Topaz Comics (Jey Pawlik & Max Parker) will be at MCX this year at booth 313 on November 16th. Admission is FREE
We’ll have merch from our shop for sale, come by and say hi!
It’s my birthday AND I hit some big follower milestones on Bluesky, Tumblr AND Mastodon, so to celebrate I wanted to do a traditional art giveaway! This includes sketchbooks, sketch pages, comic pages and illustrations.
– 3 winners will be chosen and contacted on November 15th
– Winner’s will receive a traditional grab bag of their choosing
– You can only sign up once
– Winners will need to provide an address or P.O box to send the art to (I’ll do my best to ship outside Canada/USA)
I’m back from my contract work AND my honeymoon to Japan!
Here’s how you can keep up on these newsletters (they’ll always be free)
RSS | Mailing List | Patreon
Public October Art
Public art goes up every Friday on tumblr, mastodon, pillowfort, bluesky and jpawlik.com/blog with sketches and thumbnails up over a month early for Patrons and VIP members!
Webcomic Updates
Another page from the comic Max and I did for the anthology Queer Compassion in 15 Comics, we’ll be wrapping up the 8 page comic in November!
6 pages are up so far to read for free. If you want early access to pages, sketches and thumbs check out my Patreon or my VIP Blog.
Read from the beginning | Read the latest page
For Patrons and VIP members, two new pages from After Practice went up! This is a comic Max and I did for Filthy Figments a few years back that we’re allowed to post now!
A sexy 19-page story about two older lesbians, Jan and Isabelle, who come home to a relaxing bath after flag football practice!
Read it on Patreon | Read on my VIP Blog
October’s Sketchbook 
This month’s sketchbook is up for the Grab Bag tier on Patreon and my VIP Blog
JAPAN!
Max and I just got back from our honeymoon in Japan and it was absolutely incredible! We went to Tokyo, Hakone and Kyoto, got to take the subway, bullet train and a really cute retro streetcar. Of course we bought a lot too!
I’m thinking about drawing a travelogue about our trip, since Max and I kept journals while we were there we have pretty detailed notes along with the 900ish photos we took between the two of us.
I may make a separate photo post once I organize all my photos and get my film photos back from my camera lab (I took a film camera with me as well).
We had an incredibly clear view of Mt. Fuji herself!
MCX 2024
Max and I will be boothing at the Mississauga Comics Expo again this year as Topaz Comics!
Other things
My birthday’s tomorrow (November 5th) and I’m thinking of doing a giveaway for it, stay tuned!
For now, I’m done my big video game contract and I cannot wait to share this game with you all! I’m so proud of the work the team did on this.
I’m taking the rest of the year to focus on personal art, catch up on webcomic work, and post regularly to Patreon and my VIP Blog again! Things that’ll be starting up again in the next week: Alola Darumaka and The Curtain Falls!
Might make a photography portion on my blog to share some of the photography I’ve been doing as a hobby, it’s been a lot of fun!
If you’re a Lupin fan, also check out the Lupin Forum I’m back to hosting weekly prompts AND there’s sign-ups open now for our December Advent Calendar event!
~~~
I’m so stoked to get back into personal art and comics. Join me again at the end of the month for November’s newsletter!
My souvenir goal for Japan was to buy myself a really nice fancy pen and I succeeded! This is a Sailor Profit 1911 21k with a zoom nib, it’s kind of like a fude and the nib is really neat.
Hey and if you want to learn about fountain pens, maybe check out the zine I did with my good pal Amiel
What a hectic month, September went by so fast!! Here’s some things I did and posted~
Here’s how you can keep up on these newsletters (they’ll always be free)
RSS | Mailing List | Patreon
Public September Art
I try my darndest to post something fun for free every Friday on tumblr, mastodon, pillowfort, bluesky and jpawlik.com/blog with sketches and thumbnails up early for Patrons and VIP members!
Webcomic Updates
Two more pages from the comic Max and I did for the anthology Queer Compassion in 15 Comics, it’s a bit heavy but I’m really happy with how it turned out!
5 pages are up so far to read for free! If you want early access to pages, sketches and thumbs check out my Patreon or my VIP Blog.
