November is always such a busy month with my birthday, my spouse’s birthday and our anniversary! This year we also tabled and had just a lot of work happening!
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Public November Art
I post something publicly every Friday (and sometimes extras) and these can be seen & shared on my various socials: tumblr, mastodon, cohost, pillowfort, bluesky and jpawlik.com/blog with sketches and thumbnails up early for patrons and then for free members 2 months later.
Webcomic Updates
All four pages of a short Lupin III comic that Michelle and I did for the fanzine “Between Heists” collection are up!
Now that “Between Heists” is complete, I’ve got two Lupin Zero pages to post. One of which is already up to read for free.
The Grab Bag tier on Patreon & Kofi got a new page of my Lupin III fancomic “The Curtain Falls”, a comic about Lupin in his 60s. Pages go up when I finish them but it’s usually every other Wednesday.
Read on Patreon | Read on Kofi
The Private Collector tier on Patreon also got another “After All” page, a NSFW Jigen/Zenigata comic written by Michelle. It’s heatin’ up in here!
Also posted up an OJST behind the scenes for Private Collectors. This month’s was for “Reminiscing with the WeVibe Tango” and talking about the tools and brushes I use for my comics.
Read the comic on OJST | Read the Behind the Scenes on Patreon
November’s Sketchbook
This month’s sketchbook is up for the Grab Bag tier on Patreon & Kofi
November’s sketchbook is done and here! 28 pages this month with some original comic concept art, life drawing, a bunch of cute Maka doodles, and thumbnails for some projects I’m working on! Plus, as always, very good shoutout requests from the Private Collector crew!
MCX 2023
Other things
– Michelle and I have a 5 page comic in the upcoming Mon Marie zine, sign up for updates on the preorder here (photo from Tsushi’s tumblr post)
– I’ve move to fulltime work on the big contract I’m working on!
– I’m now a part of the Adult Artists Webring. Check it out, there’s some real great artists there!
~~~
I’ll be back with another newsletter at the end of December, so until then happy holidays everyone!
M. Parker and Jey Pawlik (Topaz Comics) will be at MCX this year at booth 103!
Living Arts Centre
4141 Living Arts Drive, Mississauga
Sun Nov 19
10 am – 4 pm
Free Admission!
We’ll have merch from our shop for sale. A sketch challenge at 11am & an author talk at 1:30pm about running a comics anthology or fanzine!
Come see us!
Hey it’s my birthday so I want to plug my comics!
Alola Darumaka: A 4-koma slice-of-life comic about Daven and his rambunctious partner Pokemon, Darumaka! Daven and Darumaka move to Alola for school. Is Alola ready for Darumaka?
One-shots: One-shot comics just for fun! Various 1-6 page stand alone stories. Includes: original, fanart (mostly Lupin III) and miscellaneous characters.
Dead City: A zombie apocalypse has hit Toronto and Mikael and JP are alone in the city and struggling to survive. While they’re searching for food and shelter they find something else as well.
Gender Slices: A collection of short autobiographical comics about being trans and nonbinary in a ciscentric world. Jey works through their own feelings in short, one page comics that depict their day to day experience.
These are all available to read for free over on https://topazcomics.com!
Oh Joy Sex Toy (NSFW): My autobio comics for the website ohjoysextoy.com where I discuss sex-ed, toy reviews, and navigating life as a trans/nonbinary person. Also available to read for free!
Patreon Exclusives @ https://patreon.com/jpawlik
$1: 2 month early access to my one-shot comics and Alola Darumaka including sketches and thumbnails (plus any illustrations that I’ll be posting on social media)
$5: The Curtain Falls, a Lupin III fancomic about Lupin in his 60s dealing with aging and changes. Pages are posted as I complete them (usually every other Wednesday). Plus my monthly sketchbook PDF.
$10: Any NSFW comics and illustrations. I’m currently working on a NSFW Jigen/Zenigata comic. Pages go up every other Thursday. This tier also gets a monthly art request!
Happy Halloween everyone, enjoy this month’s newsletter!
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Public October Art
I post something publicly every Friday (and sometimes extras) and these can be seen & shared on my various socials: tumblr, twitter, mastodon, cohost, pillowfort, bluesky and jpawlik.com/blog with sketches and thumbnails up early for patrons and for free members 2 months later.
My Ghost Files piece appeared on the Ghost Files Debrief on October 27th and that was super cool!
