September Update – WCL, Patreon and More

Hello all! It’s time for an update (I really should do this more often but I get so caught up in working…) As of yesterday, I finished “Clipped Wings”, the second chapter of WEAPON Combat League in comic form. It’s short for a single comic issue at only 16 pages, but given the overall size of the WCL tale, I thought it best to keep individual chapters as short as possible. I chose 16 pages because when I was a kid and I first taught myself how to put comics together, I used to make them with exactly 16 pages using 10 sheets of paper–one sheet for each cover and the front and backs of the other eight for the pages. A bit of self-homage I guess. Plus 16 is a nice round number for me; given my schedule and other responsibilities (family, day job, etc.) being able to produce four full color comic pages in a week (16 pages in around a month’s time) is something of an accomplishment, and I’m proud of it.

Quinn Royce prepares for combat. In his suit, he's known as Saber.
Quinn Royce prepares for combat. In his suit, he’s known as Saber.

Clipped Wings introduces one of the story’s most prominent characters, Quinn Royce, and the folks that are (and will be) connected with him as the story goes on. I dare not say much more, though those who read the prose novels already know what’s going to happen. I reworded some things and changed some occurrences slightly, but the story turns out the same way.

Now I’m on the fence as to what to do next. I want people to read my work, and I want to put as few barriers up as possible, but I also want to try to profit from it in some way if I can. So I was thinking of putting the comic on Patreon–but before you get up in arms, I am NOT planning to put the comic behind a paywall. I’m confident in my concept, but I’m not ignorant of the fact that, based on likes, favorites, comments, views and direct feedback, there are other things I create that some fans of my work would prefer to see (cough Jet Dancer cough) so if I’m going to focus on WCL, I need to, again, make it as easy to get to as possible. So I was thinking with Patreon, I would put the comic up there for free (as of now there are actually two complete chapters, 32 pages total, the first of which is already online) and enable patrons to support me if they wanted to see layered files, the occasional coloring video tutorial, or if they just wanted to support the work in a tip jar kind of way.

Another option would be to post the comics here, on my site, in their own section, with ad support. But I wonder if I should just make a domain just for WEAPON Combat League instead. But then again, a Patreon doesn’t just have to be for WCL–those who follow my Instagram see that I still have plenty of “RPBs” in me and I’ll be posting those here and there too (and perhaps those will be behind the paywall–with NSFW content).

I know what I’m leaning towards, but if anyone else has other ideas, I’m all ears.