Read from the beginning | Read the latest pages
For Patrons and VIP members, I’m posting pages from After Practice – a comic Max and I did for Filthy Figments a few years back that we’re allowed to post now! This’ll give me a good backlog to get back into new comics after my contract ends.
A sexy 19-page story about two older lesbians, Jan and Isabelle, who come home to a relaxing bath after flag football practice!
Read it on Patreon | Read on my VIP Blog
September’s Sketchbook
This month’s sketchbook is up for the Grab Bag tier on Patreon and my VIP Blog
Swim On
Swim On donations have been DONATED and the zine is still for sale if you missed it! Donations are done annually every September 30th. All proceeds go towards finfree.org and I’m covering any and all Stripe fees myself.
We made a whopping $941.00!!! The most we’ve EVER made! Thank you all for your support in this last volume, what an incredible journey. I’ll keep annually donating whatever we get even if I don’t make another zine (but who knows, maybe I’ll come back to it if I have more time down the road).
Grab Swim On 10 and all the previous volumes here
The Trans Comics Bundle #1
Today’s also the last day to support this trans-only comics bundle by DCS on itch.io!
Max and I put Given & Taken forward and y’know I’m still real proud of that comic. We’re so close to our next goal so go grab some trans comics and help support trans creators!
Written by M. Parker | Art by Jey Pawlik
Early in their partnership, Jigen is shot and when Lupin tries to help he discovers something he didn’t know about his partner. Unsure of how to react Lupin falls into old habits and is surprised when it doesn’t work out as planned.
This zine does not contain sexual content but does contain nudity and realistic depictions of an external genitalia prosthetic. Viewer discretion recommended.
Content warnings: Misgendering, language, blood, nudity, packer/dildo
Extras include: – Thanks for reading page – 2 extra comics (ft. Fujiko and Zenigata) – Turbodick specs & features – Michelle’s scripts and thumbnails (ft. my cover thumbnails)
Other things
Nearing the last ten tasks on my NDA game project with some on-call work for October/November and hopefully I’ll be able to share info about the game soon!! Stay tuned.
I’m taking most of October off to work on personal art and do some fun day trips with my spouse Max. We’ve been pretty non-stop since last January so it’ll be nice to have some time to do some fun things.
I’m trying to get into photography as a hobby that I WILL NOT monetize and that’s been real fun. I’ve got a 1994 Pentax film camera, an Instax Mini 11 and a small Panasonic Lumix DSLR that I’ve been playing around with. The tough part is I always want to bring all three camera with me every where I go. Maybe I’ll post photos somewhere online at some point after I recover from being real busy.
If you’re a Lupin fan, also check out the Lupin Forum I’m hosting weekly art prompts over there, so come draw with us!
~~~
Join me again at the end of October for my next newsletter!
Wrapping up the summer with another newsletter!
Here’s how you can keep up on these newsletters (they’ll always be free)
RSS | Mailing List | Patreon
Public August Art
I try and post fun public art every Fridays, usually fanart! I post them over on tumblr, mastodon, cohost, pillowfort, bluesky and jpawlik.com/blog with sketches and thumbnails up early for patrons and VIP members!
Webcomic Updates
Something a bit different, Max and I were invited to this anthology back in 2021 Queer Compassion in 15 Comics and now that the book is out, we’re finally able to share what we did for it! We’re both very proud of it.
Our comic was 8 pages so I’ll be scheduling one per week on Tuesdays to give us a bit of a buffer so we can get some new Darumaka comics ready for y’all!
Three pages are up so far to read for free! If you want early access to pages, sketches and thumbs check out my Patreon or my VIP Blog.
For Patrons and VIP members, I just finished posting all 5 pages of the comic Max and I did for the Mon Marie zine. It’s not quite NSFW but has implications and is a bit more mature. I also popped our extra copies up in the Topaz Shop if you’re interested.
Read it on Patreon | Read on my VIP Blog
August’s Sketchbook
This month’s sketchbook is up for the Grab Bag tier on Patreon and my VIP Blog
Swim On
Swim On 10 is still for sale, and this last volume features 149 illustrations by 134 artists. All proceeds go towards finfree.org
Grab that and all the previous volumes here
Other things
Still working away on my NDA game project and should be wrapping up in September. I have really enjoyed my time working on a video game so I may pursue more of this work going forward!