Webcomic Updates
I finished posting my 7 page comic “Loom”. This is a silent comic written by Clark Moreau for the Twisting Time Anthology.
Now that Loom is complete, I’m posting a short Lupin III comic that Michelle and I did for the fanzine “Between Heists” collection. Two pages are up already and there’s two more to go, updates Tuesdays at 12pmEST
The Grab Bag tier on Patreon got a few more pages of my Lupin III fancomic “The Curtain Falls”, a comic about Lupin in his 60s. Pages go up when I finish them but it’s usually every other Wednesday.
The Private Collector tier on Patreon also got another “After All” page, a NSFW Jigen/Zenigata comic written by Michelle. It’s heatin’ up in here!
October’s Sketchbook
This month’s sketchbook is HERE for the Grab Bag tier on Patreon
October’s sketchbook is pretty big this month at a whopping 30 pages! I’m only now coming back up to my full art potential after hurting my wrist last year. This month’s PDF includes a work life drawing session, lots of Makas in Halloween costumes, and some item concepts for a new original comic Michelle and I have been brainstorming! Plus, of course, some very good shoutout requests from my Private Collector folks!
MCX 2023
The Mississauga Comic Expo is BACK and happening on November 19th this year at the Living Arts Centre in Mississauga! It’s free to enter, and Michelle and I will be there as Topaz Comics with all our books and wares!
I’ll be doing a sketch challenge in the theatre at 11am, and then my newest talk “Creating Comic Anthologies and Fanzines” at 1:30pm in the same theatre! Come visit us (booth number TBA)
Other things
– November 5th is my birthday! 33 babeeeeey
– I started HRT after years of debating. Comics are in the works!
– I recovered from covid and it doesn’t look like there’s been any long term side effects for me. I was pretty worried and anxious about that.
~~~
Talk to y’all again at the end of November!
September is over and done, so thus another newsletter is up!
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Public September Art
Here’s some public illustrations that I posted this month! I try to post something publicly every Friday – and all patrons get to see these a whole month early, which include any sketches and thumbs related! All of these can be seen & shared on my various socials: tumblr, twitter, mastodon, cohost, pillowfort, bluesky and jpawlik.com/blog!
OJST: I Got Married
In June, after 10 years of being together, Michelle and I got married! It was a pretty small event but way more work than either of us expected, but I couldn’t be happier with the end result.
Other big news is I’ll be stepping away from doing monthly comics on Oh Joy Sex Toy for a little while as I got offered a really cool contract for a video game! I can’t talk about who it’s for or what it is yet but I’ll be back with one-off comics at some point after I learn the ropes with this new gig. Thank you so much for all your support in having me on as a semi-permanent guest artist for two whole years! A big thank you for Matthew and Erika offering me the role, it was a dream come true to work so closely with people I’ve looked up to for 10 years! And of course, thanks to Ziggy for helping edit my comics, and Hien for being such a great co-worker. Ahhhh, but I’m sure I’ll be back!
Webcomic Updates
I’ve been posting more of my 7 page comic “Loom” once a week until it’s complete. This is a silent comic written by Clark Moreau for the Twisting Time Anthology. I’m so incredibly proud of the research and backgrounds I did for this comic and the last page will go up on October 3rd.
The Grab Bag tier on Patreon got another page of my Lupin III fancomic “The Curtain Falls”, a comic about Lupin in his 60s. Pages go up when I finish them!
The Private Collector tier on Patreon also got another “After All” page, a NSFW Jigen/Zenigata comic written by Michelle. We’re getting to the sexy bits now!
September’s Sketchbook
This month’s sketchbook is HERE for the Grab Bag tier on Patreon
September’s sketchbook is here! A 25 page pdf this time with sketches from a work life drawing session, some studies of the Nausicaa manga, and lots of Lupin in cute gay little outfits! It was a fashion kind of month. And as always some very fun shoutout requests, thanks to the Private Collector gang!
Other things
– I’ll be opening commissions in October once again, but Patrons get 1 week first dibs on the 2 slots.
– I’ve got a bluesky account now, and I’ll be posting my art there as well as all my other places. I still like tumblr the best for now.
– Speaking of bluesky, I made some feeds for it! A network-wide Lupin III feed, my own general art feed, and another for my own Lupin art. Feel free to give those a follow!
– I got covid and it really sucked, but I ended up reading quite a lot of the manga “What Did You Eat Yesterday”, which I’ve been collecting for quite a while. I highly recommend giving it a read!
