Category: Dead City

Dead City is a completed webcomic about love and survival. It features Mikael and JP, two men who befriend and fall for each other after the apocalypse hits Toronto.

You can read it for free | Buy the book, PDF and merch

Tags: JP, Mikael

Sketchbook Shoutouts – 72

Four black and white traditional illustrations on one image. "Shoutout for TLC of Mikael and JP from Dead City cuddling while holding hot drinks in their hands. "Shoutout for Riddler76" of Jigen hugging Goemon from behind and Goemon smiling sweetly. "Shoutout for Tsushi" of their original character pondering with a smirk on their face. "Shoutout for Peggy" of Jigen kissing Zenigata on the cheek and Zenigata being surprised and blushing immensely.

Another set of sketchbook shoutouts from my Private Collector crew over on Patreon, always a joy to draw more folks’ OCs and shippy boys~

Hey and it’s the beginning of the month, which is the best time to join the Patreon for goodies like this, and my entire archive of either SFW or NSFW art and comics, plus some fun free stuff for free members~

All Art (without update posts)CommissionsOriginal CharactersFanartLupin IIIDead City

Pride OCs 2025

Character lineup for "Dead City". "JP Rybakov" is a fat man of colour with shaggy black hair and a thick beard, he's wearing a blue polo shirt and jeans with grey socks. The pride flag beside him is the progress flag. "Mikael Berg" is a thinner white man with red hair pulled back in a headband, he's wearing a big sweatshirt, pink sweatpants and thick tube socks. The pride flag beside him is the bi flag.
I wanted to post these throughout the month but was way too busy, so here’s a special Pride bundle of Pride characters from the webcomics I’ve worked on and am starting to work on!
Dead City – Mikael and JP, you know them, you love them, and if you don’t you can go read the finished webcomic about their zombie apocalypse meet-cute!
Alola Darumaka – Daven and Leif (and their partners) also available to read for free right now although it’s not complete yet, and while queerness isn’t part of the story, I still wanted to showcase their identities! A silly low-stakes 4-koma comic about Darumaka.
The Curse Eater – The pilot chapter just wrapped up which you can read for free here. Max and I are still building the world for this, so parts are still up in the air and nothing is really set in stone. HOWEVER, like all our other stories, it’ll be queer!
Clitrina Cosmos – A sexy webcomic coming to a Patreon (mine) near you by Max and I. It’s going to be silly, fun, sexy, and of course unapologetically gay! Private Collector members can already see some concept art for this~
In Search Of Analogue Days – I really wanted to announce my next big solo project during pride and here we are! ISO will be a public, free to read webcomic (with pages up early for Patrons) about an older trans woman who’s lost sight of her passion for photography and finds herself in film. Keep your eyes out, okay?
Alola DarumakaDead CityThe Curse EaterAll Art (without update posts)Original Characters

Webcomic Day

Promo image, with the Topaz Comics logo at the top in browns and warm gold tones. Under it reads "Queer comics by a queer duo" and the link topazcomics.com below that are four floating heads with comic titles logos above them. The first is Mikael and JP from Dead City, the second is Jey from Gender Slices, the third is Darumaka from Alola Darumaka, and the last is Jigen from our one-shots.

Happy Webcomic Day!

I’ll be posting throughout the day on social media, but for you here’s the big full post.

Want to read some queer comics written and drawn by some queer folks for free?! I’m Jey Pawlik, and with my spouse Max Parker, we’ve got hundreds of pages in our archive, like the post-apocalyptic gay romance Dead City, the nonbinary autobio series Gender Slices, a 4-koma comedy comic about Darumaka and Lupin III fancomics.

Start reading on Topaz Comics

Or see sketches, thumbnails, and pages 2 months early on Patreon

The Alola Darumaka Process

Comic page split into four quadrants showing the sketch, inks, colours, and halftone effects on an Alola Darumaka page. The comic itself is four panels done in black line art with four shades of dusty pink. Panel one shows Darumaka sitting and doodling on a piece of paper with an Alolan Meowth napping behind her, Darumaka is humming with a little music note beside her. Panel two, Darumaka is still drawing and another Meowth has appeared behind her and is napping. Panel three, Darumaka has her hands up saying "Hey!" as a Meowth lays down in front of her and on her drawing. Panel four, Darumaka still with her hands up looks angrier saying "Gah!" as she is now surrounded by Meowths napping around her, heat lines coming off her body which just gathers more Meowths to her.

Here’s my process for Alola Darumaka using the ScreentonesCast template showing my traditional sketch, digital inks, colours, and halftone effects.

 

Dead City

The book cover "Dead City", drawn with choppy black line art and coloured with greens, blacks and yellows, showing Mikael and JP kneeling next to one another holding their own backpack straps with a dark Toronto skyline behind them as the sun sets. The bottom reads "Michelle Parker and Jey Pawlik"Comic page done in thick black ink and one solid 50% grey tone. Panel one, Mikael is walking over to the couch and JP asks "Are you okay?" and Mikael responds "Yeah?". Panel two, Mikael has sat down on the couch, wine glass in hand. JP asks "Are you drunk?", and Mikael replies "YESS!" Panel three shows a medium close up of JP saying "Isn't that a bad idea with all the zombies around?" Panel four is a close up of Mikael's drunk but smiling face, he says "You didn't mind last time" a bit seductively. Panel five is a similar shot but a close up of JP's face saying "But-- we should still be careful." Panel six pulls out and shows both boys on the couch together. Mikael saying "It's been ages since we saw one and they're all slow and clumsy now." JP says "Now?" Panel seven shows just Mikael from the waist up holding his wine glass saying "Right, you weren't out at the beginning."