I bought an old 1994 Pentax film camera and have been having such a good time getting into photography as a hobby. I’ve been wanting a hobby that I can’t monetize and that doesn’t involve drawing in any way. There’s a local camera club near me so I may also join that soon. Maybe I’ll post some photos online too!
My goal after September is to really dive back in to personal work for the remainder of the year. I have so much I want to work on but just don’t have the time yet!
If you’re a Lupin fan, also check out the Lupin Forum I’m hosting weekly art prompts over there, so come draw with us!
~~~
Join me again at the end of September for my next newsletter!
Hope y’all are having a good summer!
Here’s how you can keep up on these newsletters (they’ll always be free)
RSS | Mailing List | Patreon
Public July Art
I try and post fun public art every Fridays, usually fanart! I post them over on tumblr, mastodon, cohost, pillowfort, bluesky and jpawlik.com/blog with sketches and thumbnails up early for patrons and VIP members!
Webcomic Updates
No Darumakas this month, instead I posted a 3 page Lupin one-shot based on a scene from Porco Rosso. If you want early access to pages, sketches and thumbs check out my Patreon or my VIP Blog.
Another HRT diary comic went up! These pages do go up early on Patreon and my VIP Blog, then up 2 months later for free on Topaz Comics.
Read from the beginning | Read the latest page
After All wrapped up for Private Collector members, and what a doozy that comic was! It’s a NSFW Jigen/Zeni comic that Max wrote and I am so pleased with it! Go read the entire thing, and later this year I’ll be posting a PDF on my itchio and a printed version on our shop.
Read it on Patreon | Read on my VIP Blog
July’s Sketchbook
This month’s sketchbook is up for the Grab Bag tier on Patreon and my VIP Blog
Swim On 10: Blue Planet
The final volume of Swim On goes live on Friday @ 12pmEST
Check out the Swim On site on Friday to get the newest and final volume of my shark charity zine. This last volume features 149 illustrations by 134 artists, the biggest volume to date and I am so proud of it! It was a really big job this year so that’s taken up quite a bit of my time, but I hope you’ll support it when it’s out – all proceeds go towards finfree.org
Grab that and all the previous volumes here
Other things
Still working hard on my NDA video game contract and we’re nearing the end! Might be working on it into September, but I am so stoked to eventually finally tell you about all this secret art I’ve been doing. My art director is so incredible, Shel Kahn so go check our their work as well! The whole team is doing such a great job. I’ve been thinking of doing a slight career shift into video games proper after this and then do personal comics on the side – we will see!
I’ll be away for a week in August without internet and I am so ready to be away from social media for that time. Posts might be staggered a bit during that time since only some sites have schedule options/I only have so much time in a day to do art and make posts.
I’m hoping to do no freelance work from October to December to slowly catchup on all the personal work I so desperately want to do so just know the posts are coming!
Hey if you’re a comic artist go join the Cartoonist Coop that I’m on some committees for; including the Nib and Ink Fest, and webdesign!
If you’re a Lupin fan, also check out the Lupin Forum I’m hosting weekly art prompts over there, so come draw with us!
~~~
What a busy year so far but I was so determined to get my newsletter done and up on time! Tune in at the end of August for the next newsletter.
Happy Pride month everyone! Hope y’all are staying hydrated and wearing sunscreen.
Here’s how you can keep up on these newsletters (they’ll always be free)
RSS | Mailing List | Patreon
Public June Art
I try and post fun public art every Fridays, usually fanart! I post them over on tumblr, mastodon, cohost, pillowfort, bluesky and jpawlik.com/blog with sketches and thumbnails up early for patrons and VIP members!
Webcomic Updates
Three new Alola Darumaka pages up this month, Daven started his new internship and is meeting some new friends. And if you want early access to pages, sketches and thumbs check out my Patreon or my VIP Blog.
Read from the beginning | Read the newest pages
I posted another HRT diary comic this month, and I’m 6 months in to taking T! Well, technically I’m 9 months now because these pages do go up early on Patreon and my VIP Blog, then up 2 months later for free on Topaz Comics.
