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2023 Year in Review

December 30, 2023 Dylan Edwards

Without writing a whole book about it, 2023 was an extremely difficult year for me. Started the year with one type of debilitating pain, traded it for another, and landed myself in physical therapy for four months due to an injury to my drawing arm. So, while I don’t always put together a Year in Review post, I wanted to do one this year to prove to myself that I did manage to accomplish some things despite the onslaught of physical problems:

• 12 comics for 12 issues of OUT FRONT Magazine
• approx 180 postcards sent to Patreon supporters
• 5 new sticker designs
• several art shows at Spectra Art Space including Spooky Art, TDOR popup, and Tiny Art (in addition to the merch of mine that they carry year round, mostly stickers, pins, and buttons)
• a new Feeping Creatures micro zine, and a zine of my adventures at a metal show in Japan (which I have not yet added to my online store, it’s currently sitting on my desk waiting for me to get to it)
• participated in a panel discussion for an Estonian queer film festival for their showing of the queer comics documentary No Straight Lines
• speaking of No Straight Lines, when I was originally interviewed back in 2017(?) I had NO CLUE it would be shown on PBS, but in fact it streamed there for several months
• made a soft return to comic shows; while I’m still not inclined to travel much, Denver Zine Fest, DeCAF, Queer Author Expo, and First Friday at Danny the Comic Shop all saw my (masked) face [and you can now get my comics and zines at Danny the Comic Shop, so swing by and support ‘em!]

In the end, that’s not too shabby for a year in which I was physically out of commission for a good 6 months and could barely work. I’m in a better place pain-wise, if not fully back to where I was before. Hopefully 2024 will see continued improvements, and a lot more art!

Also, in the event that you’re wondering where most of my social media activity is happening these days, I’ve taken to shitposting in my Instagram stories for whatever reason. Who knows how long that will continue to amuse me, but for now, I’m most active on IG.

Cheers,

Dylan

OUT FRONT Magazine – February 2022 issue, plus e-commerce stuff

February 5, 2022 Dylan Edwards

The latest OUT FRONT Magazine is on the stands now (if you’re in the Denver area, that is), and I have a new comic in there! This seemed like a good issue to do a comic looking at just a few of the different manifestations that asexuality can take.

You can read the magazine online via their website (I’m on page 6).

I also made a public Patreon post wherein I go into some detail about the coloring choices for this comic.

E-commerce? What?

If you are not hooked into cartoonist Twitter, there’s been a big, BIG explosion this morning regarding Gumroad as a platform for selling indie comics. I’m not sure I want to get into the whole story here, but suffice it to say, Gumroad decided to take what could have been a very minor problem and dealt with it in a professional manner. Instead, they apparently, for reasons that are absolutely opaque to me, decided they’d rather bully and abuse a huge swath of creators in public, on Twitter, and then delete a bunch of those abusive tweets.

I have not quite picked my jaw up off the floor from seeing how badly they handled this whole thing. But it made me not trust them as a company going forward. My problem now is that I have to figure out a new platform for selling my self-published work. Since all of this blew up just this morning, I haven’t had a chance to figure out yet what my new thing is going to be. It may take me some days to sort it out (this is the kind of thing I dread having to deal with even under normal circumstances, nevermind the current howling mess).

I am also currently sidelined to some extent. My left shoulder, a.k.a. my drawing shoulder, seized up the other day, and I have not been able to un-seize it, no matter how much I rest or stretch or worry it with trigger point massagers. So I’m going back to physical therapy, but that’s a bit over a week away. As such, my time on the computer and at the drafting table is limited for awhile yet.

ANYWAY, once I sort out my new biz for selling comics online, I will post about it here.

Cheers,

Dylan

Merry Solstice from the Mari Lwyd!

December 21, 2021 Dylan Edwards

Subscribe to my Patreon to see work-in-progress images of this piece!

The Mari Lwyd (pronounced Mah-ri Lloyd) is a wassailing folk custom found in South Wales. The name means “grey mare,” and refers to a hobby horse made from a horse’s skull mounted on a pole, which is carried by an individual hidden under a sackcloth.

A group of people would accompany the Mari Lwyd to local houses, where they would request entry by singing a song. The householders would be expected to turn them away, replying through song, and the two sides would continue singing their responses to one another until one side relented. If the householders gave in first, the Mari Lwyd team would be invited in and supplied with food and drink.

This tradition typically takes place sometime between the winter solstice and New Year’s Day. While some scholars have tried to append a Christian interpretation to the Mari Lwyd, claiming it somehow represents the Virgin Mary (?!?!), my own personal belief is that it stems from Welsh pranksters trying to scam booze and food from their neighbors by way of a horrifying puppet, and is closer in spirit to Halloween than Christmas.

As someone of Welsh descent, I wanted to create a winter holiday card that spoke to that aspect of my heritage, and which leans into my (perhaps relentless) love of Halloween.

Either way, I wish you a happy time this winter, with bountiful food and drink of your choosing!

Cheers,

Dylan

Valley of the Silk Sky: The Long Run page 110 is comin’ round the mountain

August 21, 2020 Dylan Edwards

Let us see what appears in the distance:

This was my go-to page for posting work-in-progress images for my $1+ Patrons (you can find those posts here, here, and here). So if you enjoy that kind of thing and can spare a dollar a month, consider becoming a Patron!

