Introduction, the current comic plan, subscribers-only updates, and welcome to my Substack blog!

Turning the leaf and starting my journey into making Christian comics

Alright, the end of the year is approaching, let’s catch up and look at what my current comic plans are! As most of you probably know, I’m a long-time webcomic artist of about 10 years, my previous works were “A Redtail’s Dream“, finished 2012, and “Stand Still. Stay Silent“, which finishes January 2022. A bit over a year ago I had a proper conversion to Christianity, a (painful) born-again experience that is, after which I made the short comic “Lovely People“. (I had already stopped being an atheist about a year before that, but didn’t really understand what Christianity was yet, didn’t even have an interest in reading the Bible. )

But now I’ve gotten more and more excited to use all the skills I’ve been given to serve God! I’ve spent the last year wrapping up my final non-Christian comic, learning all I can in the meantime (I’m currently on my third read-through of the Bible), got baptized, joined a great congregation (Reformed Baptist), and now I’m all itching for my new path!

The plan. And why paid subscribers-only update posts?

So I’m going to approach my next comics (more info about them beneath this section) differently than I have in the past: instead of drip-feeding the stories via page-by-page daily posting I’m going to release them in chunks (like I did with “Lovely People“). This is because I’ll be dealing with Christian theological themes within the comics, and having a “cliffhanger“ in the middle of exploring some doctrinal issue wouldn’t exactly be helpful. In fact it’d be extremely UNhelpful! I also want to focus more on quality over quantity now.

That basically means bye-bye ad-revenue! Which has been one of the stable legs of my webcomic-making income for the last 10 years (the other being book sales). In fact going forward I don’t want any ads on my new comics! So I’m hoping to make up for that lost income with the subscribers-only update posts here on Substack (it’s like Patreon, but for writers and bloggers) with the help of those of you who have the means and interest in paying for such a thing. It’s 5 bucks/month, and I’ll make the first update at the end on December 2021 (so in a couple weeks).

The update posts will be behind-the-scenes sketches, talking about the process of making the comics, talking about comic-making in general, sneak-peeks, stuff like that. Subscribers will also get the access to read the comics first once they’re finished.

The comics itself will of course will released for free online for all to read. And other kinds of blog posts (if I get inspired to make some) will also be free, it’s just the behind-the-scenes updates that will be subscribers-exclusive.

Side note: at the present I’m still financially stable. I’ve saved up some money this last year, and I still have royalties and residual income coming in from my previous comic for probably a year, maybe two. So I should be able to cover my expenses for the next 2-3 years, while hopefully getting the new comic financially viable. It’s of course ultimately in God’s hands, but that’s the plan.

Short info about the next comics

So I have two comics planned now, one short story that I’ll do first while I work on the prep-work for the next bigger project (writing, world-building, research and more theology study, art-style practice etc).

The short comic will basically be the testimony of how I became Christian. Doesn’t need much prep-work because I already know the story heheh. I’ll be focusing on how my worldview and thought-life developed during my years as an atheist, and what the process was that eventually lead me to Christ. Spoilers: it was a long and mentally draining conversion! I’ll probably also include how my first tumble into reading the Bible afterwards went, it’s kinda funny. Here’s a placeholder (sketchy and unfinished) cover design.

Starting in January 2021 (that’s when SSSS finishes) I’ll work on it 2-3 days a week, and it should be finished by the end of 2022, or early 2023.

1 day a week I’ll be working on the remaining obligations that I have to the publisher(s) of my previous comic.

And the rest of the week I’ll work on preparing for the big comic project, which I’ll start after that testimony-comic is done. So in about a year. I have no sketches to share so far, and I’m hesitant to even share much of the idea just yet because it’s still so loose in my head, and it keeps fluctuating. I’ll have something more concrete to share in a few months I’m sure! But it’s definitely going to be a kind of story that I can use to explore and visualize Christian theological concepts and doctrines, not just a story with vague Christian undertones. I’m simply in love with studying theology now, specifically I’ve fallen into the train cart of Reformed theology, and I want to use my artistic and storytelling gifts to share what I’m learning.

In conclusion

… starting new Christian comics, first one will be a personal testimony, sign up for my subscribers-only updates if you’d like to help out that way, first update post will be at the end of December 2021, SSSS ends in January 2022 so that’s when I can start this new work in earnest, and I should financially stable for the next 2-3 years from savings and past royalties while I get this new comics ball rolling.

I think that was all that was needed for now! I’ll see you around new-years!