A Quest for Freedom

As a cartoonist, I’m the kind of person who spends a lot of time stepping in and out of fantasy worlds. So it’s important that I try to keep up with world events as much as I can. It keeps me from becoming too disconnected. Still, I was amazed when I discovered Comic Creators for Freedom last winter (back when they were still “Comic Creators Alliance”). Comic Creators for Freedom [www.comiccreatorsforfreedom.com] unites cartoonists to help raise awareness and support for the fight against human trafficking – the buying and selling of human beings. I wasn’t surprised to learn that such a charity existed. I was surprised to learn how necessary it was. Up until then, I had thought of slavery as something from the past, something that may still exist on a smattering of small countries in distant parts of the world. Wrong. There is an estimated 27 million people being kept as slaves in the world today.* Even in industrialized countries, like here in American, humans are bought and sold. Even children and young girls are being kidnapped off the streets or from school bus stops. They are ripped from their families and abused in every way imaginable.

January 11 is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day (in the United States) and Comic Creators for Freedom is starting their annual donations drive. This year, 127 different cartoonists have contributed a drawing of one of their female characters. These drawings have been assembled into one super drawing. Many popular webcomics have joined in this year, including Girls with Slingshots, The Dreamland Chronicles, Kukuburi, Earthsong Saga, Looking for Group, Love and Capes, The Dreamer, and even Draconis Wicked (look for Flight. I haven’t seen it yet, but I think she’s on the right.)

Anyone who donates to CCF can download the image to use as desktop wallpaper. All profits will be split evenly between Gracehaven [www.gracehavenhouse.org] and Love 146 Round Home [love146.org], two groups that help rehabilitate the rescued victims of slavery.

The donations drive will run from January 9th to January 20th so if you want a wallpaper, don’t wait too long.

Please note that the drawing itself does not include any illusions to slavery or other dark themes. It is safe for work and children.

I am honored to be able to take part in this. My deepest thanks to anyone who donates, or even passes the word along.

-Marjorie Rishel

(*facts and statistics courtesy of Comic Creators for Freedom [www.comiccreatorsforfreedom.com])

Second Anniversary!

Here we are, beginning our third year of Lepus Studios. I chose to launch this wacky experiment on a New Year's Day because I was afraid that if I didn't choose a day with some significance, I would probably be tempted to put off my launch. Then I might never have gotten started. This year, my fictitious staff and I have made several significant achievements. More guest comics and fan art was drawn, we signed up for advertisements with Project Wonderful, Easter Eggs and Christmas Cards became repeated traditions, we got on twitter, we began our partnership with Ninth Runs Wild and (most importantly) the long-anticipated Draconis Wicked was finally introduced to the world. I'm already brewing up more good stuff for 2012. In January, Draconis Wicked's Flight will make an appearance in Comic Creators for Freedom's annual wallpaper project. (I'll tell you more about that next time.) I'm also going to be a part of something pretty big in either March or April (but I'll tell you about that one when the time comes.) I'm also trying to figure out ways to update more frequently and I've written some new Urban Underbrush stories that are my best yet. Lets begin year three with high hopes for the future! -Marj

Draconis Wicked Every Monday

I’m changing the schedule for Draconis Wicked! From now on, a new page of Draconis will appear each and every Monday. The multi-page monthly updates were a noble experiment and they made it possible for me to post the entire first chapter in a single summer. The old system helped me get started, but now it’s holding me back.
Originally, I had one big reason for doing multipage updates and a lot of little reasons for switching to one-page updates. Big, multipage updates create a better reading experience. But with one-page updates, I can update more frequently, people don’t forget about Draconis in the off weeks, I can schedule my drawing time more easily, I can add comic notes to each update (like I do for Urban Underbrush), I can put the latest comic on the Draconis Wicked main page, and the latest comic will always be easier to find.
I had been considering the change for awhile, but then something happened that really made up my mind.  My comics got a short evaluation in the forums of Webcomics.com. Webcomic.com editor and legendary webcartoonist Brad Guigar suggested that my stuff would be more popular if I made it easier for readers to share the comics. But Facebook, Twitter, and RSS feeds are all designed to share one page of content at a time. If I want to network, it makes more sense to go with the flow, instead of trying to reinvent conventions. I’m just not famous enough for that kind of thing yet.
So when you visit the Draconis Wicked page, you’ll see that the latest comic is now outfitted with Facebook, Twitter and RSS buttons for your convenience. If you happen to like a page, then please pass it on.
I look forward to seeing what other changes the new schedule brings.
-Marj

Three Year Old Review (AKA Reviewed by a Three-Year-Old)

A few days ago, my three-year-old cousin dropped by for a visit. Eventually, she found some Draconis sketches and wanted to know more about them. So we opened up the website and I read/paraphrased the stories to her. Here’s what she thought:

Draconis Wicked - Flight is pretty. Draconis and Snakey are cool because they have long tails. Malcorona is neat because he’s a dragon like Draconis, but he spends too much time in the dark and he’s hard to see. The “blue castle” is great. All the people are neat because they look like animals and it’s fun to guess what each one is. The only person who isn’t great is Cloaker, who is scary. Marjorie needs to “make more story.”