Read from the beginning | Read the latest page
A new page of The Curtain Falls went up as well, this is a Lupin III fancomic I’m working that focuses on Lupin in his 60s and dealing with change and retirement. Yata has offended Lupin, what’ll happen now?!
Read it on Patreon | Read on my VIP Blog
June’s Sketchbook
This month’s sketchbook is up for the Grab Bag tier on Patreon and my VIP Blog
Filthy Figments Itchio Bundle
FINAL 48 HOURS Get 77% OFF of 15 enticingly erotic Transgender & Genderqueer comics – over 600 pages of comics – and support an amazing lineup of queer indie creators!
https://itch.io/s/124112/the-filthy-figments-nsfw-comics-bundle-trans-gq-showcase
Max and I have a comic in this bundle called “I Built You a Sex Machine”. When Betty finds out her wife Ursula has built her a sex machine she knows she has to put it to the test right away. But can the machine keep up with her insatiable sex drive? This is a 31 page comic about two older ladies figuring out how to be intimate with each other while both of them have wildly different libidos!
Filthy Figments is a small press group publishing erotic comics from up-and-comic creators as well as established professionals. Each author in the bundle is a member of Filthy Figments.
By purchasing this bundle (or sharing this post to spread the word), you are funding independent artists and helping us continue to publish new works by these amazing creators! To learn more about Filthy Figments, check out our website.
Other things
I’m working hard on my contract job with the NDA video game and it’s getting closer to the finish line now! My contract may be extended again but I’ll be on it until August for sure! It’s been so nice to be a part of a studio and I really love having Shel Kahn as my art director. The whole team is doing such a great job and I cannot wait to tell y’all about this game!
Progress is being made, slowly but surely, on my VIP Blog. This is my own site that will be my Patreon mirror, so in case Patreon ever goes down I have a back up. Prices are in Canadian if that’s an incentive at all, and you’ll only get one email per week about posts but I post pieces at the same time as Patreon. Right now I have to use Stripe as a payment processor, but they don’t technically allow for NSFW or tips so I’m trying to figure out ways around that like; as a $10 member you’ll be charged for a sketchbook PDF and shoutout request every month, BUT you’ll get access to my private blog that just so happens to have NSFW art in it. Hopefully I can make this work. It’s tough out there for NSFW artists right now.
I have officially caught up on weekly art prompts over on the Lupin Forum and will be posting those in batches on other sites soon. If you’re a Lupin fan, join us over on the forum and draw some prompts with me!
~~~
Y’know how I said I’d hoped June would be quieter than May? Well that didn’t happen but I’m happy with the work I put out this month anyway, even if I didn’t do as much fun art as I wanted to. Check back in July for another newsletter!
Y’all, May was so bananas busy I can’t believe I made it through! I also managed to get this newsletter done somehow (even if it’s June now, happy pride everyone)
Here’s how you can keep up on these newsletters (they’ll always be free)
RSS | Mailing List | Patreon
Public May Art
I try and post fun public art every Fridays, usually fanart! I also post them on all the socials if that’s your jam, maybe give them a reblog over on tumblr, mastodon, cohost, pillowfort, bluesky and jpawlik.com/blog with sketches and thumbnails up early for patrons and VIP members.
Webcomic Updates
Three new Alola Darumaka pages up this month! And if you want early access to pages, sketches and thumbs check out my Patreon or my VIP Blog.
Read from the beginning | Read the newest pages
I posted another HRT diary comic this month, we’re on page 6 now! I’m making these pages as changes happen, but I do post them early on Patreon and my VIP Blog, then up 2 months later for free on Topaz Comics.
Read from the beginning | Read the latest page
Just one page of After All this month, it’s a bit of work to do these pages because I’m doing a trans version and a cis version of each page! It’s been fun to try and see come together. This is a NSFW Jigen/Zenigata comic written by Max and it’s the penultimate page!
Read on Patreon | Read on my VIP Blog
A new page of The Curtain Falls went up as well, this is a Lupin III fancomic I’m working that focuses on Lupin in his 60s and dealing with change and retirement. Yata is having the weirdest first day helming the Lupin case!