~~~
I think that about wraps it up for this month. Tune in at the end of October for the next newsletter. How’s this newsletter working? Does it work? Would you rather see things differently? It’s fun to figure out a new way to get info to folks.
August comes to a close and so does the summer and possibly my super busy days are over and done!
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Public August Art
This month’s public art! I try my darndest to post something publicly every Friday – and all patrons get to see these like a month early! All of these can be seen & shared on my various socials: tumblr, twitter, mastodon, cohost, pillowfort, bluesky and jpawlik.com/blog!
OJST: B.J Dildo 2.0
This month’s OJST is a review for a toy that was graciously sent to me to try out! This is a NSFW review and includes depictions of dildos, nudity, and sexual content. I was super excited to try this one out and while it wasn’t exactly how I’d imagined it, it was still a pretty swell toy to use. I’d seen so many good reviews on this toy from other trans and nonbinary folks, but I’m starting to think I’m the outlier here.
Swim On Vol. 9 is live!
My 9th Swim On went up earlier this month and you can grab it for $1+ over at https://topazcomics.com/swimon/downloads/
All proceeds this and all previous volumes makes goes directly to finfree.org and the conservation of sharks!
Webcomic Updates
I’ve been posting my 7 page comic “Loom” once a week until it’s complete. This is a silent comic written by Clark Moreau for the Twisting Time Anthology. I’m so incredibly proud of the research and backgrounds I did for this comic.
$1+ patrons got 1 month early webcomic updates, currently they’re getting the comic Michelle and I did for “Between Heists” a Lupin fanzine.
After All, the JigZeni NSFW comic for $10 patrons, will start back up again starting September 14th. The Curtain Falls will also be back on September 13th for $5+ patrons!
August’s Sketchbook
This month’s sketchbook is HERE for the Grab Bag tier on Patreon
August’s sketchbook is here! 22 pages this time with mostly for fun doodles and sketches with some sketches I’d really like to clean up and tone down the line. Also some really good shoutout requests from $10 tier folks, thank you for your requests I always really enjoy doing those! Columbo was quite fun to draw. A little sneak peak as well for another Lupin zine Michelle and I will be in~
Other things
– I’m going to see about opening commissions again in October, I just have to catch up on my personal projects first.
– I’ve got a bluesky account now, and I’ll be posting my art there as well as all my other places. I still like tumblr the best for now.
– NDA work is going well, busy juggling two jobs at once but I’m really enjoying it.
– I’ve been playing a lot of Tears of the Kingdom in my down time and what a wonderful, dumb game!
– I finished reading all of the Nausicaa manga and while it was really impressive and Miyazaki has great panelling and pacing I do like the movie more. The manga is a bit pretentious, fairly gory and a bit of a bummer. I still think I’ll do a comic study on it however, so look out for that next month.
~~~
I think that about wraps it up for this month. Tune in at the end of September for the next newsletter. How’s this newsletter working? Does it work? Would you rather see things differently? It’s fun to figure out a new way to get info to folks.
I’ve said this every month of 2023 so far but what a busy month!
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Swim On 9 goes live on Friday, August 4th, 2023 @ 12pmEST!!
It’s my 9th year doing Swim On and I just finished putting the PDF together this week. It looks awesome! I’ll be sure to make a full on post about it on August 4th too, but you’ll be able to grab it for $1+ over at https://topazcomics.com/swimon/downloads/
I started a new job!
At the beginning of the month I did an art test for a big NDA project and I’ve been working on that since. It’s really fun and I can’t wait to tell everyone about it once it’s done, but currently I am sworn to secrecy legally.
July Art
Some recent public art that’s up for all to see! All of these can be seen & shared on my various socials: tumblr, twitter, mastodon, cohost, pillowfort and jpawlik.com/blog!
Webcomic Updates
A 3 page Lupin Zero comic went up this month over on Topaz Comics. I had a lot of fun writing this one and using TrueGrit’s Halftone Machine on it. Start on page 1 here!
$1+ patrons got 1 month early webcomic updates with the completion of a 7 page short done for the Twisting Time Anthology last year.
A new page of After All These Years is up for the Private Collector tier! It’s a NSFW Jigen/Zenigata comic that I’m doing with Michelle and it’s getting to the hot and sexy part now, a perfect time to catch up!