Urban Underbrush - Dynamite and Detonator are characters from a storybook, despite the fact that they have never appeared in print. Vincent is the “Prince Charming” because he’s the only one who got a kiss from a girl. The best comics are the ones with dogs or “the little green dragon that sits on people’s shoulders.”

Always nice to get some useful feedback.

-Marj

Another Birthday

Howdy, Folks. My birthday is this weekend. This year, it's even a work holiday (called Sunday!) No need for gifts, I'm actually pretty good on moderately priced stuff. However, there is a traditional gift webcartoonists often ask for on special occasions and it's surprisingly affordable. It fact, it's free. Tell one person about my website. Give them the URL if you can. Did my birthday pass you by already? It's okay, you can still tell a friend about the site any time. See, with web stuff, word of mouth is really powerful. Internet sites and businesses often build their audience one member at a time. If people don't pass them along, they have a hard time growing. Networking, comic lists, even paid advertisements can't stack up to a recommendation from a trusted friend.

So spread the word and thanks in advance.

And Happy Birthday to you too (whenever your birthday is.)

-Marj

The Great Lepus Blackout

Welcome back everyone. If any of you tried to visit us late last week, you may have noticed something funny. The site didn’t exist for a few days. Thanks to a server glitch, we were down on Wednesday afternoon, all day Thursday, all day Friday, and Saturday morning (with a few flickers on Saturday evening and Sunday evening).
This was not the result of anything I had done wrong. The blame rests with my host server. For those of you who are unfamiliar with how the internet operates, a website is just a collection of files contained in a folder or a set of folders. These files are written in a code that your web browser translates and displays. In order for web browsers to access these files, the folders have to be kept on a computer that is turned on and connected 24 hours a day. These computers are called servers. It’s too expensive and inefficient for each website owner to own and operate their own server, so we rent space on a server that is owned by a hosting company.
So last week, my server crashed and needed to be rebuilt and reloaded. There is never a good time for something like this to happen, but last week was especially lousy for a couple of reasons:
1.) I’ve recently started buying advertising. Now, new readers who have only just found Lepus Studios from my new ads are going to wonder if my site is unreliable.
2.) I’ve recently started selling advertising. I had to suspend all the ads I was selling until the matter was resolved. As a result, I’ve sort of had to start over with my sponsors. My web ads are not commanding the prices they used to. Last week, I was earning 3 to 5 cents per ad each day. Now I’m back to 0 to 2 cents. It’s a sad day when you need to work your way back up to 5 cents.
3.) I was invited to draw another guest comic for the SuperFogeys. (This time, it’s for their fifth anniversary celebration. Twelve different artists are each drawing a wacky chapter summary. Here’s my contribution: http://superfogeys.webcomicsonline.com/2011/09/26/chapter-3-the-techno-shuffle-recap-by-marjorie-rishel/) When people read guest comics that they like, they often want to visit the guest artist’s site. If my site isn’t working, I could miss my chance to draw in new readers. Luckily, the site repairs were finished on time for my part of the event, but it was a close shave.
4.) Did anyone read the latest Urban Underbrush? That week’s comic brought us to a fairly important point in the story where I spelled out some fairly important character information. (I got to draw people making out). I would rather people not have missed that.
I’m not too angry at my hosts over the server crash. I understand that accidents like this are unavoidable (Murphy’s law and all that). I am a little annoyed by the way they handled it. They did not notify any of their customers about the crash and have yet to make an effort to compensate us for the time we lost (time that we paid for.) My server contract runs out in March. Unless these guys do something to really impress me in the next five months, I’m backing my bags and heading for greener pastures and bluer waters
-Marj

Save Stripped

"I know a lot of you like to wait until the last minute...well...THIS IS THE LAST MINUTE!"

 Friends, as I write this blog post, there is only one day left in the "Stripped" documentary's Kickstarter campaign.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/smallfish/stripped-the-comics-documentary

In case you haven't heard, this is a documentary about comic strips made by professional cartoonist Dave Kellet (http://www.sheldoncomics.com/) and professional film maker Fred Schroeder. It's an amazing project that has a lot of important artists rallying around it. "Stripped" has already met its minimum funding goal, but it's crazy close to hitting the next goal, which would pay for closed-captioning, animation and lots of other extras. I would really like to see this project become successful. I know I don't have the biggest following in the world and many of my readers aren't hard-core comic fans but I would always regret if I didn't try to help spread the word during the final hours.

Please visit the site, watch the video, then decide if you wish to make a donation. Even if you can't contribute, you'll be glad you checked it out.

Thanks.

-Marj