Another set of great shoutout requests from my Private Collector folks. We love handsome Goemon, emotional Lupin, and tired dads!
I do these for my Private Collector gang on Patreon & my VIP Blog! They’re mini commissions that I do in my sketchbook every month, so go check it out if you’d like to support a queer artist!
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!
Lupin’s design for the au “Mixed Drinks” that Max and I are rolling around in our heads! Inspired by the Part 3 episode 30, Lupin’s magician outfit in the second Part 2 opening, and of course the original Arséne Lupin design.
Some sketches I did can be seen in my February and March sketchbooks from last year.
Various sketches I did while a friend streamed the RE 2 & 4 remakes for our group chat! There’s no way Leon isn’t a he/him lesbian!
Another sketchpage, because I like doing these. It’s Zenigata this time and boy this man can emote! I highly recommend watching any of the Miyazaki episodes because Zeni is always a big part of them.
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
Shoutout requests from my Private Collector folks. It’s another Goemon-centric compilation!
Did you know I do these every month folks on my Private Collector tier on Patreon or my VIP Blog?! It’s like a monthly mini commission (plus lots of other great rewards and a huge backlog of art and comics!
April went by so fast but spring is finally here, so how about you spring into some art and comic updates!
Here’s how you can keep up on these newsletters (they’ll always be free)
RSS | Mailing List | Patreon
Public April Art
I try and post fun public art every Friday around 11am. These can be seen & shared over on tumblr, mastodon, cohost, pillowfort, bluesky and jpawlik.com/blog with sketches and thumbnails up early for patrons, VIP members, and kofi 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, Kofi, or 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, Kofi, and my VIP Blog, then up 2 months later for free on Topaz Comics.
Read from the beginning | Read the latest page
Two new pages of After All went up for my Private Collector tier! This is a NSFW Jigen/Zenigata comic written by Max and we’re getting to the climax!
Read on Patreon | Read on my VIP Blog
A new page of The Curtain Falls went up this month! This is a Lupin III fancomic I’m working that focuses on Lupin in his 60s and dealing with change and retirement. We’re doing some reflecting now!
Read it on Patreon | Read on my VIP Blog | Read on Kofi
April’s Sketchbook
This month’s sketchbook is up for the Grab Bag tier on Patreon, VIP Blog and Kofi
Another month, another sketchbook! This one is nearly 30 pages and it’s full of a lot of fun doodles and concept art. I’ve been having fun doing messy doodles and sketches again, it feels like it’s been a while but they feel nice for exploring concepts I’d like to flesh out. There’s also Lupin weekly art prompts from the Lupin forum, lots of birds I saw this month, and fun shoutout requests.
TCAF
While I won’t be boothing at TCAF this year I will be wandering around as an attendee AND I’ll be on a panel called “Toronto As a Setting” – it’ll be at 10am on Saturday, May 13th in the Learning Centre (1st floor). I may bring some Dead City books with me, since that’s what I’ll be talking about.
Other things
Busy busy busy with my fulltime contract on a video game still and making really great progress. I cannot wait to share what I’ve been working on with y’all!
While working in video games now I’ve been itching to play some new ones, there’s a few on my radar that’ll be coming out this year which I’m excited about: Yolk Heroes, World of Anterra, and Fantasy Life 2. In the mean time I started playing Final Fantasy 1 which is an absolute delight? I’ve only ever played FF4 and FF6 before. Maybe I’ll draw my party at some point.
I’ve been hosting weekly art prompts over on the Lupin Forum and it’s been a lot of fun to be in a space that isn’t owned by a mega corp.
~~~
April down, tune in at the end of May for the next newsletter!
Zenigata’s intro for a fun AU Max and I are dabbling in! What if Lupin was a thief by day and a bartender by night? What if Zenigata had facial blindness? What if they flirted?
Okay okay, we don’t normally do this but Max and I are excited to do some fun art for an AU we’ve been thinking about.
I’ll tag this one as Mixed Drinks, but I hope you’re excited for some fun art that’ll occasionally go up on Fridays for this!
It won’t be a full comic, but doodles, illustrations and mini comics all mixed in.