A new page of The Curtain Falls is also up this month for the Grab Bag tier, we’re starting the second arc now so also a very good time to pop in and catch up! The Curtain Falls is a 50 page Lupin fancomic about Lupin in his 60s and dealing with the fact that everything needs to come to an end at some point.
July’s Sketchbook
This month’s sketchbook is HERE for the Grab Bag tier on Patreon
July was such a busy month but I still managed to get a 21 page sketchbook PDF out and posted!
This month was all about fun doodles, not much concept art or full pieces, but really letting loose and silly with it! Lots of Makas; Makas doing fun things, Makas dresses as Link and Zelda, Makas keeping a diary.
Commissions
Are closed for now, I’ll be sure to let everyone know when they open up again.
~~~
I think that about wraps it up for this month. Tune in at the end of August for the next newsletter, I look forward to sharing more art and comics with you all!
So long pride month, but here’s some art & updates!
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I got MARRIED!
So the biggest news is that Michelle and I got MARRIED on June 4th! It absolutely perfect, it was small, low stress, intimate and wonderful! Our suits turned out so great, my dark green one and Michelle’s charcoal grey. We also made pins as wedding favours and they turned out so good! I’ve popped the leftovers up for sale over on our online shop.
Then we went up north for our honeymoon and it was such a good time away from the internet and the hustle and bustle of the city. We saw a family of minks, a hummingbird 6″ away from Michelle’s face, a muskrat, and a BALD EAGLE (those are extremely uncommon up here in Canada). I took lots of photos with a film camera so I just have to get those developed.
June Art
Here’s the last few public pieces I’ve posted since the last newsletter. All of these can be seen & shared on my various socials: tumblr, twitter, mastodon, cohost, pillowfort and jpawlik.com/blog!
My Instagram account was permanently disabled
I’m beyond furious right now. Coming back from my honeymoon to find my ig account suspended for “automated behaviour”. The only thing I’ve ever used in conjunction with ig is their meta business suite to schedule posts and stories.
So I appealed.
Two days later they just straight up permanently disabled my account. Great! Cool. I didn’t get to talk with a person at all.
I really disliked ig. Posting on it was really difficult as a desktop user. Changing the aspect ratio of my art was hard. BUT I’d been building up that following for 10 years and now all that work just POOF! Gone in an automated instant.
I’m sad I won’t be able to tell the folks that followed me over there what happened or where else they can follow me. Hopefully we’ll meet again.
I won’t be making a new instagram, but will be trying to go on without another social media account to look after.
June’s Oh Joy Sex Toy Comic “Character Customization”
Read it here! Let me tell you about my realisation that I could change anything I wanted about myself; it really did feel like I’d unlocked character customization! Who’da thunk it, that buying a little pair of boxers could really shift my entire view on what I could change about myself. This was also back in 2013 when, for a young 22-year-old AFAB person, it felt a lot less socially acceptable to wear boxers. I’m so glad I took the plunge and levelled up!
There won’t be an Oh Joy Sex Toy Comic from me in July but I’ll be back the first Tuesday of August.
Alola Darumaka Updates
Read the latest Alola Darumaka pages starting here! Three new pages went up this month and we completed a 3 page arc about Galar Darumaka, who everyone has been asking to see! If you’re new you can start reading here: Alola Darumaka is a free to read 4-koma comedy comic about Darumaka and her partner Daven who’ve moved to Alola from Unova. Hijinks happen but it’s all in good fun!
Shop Updates
The shop is back up now that we’re back from our honeymoon and now has the two hard enamel pins we gave away at our wedding! These are my very first pin designs and I hope to make some more cool enamel pins in the future (maybeeee about a certain thief).
Get The Writer pin here, and The Artist pin here for $15CAD each!
June’s Sketchbook
This month’s sketchbook is HERE for $5+ members on Patreon & Kofi
June’s sketchbook is here! A 23 page PDF this month with lots of comic studies, diary entries of my honeymoon, wildlife we saw, and just generally some good fun art! It was nice to be off for a month and I did less drawing than I expected but really relaxed.
Commissions
Are closed for now, I’ll be sure to let everyone know when they open up again.
June Hiatus Comic Updates
Since I was away and without internet for most of this month, I posted up some anthology comics for Patrons in place of Alola Darumaka, The Curtain Falls, and my NSFW tier.
The $1 tier is getting a 7 page comic I did for “Twisting Time”, written by Clark Moreau. The story is that of a time weaver dealing with all the grief of the world.
