About This Month's Comic... (Patreon)

This is a long post, but I felt it necessary to make a statement about this month's comic pages.

As I said in the May 1st Announcements, Krystal: Interspecies Diplomacy was originally in the charity book Adornments of Gold. The book was only sold for a limited time, and featured over 56 illustrations by 28 artists. I contributed a six page comic to the project (yes, I consider the title illustration a page). I was the only person who did a comic. I was also the one who put together the project, assembled the artists, formatted it for print, etc. It was a huge undertaking that ate up a lot of time. I spent more than half of April alone dealing with printer delays, getting the books packed and shipped, etc, and I had been working on this for roughly 6 months prior. I'm very proud of what we accomplished. It truly was a passion project.

Admittedly, I burnt myself out badly working on this book, and I needed time to recuperate, which is why I'm posting my comic here on patreon while I prep next month’s new pages.

None of the artists made income from the AoG book. All profits go to animal rescue charities. The book was also, honestly, dirt cheap for the amount of content it contained, since it was entirely new art by many of the most talented artists in the fandom. It was a great value and was for a good cause.

After the book released, the artists were encouraged to post their works on their patreons, subscribe stars and art stores so that they could make some income off their hard work. I felt it was acceptable to post my comic on patreon. Even so, I’m still providing new content with Ask pages and pinup illustrations.

While I won’t give exact numbers, if I tallied all of the digital + physical sales of the book, it would be less than half of the patrons I have, and honestly I imagine it’s more likely that less than a third have seen this comic before. For most, this is brand-new content.

However, I have received a number of comments, both public and private, expressing disappointment and confusion that I’m posting content ‘they’ve already seen before’. I’ve even been told I’m ‘cheating my fans’. I feel that’s very disingenuous, especially since this comic was limited in availability and part of a charity book before.

I should remind that I post a lot of content on my patreon. I draw 4 comic pages, 4 Ask pages and 4 or more pinup illustrations per month. That's a lot more content than most patreons provide. I wish I could post even more, but I'd wreck my health doing so. Therefore, I don’t think it’s unfair for me to post the comic, in addition to a lot of other new content, while I recuperate from burnout.

I work very hard to provide you guys with as much quality content as I can per month. I would ask for some understanding from those who saw this comic prior in the charity book while I post it for everyone else to see. Thanks.