Read it on Patreon | Read on my VIP Blog
May’s Sketchbook
This month’s sketchbook is up for the Grab Bag tier on Patreon and my VIP Blog
So May was one heck of a month for me! I forgot that I usually take May off from posting comic work and just didn’t do that this year for whatever reason?! Well between TCAF, Anime North, a family member getting emergency surgery and work– oof! is all I have to say!
Somehow I managed to fill up around 20 pages in my sketchbook despite everything. I think June will be a lot quieter. Enjoy some concept art, cute Lupins, and lots of notes from a professional panel day at TCAF!
Other things
So my work contract got extended again, I’ll be working on this game until August but there’s a chance I may be extended again which is really exciting as we start putting some really cool art into this! I cannot wait to share what the game is with y’all.
I’m working through 140 applicants for Swim On this year, and this will be the very last year of it! I was getting a little emotional as I was going through portfolios, but I think ending at vol. 10 is the right choice. I don’t have as much time as I used to and it keeps growing too. I hope this year will be the biggest, best one yet!
I also removed Kofi as a subscriber option. It’s not my favourite to post to, it’s very clunky, and I don’t like how the categorizing works. It was a lot of work for only one person to actually subscribe and they seemed to have cancelled now so I decided to turn it off. Kofi is still there as a tip-jar and you can always get a shoutout request on it, but I won’t be putting any extra work into it. I’d much rather get my VIP blog working and nice looking – since I own that!
Max and I are working on a pitch for an upcoming anthology, I’m real excited to tell y’all about it when pre-orders go up.
I’m also working on a small comic for a cool writer about their phalloplasty. It’s being looked over by editors for a publishing company right now and I think what we made is really neat.
Despite being behind on drawing them, I’m still hosting weekly art prompts over on the Lupin Forum and I’ve been really enjoying having a non-social media place to post and chat. If you’re a Lupin fan I highly encourage you to join!
~~~
Basically May was the busiest I’ve been in a long time! Hopefully June will be a bit quieter so be sure to sign up for updates to get that at the end of June!
Swim On is a yearly charity zine dedicated to shark preservation. All proceeds the zine makes go directly to finfree.org and this will be the final zine! After ten volumes I decided this was a good number to stop on so I want to it to go out with a BANG!
The zine will go up on https://topazcomics.com/swimon for $1+ (pay what you can)
All Swim On zines can be found at https://topazcomics.com/swimon/downloads
All artists at any skill level are welcome to apply!
Everyone who applies will receive an email, so be sure to whitelist swimon@topazcomics.com
Any information in this application can be found at topazcomics.com/swimon
Submission Guidelines
- Your piece must be 6”x9” (1800x2700px) at 300dpi JPG or PNG in RGB
- There is no theme the zine, just sharks!
- A shark must be the focus of the piece (humans & other animals are allowed to be present)
- You must submit a full completed piece, no rough sketches, or blank white backgrounds will be accepted
- Comics, traditional and digital artwork are all accepted
- You are welcome to submit more than one piece
- Only new pieces will be accepted, please do not submit a piece that you have made previously
- Lesser known species are encouraged!
- For species examples check out this site
- No anthropomorphic, half-human, or prehistoric sharks
- Absolutely no AI art will be permitted
- No nsfw content (including gore, death, blood – this is a G-rated zine)
Applying
You will need to provide 1 url to showcase your work. This can be a tumblr, twitter, instagram, google drive, etc.
Please:
- Make sure your work is easily accessible and easy to find on your website of choice
- Showcase that you can finish a full illustration or comic page
- You can change your credit name or url after the rough pdf is sent out
- You will receive a copy of the application after you apply, if you did not receive it please email swimon@topazcomics.com
- This zine’s communication is through email only, there will not be a discord
Schedule
May 10 – Call for artists opens
May 24 – Call for artists closes
May 31 – Artists Announced
July 12 – Submissions are DUE
July 26 – Rough PDF is sent to artists/adjustments made
August 2 – Zine goes live
September 2 – Artists can post their full pieces publicly
September 30 – All proceeds donated to finfree.org
If you have any questions about the zine check out the FAQ, shoot me an ask, reply to this post or you can contact me at:
swimon@topazcomics.com