The $5 tier got a 3 page comic for an old gay man anthology that never came to be. The comic Michelle and I did was called “Train Dads” and it’ll likely stay as a Patron-only comic.
The $10 tier is getting a 7 page comic Michelle and I did for the “Nectar” anthology (which was nominated for a Lammy). An artist summons a muse for a life drawing session, but some of the poses are much harder to hold than others.
~~~
I think that about wraps it up for this month. Tune in at the end of July for the next newsletter, I look forward to sharing more art and comics with you all!
May came and went so quickly, I can’t believe it!
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May Art
I realised I didn’t have a public art section in my newsletters?! Time to fix that. Here’s all the art I posted this month. All of these can be seen & shared on my various socials: tumblr, twitter, mastodon, cohost, pillowfort and instagram (which might be too many but I’m hoping to weed them down at some point in the future), and of course every piece is on this blog as well!
May’s Oh Joy Sex Toy Comic “Libido”
Read it here! Being a person is tough and sometimes it can feel like my sex drive is just all over the place. So I wanted to tell the story of my libido for those who may relate to those fluctuating temperatures. You’re not alone!
For $10 patrons, I posted a behind the scenes about my OJST comic “Growing Up Without Sex-Ed”. This includes sketches, thumbnails, my script and an indepth look at my history with sex-ed.
Alola Darumaka & Fanart Comics
Read the latest Alola Darumaka page here! Went on a bit of a Darumaka hiatus this month to post some fanart comics instead. If you’re new you can start reading here: Alola Darumaka it’s a free to read 4-koma comedy comic about Darumaka and her partner Daven who’ve moved to Alola from Unova. Hijinks happen but it’s all in good fun!
The other comics posted this month were my comic for the “When I Was Me” anthology, a Lupin Eggnog recipe comic for the “Lupin’s Gourmet World” zine, and a secret Valentines comic in a discord I’m a part of. You can read those starting here!
Shop Updates
The Topaz Comics shop will be closed from June 7th to June 18th. It’ll be open again on June 19th with a Pride sale! I’ll be sure to update everyone with information on that closer to the date.
Dead City does have a PDF version now if you want to see the remastered complete story you can grab that, or the physical book, here!
May’s Sketchbook
This month’s sketchbook is HERE for $5 members on Patreon & Kofi
I’ve been real busy with planning but here’s the biggest sketchbook I’ve done in quite a while! It’s got lots and lots of Lupin comic concepts including fresh fullbody designs for The Curtain Falls, some AU ideas. Then there’s some OC work for potential comics, and some client design work. A concept art kinda month!
The Curtain Falls
Page 25 and 26 of my Lupin III fancomic “The Curtain Falls” are up. Halfway through now and Lupin is faced with something he just wasn’t prepared for. The Curtain Falls is a Lupin III fancomic about Lupin in his 60s coming to terms with the fact that nothing lasts forever.
Commissions
Are closed for now, I’ll be sure to let everyone know when they open up again.
NSFW Art
For my $10 Private Collector patron tier, two new pages of “After All These Years”, the Jigen/Zenigata comic Michelle and I have been working on together. My $10 tier has a huge backlog of lewd art spanning a few years now, but if you can’t make it onto Patreon you can grab the PDF versions on my itchio after I collect enough pieces to make a PDF. Patreon and Itchio are the only places I’ll be posting 18+ work.
June Hiatus
I’ll be away for some of June because Michelle and I are getting MARRIED on June 4th! So I’m scheduling up a bunch of art and comics ahead of time and here’s what June will look like. I’m thinking the calendar is pretty handy so I may try and post another for July – we’ll see. For the mean time, I hope you’ll enjoy some anthology comics! I’m hoping to use this time to get a buffer worked on too!
I have been so busy with planning a wedding I haven’t had a lot of time to do fun art, so I’m really looking forward to some time off!
~~~
This year has been just non-stop for me, so hopefully June will be a nice rest month. I’ll have another newsletter for you 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
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 5 – Call for artists opens
May 19 – Call for artists closes
May 27 – Artists Announced
July 14 – Submissions are DUE
July 28 – Rough PDF is sent to artists/adjustments made
August 4 – Zine goes live
September 4 – Artists can post their full pieces publicly
September 30 – All proceeds donated to finfree.org
If you have any questions about the zine, applying or submitting you can contact me at:
swimon@topazcomics.com