If you’re thinking that landscape looks kinda familiar but you’re not sure why, you may wish to review Chapter 9. Could be relevant, I dunno ….

Cheers,

Dylan

Valley of the Silk Sky: The Long Run chapter 11 concludes! Plus more ways to support yer queer comics creator

March 20, 2020 Dylan Edwards

Page 105 marks the finale of chapter 11, and you can find it here:

For those of you who like to wait until a chapter is complete to dig in, you can find the whole of Chapter 11 here.

So, what’s next, you ask? I am even now working on Chapter 12: the whole thing is thumbnailed, and I’ve got the first page penciled.

Whilst we wait for me to get the rest of it penciled, inked, colored, scanned, and lettered, I’ll be running some concept art, character design, and work-in-progress posts for $1+ Patrons. If you want in on that, hit up my Patreon.

TCAF canceled

As far as my convention schedule goes, TCAF has now officially canceled their 2020 festival. Other emails coming in indicate other shows are still weighing how they want to proceed: postponement? full cancellation?

Again, conventions account for about half my income, so this is grim news on the financial front. If you’d like to help support my work during these trying times, here are some options:

IndieGoGo

My friend Olivia Wylie put together an IndieGoGo campaign to help out Colorado creatives during these rough times. Backing the campaign gets you books, art, and other swag, so chip in if you can!

Buy some stuff

Buy some books : http://www.studiondr.com/buy-stuff/

My Feeping Creatures monster art is here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/feepingcreatures

You might also consider signing up for my Patreon if you have a couple bucks a month to spare. This ends up being kinda like a “paycheck” for me, and makes it easier to predict my income month-to-month.

Patreon is here: https://www.patreon.com/dylanedwards

Thanks for reading! Back to working on Chapter 12 for me.

Cheers,

Dylan

Valley of the Silk Sky: The Long Run page 101 is a ton of fun on a bun

February 21, 2020 Dylan Edwards

I mean it, really! Just take a look here:

I talk about some of the thought process behind this page over my my Patreon, should such a thing be of interest to you.

TL;DR, characters are squirrelly creatures, and often the only way I can pin them down is by drawing them and actually seeing with my own eyes what they’re all about.

Speaking of which, I was going to work on the thumbnails for chapter 12, but it has two new characters in it, and I had to figure out what they looked like. The act of drawing them caused me to learn a bunch of stuff about them that changed aspects of the script, so it’s a good thing I didn’t thumbnail yet, y’see?

ANYWAY. See you next week for more of Chapter 11!

Cheers,

Dylan

“Valley of the Silk Sky: The Long Run” chapter 11 begins!

January 16, 2020 Dylan Edwards

Yes indeed, page 96 is now ready to be placed inside your eyeballs. Read it in one of these fine locations:

If you can’t remember what the heck was going on with this story and would like to have a refresher, you can read all the pages so far (or choose a specific chapter) either here on Studio NDR or here on the Valley of the Silk Sky website.

If you prefer offline reading and would like a book collection, there are both digital and print volumes available, about which ye may learn more here.

For what it’s worth, I plan to update the VotSS website first with new pages, and then update here on Studio NDR when I get to it. So if you are desperate to read new pages at the earliest possible moment, bear that in mind. (And if you really, REALLY want to read at the earliest possible moment, might I remind you that $1+ Patrons get access to new pages three days earlier than the internet at large. Cough, ahem, just so you know.)

Okay? Okay! See you again next week for MORE COMICS.

The Halloween-themed Taxonomically Unbounds are scratching at the door

October 4, 2018 Dylan Edwards

All the new Taxonomically Unbounds this month are gonna be Halloweeny, so just imagine me pulling a lever in a dungeon and screaming something about Pun Goth Power to Maximum. The first ghoulish endeavor is available here:

Also, I’m hoping to get a post up tomorrow for $1+ Patrons with work-in-progress sneak previews of the new Valley of the Silk Sky short story, so if you wanna peep such a thing, drop a buck in the bucket.

Cheers,

Dylan

New Taxonomically Unbound – Totally Unnessysary

September 27, 2018 Dylan Edwards

The latest in the Most Worst Puns onslaught is here for your reading “pleasure”:

Starting next week, I will be inflicting a series of Halloween-themed pun comics upon you all, so brace yourselves for that.

In other news, it may interest you to learn I just finished penciling that Valley of the Silk Sky short story I’ve been working on for an upcoming anthology. Next up: inking, inking, and more inking!

That means folks who pledge $1 or more to my Patreon will soon be getting sneak previews of the work-in-progress.

And, of course, once I have more info about the Kickstarter for the anthology (which I think will be going up in November?) I will let you know.

Cheers,

Dylan

Taxonomically Unbound – Lawn Since Desserted

September 20, 2018 Dylan Edwards

Yes indeed, it is time once again for a new Taxonomically Unbound. It may be groaned at in any one of these fine places:

Also, in case you missed the announcement last week, don’t forget to check out Draw Out the Vote, the new website put together by Oni Press. It features comics by cartoonists from all 50 states, plus Washington DC and Puerto Rico, sharing their personal stories about why voting is important to them.

I did the comic for Colorado. There’s info for each state on how to get registered and how to vote, so be sure to give it a look and share widely!

Cheers,

Dylan

E-commerce? What?

TCAF canceled

IndieGoGo

Buy some stuff

Patreon

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