March Recap & Behind-the-scenes

 Hello, Patrons! It’s time for another monthly recap and behind-the-scenes post. March was CRAZY, but before we jump into things, I’d like to thank and welcome the newest members of our crew:

• Benaryorg
• Bradly Horton
• Cory Ellerbe
• CrazyDrawer99
• Darrel Troxel
• Dissident Love
• Doomcard10
• Gregory Hase
• Jessica Townsend
• Jonathan
• Justin Telmo
• Lauren Eckenrode
• Nicole Aptekar
• Pawp

Also, a big shout out to these lovely people, who as of this month have been supporting me and my work for a year or more:

• Christopher Weigle
• Data Wall
• Rachel

Thank you guys so much for choosing to support me and my comics! There are so many things I’ve been able to do because of your patronage, and I’m always grateful. 

March Recap:

At the beginning of March I flew to Seattle, Washington for my first ever West coast convention: Emerald City Comic Con. ECCC has a reputation for being a good show for original content creators, and it’s always been a goal of mine to attend at least once. This year I tabled with Cale of Things in Squares comic, and it was an awesome weekend.  Seattle residents are also very fond of their pets, apparently, because I was swamped with commissions. Here are a few of my faves:

It was an amazing experience, but by the end of the fourth day of the show, I was excited to get home to my dogs and sleep. As a bonus, here's my favorite group pic from the con:

Picture taken by Luke McKay, another McKay cartoonist

The weeks between conventions were a bit of a blur. There was a lot of stuff I was working on behind-the-scenes, but mainly I was recovering from a cold and cough (thanks, con crud!), catching up on my comic deadlines, and working on a few new items for the shop. This included shirts, prints, and my first ever comic zine! 

The first big product lineup in the Doodle for Food shop since its launch

Mockup images of the zine

The zine was a particularly surreal moment, because it was the first time I'd ever had a collection of my comics printed. Felt like a proud parent when I picked them up from the print shop!

Out of all the items in the product launch, the “Heck” shirt and “Field Guide for Dogs” did particularly well. In fact, the shirt design was featured as a Hot and Trending item on Storenvy’s front page, and I sold out of the “Field Guide” print twice!

As of yesterday, the shirt has been featured on the front page for more than a week!

All in all, March was the busiest month ever for shop orders. People also tweeted me pics of the products once they arrived. I got a laugh out of them, and wanted to share a few of my favorites:

Tweet by @DeckardKirin

Tweet by @nagito_eevee 

Tweet by @wolfenmina 

Tweet by @yinyangbeetl 

Last week, I flew to Washington D.C. to attend Awesome Con. This was my second time attending the convention, and it was nice going somewhere I was more familiar with. There seemed to be lower attendance this year due to a combination of holidays and Spring Break, but it was still a successful show for me. Most importantly, most of the World Walkers crew got to meet up and razz each other in person! 

Pictured: A pigeon and four totally normal humans

It was a little sad leaving for Texas, but I couldn’t have asked for a better way to wrap up the month.

Coming up:

So what’s in store for April? It’ll be more of the same: making comics and streaming when I can. However, there are a number of big things on the horizon, and am excited to discuss them!

Firstly, I’m working on some autobio comics about ECCC and Awesome Con for silver+ patrons. Things are slow going due to my current workload, but I’m excited to share these silly stories when they’re done. Doodles after Dark will be returning this month, starting with the comic from yesterday, so be on the lookout for those!

Secondly, this month’s Patron livedraw stream will be on Thursday, 4/18 from 7pm-9pm cst. I’ll be sending out a separate post about that very soon.

Thirdly, with conventions, shop sales, and general admin work required to run my business, it’s become painfully obvious to me how jam packed my workload is. I’d like to take on more projects and work to expand the business, but I’m hitting the limits of what I can accomplish as one person. I’m currently looking into what it would take to hire someone part-time. They would help me with the admin side of things so that I could spend more of my time drawing. This is still a long way off from happening, but it’s a step I’m excited to take as soon as possible.

And last but certainly not least:

I intend to make a book! 

It’s still in the beginning stages, but it will be focused on the Dogs with Jobs comics. My style and writing are now consistent enough that I’d be proud to publish these comics (which would be the first ever Doodle for Food book). I’m super excited to start the journey and share the process with you all!

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That's all from me this month! I'll be back with more comics, doodles and such soon.