Comic page done in thick black ink and one solid 50% grey tone. Panel one, a flashback to Mikael hunkered down in his dark messy apartment as the TV is the only source of light and narration reads “There used to be a lot and they were fast and violent.” Panel two, present day Mikael and he’s happily saying “But since they’re dead they rot, right?”. Panel three, flashback again to Mikael out in a dark warehouse where he’s searching through boxes. Narration reads “One time I was out looking for food” the sentence is left hanging over panel four, which shows a scared Mikael looking over his shoulder and the sound effect “Wok!” above his head.Comic page done in thick black ink and one solid 50% grey tone. Panel one, a continuation of the previous page’s flashback where Mikael is face to face with a zombie who’s decomposing and slowly meanering passed him, not noticing him at all. The narration reads “and one walked right past me! It didn’t have any eyes.” Panel two, back to the present showing Mikael lounging on the couch with JP next to him. JP asks “So the ones now are all rotted?” and Mikael smiles saying “Right!” Panel three, a close up of JP pouring himself a glass of wine on the coffee table in front of the couch while he says “Alright.”

Dead City is a completed post-apocalypse gay romance comic that focuses more on survival and human connection than the zombie aspect of the genre. Written by Max, this was our first comic project that we started in 2013 and finished in 2020! It’s still available to read online, but a newer fancy version was made into a book last year.

https://topazcomics.com/deadcity/welcome

https://topazcomics.com/shop

 

The Curtain Falls Process

My Patreon exclusive comic “The Curtain Falls”, a 50 page Lupin III comic about Lupin in his 60s and coming to terms that nothing lasts forever. The comic is wrapping up THIS WEEK with printing and a digital PDF on the horizon, so I wanted to promo that today as well! Sign up on Patreon to read the whole comic!

FanartDead CityQ&AAll Art (without update posts)Original CharactersComicsAlola DarumakaLupin III

Old Request Stream Art

Sketches of various characters in red pencil, most from the shoulders up: Darumaka, a chicken, a chicken wearing armor, Stevonnie, Darumaka and Snom, Luffy, Hercules, the main character from Never Satisfied, Shrek, Utena.

Sketches of various characters in red pencil, most from the shoulders up: Jigen, a character I forget, Ed from Cowboy Bebop, a fluffy velociraptor, three wolf moon, Sokka from Avatar, Zenigata, and Tai from Digimon. Sketches of various characters in red pencil, most from the shoulders up: Dimitri from Dead City, Esper from Pokemon wearing a school uniform, Mikael and JP as Sailor Scouts, Isabelle from Touchdown, Darumaka, Mikael and JP as cats. Text reads "twitch.tv/jeypawlik" Sketches of various characters in red pencil, most from the shoulders up: Mikael and JP from Dead City, a possom, a zombie, a fox, Croque from Animal Crossing, JP wearing Mikael's pocket dress, a cat, JP with short hair, and Del from Animal Crossing.

Spent some time recently cleaning up my computer files and came across these that I never posted. These were from my 2020 art request stream after finishing both Dead City and Gender Slices!

Original CharactersAlola DarumakaLupin IIIFanartDead CityAll Art (without update posts)Commissions

Sketchbook Shoutouts – 43

Image with four different black and white inked drawings on it. The first is a small halfling girl leaning on her elbows with her head in her hands while smiling and looking to the right. The second is a tall oni character from One Piece holding a trans flag, they are smiling wide and looking to the right. The third is a boy with his hands up in a peace sign and a little heart above his fingers, he’s smiling and looking to the left. The fourth is a side shot of Mikael and JP from Dead City holding champagne glasses and clinking them together happily.

Shoutout requests from my Private Collector folks! I don’t know who some of these characters are but it’s always fun to draw ones I’ve never seen before (except for Mikael and JP at the bottom, I could draw them with my eyes closed).

Every month that someone’s pledged to my Private Collector tier on Patreon, they get an inked request that appears in my monthly sketchbook The request acts as mini commissions and folks can ask for their OCs, my OCs, or any kind of fanart.

Dead CityAll Art (without update posts)CommissionsOriginal CharactersFanart

Sketchbook Shoutout – 40

One image with three black and white inked drawings. The first is of Jigen as a werewolf from the side with his arms behind his head, text reads “shoutout for frnz”. The second is Jan and Isabelle from the comic Touchdown playfighting over a football, they’re both smiling, text reads “shoutout for TLC”. The last is Mikael and JP from Dead City smiling at a cake that has candles on it, text reads “shoutout for Khiari”.

Three shoutouts for my Private Collector gang, werewolf Jigen is always really fun and folks like my OCs enough to request them?! What a joy!

Every month that someone’s pledged to my Private Collector tier on Patreon, they get an inked request that appears in my monthly sketchbook. The request acts as mini commissions and folks can ask for their OCs, my OCs, or any kind of fanart.

Original CharactersLupin IIIFanartDead CityAll Art (without update posts)Commissions