober challenge of 2023!

WHY

I got the idea at Small Press Expo when someone came up to my table and spotted The Stars of Fantasyville (my 2022 Inktober sketchbook). They saw Duchess, my black cat character on the front and flipped through it. And they said, “Oh I thought the whole book was cats.”

And I said, “That’s my NEXT book!” So I made it happen.

I had been meaning to make an art book of cats for a while, anyway, and that was the signal I needed to make it happen.

HOW

With YOUR help, because I don’t have the budget to print these books on my own.

Thanks to a generous patron on Ko-fi, I DO have about $70 saved back for this project. Which is enough to cover the books getting shipped to me. Here’s a breakdown of what we still need to make this happen:

this outlines our stretch goals for CATS: A Sketchbook on Crowdfundr. At $105 raised, we can print and ship 20 books. At $155 we can print and ship 20 books PLUS get a new book display. There are two other goals outlined

I’m not getting an ISBN or barcode for this book to keep the circulation small. As cute as the idea is, I don’t expect this book to pop up at Barnes & Noble or something similar. CATS is more of an art zine. Let it be a collector’s item!

As for shipping to backers, Crowdfundr has shipping costs as a separate line item in the budget. So I can just ask for the goal, but still get the funding needed to ship stuff because it’s handled separately! It’s kooky compared to KickStarter, but it works.

“Who’s printing the book?” you might ask.

We’re going to the same folks who printed The Stars of Fantasyville to print these CATS books…MIXAM! For art books, their print and paper quality is *chef’s kiss* marvelous. Plus they’re fast and budget-friendly, and their customer service is stellar.

WHEN

This campaign is only open for ONE WEEK and ENDS on Jan 18. For reasons why it’s so short, I go into it on the campaign page.

If you can, please consider pre-ordering your copy of CATS: A Sketchbook! We also have other rewards available, which you can pick and choose a la carte to make your reward bundles! Many of these rewards are digital, too, so if you’re international, I have you covered.

Broke? Share this campaign far and wide! Sharing is caring and helps more than you know.

We have UNTIL Jan 18 to make this happen!

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

You. Are. Awesome.