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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

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~

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Pride OCs 2025
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?
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Webcomic Day

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!

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Sketchbook Shoutouts – 43

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.

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Sketchbook Shoutout – 40

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.

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Stream Requests

Did a request stream not too long ago (before Tears of the Kingdom came out). Everyone requested some really fun drawings! I especially like Mikael wearing Elton John sunglasses. We also tried to parse Ganondorf’s hair in TOTK.

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