Hello everyone, being completely transparent and honest, this is one of the most difficult things I have ever forced myself to do. I have been drawing and creating my own characters for roughly 10 years now. Putting your creative projects out into the world isn’t always the easiest thing to do. It’s not so much the potential of harsh criticism, but the lack of interest and indifference towards my work that I fear most. However, I have gotten very numb to that feeling over the years as I have grown my audience very slowly over the years. I try to take nothing for granted and have been enjoying the successes I have had. But over that two-month hiatus in posting I had earlier this year I began work on a creative project that pushed me farther than I ever expected. The magnum opus for my time in college was a fully produced comic book. Written, drawn, and colored entirely by me, hell I even printed 3 full copies of the book (2 of which were stolen during the exhibit). What’s funny is that in person audience the got to hold and react to this project in real time didn’t scare me one bit. However, showing you and all those who follow my works, that is what truly terrifies me. It scares me so much that I have put off showing this to everyone for MONTHS, coming up with excuse after excuse. Why? Because this is a project I can’t do alone.
What is my comic book?
My comic DISPLACED is the story of the artist Cj Weasle and his cast of characters. At its core this is a story about my characters, their lives in their world. The idea of this story came from the idea of “What happens when creator meets creation. What happens when creation is different than what the creator had thought.” As a creator I often overlook many aspects of the character, bits and pieces of their backstories are unaccounted for, originally, I didn’t even have a world for my characters to live in. The Cj Weasle seen in this story is a version of myself roughly 5 years ago when I was just creating characters for the fun of it. So now, trapped in a strange world that seemingly inhabits his beloved characters, he must learn more about them, their world, uncovering many mysteries along the way. Chapter 1 is essentially the pilot, giving the initial setup and leaving you with the basics of what the future plots will be.
Ok, so what about this can’t you do alone?
Well, this one book 32 pages, (28 pages of story 4 pages for the covers) written, drawn, and colored by me is a lot of work. It’s such a colossal undertaking that I just can’t do this for nothing. I need it to have an audience, and I can’t do this kind of thing exclusively for free. I could keep doing pinups for free forever and be happy about it. Now, I am not saying that I need art or comic book making to be a full-time job, however if I am to keep fleshing this story out, I need to know if you really want it.
So, you need money?
Well, yes… As much as I want everyone to simply read the book, I would like to be able to make even a little extra for the work that I do. HOWEVER, I know your hard-earned dollar is precious so I have made this first chapter as affordable as I possibly could. Digital versions as low as $1 with the physical print version being $13 plus shipping… which is a profit for me of only $2 due to the printing costs. The print version is print on demand, so it does take a week or two in order to ship, but my god, the product Is quality! The digital version has two ways to get them, you can either buy it outright on the Amazon kindle store, or you could sign up for my Patreon and only $1 and you get either a pdf or you can just read it right there. For this first book I just want you to be able to get it and read it so I can see how many of you are willing to give me a chance not only as the artist Cj Weasle but as a writer and storyteller as well.
What about the future?
So, I have a plan for comic releases that goes beyond DISPLACED. I have the main story and some side stories that I want to make in between. Unlike this first book I will be creating these future comics in a very different way. I was doing all the work at once, as efficiently as I could be due to deadlines. This caused me to burn out insanely quickly so I will be working on a single page at a time releasing them on Patreon as they are finished. I currently have chapter 1.5 which is a 22-page story that wraps up chapter 1 leading into chapter 2 fully sketched out and the cover completed. Those will be available on Patreon just to show you how committed to this I truly am. NOW here I do commit to creating the first 4 chapters of DISPLACED without any formal need for support. That will essentially finish the first arc of the story and give a relatively satisfying end if nobody cares whether the story lives or dies.
Where’s the lewd stuff???
So, Displaced is a safe for work story, there might be some nudity eventually but at it’s core it is a story about my characters, I do lots of other lewd art to satisfy that itch. HOWEVER, I have MANY lewd comic ideas in my head, and I do have a plan for those to be available on my Patreon to anyone willing to toss a buck or two my way, but I will only be working on 1 book at a time, and I will announce my release order for books soon.
Ok, fine wrap it up I’m getting bored.
Okay, okay, jeez. Over the next few days, I will be dropping more ads/ announcements for ways that you can support my creative endeavors. Any and all support is appreciated so please, check it all out and share them around. I would like to be a bit more active and vocal, but drawing is more my passion so feel free to let me know the kinds of things you would like to see more from me in the future. Thanks for reading this wall of text, I hope you enjoy the comic and all my art going forward.
