anthology Archives - Kelci D Crawford

February 6, 2023February 6, 2023

Failure To Launch is Looking for Support!

Failure to Launch, the latest comics anthology from Iron Circus, is now LIVE for crowdfunding and looking for backers!

Why should you back it? Well, they’ve got some great talent in this book – including me. Yep, I made a short story for this anthology!

Failure to Launch is a light-hearted, educational tour of the (so far!) unrealized technological and societal advances promised in years past, but which never came to be. What could have been, but wasn’t. It tells the tales of space utopias, incredible inventions, societal revolutions, robot pets, and even predictions of planet-wide Armageddon!

History is often written by the winners, but this time? Join us in spotlighting those whose dreams sputtered out, somewhere on the spectrum between disappointment and disaster. And we promise, it’s more fun than you think!
Failure to Launch’s Backerkit page

For this anthology, I made a semi-autobiographical comic called “Ninit’i, or The End.” It’s a story in two halves – the story of my time in the Navajo Nation, and the story of the world reacting to the Harold Camping prediction of the Rapture. As we see devout Christians panicking over the end of the world, we see how Navajo people (and everyone else) grapple with the notion that the end of the world has already happened, and how to best move forward anyway.

I have been wanting to make a comic about my time in Navajo Nation for YEARS. This anthology gave me the chance to finally make it happen. Not to mention that I’ve been wanting to make something with Iron Circus since I got into comics. Being part of this anthology is like a dream come true for me!

Plus, this anthology has a BUNCH of other creators – including hbomberguy, Evan Dahm, Blue Delliquanti, and a whole lot more.

The Backerkit campaign is NOW LIVE for Failure to Launch. If you have the means, go back it and claim a copy of the anthology!

If you’re broke, share this campaign – specifically with this link: https://tinyurl.com/kelci-ftl. This will make it easier for the organizers to know which creator you’re sharing with.

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

You. Are. Awesome.

May 19, 2015May 18, 2015

Review Day Tuesday: Game Boss: The Final Form

Game Boss: The Final Form is an anthology I picked up at (surprise) Swarm Con.

Now, despite the title, not all of the stories within the anthology deal with video games. That may come as a surprise to you, because it sure surprised me.

As I read this, it occured to me that all of the stories, while not always dealing with video games, DID deal with a common theme: Transformation of the self, usually through a struggle, surprise, or sacrifice.

flesh by lea faske — A page from “Flesh” by Lea Faske.

And to be fair…this anthology handles these themes very, very well.

There are too many stories for me to break this review down to review all of them, like I did with SIX. However, all the stories stand out for a variety of reasons.

The ones that stood out to me the most were “Flesh” by Lea Faske (pictured above), “No Parking” by Mad Rupert, and the first story that appears in the anthology, “Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow” by Ngozi Ukazu (fyi, she is the sweetest and coolest lady). These ones have the strongest art as well as the most interesting takes on the idea of “transformation,” ranging from straightforward shape shifting to transforming your world view to an emotional transformation through the sacrifice of another person.

As for the art, that’s also varied. The art styles range from the hyper realism of Yunfan Zhou to the bold-lined, Steven Universe-esque cartooning in “The Quest” by Gerardo Alba. If you want some fantastic visual variety in your comics anthology, this is the volume that will satisfy you.

way to god by yunfan zhou — A page from “Way to God” by Yunfan Zhou

Have you read this anthology? What did you think about it? Let me know in the comments!

Thank you for reading.

You. Are. Awesome.

February 16, 2014

Illustrations and Commission Announcements

Today I knuckled down and started a four-page anthology submission. I even shared it on Facebook and Twitter, but I’ll share it here, too. Sorry for the crap quality, but I took the picture with my phone:

It’s called The Story of Queen Padmini and it’s based on true events, detailed in my favorite book at the moment, Women Warriors: A History.

Speaking of Women Warriors, I’m planning on making a new series of illustrations. Keep your eye on my Tumblr for updates, because that’s where the series will make their first appearance!

On the vlogging front, you might have noticed there was no update this week. Sorry!

My mind has been on getting new gigs lately, to add to what I have going at the moment. I’ll be opening up for commissions within the next few days, so keep checking in.

And speaking of gigs and commissions, I drew caricatures for three years. I think I might get back into that for a bit…

As much as I love making comics, I also really miss interacting with customers when drawing caricatures. That was always the fun part of any day.

Anyway, I’ll be updating this blog a lot more often now. I’m aiming to update every day, so keep checking back for news and sketches (and other awesome things!).